Saturday, June 6, 2009

Resveratrol Supplements and Your Health - What's the Connection?

By Francisco T. Blumenthalle

It's long been a mystery why the French, who eat a diet high in calories and fat, typically live longer and healthier lives than Americans -- now we know it may be that they drink so much wine that's the answer.

This fact isn't coincidental. The real solution to the mystery seems to be resveratrol. This is a compound that a handful of plants produce in the skins of their fruit to fight off bacterial and parasitic fungal infections, and it works by being a powerful anti-oxidant.

The only issue as far as the French Paradox was concerned was that researchers weren't sure that there was enough resveratrol in the typical French diet for it to be clinically significant.

In nearly all cases in the lab, administering resveratrol produced benefits basically without fail. The lucky mice who were given resveratrol lived longer, but that's just one part of it. They also had more energy and more lean muscle than their counterparts.

But hold on, there's more...

Mice with diabetes who took resveratrol wound up with blood glucose levels that were very close to normal afterwards.

No one claimed this "cured" diabetes, but the benefits were dramatic enough that they warranted some serious human trials.

And as you might expect, now the Web is getting into this as well. I'm sure you're at least aware of the glowing reports that have been describing resveratrol as a true wonder drug that will change the world.

Does it deserve this kind of attention?

It just may. However, for any one particular supplement to live up to the promises being made about resveratrol would be pretty darn hard. A fairytale fountain of youth doesn't really exist out here in the real world.

But perhaps, just perhaps, resveratrol comes as close as we can hope to get.

So, at least in my opinion, it's worth taking the time to look into it. Drug purity laws of course don't apply to resveratrol or other supplements -- they're not "drugs," but instead are "nutrional supplements."

Buying resveratrol, like buying any supplement online, is a game of buyer beware. Because we have to harvest it from plants rather than producing it synthetically, a lot of time and effort goes into getting resveratrol. Which means that resveratrol supplements tend to vary in quality, along with their price.

Before you ask, trying to get nutritionally and clinically significant amounts of resveratrol from your food sources is almost impossible - the most concentrated form of resveratrol found in a typical diet is in dark red wine, and you'd have to drink about 3 liters a day of the stuff to get the comparable dose fed to lab mice.

So you're going to have to go with supplements. But what do you need to do to choose the best resveratrol supplements?

What you should look for in a resveratrol supplier is something that doesn't contain a lot of unnecessary fillers. Store your resveratrol supplements in proper conditions, because they can break down if kept in intense heat or very bright light.

The very first thing I would suggest you do is head over to the resveratrol supplements review pages I mention below, where you'll find constantly updated reviews. There are also a few nice videos at that site that show you the exact steps you need to take to claim some great free resveratrol trial samples that a few companies are giving away. So it's definitely better than a haphazard trial and error process, and it just might wind up saving you a decent amount of money.

Just to sum up, whichever resveratrol supplements you choose to take, understand that it's only a part of a health maintenance system. Excerise, a healthy diet and some attention to your emotional health are still important.

Don't take resveratrol expecting it to work miracles on its own. You still have to live a reasonably health lifestyle to experience the true benefits. In other words, don't abuse your body and expect resveratrol to make it okay.

About the Author:

1 comments:

sohel said...

Yes, the resveratrol supplements are very good to keep you young but don't forget that we can take care of our health with easily available things... Look into these secrets.