How Does Resveratrol Work within the Body

A lot of health websites and health experts praise the benefits of foods and drinks that contain resveratrol as well as the resveratrol supplement products. But backing these claims with some hard scientific facts has proven to be difficult for even scientists to do. In fact, it took several decades for these scientists to get any good leads. Resveratrol was discovered way back in the 1930s but scientists were unable to figure out the mechanisms behind these health benefits until the early 2000s. Once these discoveries were made, many sites scrambled to inform their audiences in hopes of further boosting the sales of their resveratrol supplement products. However, some sites may have different opinions so here’s a solid take on how resveratrol actually works within the body.

The Sirt 1 gene plays a very important role and it is present in humans as well as other animals. The role of this gene is to prevent free radicals from affecting any cells in the body including the DNA. Sirt 1 can effectively reduce inflammation as well. You can activate this gene whenever you get into those slender diets which involve restricting your calorie intake. Taking resveratrol is basically an alternative way to provoke the Sirt 1 gene. According to scientists, you can live longer as long as this gene is active.

But resveratrol does more than just interact with the Sirt 1 gene. In order to extend the lifespan of a human being even more, resveratrol goes as far as interacting with mitochondria to increase aerobic capacity and oxidative phosphorylation. Scientists have confirmed this by letting test mice take resveratrol and they came up with the conclusion that the mice were enhanced to do more aerobic activities and resist insulin.

Resveratrol also acts as an antioxidant to reduce free radicals. It specifically targets any nerve cells that are trying to steal any electrons from the most important parts of the cell structure and the DNA as well. Resveratrol makes use of the nervous system and liver to do its job. Monoamine oxidase is inhibited to destroy these nerve cells.

Resveratrol acts as an anti-inflammatory agent as well. It effectively prevents lipoxygenase and cyclooxygenase substances from acting to further product the nerve cells from damage. Because of the chemical structure of resveratrol, arthritis and other neuro-degenerative diseases can be reduced too.

Further details on how resveratrol works depends on the type of resveratrol you are dealing with. For instance, if you are eating grapes as your source of resveratrol, you are actually benefiting from the best type of resveratrol which is known as trans-resveratrol. The other type of resveratrol is known as cis-resveratrol and that type can be formed if the trans-resveratrol is exposed to oxygen. Scientists claim that the overall effectiveness of resveratrol is reduced when it becomes cis-resveratrol. However, they are still trying to find out by how much.

Just remember that a lot of these claims were made because of the scientists’ conclusions after testing resveratrol on mice. Then again, a lot of scientific experiments were made on mice in order to come up with solid conclusions on the overall effectiveness of medicines, chemicals and supplements. Mice have similar bodies with men after all so these findings can be taken as facts. Finally, many people that drink red wine, which is an excellent source of resveratrol, experienced these positive effects further backing these claims.

---