When it was detected that regular consumption of red wine was associated with a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease in France (despite the patterns of a diet rich in saturated fats), research began to be carried out on what this could be the reason for.
It was discovered that these properties could be attributed to a polyphenol called Resveratrol.
It is also found in many plants, including grapes, peanuts, berries, and Polygonum cuspidatum, a herbaceous plant that grows very easily in temperate zones.

What is Resveratrol?

Resveratrol is a stilbene which is known for its ability to provide plants with resistance to microbial and fungal infections.

As a result of the French paradox and the fact that it was shown to mimic the effects of calorie restriction, the anti-aging effect was attributed to it.

Cardioprotective, antioxidant, immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory and chemopreventive.

• · Favorably modulated lipoprotein metabolism
• · It decreased the biosynthesis of thromboxane B2 and eicosanoids related to the inhibition of platelet aggregation.

Due to its antimutagenic, antiproliferative, pro-apoptotic effects, resveratrol has gained substantial attention for the treatment of cancer or autoimmunity, and for the initiation and progression of many diseases.

Health Effects of Resveratrol

One of the protective mechanisms of cancer is because it enables autophagy, a mechanism that is responsible for eliminating waste or excess damaged proteins and organelles.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568163712000529

Autophagosomes act in a similar way to modern vacuum cleaners/home robots.
That is, they move around the cell interior and “gobble up”, as if they were vacuuming up the accumulated dust.

Autophagy deficiency favors the pathogenesis of many diseases that occur especially at older ages, such as neurodegenerative diseases and cancer.

Resveratrol activates autophagy

Resveratrol has been shown to activate SIRT1, which precisely activates autophagy.
This SIRT1 activation pathway (which mimics the effects of calorie restriction) improves many aspects such as:

• · Resistance to stress
• · Cell survival
• · Cellular senescence
• · Immune function to inflammation
• · Endothelial functions
• · Circadian rhythms
• Resveratrol is a pleiotropic molecule that is sometimes controversial and has very complicated functions that deserve special attention, such as its hormonal function.

But first I will start by mentioning different aspects of its therapeutic potential.

Obesity

One study that included 28 randomized controlled trials that reviewed the effects of resveratrol supplementation on body weight (BW), body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), and fat mass (FM).
The results of the subgroup analysis revealed a significant reduction in body weight and BMI in trials using resveratrol at doses of <500 mg d-1, in those cases where the interventions lasted (≥3 months) and performed in people with obesity.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/obr.12775

Cardiovascular protection

Atherosclerosis is a disease that is characterized by calcification of the arteries and this in turn is caused by the oxidation of LDL cholesterol.

What usually happens is that monocytes, after penetrating the subendothelial space, are phagocytosed and transform into macrophage foam cells.
Resveratrol acts by inhibiting the expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein 1 (MCP-1).
On the other hand, lipoproteins after penetrating the endothelial lumen are oxidatively modified and in turn phagocytosed by receptors on the foam cells.

Resveratrol acts as an antioxidant preventing LDL oxidation making it a protector against atherosclerosis.

Resveratrol also increases the production of nitric oxide (NO) in endothelial cells.
By upregulating the expression of endothelial NO synthase (eNOS), it inhibits tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNFα) and angiotensin II (AngII).
Trans-resveratrol interferes with the release of inflammatory mediators by activating PMN and negatively regulating adhesion-dependent thrombogenic PMN functions.

Resveratrol acts as:

• · Modulator of troponin C-troponin I interactions
• · Reduces prolonged activation of cardiac fibroblasts by preventing cardiac fibrosis that would reduce the contractile function of the myocardium
• · It reduces the synthesis of endothelin-1, a very potent vasoconstrictor.
  Overproduction of ET-1 is implicated in the development of vascular disease and atherosclerosis.

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fphar.2012.00141/full

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6539341/

Blood pressure

A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled clinical trials evaluated the impact of resveratrol on BP.
The results of this review showed that the administration of resveratrol did not significantly affect either systolic BP, diastolic BP or mean BP.
However, significant WMD (weighted mean differences) were detected in subsets of studies categorized according to the high daily dose of resveratrol (≥300 mg/day) in patients with diabetes.

Another meta-analysis of six studies with a total of 247 subjects.
It concluded that consumption of resveratrol at a higher dose (≥ 150 mg/d) significantly reduces SBP of -11.90 mmHg (95% CI -20.99, -2.81 mmHg, P = 0.01), whereas the lower dose of resveratrol did not show a significant reducing effect on SBP.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6539341/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29359958/

Anti-inflammatory activity

Resveratrol exerts anti-inflammatory activity through many pathways:

• · It inhibits the activity of cyclooxygenase 1 and 2 (COX1 and 2), nuclear factor kappa B (NF-kB).
• · At the intestinal level, resveratrol reduces inflammatory injury, activity of TNF-a, IL-6, and other mechanisms that protect the gut from inflammatory injury.
• · Studies have also shown that the estrogenic activity of resveratrol can mitigate inflammatory and oxidative lesions after ischemia/reperfusion brain lesions.
  Resveratrol significantly reduced the area of infarction after reperfusion.

Resveratrol de Salengei

At Salengei we have different formulas at different doses:

• · Active Resveratrol 500 mg/ capsule
• · Active Detox
• · Active Silhouette
• · PhytoMatrix

Resveratrol as a Phytoestrogen: Endocrine Action

Resveratrol is a plant-based polyphenolic stilbene, structurally similar to natural and synthetic estrogens and has been classified as a phytoestrogen because:

1. It interacts with ER Estrogen Receptors and modulates their genomic and non-genomic activities.
   With mixed agonist and antagonist function due to the tissue-specific expression of Erα and ERβ (Henry and Witt 2002).
2. It inhibits several enzymes in steroidogenesis and competes in estrogen metabolism.
3. Consumption of 0.5 to 1 g per day provides sufficient plasma levels to initiate the pleiotropic hormonal activities of resveratrol, which opens up an opportunity for clinical benefit, but also risk of endocrine disruption if exposure is chronic or for a long time.

But since this hormonal regulation effect is long and complex, I leave you this preamble and to develop it in the next post.