Can Red Wine and Chocolate Truly Prevent Disease?

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PreventDisease

Resveratrol is a poweful antioxidant with benefits for muscle strength,anti-inflammatories, metabolism, neurodegenerative diseases, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and even cancer. A new study in Neurology suggests that a chemical in dark chocolate and red wine can slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease.

Found in grapes, red wine and dark chocolate, resveratrol has been touted as a potential panacea for a range of age-related disorders, but only a few studies have come from humans.

However reservatrol is so effective in these studies, that even Big Pharma is now promoting synthetic versions through topical and oral patented drugs they claim will help combat aging and allow people to live to 150 years.

What does the latest study show?
To see if resveratrol could delay the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in people , Scott Turner at Georgetown University Medical Centre in Washington DC and his team gave 119 people with mild to moderate symptoms of the disease either a gram of synthesised resveratrol twice a day in pills for a year, or a placebo.

Over the course of the study, those in the placebo group showed typical signs of Alzheimer’s progressing, including a decline in the level of amyloid beta protein in their blood — thought to be a sign that this compound was being taken from their blood and deposited in their brains.

Did the resveratrol make any difference to brain function?
This study was designed to test the safety of taking large doses of resveratrol, rather than look at whether it works. As such, the study is too small to detect any meaningful effect that it might have had on brain function. But Turner says they did see a slight improvement in one measure of cognitive function, although this wasn’t statistically significant. A larger study may find a stronger result.

Is amyloid a good indicator of Alzheimer’s disease?
Alzheimer’s is typically characterised by the build-up of amyloid plaques in the brain, so it is often used as a biomarker for the disease. But questions remain over the role of amyloid in the disease — does it cause the condition or is it just a symptom? We won’t know how informative amyloid levels are until we find a successful way of stopping or slowing Alzheimer’s, says Neil Buckholtz of the NIH National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Maryland, which funded this study.

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