Resveratrol Supplements Do Nothing For Women, But Red Wine May

Researchers at Washington University Med School have some bad news for women who hoped to reap health benefits from resveratrol, the ingredient in red wine that has been shown to improve metabolic function and prevent  diabetes, heart disease and cancer in rats. It doesn’t work. At least, it doesn’t work for healthy women who take resveratrol supplements. A Wash U news release reports that researchers gave 15 post-menopausal women 75 milligrams of resveratrol daily, the same amount they’d get from drinking 8 liters of red wine, and compared their insulin sensitivity to 14 others who took a placebo. When the researchers measured the women’s sensitivity to insulin and the rate of glucose uptake in their muscles, they could find no influence of resveratrol. The researchers even took small samples of muscle and fat to look for possible effects of resveratrol in the body’s cells, but could not find any changes in the signaling pathways involved in metabolism. What to do? Forget about the supplements, perhaps, but don’t give up on red wine. Read more from Washington University.