All Anti-Aging

For some time now resveratrol has been pretty much front page news in all of the more progressive health and fitness related literature. It's in fact a powerful anti oxidant thats contained in many of the common foods that we eat. For instance its prevalent in grape skins, where it is felt by researchers that its function is to fight off attacks by fungus and bacteria.

The Resveratrol French Connection

The very first indications that resveratrol contained health benefits were when it was observed that the French, who are traditionally heavy wine drinkers seemed to not suffer the ill effects of the high fat diet that they otherwise consumed. Of course since then resveratrol has been isolated synthesized and studied intently.

Preliminary studies have shown that resveratrol may in fact cause people to live longer and feel younger

Yeast Cells Were Found To Live Longer With Resveratrol

It remained pretty much a health and fitness curiosity until a scientist was able to prove that he was able to extend the life of common yeast cultures, using only resveratrol. This was in fact a milestone! Thats because up until then, no one and no other substance had been identified that could extend the life of anything beyond it biological predetermined span.

Exploring New Directions To Determine What are the Health Benefits Of Resveratrol

So next it was fish that were shown to live longer if given resveratrol, which was a big step because unlike yeast, fish have complex animal DNA that could be studied. So along the way since then, comparisons have been made with other studies into ways to extend the life span of test animals, which has in turn pointed those who study resveratrol to look in a new direction to seek answers to what are the health benefits of resveratrol.

The Resveratrol/Longevity Gene Connection

One research project studied how and why people who consumed fewer calories lived longer. In this study it was found that by eating fewer calories a “longevity gene” that otherwise lays dormant in people and animals is awakened and results in a longer life span. So now scientist are currently conducting side by side resveratrol/ reduced calorie research studies to learn more about this gene. They believe that resveratrol in fact functions by awakening this longevity gene.