As people live longer, and as lifestyles become less healthy, so called diseases of affluence are becoming more prevalent in certain areas of the world. Heart disease and diabetes can kill, whether slowly or suddenly. People have been looking for different ways to counter and prevent the onset of these diseases.
There has been some buzz recently about a compound that could help address this problem. Resveratrol, a chemical some plants use to fight disease or attack, has been tested on laboratory animals and proven to lower their blood sugar. It has also helped to re balance their bodies’ processing of carbohydrates, which not only leads to lower blood sugar but also lower body fat and better cardiovascular health.
Resveratrol also seems to have effects that increase metabolism. This means that your body will store less sugar and fat, even if you eat the same amount of food and do the same amount of exercise as usual. Yet again, most of this information comes from tests on laboratory animals, rather than on humans. Still, studies of human metabolism show that a similar metabolic pathway can be found in a human body, and may also respond to Resveratrol. With less cholesterol, especially in your veins, your heart will not have to work as hard to pump blood around, so heart attacks and burst blood vessels may be less of a risk. Resveratrol is definitely worth thinking about, especially if your metabolism is slow, and/or your family has a history of obesity or cardiovascular disease.
The good news is that it does not appear to matter whether you get your Resveratrol from a pill or from “natural” sources like wine or Japanese knotweed. After all, the food may contain other substances that might be harmful to you. It does seem rather counterproductive to be getting drunk regularly in order to improve the condition of your heart, since regular high alcohol consumption can actually lead to heart failure. Resveratrol will have more or less the same effect on your body whether or not it comes from a pill. However, the pill brings with it less “excess baggage,” and allows you more control of your diet because you will not have to be packing your meals with Resveratrol high foods in order to get the benefits. Keep in mind that researchers have suggested that you might need a few grams of Resveratrol per day in order to see a noticeable drop in your blood sugar.
In addition, Resveratrol may have similar effects on the body as calorie restriction, minus the loss of strength, amenorrhea and near starvation. Scientists are still somewhat baffled by the benefits of calorie restriction, such as better heart condition and a potentially longer life, but Resveratrol could be one way to get a piece of them without the rather disturbing side effects.
If you are looking for a natural way to improve your heart condition, but cannot afford to radically alter your lifestyle, try to look into what Resveratrol can do for you.