Red Wine Benefits May Not Work For Healthy Women

A lot is said about amazing benefits of high quality red wine. Consuming a glass of good red wine a day is supposed to be healthy and very good choice due to a high content of reservatrol and natural antioxidants in this product. This, using red wine can help us enjoy numerous health effects linked to slowed down activities of free radicals, slowed down aging processes in all our body tissues, as well as reduced risks of many serious diseases including cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and others, and even avoid premature death. Red wine benefits have received a lot of scientific confirmation and a great deal of studies have shown the advantages of a regular consumption of red wine in very small doses. That is why in 2010, the American Dietetic Association included this amazing natural product in its list of 5 healthiest foods to be included to our daily diet, along with green tea, oily fish, grains, and other healthy foods.

At the same time, improved metabolic effects and assisting people lose weight has been considered one of the most valuable red wine benefits, known also as reservatrol benefits. It turned out that, as the findings of the latest study say, these health effects of red wine can be harvested only by obese or overweight people, and consuming red wine in order to support metabolism and reduce the risks of becoming overweight by healthy women is not linked to any positive effect. According to the report about the study published in October this year by an expert group  from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, using red wine rich in reservatrol, or using special reservatrol supplements by healthy young and middle-aged women brings no expected benefit for speeding up metabolism and preventing excessive weight gain.

“There is no evidence that taking these supplements leads to better health in this population,” said Samuel Klein,  a professor of medicine at Washington University in St. Louis and a study leader. The main objective of the study was to analyze the effects of reservatrol on the health condition of relatively healthy people. For the experiments, 29 middle aged women, post-menopausal and free from extra weight. To study reservatrol benefits and effects, the participants were divided into two groups, 14 and 15 women, and the members of one group were asked to take a reservatrol supplement (a 75-mg over-the-counter supplement) for 12 weeks. As a result, blood concentration of reservatrol in the members of this group increased compared to the reservatrol concentration in blood of those women who were in the control group.

However, to a great surprise of the scientists, increased concentrations of reservatrol did not bring to any positive changes in metabolic syndrome and did not speed up metabolism. Further measurements have shown that none of the important indexes including heart rate, blood pressure, HDL and LDL cholesterol, total cholesterol, glucose tolerance, metabolic rate, or C-reactive protein levels were affected by increased reservatrol concentrations. Even the most thorough and the most high sensitivity analysis did not show any difference between the indicators of the first group participants before and after the experiment, as well as between the participants who used reservatrol supplement and who did not. Therefore, consuming high quality red wine and having increased reservatrol concentrations were not linked to any serious benefits or beneficial quantifiable changes in middle aged women of healthy body mass.

The findings were recently published in Cell Metabolism journal and widely discussed by many scientists around the world. Many of those asked the same question: should the findings mean that there are no red wine benefits to be offered to middle aged women in good health? The authors of the study avoid using this kind of terminology, they just say that further researches should be conducted to shed more light to the issue of possible reservatrol benefits for healthy women. “We only show that metabolically healthy people get no benefits to begin with,” Samuel Klein said. “We have no way of knowing whether it will prevent future metabolic complications.” Those who are interested in learning more about this study, reading comments and reviews of the experts can visit the webpage of Cell Metabolism, or go to here.

Author Info: Hi! My name is Carla and I am a 5th year medical student at HYMS. I am interested in alternative medicine and I have done months researching the topic of herbal medicine. Besides, I like interviewing people and learning more about their experiences with one or another type of herbal treatments. I am willing to contribute to this site with my knowledge, and I would be happy to help you out to the best of my ability with any specific questions or problems related to alternative medicine.

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