Posts Tagged ‘resveratrol’

The Best Resveratrol On The Market

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

The research done on resveratrol has been overwhelmingly positive to date, and many people have decided that there is more than enough evidence of benefit and safety to start taking this supplement. If you have started doing your homework on resveratrol supplements and decided that you would like to add them into your daily regimen, you probably want to know what the best resveratrol on the market is.  With any type of over the counter health supplement the quality of the product you purchase can mean the difference between noticing a big difference in your health and noticing nothing at all.

The key to finding these high quality resveratrol products is finding a company who produces them because they legitimately believe in the benefits that they can provide, and have done tons of research that forms the foundation for these beliefs.  You want to avoid companies who are only selling a product because of its own popularity and potential for profit.  This means that you often want to avoid supplements sold at the local convenience store or supermarket, even if these are the lowest priced option.

When it comes to resveratrol supplements specifically, there is a large disparity in the purity of the pills you will find.  There are two main forms of resveratrol supplements you will find on the market.  These are 50% and 99% pure trans-resveratrol products.  If you buy a 100mg pill that is 50% pure, then you will be getting 50mg of trans-resveratrol.  These lower quality supplements will contain other ingredients, such as emodin.  One of the few complaints this small percentage of people who take this product voice is an upset stomach or other simple and digestive problems.  While most of them realize is that it is often the emodin in a low quality supplement that causes this, and not the resveratrol itself.

When taking any type of pill or capsule, the absorption of the product is very important.  Different products are more bio-available than others when taken orally.  This can be a concern with resveratrol, and you want to make sure that your product has a delivery system that maximizes the amount that gets into your bloodstream.  One method of doing this is called micronization.  This is where the particles of a substance are reduced to an incredibly small level.  It is estimated that micronized resveratrol can improve the absorption up to 500% when compared to the non-micronized version.

After looking for a product that met all of these requirements and received high praises from people currently using it, I found that RevGenetics’ nitro 250 was the best resveratrol on the market.  RevGenetics is a well respected company within the anti-aging community, and backs up their products was legitimate scientific research.  They have many different options for purchasing resveratrol, but their Nitro 250 micronized resveratrol is the cream of the crop.  If you are looking to get the maximum benefits from this product, this is the one that you should choose.

Is Resveratrol Safe?

Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

Whenever a new health product comes on the market, it is often met by skepticism.  If the product is claimed to offer many positive benefits, there are often questions about its effectiveness and its safety.  Resveratrol is one such product.  When you have some accurate information about resveratrol, you will be able to decide if it can benefit you.

Resveratrol supplements are derived from plant sources.  Most people know about resveratrol from hearing that grape skins and parts of the grape vine are one of the most potent sources of this compound. This anti-aging supplement gained most of its notoriety when it was discovered that red wine contained one of the highest amounts of resveratrol in any food or drink we consume on a regular basis. Resveratrol can also be found in some other natural berries.  The majority of resveratrol supplements are derived from a plant called Polygonum cuspidatum, which is a less expensive and more potent source of resveratrol than grapes.

All of the major research studies to date have shown this supplement to be very safe, even in high doses.  However, it is only sensible to request your physician’s advice before starting any new supplement, especially if you have any preexisting conditions or are taking prescription medicines.  Women who are pregnant or nursing a baby, or individuals who have serious medical problems, should not use it without their doctor’s approval.  This should not cause any alarm, nor lead you to question its general safety, as it is a good rule-of-thumb regarding any dietary supplements.

A 2009 study done by the Burdock Group concluded that resveratrol did not cause any adverse affects when tested on rats, even at very high dosages such as 700mg/kg of body weight each day. This lead them to state that resveratrol was a well tolerated and non-toxic supplement.

A number of research studies have been conducted to verify the positive aspects of resveratrol.  One example is experiments conducted at Harvard in 2003.  The anti-aging and life-extending properties of resveratrol were concluded to be very promising when studied on mice.

The anti-viral effects of resveratrol were studied at an Ohio College of Medicine.  These studies showed that resveratrol did indeed have the capacity to block the process of the influenza virus.

While the long-term safety effects of resveratrol have not yet been determined, it is relatively impossible to have conclusive data for a product that has not been in use for very long.  This does not mean that there are any conclusive facts pointing to the product being less than completely safe.  It only means that sensible care should be exercised in its use. In addition to pregnant and nursing women, and individuals with serious medical problems, resveratrol should not be used by children.  If you opt to use this product, you should carefully assess its benefits, possible risks, and use it only as directed.

While resveratrol is hailed as an anti-aging product, it may produce other health benefits as well.  Similar to the recent trend toward drinking grape juice, resveratrol may protect one’s heart, and reduce one’s risk of developing cancer.  As some people do not wish to consume alcohol, including wine, or make any kind of drastic changes to their diets, resveratrol supplements can be the ideal solution.

Anecdotal reports from users have shown that resveratrol can cause an increase in the metabolism of fat.  This is why some people today use it to help them lose weight.  An important point to keep in mind is that no product, including resveratrol, is a miracle-cure in itself.  If you wish to lose weight using resveratrol, it should be only one part of your entire weight-loss program.  A balanced diet and exercise are also necessary for a weight-loss plan to be successful.

Presently, research studies have found little risk from the proper use of resveratrol.  Many people who uses this product correctly have been delighted with the benefits they receive.  However, it is necessary to bear in mind that even an all-natural supplement is safe only when it is used as directed, and not used if one has any medical contraindications.  While resveratrol may not be a miracle, studies have shown that it could very well be one product, which can help you to live a longer, healthier life.

Is Resveratrol a Scam?

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

Whenever a new health supplement or anti-aging wonder drug is introduced to the public many people think that it might be a scam.  This belief is often justified, because many of the health, weight loss, and anti-aging supplements on the market have little government oversight and do not live up to their lofty promises.  This is why it is always important that you do your homework before buying into one of these new trends for wellness.

So, is resveratrol a scam?  You’ve probably heard that resveratrol is considered an incredibly powerful way to fight off the disease of aging.  It supposedly can help fight off heart disease, diabetes, and cancer.  Many arthritis sufferers claim that their pain lessened or disappeared completely after taking this supplement.  There have even been reports showing that resveratrol can help you lose weight by regulating the metabolism of fat.  Getting all of these benefits from a simple pill you take each day would be great, but are they too good to be true?

Of all the superfoods and ” miracle” cures that had been discovered over the last 20 years, the scientific community seems to think that resveratrol offers the biggest chance to help the slowdown the aging process.  Many of these new wonder cure supplements usually only have one or two scientific studies backing up the claims made by those trying to sell it many cases the studies are not even conducted up on humans.  Once they have their one study showing the potential for positive benefit when the product is released to the general public.

However, this is not the case when it comes to resveratrol.  There have literally been hundreds of scientific studies conducted on this potentially age defying substance.  Even the pharmaceutical giant GSK has decided that the benefits have so much potential that they are currently spending billions of dollars to test and develop their own proprietary synthetic version of this supplement.

So, while we still have much to learn about how this substance works or the exact effects of long-term use, there is little disagreement amongst scientists that this red wine supplement has some very promising effects in the fight against growing old.

This does not mean that every resveratrol supplement that you find in stores or online is legitimate or of high quality.  There are many people out there who take all of the positive press and scientific research and try to use it to make a quick buck.  these people are usually marketers who know how to spot a hot trend and sell the heck out of it.  They usually know little about the actual science behind their products, and want to produce a product that costs as little as possible.  While it may be hard to classify many of these as straight up scams some of them should be considered such.  Whether you classify them as a scam product, or just a low quality supplement, they should be avoided at all costs.

When you are shopping for the product online you should be very careful to avoid the free trial resveratrol scam. These sites will use high pressure sales tactics to sell you a low quality supplement, and then automatically bill you an outrageous amount of money each month if you fail to cancel. This is the most common form of supplement scam online, and is used to sell many different wonder drugs, not just resveratrol. These scams can easily be identified by the free trial offer, and will often have a countdown timer saying “Offer only available in the next 10 minutes!”.

While there may be a few shady people out there trying to scam you, do not let that scare you away from a supplement that might be able to offer you some legitimate benefits. A few bad apples should not spoil the whole bunch.

There are many companies out there who legitimately believe that this supplement is one of the most powerful and beneficial supplements out there.  These companies to provide the best possible supplement for their customers that will help ensure they get the most resveratrol benefits.  Instead of trying to get your money once, they hope to build a long-term relationship with you once you start to experience positive benefits from their high quality supplement.  Does not always easy to find information on these great companies online, but I have done most the work for you with my article on where to buy resveratrol.

Buy Resveratrol: Tips for Purchasing Quality Resveratrol Supplements

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Staying young, healthy, and in shape is one of the main goals in our modern society. It is not enough just to live longer than the generations before us, we want to do so while looking and feeling as good as we did in our youth. If there was a magic pill out there that did all those thing for us, without any work on our end, I could not begin to imagine how much people would be willing to pay for that. Unfortunately, this magic Fountain of Youth pill does not yet exist, but for now resveratrol supplements may be the closest thing we have.

Resveratrol is naturally produced by certain plants to protect themselves against bacteria and harsh weather conditions. Scientists really started looking into the substance when it was discovered that taking resveratrol mimicked the Calorie Restriction (CR) diet, one of the few ways scientifically proven to extend the life span of humans. It is believed that CR activates a normally dormant type of gene called Sirtuins, which act as a survival mechanism to help fights off many age related diseases.

Doing CR correctly takes a lot of will power, since you must eat 30% less than you normally would each day. Most people either cannot or do not want to live a life where they are basically starving themselves. This is why it was such a huge discovery that resveratrol allows you to get these same benefits, without the suffering.

Preliminary studies, as well as anecdotal reports from users, have shown that resveratrol may help fight off age and weight related diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s. It has also been shown to induce effects that may help you lose weight, increase muscle tone, and improve athletic performance. In fact, one of the most famous studies conducted on mice showed that mice given a 60% fat diet accompanied by resveratrol preformed just as well physically as the mice being fed a healthy diet. The mice that ate 60% fate but were not given resveratrol preformed just as you would expect an obese person to perform.

Where to Buy Resveratrol?

That is the first question people ask once they decide that they want to add resveratrol supplements into their daily routine. The answer is not easy, as there are literally hundreds of different products on the market. Some of the products are of very high quality, while others are sold by companies who sacrifice quality for profit, at the expense of the customer. If you accidently buy one of these low quality products you will not see the results you want. You may think that resveratrol does not work, when it actually was just a low quality product. This happens to many people and they miss out on all of these great benefits just because they happened to choose the wrong product first.

I will go over some of the traits of a high quality resveratrol supplement to help make your decision on where to buy resveratrol easier.

Batch Testing from Independent Labs

In 2007 ConsumberLabs tested many of the most popular resveratrol supplements and found that many of them contained less resveratrol than advertised on their label, and some even contained almost no resveratrol at all. This is why it is important that the company you buy resveratrol from has an independent lab test each batch, and provides you links to those results.

98% or 99% Pure Resveratrol

Personally, this is the deal breaker for me. If I am going to put something into my body each day I want to know that it is as pure as possible. Most products on the market are only 50% extracts, which means if it is labeled as 100mg you are only getting 50mg trans-resveratrol. Obviously, this makes those supplements less effective, but there are also some other problems with them as well.

Almost all the potential side effects of resveratrol seem to disappear when people switch from a 50% extract to 98% or 99%. This would seem to be the case of the other 50% causing the negative effects, not the resveratrol itself. One of these additives is emodin, which is known to cause diarrhea. A high quality resveratrol  supplement will have little to no emodin in it.

Increased Bioavailability

The best resveratrol supplements will have some way to increase the bioavailability once it is in your system. The biggest barrier to the benefits of resveratrol is its bioavailability. If you can increase this you will dramatically increase how effective the supplement is.  One way to do this is to make micronized resveratrol. This has shown to increase absorption between 400% and 500%.nitro250

My Recommendation

In all of my research I only found one company that met all my requirements, and that I trusted completely for my resveratrol supplements; RevGenetics.

Their Nitro 250 capsules stand alone when it comes to resveratrol supplements. Since I started taking them I have noticed a significant increase in energy and endurance. After just a month I started to see an improvement in muscle tone and weight loss while staying on the same diet and workout routine I was on previously. I am still noticing improvements in these areas, and to this day I have not noticed any negative effects.

More important than all of these visible benefits, are the benefits that are happening under the surface in my body. It will be a while until we fully understand how resveratrol affects humans in the longer term, but if I have a chance to extend my life and live a healthy and active lifestyle into my 80s and 90s I am going to take it.

Besides the Nitro 250 capsules RevGenetics has a wide range of resveratrol products that fit anyone’s needs and can work with any budget. Their customer service is also phenomenal. The first day I ordered from them I sent in some questions about dosage and resveratrol in general. Within the hour I got a reply and ended up exchanging 10 emails with them by the end of our conversation. They answered all my questions and at the same time convinced me that I choose the right company to buy resveratrol from.

Click Here to Try RevGenetics Nitro 250 Micronized Resveratrol Capsules For Yourself

Resveratrol Weight Loss: Can You Lose Body Fat?

Monday, June 15th, 2009

As a society we are growing fatter and fatter each year. This epidemic is a direct result of how easy it is to get our hands on incredibly unhealthy food. Why spend 45 minutes cooking dinner and doing dishes, when you can just order a pizza or pick up some McDonald’s? The growing problem that is our waist line has spawned one of the most profitable industries in the history of the world; weight loss supplements. We all want a way to take off all the pounds that is as easy as it was to put them on.

Resveratrol is a naturally produced health supplement that has been known to counteract many of the signs of aging. Recently, many companies have been promoting it as the next big thing for weight loss. Is resveratrol weight loss for real, or has it just been hyped up by companies trying to take advantage of you?

The original intent of this product was not as a dietary supplement. The main benefits that have been discovered are; an increase in athletic performance, protection against diabetes, and as a defense against other age related diseases such as cancer and dementia. All of those sound amazing, and wouldn’t it be nice if this product also induced weight loss?

The reason that resveratrol does work is because it mimics the calorie restricted diet. This diet activates a gene known as SiRT1, which is thought to be a survival gene activated to help protect the body. Studies in mice have shown that the activation of this gene has helped to break down stored fat, increased metabolism, and prevented weight gain. Another study with mice showed that those mice who were given resveratrol on top of an incredibly high fat diet (60% of calories from fat) overcame many of the detriments of obesity, but still gained weight.

Resveratrol allows us to take advantage of many of the benefits of this longevity method, without the need to change to a highly restrictive diet. The two studies mentioned above seem to indicate that combined with a somewhat healthy lifestyle it could indeed the fact weight. The second study makes it clear that while it will still have positive benefits against obesity, it does not give you free reign to eat whatever you want.

There have not been many studies that have looked for a conclusive answer to this question. Most of what we know about resveratrol and weight loss comes from user reports. Since these reports are not conducted in a scientific manner it can be hard to tell exactly what caused a result.

That being said, many users say that they have lost weight and body fat percentages while on this supplement. There are many reasons why this might be the case. Let’s take a look at a few of the reasons here:

The first would be that the resveratrol itself is doing something to induce this result. If this is the case it would mean as long as you kept the rest of your life style the same (IE not eating more food) you would lose weight. There are not any human studies yet that backup this theory, but it is what most users and companies would like to be true.

The second reason could be that a side effect of the supplement could have a result that ended up causing you lose weight. One effect that people notice when they first began is that it causes a suppressed appetite for a few hours after taking a dose. Obviously, when you eat less you lose weight, so having a decreased appetite is going to cause the desired effect. Resveratrol is also known to improve endurance and athletic performance, so it might allow you to get more from your workout. If you are now working out harder and longer than you were before, then muscle gain and weight loss will likely occur.

The third could be that weight loss could occur because of the placebo effect. When people start to take a supplement like this, it is because they have a desire to be healthier and in better shape. Just the simple fact that you are taking something like this each day could cause you to subconsciously eat better and exercise more often. You are expecting a pill to give you a desired outcome, and your brain tricks you into getting that outcome by any means necessary. This is all done unknown to you, and you will likely give all of the credit to the little pill.

The fact that people are losing weight while on resveratrol could mean that any of those three scenarios could be true. With all the other amazing benefits this can bring you, it might not matter exactly how it works, just that it does. It might be sometime before we know for sure if resveratrol can be used specifically as a weight loss supplement, but all of the other benefits are starting to become universally recognized. If you lose some weight on top of those, that is just an excellent bonus.

How Does Resveratrol Work?

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

Even before scientists started studying the French paradox, which hypothesizes that those who drink red wine on a daily basis have a lower instances of heart disease, we have known that red wine can be beneficial to our health when taken in moderation. Studies have revealed that an antioxidant found in the skins of grapes, called resveratrol, is one of the sources for those health benefits.

This polyphenol is produced by plants to fight off bacteria and harsh weather conditions. It looks as if some of these protective properties are transferred over to a us when we consume it. Some of the benefits of resveratrol include; an extended active life, prevention and possible treatment of diabetes, a reduction in dementia, improved endurance, and increased athletic performance.

Sure, all of these benefits sound too good to be true. Is this discovery too good to be true, or is it really the next step in increasing our life span? If it is for real, than how does resveratrol work?

Unlike other “miracle cures” it seems that resveratrol actually has some weight behind it. Scientists have conducted a series of tests that have shown this substance to increase the life of yeast, worms, fish, and mice. However, it was not until they figured out why it worked that they really started to become excited about the prospect of human usage.

To understand how this works you need to know a little bit about the Calorie Restriction Diet. Of all the methods we have tried to use in order to live longer, calorie restriction is one of the few methods that is universally believed to be effective. The idea behind this lifestyle, is that by eating 15%-30% less food (this often comes out to about 1400-1700 calories per day) you can extend your life 1 to 2 decades. Those on the diet also show lower levels of cholesterol, lower fasting insulin levels, higher levels of mental focus, and increased endurance. They were also able to maintain this into old age. If those benefits sound exactly like the resveratrol benefits, you are starting to understand why this works.

Obviously, this diet is no fun which is why so few people actually stick with it long term. When scientists began to study different compounds looking for are one that mimicked the results of calorie restriction, they struck gold when they learned resveratrol did just that.

Dr. David Sinclair, from the Harvard Medical School, conducted tests where mice were fed an incredibly high fat diet. Half of those were given resveratrol as well. A control group was fed a normal healthy diet and did not take any supplements.

The mice on only the high fat diet showed similar symptoms to what happens when humans become obese. Their activity level greatly decreased, their livers swelled and became incredibly fatty, they started to develop diabetes and cancer, and died at an early age.

Those on the high fat diet with resveratrol showed none of these symptoms. In fact, their levels in all aspects of health were nearly identical to those of the mice eating a healthy diet.

This study seems to show that getting a healthy dose of resveratrol can help fight off the damages of obesity and give you the benefits of a calorie restricted diet, all without changing what you eat.

This is not to suggest that taking this supplement gives you free reign to eat all the doughnuts, pizza, and potato chips you want. The mice in the study might not have had as many problems with obesity, but they still were incredibly fat. It just means that we may now have a real chance to extend our life span without suffering through the hunger and pain that comes with severely limiting calories. A healthy life style combined with resveratrol may allow us to stay healthy and active decades longer than we can now.