[Paleopsych] Resveratrol: Cutting-Edge Technology Available Today

[Steve Hovland]

http://www.lef.org/resveratrol/
By Terri Mitchell
Wine. No other beverage has attracted the attention of modern medicine like 
this drink. Although it is most widely known for its benefits for the 
heart, wine has benefits against cancer, dementia, and other age-related 
diseases. Researchers in Denmark recently looked at 25,000 people to find 
out what drinking alcohol does to mortality and discovered that wine 
drinkers slash their overall risk of dying from any cause by about 40%.[1]
Chemists took wine apart years ago to find out what makes it tick. 
Basically, it contains a host of plant compounds. Unfortunately, 
resveratrol and some of the other beneficial components got shelved as 
"toxicants," and nobody paid much attention to them until a scientist tried 
to figure out why the French can eat so much fat and not get heart disease. 
It turns out that part of the answer to the "French paradox" is resveratrol 
found in red wine.
Resveratrol is naturally created by certain vines, pine trees, peanuts, 
grapes, and other plants. One of these plants (Polygonnum cuspidatum) is an 
ingredient in traditional Asian medicines that are prescribed for liver and 
heart conditions. Resveratrol is classified as a polyphenol because of its 
chemical structure. Polyphenols make up a huge group of plant compounds 
that are further broken down into other classifications such as flavonoids, 
proanthocyanidins, and the like.