Resveratrol of red wine lowers blood pressure in mice, but could it do the same for humans? : MEDICINE AND HEALTH: Science Times

Resveratrol is a compound produced in the skin of grapes and used to defend against bacteria and insects, it is also present in red wine. In a study published Thursday in the journal Circulation, it was reported that mice that received large amounts of resveratrol had a beneficial drop in blood pressure.

Resveratrol can be used to someday develop a new clbad of medications for high blood pressure in humans, and that's what thinkers who have explored the mechanisms of its operation think. However, as they have not yet experimented with humans, it has not been proven that these findings can be translated to humans. This is not a signal for people to drink mbadive amounts of red wine.

According to the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 40% of adults 25 years of age and older in the world suffer from high blood pressure. In the United States, one in three adults suffers from hypertension. High blood pressure is considered a silent killer because it has been badociated with strokes and heart attacks.

The research team began their experiments by inducing high blood pressure in mice. They were then fed a diet rich in resveratrol for 15 days. They then compared it to mice with a normal diet. In turn, they found that the blood pressure of mice consuming large amounts of resveratrol had dropped significantly.

Resveratrol caused a relaxation of the blood vessels, causing a decrease in blood pressure, because the protein called PKG1a in the vessel walls had been oxidized.

There are no antihypertensive drugs targeting this physiological route. The researchers then added that resveratrol is actually an oxidant, an atom that takes one or more electrons from another part during a chemical reaction. Oxidants damage cells, while antioxidants can prevent or delay damage to cells as they provide electrons.

The study also indicates that the lowering abilities of resveratrol blood pressure could be accentuated in patients with heart disease. The compound must be activated to oxidize the protein and these activating compounds are found at higher concentrations in cardiac patients.

Bob Patton, alcohol researcher and lecturer at the University of Surrey, pointed out that if you wanted to match the effective dose found in the study, you would need to drink about 1,000 bottles of wine a day, which is impossible.

Such a high dose was necessary because resveratrol had to be broken down to reach the target in the lining of the blood vessels and did not dissolve well. Future drugs may require synthetic compounds mimicking its beneficial effects or resveratrol altered and easy to dissolve.