They pass themselves off as an independent review site, but the truth is that this is just a portal to steer you to the sites that sell you this crap.

Resveratrol SCAM

Resveratrol (3,5,4 trans-hydroxy stilbene) was discovered about 70 years ago. It's hardly new. You see everyone selling resveratrol, so it must be good stuff, right? If so many people are buying it, then it must work, right?

Cancer Research UK is more forthright in condemning those who hype resveratrol for its cancer- inhibiting properties. "Many vitamin and mineral supplements were believed to be potent cancer fighters until trials and large studies showed they are usually ineffective and can even increase the risk of cancer in some cases," says the charity's Yinka Ebo. "Resveratrol has a few anticancer properties when tested in animals or cells grown in a lab. But, to date, there is no strong evidence that resveratrol supplements can prevent cancer in people."

Read the whole story at Wired

Caution Is Advisable

Although laboratory tests have demonstrated that resveratrol might help prevent cardiovascular disease and cancer, there are several reasons why a population-wide increase would be premature.

- The research on resveratrol has focused on its short-term effects and has been dominated by in vitro (laboratory) studies on non-human models.

- Not enough is known about the absorption and clearance of resveratrol, the identities of its metabolic products, or its effects on the liver.

- Resveratrol's role as a potentiator of breast carcinomas may significantly limit its use.

-  While taking resveratrol pills is certainly safer than heavy wine consumption, supplementing with unproven substances is generally unwise. At this point, occasional use of red wine seems far more prudent.

The Bottom Line

Via In the Pipeline, I see that research groups are suggesting that some of the data for resveratrol (and other possible calorie restriction mimetics developed by Sirtris) is invalid, and previously reported beneficial effects on mice cannot be replicated: "Last fall, a group at Amgen published a study suggesting that some of the SIRT1/resveratrol connections might be due an an experimental artifact caused by a particular fluorescent peptide. Now a group at Pfizer has piled on in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. They're looking over resveratrol and a series of sirtuin activators described by the Sirtris group in Nature. And unfortunately, they also find trouble due to fluorogenic peptides. The TAMRA fluorophore on their peptide substrates seems to pervert the assay. While the Sirtris compounds looked like activators initially, switching to the native peptide substrates showed them to be worthless. Further study (calorimetry) showed that the activator compounds bind to a complex of SIRT1 and the fluorescent peptide substrate, but not to SIRT1 itself (or in the presence of native substrate without the fluorogenic group).

Efforts to slow the march of old age with a pill have been dealt a blow. Drugs that might treat disease by tampering with the biology of ageing are being tested, but new research questions whether they work as thought.

The compounds include resveratrol, a much-touted component of red wine that is thought to prevent the cellular damage that underlies ageing. Also under test are several chemicals intended to mimic resveratrol's effects by activating SIRT1, a protein implicated in ageing. Experiments have led some to conclude that these drugs ramp up the protein's activity, but the new studies suggest that those experiments suffered from errors.

Although trans-resveratrol appears to be well-absorbed by humans when taken orally, its bioavailability is relatively low due to its rapid metabolism and elimination (7, 8). Resveratrol metabolites are primarily detected upon oral exposure to trans-resveratrol. When six healthy men and women took an oral dose of 25 mg of trans-resveratrol, only traces of the unchanged resveratrol were detected in plasma (blood). Plasma concentrations of resveratrol and metabolites peaked around 60 minutes later at concentrations around 2 micromoles/liter (491 micrograms/liter) (7).

Resveratrol is a plant polyphenol capable of exerting beneficial metabolic effects which are thought to be mediated in large by the activation of the NAD(+)-dependent protein deacetylase SIRT1. Although resveratrol has been claimed to be a bona fide SIRT1 activator using a peptide substrate (Fluor de Lys-SIRT1 peptide substrate), recent reports indicate that this finding might be an experimental artifact and need to be clarified. Here, we show that: (i) the Fluor de Lys-SIRT1 peptide is an artificial SIRT1 substrate because in the absence of the covalently linked fluorophore the peptide itself is not a substrate of the enzyme, (ii) resveratrol does not activate SIRT1 in vitro in the presence of either a p53-derived peptide substrate or acetylated PGC-1alpha isolated from cells, and (iii) although SIRT1 deacetylates PGC-1alpha in both in vitro and cell-based assays, resveratrol did not activate SIRT1 under these conditions. Based on these observations, we conclude that the pharmacological effects of resveratrol in various models are unlikely to be mediated by a direct enhancement of the catalytic activity of the SIRT1 enzyme.

Hidden from sight, our cells battle challenges such as their environment, bacteria, viruses, too much or too little oxygen, and physiological stressors. Molecular systems protect cells under assault, but those systems can break down, especially with age.

To better understand how cells are protected from stress and damage, a team led by Northwestern University researchers studied the effect of resveratrol, a beneficial chemical found in red wine, on human cells in tissue culture.

The findings may help explain what happens in neurodegenerative diseases, which are age-related, when cell protection fails, proteins misfold, lots of damage accumulates and the system falls apart.

Topic of the day > New Insights Into Age-Related Changes in, Gene Expression, New Sinclair Study