Resveratrol Reduces Progression of Alzheimer’s Disease
A new randomized clinical trial published in Neurology found that when patients with Alzheimers’s Disease were given resveratrol twice per day, they had improvement of at least one significant biomarker, indicating less disease progression than in the placebo group.(1) A Beta levels typically decline as Alzheimer’s Disease advances, but the group treated with resveratrol showed significantly less decline in A Beta in both the cerebral spinal fluid and in the blood than the placebo group.
Resveratrol is a polyphenol found in red wine that has a number of beneficial effects, including protecting the endothelial lining of your arteries, antiinflammatory properties (by blocking the production of NFkB), and has anti-cancer properties, as well. Resveratrol has been shown to activate sirtuins, which are potent anti-ageing compounds that are typically activated by caloric restriction.(2,3) Caloric restriction has also been shown to decrease aging-dependent cognitive decline in Alzheimer disease (AD) animal models, and resveratrol has also been show to have the same benefit. Now this 52 week randomized, placebo controlled, double-blind, multicenter trial of resveratrol in individuals with mild to moderate AD has shown both safety and benefit in reducing the progression of the disease.
While drinking red wine is a more fun way of getting your daily dosage of resveratrol, supplements can provide a much more concentrated dosage. A 20 mg supplement of resveratrol is equal to drinking 41 bottles of red wine. I recommend taking approximately 200 mg resveratrol supplements daily as part of an anti-ageing program, along with a healthy diet and regular exercise and stress reduction techniques.