Resveratrol and Inflammation

At ReserveAge Organics we try to stay informed of the current medical issues involved in Resveratrol. Today we are going to discuss Resveratrol's effect as an anti-inflamatory.

Inflammation, it sounds like something bad, but in reality it keeps us healthy. Inflammation is one of the fascinating ways that our body responds to harmful stimuli. Normally, when an invader or an injury occurs, inflammation occurs to help the body heal. Blood flow to the area is increased, allowing more of the bodies natural defenses to reach the traumatized area and speed the healing up. This is what causes bruising and injured body parts to swell up, it’s the natural process of letting more blood flow into the injured area to increase the amount of natural healing agents at the site of the injury.

However, inflammation can also work against us. There are times when the body over reacts, making the situations worse, or reacts to things that aren’t even dangerous, such as with allergic reactions. There are many inflammatory diseases that can effect us, but we will discuss three of the more common ones, clotting in arteries, Rheumatoid Arthritis and allergic reactions.

While we know that too much cholesterol can be bad for us, inflammation can also have deleterious affects on our bodies. Although our immune system may have the best of intentions, the inflammation it causes in reaction to an injury can actually cause clots to start or increase their size in our arteries and veins.

Rheumatoid Arthritis is the body’s immune system gone awry. The immune system, for reasons that are unknown, thinks the tissues in our joints are foreign and begins to attack them causing an inflammatory reaction. Our normally helpful healing agents begin to attack and destroy the tissue in joint cartilage leading to pain, swelling and potential disability

Our bodies immune system can also over react to non-dangerous stimuli, which can cause an allergic reaction. These inflammatory allergic reactions can range from getting the sniffles when near a dog to extreme cases such as a person’s throat closing shut after eating a peanut.

Resveratrol acts as an anti-inflammatory, which means it works to combat the more extreme instances of inflammatory-related problems. It does this in our bodies in two ways.

The first is that it decreases platelet aggregation Platelets are clotting factors that prevent bleeding when an artery or vein is injured. Resveratrol won’t stop you from clotting, but it does decrease the ability of the platelets to aggregate. This reduction of platelet aggregation could potentially lower the risk of strokes and heart attacks caused by clotting. However, due to this property people on blood thinner’s should seek a physician’s advice before taking Resveratrol.

The second effect that Resveratrol has is that it decreases ecosanoids. In layman’s terms, ecosanoids are messengers that tell your immune system to swarm an injured area or foreign stimulus in the body. Decreasing the number of messengers the immune system puts out, decreases the inflammatory reaction. This is helpful for limiting the damage of an inflammatory reaction or disease because it means that fewer destructive agents are responding to attack healthy tissues.

Unfortunately, Resveratrol does not alleviate all inflammatory related diseases and problems. However, studies have shown that Resveratrol may be able to slow the inflammatory reaction and help keep healthy tissues viable. Keep in mind, Resveratrol will not replace a physician prescribed medication. Do not try to use Resveratrol to replace a prescribed medication and only with the consultation of your physician should a regimen of Resveratrol and prescription medications be started.