Is Red Wine Really Responsible for Good Heart Health?

Resveratrol is a polyphenol found in red wine that is believed to prevent damage to blood vessels, reduce low-density lipoprotein, and prevent blood clots, but new research suggests that this might not be completely true.

Also an antioxidant, resveratrol is found in the skin of red grapes and helps fight cellular aging and reduce inflammation. But a recent study examining 768 men and women in the Chianti region in Italy found that resveratrol might not be as effective as previously thought in defending against heart disease, cancer, and early death.

The Johns Hopkins University study, "Resveratrol Levels and All-Cause Mortality in Older Community-Dwelling Adults," was published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine. Dr. Richard Semba of JHU thought the Chianti region was best to document the true effects of resveratrol because so few people take supplements there. The study was conducted from 1998-2009 in two villages of the region.

The participants gave urine samples and the researchers did not witness any changes in their rates of heart disease, cancer, or early death when measuring resveratrol's breakdown. These results further supported the fact that when a food contains a certain nutrient or antioxidant, it does not mean it possesses some superior therapeutic effect when consumed.

The researchers concluded, "In older community-dwelling adults, total urinary resveratrol metabolite concentration was not associated with inflammatory markers, cardiovascular disease, or cancer or predictive of all-cause mortality. Resveratrol levels achieved with a Western diet did not have a substantial influence on health status and mortality risk of the population in this study," in the study's abstract.

Resveratrol is also found in chocolate, but the researchers say that their findings don't shed a negative light on goods that contain the antioxidant. They believe that people should not be solely consuming resveratrol-rich substances in hopes of improving heart health, reducing the risk of cancer, and living longer, because based on their 12-year study, that doesn't seem to be the case.