Resveratrol, a Tool to Fight Obesity?
Most people have heard of resveratrol, the amazing anti-aging supplement so prevalent in the news and historically referred to as being responsible for the “French Paradox.” Recent research is moving quickly to show us that resveratrol may now play a role in becoming our next anti-obesity pharmaceutical drug.
We know that calorie restriction when adequate nutrients (the CRAN diet) are provided extends life of all types of life forms including humans. When 150 mg of resveratrol is given to overweight/obese patients, significant weight loss is observed. When given to normal weight patients, no weight loss is observed. Interesting.
Many people do not know of the CRAN diet following or Calorie Restricted Adequate Nutrient Diet, but there is a huge following of this diet. Using decades of earlier studies on lower forms of life that demonstrated an observable lengthening of life, this calorically restrictive diet was designed to contain all essential nutrients by food or supplementation and studies on people following this diet are ongoing and positive.
Studies in mice have shown mechanisms whereby resveratrol can act to mimic caloric restriction even when mice were fed a high fat diet (Barger, et al. 2008). Dietary resveratrol also mimics the effects of caloric restriction in insulin mediated glucose uptake in cells, thus posing a role in pre-diabetes and diabetes – two conditions typically found in the obese patient.
The wide scope of mechanisms of actions of resveratrol has shown shifts in metabolic and hormonal milieu that mimic the effects of reduced calorie intake even when calorie intake and/or fat intake are high. A similar intake of resveratrol achievable in humans mimics caloric restriction at the gene expression level.
Thus, resveratrol may enhance the anti-obesity effects by mimicking the calorie restriction effects of low calorie diets, vasculature effects and those found when increasing aerobic capacity.
The more recent studies on humans have shown that a dosage of 60 - 150 mg once per day helped obese, but not normal weight; people lose more weight than those not supplemented with the resveratrol during weight loss treatments.
What is even more exciting is that resveratrol has the potential to interfere with leptin resistance brought on by some psychotropic medications thus promoting obesity resistant to treatment. Resveratrol may now be considered in study trials to interrupt or interfere with that metabolic train wreck currently caused by many drugs on the market.
One of the biggest challenges in working with resveratrol is the source of product and the delivery system. Resveratrol is found in grapes, berries, chocolate and Japanese knotweed. Muscadine grapes contain resveratrol in the “trans” form which is more desirable as far as quality is concerned. Then, because resveratrol has a low bioavailability, looking for more effective delivery systems that use nanoparticles or other targeted delivery systems are needed to get the dosage needed for its benefits to be optimal.
Follow this train of thought as I work on the targeted weight management strategies for those fighting with weight issues because of being prescribed psychotropics, genetic issues or appetite control problems.
References:
Naderali, EK. 2009. Obesity and cardiovascular dysfunction: A role for resveratrol? Obesity Research & Clinical Practice; 3(1):45-52.
Barger, et.al. 2008. A low dose of dietary resveratrol partially mimics caloric restriction and retards aging parameters in mice; 3(6):e2264.
Timmers S, Konings E, Bilet L., Houtkooper RH, Weijer T, Goossens GH, et. al.2011. Calorie restriction-like effects of 30 days of resveratrol supplementation on energy metabolism and metabolic profile in obese humans. Cell Metab; 14:612-622.
Franco J, Dias-Rocha C, Fernandes T,et al. 2015 Resveratrol treatment rescues hyperleptinemia and improves hypothalamic leptin signaling programmed by a maternal high-fat diet. European Journal of Nutrition. http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00394-015-0880-7
