Sep 26, 2012 at 7:55 AM
A new study suggests that could red wine could decrease your appetite, facilitate weight loss and prevent diabetes
According to the findings published in the Journal of Aging, red wine could help you live longer. Resveratrol, a compound found in red wine caused honeybees to decrease their food intake and live longer, while in mice it prevented obesity and diabetes. Some research shows that resveratrol could be linked to a reduced risk of inflammation and blood clotting.
A team of scientists from Arizona State University, the Norwegian University of Life Sciences and Harvard Medical School conducted a series of experiments to test the effects of resveratrol on the lifespan, learning ability and food perception in honeybees. Their research has confirmed that this compound extends the lifespan of honey bees by 33 to 38 percent. The research also suggests that resveratrol changes the decisions that bees make about food by triggering a “moderation effect” when they eat.
“For the first time, we conducted several tests on the effects of resveratrol by using the honey bee as a model. We were able to confirm that under normal living conditions, resveratrol lengthened lifespan in honey bees,” said Brenda Rascon, an ASU alumnus and doctoral student with Gro Amdam, an associate professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences and the Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
Free radicals, often released during stressful conditions, are believed to cause damage to cells and have an effect on how we age. Though resveratrol is an antioxidant, it did not, however, diminish the damaging effects of free radicals. It did not prove to extend lives of bees living under stressful conditions. Yet, since the bees tested with the compound were living longer, researchers wanted to know what caused them to live longer.
“Because what we eat is such an important contributor to our physical health, we looked at the bees’ sensitivity to sugar and their willingness to consume it. Bees typically gorge on sugar and while it’s the best thing for them, we know that eating too much is not necessarily a good thing,” said Amdam. Interestingly, the research team discovered that bees given the compound were less sensitive to sugar. The bees changed their perception about food.
Finally, they measured how much food the bees would consume if given the opportunity to eat as much sugar water as they possibly could. ”Surprisingly, the bees that received the drug decreased their food intake,” said Rascon. ”The bees were allowed to eat as much as they pleased and were certainly not starving – they simply would not gorge on the food that we know they like. It’s possible that resveratrol may be working by some mechanism that is related to caloric restriction – a dietary regimen long known to extend lifespan in diverse organisms,” he added.
http://health.india.com/news/red-wine-key-to-longevity/
