Resveratrol for Muscle and Heart Health

Supplement Grows New Capillaries

We know that resveratrol reduces estrogenic effects and increases natural testosterone. It turns out that it does more.

Resveratrol: A New Benefit

The armchair nutritionists – the kind that get the bulk of their nutritional info from the Health Alerts on Yahoo – all know that the polyphenol resveratrol is something found in red wine and that it’s somehow related to healthy aging and long life.

Good for them, but that’s like believing you’re a presidential historian because you know that George Washington, or Millard Fillmore, or somebody way-back-when chopped down a cherry tree or something.

A savvy nutritionist knows this, but so does anyone who knows how to identify a casaba melon from the ground. resveratrol It does more than just prolong life, at the least in some lab animals. It’s anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial. It’s testosterone-elevating and aromatase-blocking. It’s even neuroprotective, to name just a few attributes.

More and more, though, it’s become apparent that resveratrol does something else, too: It situationally facilitates capillary growth.

Who Cares About Freakin’ Capillaries?

We know that vasodilation properties of resveratrol are known. “inflates” blood vessels to lower blood pressure and allow more blood flow.

This is done through four molecular mechanisms that activate an enzyme called endothelial nitric oxygen synthase (eNOS), leading to the production nitric dioxide (NO). It’s this NO that leads to blood vessels turning into a four-lane tunnel instead of a traffic-jammed two-lane tunnel.

This is good because bigger, more pliable blood vessels equate to less blood clotting and reduced blood pressure, less plaque formation, and erections that are not unlike a rung of a ladder – a Rhino Multi-Purpose Collapsible ladder with 330-pound load capacity, available on Amazon for $1601.99.

It’s become apparent that resveratrol does something else ladder-like, too. The stuff helps build capillary bridges – ladders, if you will – to reestablish and maintain blood flow to the heart when arteries need a little help. Angiogenesis is the process that allows new capillaries to grow.

One amazing experiment revealed that “preconditioning” Resveratrol was given to animals before surgery, and they experienced an increase in the number of capillaries that formed around their blocked coronary vessels within three weeks. This supported heart function. This was done by increasing levels VEGF (a substance that cells make to stimulate angiogenesis).

Forming “Ladders” Muscles Too

In animals, it also appears to increase the capillary ladders that connect muscle cells to Resveratrol. It makes muscle fibers less prone to fatigue and increases their strength. “age resistant” in general.

Apparently, when skeletal muscles age, they’re sometimes plagued by what’s known as “tubular aggregates” (TA) are also known as “a” “subsarcolemmal accumulation of granular materials.”

It was difficult to find out why TAs are a problem. It seems their exact pathological significance is unknown, but one attractive theory is that they’re caused by injuries (or aging) to the sarcoplasmic reticulum (a membrane found in muscle tissues), which screws up the calcium flux, i.e., the reaction that enables muscle to contract and relax.

All those TAs can cause muscle weakness. However, experiments with rats showed that a relatively low amount of resveratrol (0.04%) resulted in an enhanced capillary network, which also decreased the number of TAs. The enhanced capillary network was independent of the type of muscle fiber (slow to fast twitch and all variants in between), which is quite cool since type IIB fibers (fast-twitch) normally have fewer capillaries.

This is because capillary density is positively associated with resistance to fatigue. The longer the capillaries are, the more muscle fibers can fire.

A Few Caveats

This is to remind you that the experiments were conducted in lab animals, but it’s not unrealistic to hope that humans might experience the same specific benefits from taking modest amounts of resveratrol.

Second, resveratrol is very selective about which capillaries it chooses nurture. As an example, it appears to inhibit the growth of animal tumors through capillary inhibition. However, it also increases capillarization around and within the heart. In at least one experiment, it even increased animal muscle fibers. Why it has this fickle nature isn’t clear.

There is at least one study, though, that found that resveratrol didn’t increase capillarization in exercising humans. It is possible that angiogenesis caused by resveratrol occurs mostly in elderly people and non-exercising striplings.

But, experiments in other athletes have shown that resveratrol can increase the energy-producing capabilities of mitochondria (the energy producing organelles of the cells) in them. This has, in turn, been shown to improve exercise endurance.

Resveratrol Sounds Great. What’s the catch?

The same armchair nutritionists I mentioned in the first paragraph mostly think they can get all the resveratrol they need from their daily glasses of pinot, cabernet, or any other urine-of-the-Devil-tasting wine (sorry for the editorializing, I’m not much of a wine drinker). Well, theoretically, they could, only they’d have to drink about 140 bottles to get an effective dose of resveratrol – fine for Thor’s voluminous buddy Volstagg, but not so much for the rest of us.

But to be fair, you might be able to ingest enough resveratrol from a combination of whole foods or drinks to do you some good, but you’d have to eat an awful lot of blueberries, bilberries, cranberries, peanuts, and cocoa and do it consistently. I am sorry for mixing Norse with Greek mythologies in just two paragraphs. But it seems like a Herculean task.

A supplement is, in all honesty, the best choice. It is usually the case when it comes carotenoids or polyphenols. That’s why Biotest made Rez-V™. Each gel cap contains 300mg. highly pure resveratrol. Two capsules daily are recommended for optimal results. The majority of the research shows that 600 mg. is the most effective.

Thank you for another article with great references @TC_Luoma. I’ve always struggled keeping my BP under control, even when I was in my 20s and extremely cardiovascularly active. The articles that help you to stay healthy longer and reduce prescriptions are very helpful.

Don’t forget cancer too:

High BP is a horrible thing. My father had it in his 20s, and I started to get it in my late 20s. This supplement is useless. It is barely below acceptable levels even with prescription medication. I also walk 15-20k per day and lift and do cardio. I take resveretrol+lycopene+pomegranate extract+telmisartan+amlodipine+micro dose cialis and still my BP is in the 140s but my erections are rock solid from this combination so I can’t complain I guess lol

There is no doubt that there are some benefits.

There is clearly some real genetic factors to BP and it’s a very stubborn beast. My BP has been reduced significantly by a combination lifestyle and medication, but I still have to be careful. If I eat a pizza or drink a beer, it’s going to be back up for days. I don’t doubt different folks have different responses to any intervention, because the baseline is so variable regardless of risk factors.

I’m also genetically predisposed to high BP, and was just reading about a couple of ways to reduce BP from ZHealth. The first involves isometric grasp training, and the second is breathing exercises. Just started so can’t report any results yet. Lower Blood Pressure in 5 Minutes (2 Proven Approaches!) – Z-Health

An article on how to use breathing exercises (using an inexpensive device to lower blood pressure) to improve endurance is in the queue. In a few weeks, it should be online.

The Rez-V label says 3 capsules(serving size)=600mg, so I’m assuming 3 caps a day would be most effective, not two. Are you misunderstanding?

The old formula contained three capsules. For 600 mg, the label on my bottle says to take 2 softgels.

It is something I look forward too. To add resistance to inspiration, I suggested using a breather device in the article.

Yes, that’s what SBT said: 2 for 600m.

Yep, that’s what I wrote about. It’s been in my possession for several weeks.

I think it would be okay to give you a sneak peek, but don’t tell anyone:

Hello Chris,
We appreciate the sneak peek. I’m a huge fan of your site and TC’s content in particular.
Knowing that he’s trying the breathing exercise for BP is that much more of an insensitive to give it a shot.
All my best wishes
Steve
P.S. P.S.

Another thing. If you haven’t read the book by James Nestor titled Breathe, I highly recommend it. Amazing.
Steve

Interesting.

Answer me this question: Given that resveratrol can increase VEGF levels, and because I get monthly injections of an VEGF inhibitor directly into the eyeballs (not something I like), to treat wet macular disease, has REZ-V made me go blind?

(BTW, I also receive the drug to treat certain types of cancers. It prevents the formation blood vessels from forming that could lead to them. “feed” The tumor.