When you’re young, nothing seems to matter. When your body is still young and fresh, it can compensate for almost anything. The older you get, though, the more help your body needs. Indeed, there are some medical researchers who classify aging as a disease—the one main disease that all others spring from. Now, I wouldn’t call aging a disease, but if that’s how you choose to think about it, we’re one step closer to a cure. Specifically, naturally occurring resveratrol helps to reduce some of the worst effects that come with getting older.

Watch Your Step

Let’s focus in on one of the most obvious drawbacks of aging—mobility.

As you age, your muscles weaken, as do your bones and joints. Trouble getting around is a clear indicator of trouble elsewhere in your body.

Weakened mobility is also a danger in and of itself. General lack of exercise aside, when you can’t move well, you have a heightened risk of falls and broken bones. Including, of course, the often-fatal broken hip.

Take it all together, and you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that plenty of studies show that your gait—the speed, balance and overall quality of your walk—is inextricably linked to survival rates.

And that’s just the most noticeable part of aging. Changes to cognitive function, changes to your body’s immune system and inflammation response, increased risk of molecular irregularities—these all go up as you age, and some are impossible to notice until the damage has been done.

But resveratrol actually fights all of these battles. There’s a reason why I think it’s one of the most important supplements you can take today.

The Hidden Benefit of Wine

Resveratrol is a compound found mostly in the skin of red grapes. Consequently, red wine is a natural source of resveratrol.

Unfortunately, even red wine contains only trace amounts. Sorry—you can’t drink your way young.

But you should make resveratrol a major part of your anti-aging regimen. Simply put, no other compound can promise nearly as much.

Benefits Of Resveratrol

For instance—a recent study in mice found that resveratrol helps strengthen and protect muscle fibers.

Not only that, but resveratrol also cleans up and protects the synapses in your brain that are responsible for motor function.

In other words, a healthy regimen of resveratrol may very well prove the best way to maintain mobility. It may prove just as effective as regular exercise.

Looking back at that study I mentioned earlier—your gait is perhaps the strongest indicator of longevity. And resveratrol helps strengthen many of the physical and mental attributes that go into a heathy gait.

And paired with exercise, the healthy benefits should compound.

But resveratrol doesn’t stop there.

It’s also a powerful anti-inflammatory, especially in the brain. Right now, we’re seeing positive results of resveratrol use for treating Alzheimer’s.

It’s not a cure. But it does seem to be one of the better natural treatments we have for Alzheimer’s, and for other neuro-degenerative diseases. It stops swelling in the brain, and even arrests the growth of amyloid plaques—the plaques that interfere with brain function in Alzheimer’s patients.

And if you needed more reason to add resveratrol to your routine, consider it’s also one of the better antioxidants out there, fighting the effects of aging and strengthening the immune system.

Now, to be clear, a lot of the research being done on resveratrol is still in its early stages. Some haven’t even progressed to human trials yet.

But the results we do have are very promising. It’s fighting all of the major disease factors that come with age, with a special emphasis on neurological inflammation.

So, if you ever plan on getting old—or if you’re already on your way—resveratrol should be in your cabinet. It’s perfectly safe, and provides so many benefits, we aren’t even close to mapping them all out yet.

By far, though, the biggest difference in your life can be the help it provides in mobility, and cognition. In many ways, that’s the whole ballgame.

We recommend about 1000 mg of resveratrol taken twice daily. It has absolutely no side effects, yet it can reverse the worst tolls of aging…why wouldn’t you be taking it?

References

• Anderson, Pauline. Resveratrol Stabilizes Amyloid in Alzheimer’s. Medscape. Published Sep 17, 2015. Accessed Apr 20, 2017.
• Moussa, Charbel. Resveratrol regulates neuro-inflammation and induces adaptive immunity in Alzheimer’s disease. The Journal of Neuroinflammation. Published Jan 3, 2017. Accessed Apr 20, 2017.
• Pastor, John. Resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, protects neuromuscular synapses, muscle fibers in aging mice. Virginia Tech News. Published Mar 7, 2017. Accessed Apr 20, 2017.
• Studenski, Stephanie. Gait Speed and Survival in Older Adults. The Journal of the American Medical Association. Published Jan 5, 2011 305(1):50-58. Accessed Apr 20, 2017.

Last Updated: May 29, 2021
Originally Published: May 5, 2017