Slayer's Den

[01dragonslayer]

Resveratrol Grows New Capillaries​

We know that resveratrol minimizes negative estrogen effects and helps maximize natural testosterone. Turns out, it does even more.​

Everyone knows by now that resveratrol is something found in red wine and that it's somehow related to healthy aging. If you really know your stuff, you also know that resveratrol is anti-inflammatory, testosterone-elevating, and aromatase-blocking (it helps control estrogen). It's even neuroprotective.

Now we know that resveratrol does something else, too: It situationally facilitates capillary growth.

Who Cares About Capillaries?​

Resveratrol 43 has vasodilation properties, meaning it "inflates" blood vessels, thereby lowering blood pressure while also allowing more blood flow.

It does this through four key mechanisms, all of which are involved in the activation of an enzyme called endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS), which leads to the production of nitric oxide (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 strong erections 16.

Resveratrol does something else, too. It helps build capillary bridges – ladders, if you will – to reestablish and maintain blood flow to the heart when arteries need a little help. This process by which new capillaries grow is known as angiogenesis.

One stunning experiment found that "preconditioning" animals with resveratrol (giving it to them before intervention) increased the number of capillaries formed around their blocked coronary arteries in as little as three weeks, thus supporting heart function. It did this by increasing levels of VEGF, a substance made by cells that prompts angiogenesis.


Resveratrol1920×785 119 KB

Forming "Ladders" to Muscles Too​

Resveratrol also appears to build capillary ladders to muscle cells, at least in animals. By doing so, it makes muscle fibers more resistant to fatigue and more "age resistant" in general. When skeletal muscles age, they're sometimes plagued by "tubular aggregates" (TA), which are defined as a "subsarcolemmal accumulation of granular materials."

One theory is that TAs are caused by injuries (or aging) to the sarcoplasmic reticulum – a membrane found in muscle tissues – which screws up the calcium flux: the reaction that enables muscle to contract and relax.

All those TAs lead to muscle weakness, but experiments with rats found that relatively modest amounts of resveratrol (0.04% of diet) led to an enhanced capillary network that also reduced the number of TAs. This enhanced capillary network occurred independent of muscle fiber type, which is cool because normally, type IIB fibers (fast twitch) have fewer capillaries to begin with.

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

An Interesting Note​

Resveratrol seems rather fickle in which specific capillaries it chooses to nurture. For instance, it seems to inhibit capillary growth in animal tumors while it increases capillarization around the heart and, in at least one experiment, animal muscle fibers. Why it has this fickle nature isn't clear. It may well be that the resveratrol-induced angiogenesis occurs mainly in older people.

However, other experiments have shown that resveratrol enhances the energy-producing capability of mitochondria (the energy-producing organelles of the cell) in young and old athletes, which, by itself, increases exercise endurance.

Get the Right Amount of the Right Kind​

Most people think about wine when they think about resveratrol. But you'd have to drink about 140 bottles to get an effective dose. (Don't do that.) 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.