Here’s great news that will help you slash your risk of heart attack, high blood pressure and all forms of heart disease: Researchers uncovered “hidden” benefits from the popular heart and longevity nutrient resveratrol.
Turns out resveratrol stimulates the production of adult stem cells called endothelial progenitor cells.
These stem cells are so powerful, they have the ability to seek out, repair and heal the trouble areas in the lining of your blood vessels called the endothelial cell barrier or ECB.
Since the release of a landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003, scientists and researchers have focused more and more on the power of these endothelial progenitor cells.
And for good reason. The study from the New England Journal of Medicine showed a “strong correlation” between the number of progenitor cells circulating in the blood and a person’s overall risk of heart disease.1
The connection is so strong, I could make the case that the number of progenitor cells will become the new “marker” of cardiovascular health, even replacing the two major forms of cholesterol, HDL and LDL.
Simply stated, the more of these progenitor cells you have, the more likely you are to avoid disease. This view is supported by the fact that patients with diabetes, high blood pressure and/or cardiovascular disease have low levels of progenitor cells.
Studies showed, “the number of endothelial progenitor cells was significantly reduced in patients with hypercholesteroemia (extremely high cholesterol levels) compared with that in control subjects.”2
In these patients with very high cholesterol, they found the ability of endothelial progenitor cells to proliferate, migrate, adhere to vessel walls and induce the regeneration of blood vessels was weakened.
Resveratrol had the opposite effect.
In many recent studies I’ve read, I find that resveratrol increases the number of these endothelial progenitor cells.3,4,5,6 Resveratrol also has the distinction of activating telomerase, the enzyme that rebuilds your telomeres.
These two critical functions are enabled by resveratrol’s ability7to “turn on” genes that promote longevity, and “turn off” genes that promote disease. By influencing the way genes are expressed, resveratrol has the ability to activate anti- aging genes called sirtuins. Sirtuins transmit signals to every cell in your body that literally cancel out the effects of aging. They bring the processes that lead cell death to a crawl, buying your body more time to repair the DNA damage that brings life to an end.
To Your Good Health, Al Sears, MD
Turns out resveratrol stimulates the production of adult stem cells called endothelial progenitor cells.
These stem cells are so powerful, they have the ability to seek out, repair and heal the trouble areas in the lining of your blood vessels called the endothelial cell barrier or ECB.
Since the release of a landmark study published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2003, scientists and researchers have focused more and more on the power of these endothelial progenitor cells.
And for good reason. The study from the New England Journal of Medicine showed a “strong correlation” between the number of progenitor cells circulating in the blood and a person’s overall risk of heart disease.1
The connection is so strong, I could make the case that the number of progenitor cells will become the new “marker” of cardiovascular health, even replacing the two major forms of cholesterol, HDL and LDL.
Simply stated, the more of these progenitor cells you have, the more likely you are to avoid disease. This view is supported by the fact that patients with diabetes, high blood pressure and/or cardiovascular disease have low levels of progenitor cells.
Studies showed, “the number of endothelial progenitor cells was significantly reduced in patients with hypercholesteroemia (extremely high cholesterol levels) compared with that in control subjects.”2
In these patients with very high cholesterol, they found the ability of endothelial progenitor cells to proliferate, migrate, adhere to vessel walls and induce the regeneration of blood vessels was weakened.
Resveratrol had the opposite effect.
In many recent studies I’ve read, I find that resveratrol increases the number of these endothelial progenitor cells.3,4,5,6 Resveratrol also has the distinction of activating telomerase, the enzyme that rebuilds your telomeres.
These two critical functions are enabled by resveratrol’s ability7to “turn on” genes that promote longevity, and “turn off” genes that promote disease. By influencing the way genes are expressed, resveratrol has the ability to activate anti- aging genes called sirtuins. Sirtuins transmit signals to every cell in your body that literally cancel out the effects of aging. They bring the processes that lead cell death to a crawl, buying your body more time to repair the DNA damage that brings life to an end.
To Your Good Health, Al Sears, MD
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