Battling Cancer

Considering a wine to compliment tonight’s meal?

Think red.

Think resveratrol.

Resveratrol is a compound that is found naturally in wines, blueberries and peanuts. The largest amount can be found in the skin of the red grape and in red wines which are fermented in the skin of the grape.

Resveratrol has been in the news over the last few years as studies show a connection between the compound and its cardiovascular and anti-aging properties.

While the resveratrol has been recognized as a powerful antioxidant, it is now getting a second glance as a link to preventing breast cancer. Researchers have recently made the connection between resveratrol and reducing breast cancer risks.

From the July, Cancer Prevention Research, comes this news:

“Resveratrol has the ability to prevent the first step that occurs when estrogen starts the process that leads to cancer by blocking the formation of the estrogen DNA adducts. We believe that this could stop the whole progression that leads to breast cancer down the road,” study author Eleanor G. Rogan, a professor in the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, said in a prepared statement.”

Source:Atlanta Journal Constitution

ScienceDaily last year reported a link between resveratrol and prostate cancer in a clinical study out of the University of Alabama at Birmingham. “In the study resveratrol-fed mice showed an 87 percent reduction in their risk of developing prostate tumors that contained the worst kind of cancer-staging diagnosis. The mice that proved to have the highest cancer-protection effect earned it after seven months of consuming resveratrol in a powdered formula mixed with their food. ”

The next step for resveratrol will be clinical studies in humans.

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