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5 Surprising Benefits Of Trans-Resveratrol

Trans-resveratrol is a compound I’d bet money on that most people have never heard of, yet it is one that can be incredibly beneficial in many aspects of a person’s life. In the following article, I want to explain exactly what trans-resveratrol is, how it works, and what benefits it offers, to hopefully convince you to give it a try for yourself.

Table of Contents

What Is Trans-Resveratrol & How Does It Work?

Resveratrol is a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory found in grapes and certain berries, and trans-resveratrol is its biologically active form. It offers many benefits to humans, including reducing inflammation and oxidative stress and damage, relieving pain, boosting gut, heart, and nervous system health and functions, improving blood sugar, pressure and cholesterol levels, aiding fat loss, managing insulin and glucose sensitivity, and treating Alzheimer’s disease, arthritis, diabetes, and other chronic illnesses.

Clinical trials show that doses of anywhere from 8mg to 3,000mg of trans-resveratrol a day can produce beneficial effects, while doses up to 5,000mg daily are usually tolerable without causing side effects. That said, many scientists believe dosages between 150mg and 500mg per day are optimal.

5 Surprising Benefits Of Trans-Resveratrol

Reduces Inflammation

Trans-resveratrol is known first and foremost as a potent anti-inflammatory that relieves inflammation in multiple ways.

It inhibits pro-inflammatory signalling pathways by blocking the activation of factor NF-κB, which normally triggers the expression of inflammatory genes, while also reducing the activity of AP-1, which is involved in inflammatory cytokine production.

At the same time, it activates anti-inflammatory pathways by stimulating SIRT1. A longevity-associated enzyme that deacetylates and inactivates NF-κB, it promotes anti-inflammatory gene expression and activates AMPK, which regulates energy metabolism and indirectly suppresses inflammation.

It also decreases pro-inflammatory mediators, such as certain cytokines and chemokines that recruit immune cells to sites of inflammation, and reduces pro-inflammatory prostaglandins and nitric oxide overproduction. This is while shifting macrophages from a pro-inflammatory M1 phenotype toward an anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype, to inhibit the over-activation of neutrophils and other immune cells that can damage tissue.

Finally, its antioxidant properties work to directly reduce the oxidative stress that feeds inflammation by scavenging reactive oxygen species (ROS), which are known to trigger inflammatory signalling, interrupting the “oxidative stress–inflammation loop (1).”

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Improves Cardiovascular Function

As with everywhere else in the body, trans-resveratrol reduces inflammation in the arteries and walls of the heart, while reducing oxidative stress and damage, to keep the circulatory system healthy. Meanwhile, increasing nitric oxide production and relaxing the blood vessels reduces blood pressure, improves circulation and blood vessel function, and helps prevent endothelial dysfunction, which is an early step in atherosclerosis.

Some studies also show it may reduce LDL cholesterol and increase HDL cholesterol, while improving lipid metabolism and acting as a mild antiplatelet agent. This would lead to better overall lipid and cholesterol levels and a lower risk of the kind of clot formation that causes heart attacks.

There’s even evidence suggesting it improves heart muscle energy and resilience by supporting mitochondrial health. This improves the heart muscle’s ability to produce energy efficiently and may even reduce fibrosis and apoptosis (cell death) in heart tissue after injury (2).

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Promotes Brain Health

The reduction in inflammation and oxidative stress trans-resveratrol produces, combined with its antioxidant properties, also lowers the production of brain-inflammatory cytokines and dampens microglial overactivation, which is a key driver of neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. This protects neuronal membranes, DNA, and mitochondria from damage and keeps the brain healthy.

These aren’t the only ways it benefits brain health and functions, though. For starters, it increases nitric oxide production, aiding blood vessel dilation and leading to improved flow of oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the brain and neurons. It then also reduces amyloid-beta accumulation and tau hyperphosphorylation, which are two of the causes of Alzheimer’s disease.

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Other cognitive benefits produced by trans-resveratrol include it promoting mitochondrial biogenesis, DNA repair, improved synaptic plasticity, enhanced cellular energy, reduced protein aggregation (which is linked to neurodegeneration), increased BDNF (brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which supports the growth, survival, and differentiation of neurons), and enhanced longevity, learning, and memory (3).

Supports Digestive Health

The digestive system is another part of the body that benefits from trans-resveratrol’s antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Reducing oxidative stress and inflammation in the gut and intestines boosts gut health and function by reducing tissue damage, preventing toxins from escaping into the bloodstream, keeping the gut wall and lining intact, and preventing or treating conditions like ulcerative colitis, leaky gut syndrome, and Crohn’s disease.

It also produces prebiotic-like effects that balance the gut microbiome. This occurs as it encourages the growth of beneficial bacteria, such as Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium, and suppresses harmful bacteria, like Escherichia coli and certain Clostridium species, by altering their metabolism. Healthier microbiota improve short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) production, especially butyrate, which nourishes colon cells and regulates immunity (4).

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Regulates Blood Sugar Levels

The improved digestive health we saw above indirectly improves glucose control and lipid metabolism through gut–brain–liver signalling. Its effect on mitochondrial health then furthers these benefits. However, that’s just one of many ways trans-resveratrol can benefit your blood sugar levels.

As we’ve repeatedly seen, it reduces inflammation, which is one of the main causes of insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and the loss of pancreatic cells and function, which regulate glucose uptake. It then improves insulin sensitivity by activating SIRT1, which boosts insulin signalling by reducing insulin receptor substrate (IRS) degradation, boosting cellular glucose uptake, and promoting healthy energy metabolism.

It then also reduces liver glucose overproduction by suppressing the enzymes required to make glucose from non-carbs in the liver, keeping fasting blood glucose from rising too high. This is while enhancing muscle glucose uptake by increasing the activity of its transporters in muscle and fat cells, allowing more glucose to be moved from the blood into cells for energy, which is effective for preventing glucose spikes (5).