Resveratrol for Heart Health Support
Modest cardiometabolic changes appear in some trials but do not consistently reach clinical significance.
Overview
Verdict
How It Works
Dosing & Protocol
Typical dose
- Recommended dose
- 150-500 mg/day trans-resveratrol with food; cardiovascular marker effects are small and inconsistent
- Expected timeframe
- 8-12 weeks
Protocol
- form
- Trans-resveratrol; bioavailability under 1%
- duration
- 8-12 weeks for markers
- co factor
- Take with food containing fat, and monitor blood pressure at home. Evidence is mixed. Meta-analyses show resveratrol reduces systolic blood pressure modestly, mainly at doses of 300 mg/day or more and in people with type 2 diabetes, with little effect on diastolic pressure or on lipids overall. Some trials show improved flow-mediated dilation and reduced inflammatory markers in metabolic disease; others show nothing. The French paradox origin story - red wine polyphenols explaining low coronary mortality despite saturated fat intake - does not survive scrutiny, since a glass of wine contains under 1 mg resveratrol against trial doses hundreds of times higher. No trial has examined cardiovascular events.
- titration
- Up to 500 mg/day; 1,000 mg/day is the practical ceiling before gastrointestinal effects predominate
- starting dose
- 150 mg/day of trans-resveratrol with a fat-containing meal
Evidence
What the studies say
No studies are yet linked to both Resveratrol and Heart Health Support.
Safety
Caveats
Two problems here. The effect sizes are small and inconsistent, and separately, two controlled trials found resveratrol actively blunted the cardiovascular benefits of exercise training - Gliemann and colleagues found it abolished the training-induced improvements in blood pressure, cholesterol and maximal oxygen uptake in older men. For someone exercising to improve heart health, that is a direct argument against taking it. The interventions with outcome evidence are blood pressure control, statins, smoking cessation, physical activity, weight management and diabetes control - do not substitute or stop prescribed medication. Safety of resveratrol: up to 1,000 mg/day short term; gastrointestinal effects above that, and a myeloma trial at 5 g/day was terminated after renal failure cases. It inhibits CYP3A4, CYP2C9 and CYP1A2, raising levels of statins, calcium channel blockers, ciclosporin and others, and has antiplatelet activity - avoid with warfarin, direct oral anticoagulants, aspirin and antiplatelet drugs, and stop two weeks before surgery. Oestrogenic activity means caution with hormone-sensitive cancer. Avoid in pregnancy and breastfeeding. Chest pain or exertional breathlessness needs medical assessment.
Less likely to help if
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