The first rigorous study of the dietary supplement resveratrol found that increased consumption of the plant antioxidant is unlikely to prevent breast or prostate cancer. Touted in many health magazines and found in abundance in grapes, wine and peanuts, resveratrol is widely sold as a dietary supplement with numerous claims of beneficial health effects including life span extension and preventing heart disease and cancer. Previous research demonstrated these effects only in cultured cells and prior to the current study, it was questioned whether or not resveratrol could in fact reach the circulating blood in the body in sufficient amounts to have therapeutic effects. Dr. Thomas Walle and research associate Kristina Walle administered C-14 Tagged resveratrol by mouth and IV to healthy volunteers. Although the compound was absorbed well after oral dosing and most of the dose was found in the volunteers’ urine in the first 12 hours, the urine contained the compound in a broken down state as opposed to its complete, presumably active form. Blood samples containing complete resveratrol were those drawn 30 minutes after the IV injection and no complete resveratrol was present in blood samples drawn after oral doses, indicating that the complete compound needed to demonstrate benefits in preventing breast or prostate cancer was not present in the blood. “It would seem highly unlikely that resveratrol per se has any effect on cardiovascular disease or breast or prostate cancer when consumed in the diet or in supplement form,” Dr.Walle said. “However, it’s still possible that orally administered resveratrol can prevent cancers along the aerodigestive tract. It is also possible that a resveratrol sulfate conjugate detected in the circulating blood may exert the preventive activities claimed for resveratrol, but these questions remain to be answered.” The National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health supported Walle’s research. May 7, 2004
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