Resveratrol, or trans-resveratrol is a chemical substance that is found in the skin of grapes in the form of red wine resveratrol and in Japanese knotweed, and is known for its potent antioxidant capabilities. It has been touted in the past decade as one of the super antioxidants of the world with many health benefits. These benefits include:

• Cancer fighting qualities
• Life extension and anti aging
• Increased physical endurance
• Overall cellular health
• Diminishing neurodegenerative diseases
• Cellular anti aging

It’s no wonder the world is excited about this little chemical substance. Aside from promising the proverbial fountain of youth as an anti aging product, the real resveratrol benefit is increased health on a cellular level. But how does resveratrol work? What does it do on a cellular level?

The Mitochondria

One benefit of trans-resveratrol is its ability to increase the biogenesis of the mitochondria in every cell of our body. But first we have to understand the nature and the function of the mitochondria.
The mitochondria are organelles inside each and every cell in the body. It is considered to be the “furnace” of living cells. The mitochondrion’s most important role is that of creating ATP (adenosine-5’-triphosphate) which is the molecular substance that yields energy in terms of heat and cell action. By oxidizing oxygen and glucose, the mitochondria, through the action of cell respiration is responsible for the complex chemical reactions that create ATP.

It is a natural occurrence that through the mitochondria’s function, oxygen or other substances like lipids could end up being oxidized and converted into the cell-damaging free radicals. These substances can create cell membrane damage and DNA damage to the cell and to the very mitochondria themselves.
Resveratrol has the ability to promote optimal mitochondria function and biogenesis as well as contributing to the antioxidant role in protecting cellular DNA and cell membranes. This results in more efficient energy output for the body, and an increased longevity of the cells in the body.
Unfortunately, the amount of resveratrol that is yielded in say a glass of wine is really not enough to yield quantifiable health benefits. And that is why most people are looking for the best resveratrol supplement or best anti aging product.

Resveratrol and Antiaging

For a resveratrol supplement to be optimal in anti aging, it needs to be successful in not only promoting healthy mitochondria biogenesis and cell health, but it also has to be able to slow down the process of Glycation in the cells.
When human cells age, the proteins and DNA in the cells start creating damaging cross-links to each other. This cross linking, called Glycation, is responsible for the increased aging of the cells brought about by the resulting damaged protein molecules.

More and more studies are being done on resveratrol, resulting in more resveratrol supplements introduced into the market. The best anti aging resveratrol product has to be able to have a high potency and concentration to be effective, and it also has to be able to slow down the Glycation of cells.

So if you are looking for the best anti aging product on the market, make sure to aim high and find the one with the highest quality of ingredients, and highest concentration of resvratrol.

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It is possible to fight off aging with grape seed extract due largely to the antioxidant effect of the phytochemicals contained within the seed of the grape. The seed is rarely absorbed by your body because it is so difficult for your digestive juices to break down; significantly more difficult than the skin or the pulp.  So what is specific about the seed that makes it so useful as a source of antioxidants? That shall be discuss shortly, but for now let’s discuss the causes of aging, and how antioxidants can help to keep them at bay.

To fight off aging you have to understand what causes it, and the take steps to avoid these causes. It is fairly obvious that all causes of aging cannot be circumvented, but there are things that can be done to keep some of them at bay. Here, we are specifically concerned with the aging of your skin, which is the most visible form of aging.  The first aspect of aging to understand is that there are two types:  intrinsic and extrinsic.

Intrinsic Aging

Intrinsic aging is natural aging, and is largely genetic.  Starting when you are fairly young, normally in the early to mid 20s, intrinsic aging is typified by wrinkling, hair loss or graying of the hair, hollowing of cheeks and other areas where the fat underneath the skin that normally contributes to your physical appearance is lost, and also bone loss that causes your skin to sag due a gradual loss of the structure that sculpts your physical appearance.

The age at which this occurs, and its speed is determined by your genes; although the process generally begins around the mid 20s, the speed with which it progresses is genetically controlled.

Extrinsic Aging

This is where grape seed extract can help.  Extrinsic aging is not genetic, but environmental.  Ten majority of this type of aging is due to exposure to the damaging UV light of the sun, which cause the typical ‘leathery’ look of the skin of people raised in areas such locations as the hotter parts of Australia and the USA, without the benefit of the native skin pigmentation that filters out these harmful ultra-violet rays.

Other factors that can cause the same degradation of your skin cells are smoking, the way you sleep and gravity.  The sun generates free radicals (more on these later) that can destroy skin cells, cause freckles, leathery skin and a blotched complexion and also skin cancer.  Smokers are more likely to develop leathery and wrinkled skin than non-smokers, and as the elasticity of your skin reduces, gravity cause jowls to develop and also a more pronounced lower lip.

Even your sleeping position can make you appear to age quicker, particularly using the same sleeping position on your pillow each night that cause what are known as sleep lines, that are really wrinkles that are difficult, if not impossible to remove.  However, one of the most relevant factors is pollution, and the effects of car emissions, pesticides and other agricultural chemicals, paint fumes and 1001 other forms of chemical pollution that produce free radicals.

Where grape seed extract is involved in fighting off aging is in extrinsic aging is by destroying the free radicals.  All substances, from the air to the oceans, are formed of atoms that contain electrons.  Stable molecules contain an even number of electrons, or what are known as ‘electron pairs’. When a molecule loses one electron it is known as a free radical, whose prime purpose in its very short life is to steal an electron from the nearest molecule. This ‘short’ lifetime can as long as a day or as short as thousandth of a second:  it depends on is size and the degree of steric hindrance to the reaction with the spare electron.

Now that the reasons for aging and the nature of free radicals are better understood it is easier for you understand why grape seed extract can help to fight aging caused by the effects of free radicals on your skin.

Grape seed is a waste product of the wine industry. You cannot make wine from grape seeds, so they are removed from the final product by filtration or sedimentation.  It contains a large number of phytonutrients, the most important being polyphenols in the form of flavanoids, lipids and carbohydrates.  It also contains proteins that don’t have much of an effect on aging.  Flavonoids (also spelled flavanoids) are powerful antioxidants that destroy free radicals; they are twenty times as powerful as Vitamin E and over fifty times more powerful an antioxidant than Vitamin C.

Both of these vitamins are regarded as strong antioxidants in their own right, which is an indication of how good grape seed extract is at killing free radicals. It’s like a combination of Harry Callahan, Paul Kersey, John McClane and the whole of the Magnificent Seven after the scavengers in your body cells. They succeed, and do it in spades!

Not only do the ingredients of grape seed extract kill off free radicals with the efficiency of a Delta Task Force, but are also anti-allergenic, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer and anti just about anything else you can think of.  However, let’s have an even closer look and find out exactly what polyphenols are present in this so-called wonder juice.

Procyanadin was originally named Vitamin P in 1936 by its discoverer, Prof. Jacques Masquelier, and is believed to bond with collagen to protect you from premature aging by retaining and even improving the elasticity of your skin. An added benefit is that it also improves the elasticity of your blood vessels, and so helps to fight off the effects of high blood pressure and places less strain on your heart. The overall effect on your face is to practically give you a chemical face lift and also provide protection from the damaging effect of the UV component of sunlight through its lethal attitude towards the free radicals that UV radiation generates.

Another component of grape seed extract particularly that of muscadine grapes is resveratrol; a phytoalexin that has strong anti-inflammatory properties and can also fight off the effects of aging. Phytoalexins are antibiotics produced by plants that are under attack, and, in addition to helping you age slower, confers other benefits to your body including helping your brain to carry out its work more efficiently.

All in all, grape extract confers many benefits to your health and is also believed to possess powerful anti-cancer properties.  However, it is for its ability to fight off aging that most people use it as a supplement, and in this respect it has been found to be extremely effective.  Any antioxidant is of benefit to your body, but grape seed extract is of particular benefit due its high antioxidant potency.

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Antioxidants are naturally occurring substances found in most plants and have the potential to help combat heart diseases and fight cancer.

In plants these are called phytonutrients and are able to work together with our body’s own nutrients to fight disease. To date, scientists have managed to index almost a 1,000 of these unusual compounds,these protective plant compounds are an emerging area of health and nutrition, with new research reported almost daily.

To date a large number of health giving benefits of these phytonutrients have been found,the anti-aging power of blueberries, the joint pain relieving properties of cherries and a whole host of powerful properties in pomegranates are just a few examples.

Containing less sugar than most fruits, the blueberry can also boast a number of other antioxidant properties too. Fruit juice provides many benefits and is a more pleasurable way to consume this type of food,this will help improve our healing ability and blood circulation.

Phytonutrients can also build the body's ability to fight disease and infection due to they're powerful antioxidants and healthy nutrients. You will also find high levels of these substances in apples which can help to reduce the chance of heart disease.

Even lemons and other citrus fruits are proving very capable at providing useful phytochemicals of their own. The combination of phytonutrients in cherries is proving to have properties that can help sufferers of joint pain and fibromyalgia.

The benefits of vitamins B, C, E and certain other minerals are well studied and widely known.

Phytoalexins, also antioxidants like resveratrol, are found in mulberries, blackberries and blueberries have special properties which prevent infection and viruses.

These compounds can help or suppress harmful body aging processes that often end in heart attacks, stroke, faulty blood pressure, and Alzheimer’s disease. Tomatoes too are able to help in the prevention of conditions like heart disease and some cancers. However, the use of concentrated tomatoes in the form of juice, sauces and puree can increase the intake level of this fruit dramatically.

Watermelons, recognized as a refreshing summer fruit also contain some of the most powerful phytonutrients yet found. Now you have the information, are you going to wait to have a serious condition before you start consuming more fruit?

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