Red Wine Compound May Curb Diabetes

Resveratrol, an antioxidant found in red wine, may counter
type 2 diabetes and insulin resistance, a new study shows.

Insulin is a hormone that controls blood sugar. When the body becomes less
sensitive to insulin, that's called insulin resistance, a condition that can
lead to type 2 diabetes.

Resveratrol curbs insulin resistance in mice, Chinese scientists report.

They included Cheng Sun and Qiwei Zhai of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in
Shanghai.

If the findings apply to people, it might be possible to create new
resveratrol drugs that could be a "valuable new strategy for treating
insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes," write the researchers.

But don't count on a glass of wine to do the same thing. It would take quite
a bit of wine to reach the same level of resveratrol.

"According to our findings, people might need to drink about three
liters of red wine each day to get sufficient resveratrol -- about 15
milligrams -- for its biological effects," Zhai says in a news release.

The researchers aren't recommending that anyone rely on wine to help their
insulin sensitivity.

Resveratrol Research

Resveratrol is found in grapes (especially in red wine), raspberries,
peanuts, and other plants that use resveratrol to defend against threats such
as disease.

Sun's team found that insulin-resistant mice become more sensitive to
insulin when given resveratrol.

How does that work? The scientists' experiments with cells in test tubes
show that resveratrol spurs a gene called SIRT1 to become more active, boosting
insulin sensitivity.

The findings appear in October's edition of the journal Cell
Metabolism.

By Miranda Hitti
Reviewed by Louise Chang
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