Resveratrol

News agencies recently aired a report that a human study was suddenly halted due to safety concerns over the combined use of a drug, SRT501 modeled after resveratrol, combined with a toxic chemotherapy cancer drug, bortezomib (Velcade), among patients with myeloma (bone marrow cancer). The combination of drugs was suggested by researchers in attempt to enhance the cancer-toxic effects of bortezomib.
Without greater transparency as to the suspected cause of the safety problem, consumers are left to guess whether it was the drug, the synthetic resveratrol, or their combination that prompted the study to be closed down.

There should be little or no concern of toxicity among the many thousands of resveratrol supplement users as the drug used in the trial was just that; SRT501 is a drug synthesized by Sirtris Pharmaceuticals a division of Glaxo Smithkline. And though modeled after the resveratrol molecule because of the broad based therapeutic potential that organic resveratrol has exhibited, it is a chemically synthesized compound and not a natural plant substance.

Furthermore, the drug SRT501 was formulated at a strength exceeding 1,000 times that of typical resveratrol supplement doses, a level which is nearly impossible to attain through natural supplementation.
Resveratrol alone is known to exhibit profound anti-cancer properties and has been specifically proposed for treatment of myeloma because it exhibits multiple ways to block this form of cancer, including inhibition of new undesirable new blood vessels (angiogenesis), inhibition of tumor cell invasion, and works synergistically in bone tissue with vitamin D.

Additionally, evidence from numerous in vitro and in vivo studies involving many other forms of cancer including breast, colon, prostate, pancreatic and lung has confirmed resveratrol’s ability to inhibit cancer at all three stages of development (initiation, promotion (growth) and progression (spread); something no existing anti-cancer drug does.

Resveratrol is also known to have potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects, to inhibit platelet aggregation and counter insulin resistance.
The anti-cancer effects of resveratrol at low doses have been demonstrated recently in studies concerning breast cancer conducted at the University of Nebraska and colon cancer at the University of California, Irvine.

The RESVANTAGE® brand resveratrol supplements are a low dose resveratrol supplement that has become the leading choice of MDs and Naturopaths for use in their practices due to its safety (low dose) and stability (ability to retain potency).
Although considered very safe and well tolerated, the long term effects of high dose resveratrol supplementation are unknown at this time and many practitioners prefer a conservative approach since there is now abundant evidence of efficacy at low doses.