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Drink Up! This Is a Natural Sleep Aid
Here's a grape excuse to hit the bottle. It's a well known fact that a glass or two of wine will not only relax you, but also make you sleepy. Turns out, there's a reason for that. Red wine is laced with high levels of the sleep hormone melatonin, according to researchers from Milan's Istituto di Virologia Vegetale (Institute of Vegetable Virology).
We humans naturally produce melatonin from the brain's pineal gland. It helps to regulate our daily cycles of wakefulness and sleep. For example, in the evening our melatonin levels rise, signaling the body that it is time for sleep. When the sun comes up, melatonin levels fall off, allowing us to wake up.
Led by Dr. Marcello Iriti, the team tested eight types of grapes from the same vineyards in Italy. All the grapes--Nebbiolo, Croatina, Sangiovese, Merlot, Marzemino, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Barbera--were about the same maturity. The results? They found evidence of melatonin in all of them. Nebbiolo grapes had the most melatonin, followed by Croatina grapes and Merlot grapes. Some of the grape plants, including the Merlot, had been treated with benzothiadiazole; this synthetic chemical that helps plants ward off disease could also boost melatonin levels. Although the researchers did not check the melatonin levels in wine, they suspect they might be even higher than in the grapes since they could get a boost from the wine's antioxidants. "The melatonin content in wine could help regulate the circadian rhythm [sleep-wake patterns], just like the melatonin produced by the pineal gland in mammals," Iriti said in a news release announcing the findings.
So why do plants produce melatonin? Obviously, they don't need it for sleep. Iriti says it probably helps them defend against plant diseases. The study findings were published in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.
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If You Drink This, You May Live Longer
Red wine may hold the secret to a longer life, say researchers from Harvard University, the University of Connecticut, and Brown University.
Previous research has shown that when we drastically restrict our calorie intake, we may extend our lifespan. But you have to wonder if giving up the good things in life--a sizzling steak, whipped potatoes, or four-layer double chocolate cake--is worth it. Now you may be able to reap those same benefits without nearly starving yourself.
Enjoy a bit of red wine with your dinner, and you may add years to your life. Harvard researchers have found that resveratrol, an ingredient found in abundance in red wine, has the same life-extending effect on fruit flies and worms as severely restricting caloric intake has on monkeys, reports Reuters.
What does this mean? Someday, we may be able to pop a pill to achieve the same benefits as strict dieting to live longer and healthier lives, according to lead study author David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School. "We found this chemical that can extend the life span of every organism we give it to," Sinclair told Reuters in an interview. "We hope we can soon see molecules that treat diseases of aging, like diabetes for example. We really can have our cake and eat it, too."
Found in all living creatures from bacteria to human beings are molecules called Sir2-like proteins or sirtuins that are involved in the anti-aging effects of calorie restriction. The researchers wanted to find molecules that would stick to and activate the sirtuin protein. One--resveratrol--worked better than all the others they tested. "When I realized it was a molecule from red wine, I almost fell out of my seat," Sinclair told Reuters. "This is the molecule people suspect is behind the health benefits of red wine. It's uncanny."
Sinclair found that when fruit flies and worms were given resveratrol compounds, they lived longer and healthier lives and were just as active in old age as they were when they were younger. "They can eat as much as they like, and they live considerably longer," he explained to Reuters. Restricting calories may help dogs and monkeys to live longer in the lab, but it can also leave them lethargic and infertile. "These flies, instead of being infertile, they produced more eggs per day," Sinclair noted. Now he's testing the compound in mice, which are biologically closer to human beings than fruit flies and worms. He thinks if it works in mice, it will work in people.
Sinclair has already formed a company called Sirtris to exploit his findings and sell a product he developed called Longevinex, which concentrates resveratrol into a pill, reports Reuters.
The study findings were published in the journal Nature.
