Opposing Effects of Resveratrol Depend on Dosage

While the hype about resveratrol appears to be over, it is still one of the cornerstones of many people seeking to improve health or promote longevity. If you belong to this group of people, you might find it interesting that without proper dosing, resveratrol may in fact do the exact opposite of what you were paying for.

A recent review published in Human and Experimental Toxicology (Calabrese. 2010) summarizes the literature as follows:

The current assessment indicates that low concentrations of resveratrol can be potentially beneficial or harmful, depending on the endpoint of interest. The data suggest that low doses of resveratrol would have the capacity to increase the risk of tumor development of a number of organs based on its capacity to enhance cell proliferation in multiple human tumor cell lines. In contrast, a strong case can be made that low doses of resveratrol can be significantly cardio-protective. It is likely that these general conditions could occur simultaneously within individuals. While the data are insufficient to answer this question, this type of conflict is not uncommon and we are likely to encounter it more often as investigators become more knowledgeable of the general nature of the hormetic dose response and its capacity to enhance potentially beneficial or harmful effects depending on the biological system, tissue and chemical agent.

Unfortunately, actual human data is sparse and it is still questionable in how far dosing schemes from in-vitro and animal studies are applicable to oral resveratrol supplementation in man. I will have an eye on future studies into that direction and let you know as soon as there is more reliable information out there, so stay tuned ;-)