Resveratrol Fails to Ameliorate inflammatory response and Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness After a Marathon

Resveratrol, an antioxidant polyphenol from the skin of red grapes, has now been around for quite a while and as it was in the case of almost every other antioxidant which was hailed as a powerful panaceum (e.g. vitamin E) it slowly transpires that the real life value of resveratrol may well fall short of the expectations its potency in (mostly) in vitro studies rose among scientists and laymen alike.

For some of you it may yet still come as a surprise that the results of a double placebo-controlled randomised trial conducted at the London Marathon 2010 (Laupheimer. 2011) fall short of the expectations the colorful advertisements and cited abstracts from in vitro studies may raise in many half-informed customers:

There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of changes occurring between pre and post-tests for WBC [white blood cell count], CRP [C reactive protein] or VAS [a measure of muscle soreness] (p=0.857, 0.629 and 0.70 respectively).

And, although the author remarks that the dose and loading protocol (600mg of resveratrol /day for 7 days before the event) may have been insufficient to produce favorable results, I would like to remind everyone that these 600mg is three times the dose one would get from the suggested usage of NOW's high quality Resveratrol 200. So, even if 1.200mg would work, this would be quite an expensive supplementation protocol.