The last few years have been all about the excitement over resveratrol research and it’s potential as an anti-aging supplement; how it helps with protecting against the diseases of aging, like heart disease, diabetes, cancer.
Well, there is another side to resveratrol. For people who are younger and are simply trying to control their weight and boost their energy to get through the day, resveratrol is starting to gain recognition for the very neat solution it provides.
One of resveratrol’s signature traits is the way it increases glucose metabolism. It does this by increasing the number of mitochondria in the body’s cells. Mitochondria (if you remember from biology class in school) produce something called ATP which is responsible for generating energy in your body.
Simply put, the more ATP your cells produce, the more energy you have.
The positive consequences of this simple process are wide ranging for for your overall health, but for your immediate daily experience you feel a boost in your level of energy, and your mental alertness. Then, when you go to workout, you find you have more endurance and a greater ability to put more into your workouts. It seems easier.
This is the antioxidant properties of resveratrol working in conjunction with the increased energy availability and enhanced glucose metabolism.
Resveratrol has always done this, although only now is it being appreciated for it.
You don’t have to be in your fifties to benefit from resveratrol. Many people in their twenties are now taking resveratrol, as they realize it is indeed a great help for controlling their weight, making it easier to work out, and having the energy they need to get through their busy schedules.
]]>SIRT1
The key to weight loss in the body is the hormone SIRT1. The MIT study found that when SIRT1 is activated in the body, it in turn activates other proteins and catalysts which send a message out to the tissues where fat is stored. That message?
“Release or metabolize all fat!”
Specifically, the white adipose blood cells in our bodies which store our fat are told either to stop storing fat, or reduce the fat which they have stored. The reason for this is evolutionary. We store fat as a species in order to have energy to survive during lean times. In our current culture, of course, lean times are few and far between. As a result, we just store up all that fat in our Western diet.
If the body were to think you were in the middle of a famine, however, it would release that fat as well as immediately metabolize any extra you consumed. It would know to do this through the activation of the SIRT1 protein.
How is SIRT1 activated?
There are currently only two ways known which activate this important hormone in our bodies. The first, and most common way, is through diet. Diets, of course, are meant to restrict our caloric intake, which in turn says to the body that we are in the middle of lean times.
Of course, diets have been around for decades, and are notoriously ineffective on humans. The main reason for this is will power; not many people can really stick to a diet for a few months, let alone their whole lives.
Other reasons for avoiding diets might be even more compelling. For starters, in order for your body to go into true famine mode, calories must be restricted by at least half. For the average adult, that means eating once every two days.
Even if that is doable for a person, they might not want to deal with the side effects. Calorie restriction is known to cause:
Irritability
So, in addition to not being able to eat anything at all, no one will want to have sex with you and you won’t want to have any sex with anyone else. If we’re honest, there really seems to be no point in this kind of lifestyle. Even if it prolonged your life, those would just be extra years of being hungry, frigid, grumpy, and lacking in the physical department.
Extract
Fortunately, there is one more way to activate the SIRT1 hormone, discovered by researchers at Harvard Medical. That way is to take resveratrol in the form of an extract, which has been shown to activate the SIRT1 hormone in studies. After activation, of course, SIRT1 works its magic causing the body to react as if it were in the middle of a famine.
Long and short, if you want to activate that great SIRT1, you have two options. You can diet for the rest of your life, resulting in a significant decrease in your enjoyment of it, or you can opt for taking resveratrol extract!
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