How, scientists wonder, do the French get away with a clean bill of heart health despite a diet loaded with saturated fats?

The answer to the so-called “French paradox” may be found in red wine. More specifically, it may reside in small doses of resveratrol, a natural constituent of grapes, pomegranates, red wine and other foods, according to a new study by an international team of researchers.

Researchers report that low doses of resveratrol in the diet of middle-aged mice has a widespread influence on the genetic levers of aging and may confer special protection on the heart.

Specifically, the researchers found that low doses of resveratrol mimic the effects of what is known as caloric restriction - diets with 20-30 percent fewer calories than a typical diet - that in numerous studies has been shown to extend lifespan and blunt the effects of aging.

“This brings down the dose of resveratrol toward the consumption reality mode,” says senior author Richard Weindruch, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor of medicine and a researcher at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital. “At the same time, it plugs into the biology of caloric restriction.”

In short, a glass of wine or food or supplements that contain even small doses of resveratrol are likely to represent “a robust intervention in the retardation of cardiac aging,” the authors note.
That finding may also explain the remarkable heart health of people who live in some regions of France where diets are soaked in saturated fats but the incidence of heart disease, a major cause of mortality in the United States, is low. In France, meals are traditionally complemented with a glass of red wine.

To learn more about Heart Disease, click here:  Your Heart

Thanks to George Carlin we know there are seven dirty words you can never say on TV. There are also seven dirty words about heart disease that everyone should know:

• Diet – fat, sugar and foods high in cholesterol are known to contribute to heart disease; diabetes (also diet related) also damages the heart and blood vessels.
• Genetics – African Americans, Hispanics, native Americans all have higher rates of high blood pressure and heart disease
• Stress – working too much, dramatic personal lives, worrying, depression; also feeding stress with too much alcohol and other drugs (Carlin reportedly went through drug and alcohol rehab in 2004)
• Smoking – constricts blood vessels and strains the heart and lungs
• Inactivity – the heart is a muscle that needs to be exercised; even moderate activity is helpful, and losing 10 pounds can reduce your cardiac risk
• High blood pressure – leads to undue stress on a variety of organs, including the heart; combined with other risk factors it increases the chance of a heart attack many times
• Denial – saying “it won’t happen to me,” without changing your lifestyle, guarantees you won’t see a decrease in your risk

“Advances in heart research and changes in the way physicians manage heart disease have made heart disease a chronic illness. Modern therapies, such as statins and the simple drug aspirin, together with our knowledge of prevention, have prolonged the lives of many people who, just 30 years ago, would have died much earlier,” according to Dr. Cam Patterson, chief of the Division of Cardiology and director of the Carolina Cardiovascular Biology Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Heart Disease remains the number one killer of women.