Resveratrol, a natural compound found in red wine, peanuts, berries and the skin of red grapes, may reduce artery stiffness in some people with Type 2 diabetes, according to an abstract presented at the American Heart Association’s Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology Peripheral Vascular Disease 2017 Scientific Sessions.
“This adds to emerging evidence that there may be interventions that may reverse the blood vessel abnormalities that occur with ageing and are more pronounced in people with Type 2 diabetes and obesity,” said Naomi M. Hamburg, MD, MS, senior author of the study and Chief of the vascular biology section at the Boston University School of Medicine in Massachusetts.
As the body’s largest artery, the aorta, becomes stiffer, the risk of heart attacks and strokes increases. In the study, researchers used a test called the carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (CFPWV) to measure aortic stiffness in 57 patients with Type-2 diabetes (average age 56 years, 52% female, 67% African-American and on average rating as obese on standard height/weight charts).
Tests were performed after patients consumed daily doses of resveratrol for four weeks. Participants were also tested on several other measures of their blood vessels’ ability to relax and expand as needed to accommodate changes in blood flow, an important indicator of healthy blood vessel function.
The researchers found that in the overall study group, there was a trend toward reduced aortic stiffness with resveratrol treatment; however, the change was not statistically significant. In a subset of 23 patients with high arterial stiffness at the start of the study, a higher dose of resveratrol reduced aortic stiffness by 9.1%; the smaller dose reduced aortic stiffness to a lesser extent, 4.8%.
“The effect of resveratrol may be more about improving structural changes in the aorta, and less about the relaxation of blood vessels, and people with more normal aortic stiffness may not get as much benefit,” Hamburg said.