By now, many of you know about the potential benefits of Resveratrol.  They have been well highlighted in numerous journals, magazines and newspapers over the last ten years.  You can read a nice clean summary about the compound, its alleged benefits and more in an article I posted last year.  Now comes the release of a presentation made by University of Connecticut researchers at a National Institute of Health symposium in Washington D.C. that shows that resveratrol limits damage caused by a heart attack, prevents sudden cardiac death in animals and may be “the best yet devised method of cardioprotection.”  The red grape molecule seems to work its cardioprotective effect through the compound adenosine, a nucleoside that activates antioxidants in the heart prior to a heart attack.

This brings into question the role of low dose aspirin, a preventative therapy ascribed to by millions and recommended since 1988 by the FDA to limit heart attack.  Dr. Nate Leibowitz, cardiologist with the Advanced Cardiology Institute in Ft. Lee New Jersey, believes that aspirin therapy for the prevention of heart attacks has a limited effect.  Where there does seem to be some benefit, however, is in women with a positive mutation of the apolipoprotein(a) gene (LPA) gene.

A recent paper published in the American Journal of Medicine indicates that the dosage of aspirin recommended traditionally by the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the US Preventive Services Task Force (75-81mg) appears to be far too low to offer a significant reduction in stroke or heart attack.  In fact, half of the people experiencing a sudden mortal heart attack were taking aspirin on the day of their demise.  In addition, the risk of gastric bleeding with low dose therapy is ten times that non users.  James E. Dalen, MD, MPH, who some of you may recognize as the former dean of the University of Arizona College of Medicine, says that only one in seven human studies using 100mg of aspirin demonstrates a decreased incidence of heart attack.