Wine May Help Prevent Diabetes

Filed in archive Research on November 16, 2006

If tests with mice are any indication, red wine may help prevent obesity and diabetes. Surely a treatment most people wouldn't object to!

A component of red wine recently shown to help lab mice live longer also protects animals from obesity and diabetes, researchers reported Thursday.

The new research helps confirm and extend the possible benefits of the substance, resveratrol, and offers new insight into how it works -- apparently by revving up the metabolism to make muscles burn more energy and work more efficiently. Mice fed large doses could run twice as far as normal.

In addition, the scientists for the first time produced evidence linking the biological pathway activated by the substance to humans, showing that the same genetic switch resveratrol mimics seems to naturally endow some people with faster metabolisms.