Red wine: Exercise in a bottle?

New research study published in the FASEB Journal (http://www.fasebj.org), suggests that the “healthy” ingredient in red wine, resveratrol, may prevent the negative effects that spaceflight and sedentary lifestyles have on people. 

Scientists studied rats that underwent simulated weightlessness by hindlimb tail suspension and were given a daily oral load of resveratrol. The control group showed a decrease in soleus muscle mass and strength, the development of insulin resistance, and a loss of bone mineral density and resistance to breakage. The group receiving resveratrol showed none of these complications. Study results further demonstrated some of the underlying mechanisms by which resveratrol acts to prevent the wasting adaptations to disuse-induced mechanical unloading.

When you drink wine, you might be drinking some snakes

At a wine seminar back in NC, I met a vineyard owner who is quite proud that his vineyard still hand-picks it’s grapes. Aside from being able to only the pick the best and ripe grapes, he cited one of the hidden benefits to this process is that most larger companies that use machines for harvest actually end up with a lot of snakes in the mix. As a wine lover (and extreme snake-fearer) this left me jaw-dropped for months.