Older men who take resveratrol supplements may be depriving themselves of the cardiovascular benefits they should be getting from exercise.
To test whether resveratrol supplementation enhances training-induced improvements in the cardiovascular health of older men, Lasse Gliemann and colleagues randomized 27 healthy, physically inactive men aged 65 years and older to eight weeks of trans resveratrol administration (250 mg/day) or placebo, as they explained in The Journal of Physiology. Both groups also underwent high-intensity exercise training.
Unexpectedly, exercise training led to a 45% greater increase in maximal oxygen uptake in the placebo group than in the resveratrol group. Among other unanticipated, unfavorable outcomes, resveratrol supplementation abolished the positive effects on exercise on LDL levels, on ratio of total cholesterol to HDL, and on triglyceride levels.
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