By Franklin St. John

Years ago, heart disease was being studied in many different countries, with the United States leading the way. The researchers were trying to identify the main factors that contributed to heart disease, such as smoking, lack of exercise and excess weight. While they suspected that fat from red meat was another culprit, their research revealed a strange anomaly: The French were known to devour red meat as well as rich desserts as a regular part of their diet, yet their heart disease statistics did not match up with their consumption of these foods, as the statistics for Americans did.

The only dietary difference that stuck out in the investigation was the high level of red wine consumption by the French. Could there be a direct correlation between red wine and heart health?

Further investigation indicated that, indeed, there was something in red wine that helped improve the health of French people in general, and their heart health in particular. Research proved that a specific compound in red wine, resveratrol, was responsible for this significant benefit. It seemed that simply drinking red wine regularly would enable someone to reap its health benefits. As it turned out, however, the amount of red wine required to get those benefits would have caused the drinker to be intoxicated all the time.

One fact that emerged from the research was that the French people, even children, drank red wine with most of their meals; it was evident that the general population had resveratrol in their systems practically all the time. Yet alcoholism did not appear to be a problem in France, as it would most likely be in the United States if Americans started consuming red wine at the level needed to reap the heart-health benefits the French enjoyed.

And those benefits are obvious. According to the literature, resveratrol helps expand the artery walls, allowing the blood to flow more easily. This means that there is less chance for platelets to accumulate on the arterial walls and cause a stoppage of blood flow, which of course would result in a heart attack. This is not to say that simply consuming resveratrol is a sure way to prevent a heart attack, but anything that reduces the risk of having one is a positive step.

Resveratrol has other positive effects on the body as well. Its characteristic of making the arterial walls more flexible can affect the blood flow to the brain, helping cut the risk of stroke. And resveratrol has also been shown to be a strong antioxidant, which means that it is an ally to the body in its constant war against free radical damage. People who are interested in their health probably are aware of the harm that free radicals can cause to the body’s organs, to DNA and even to individual cells.

Because an individual cannot safely or responsibly drink enough red wine to reap the health benefits associated with resveratrol, HerbaSway developed a liquid concentrate of the compound made from extracts of giant knotweed and the skin and seeds from grapes. Because these extracts are in concentrated form, they contain a level of resveratrol that far exceeds that found in red wine. One serving from a 60-serving bottle of HerbaSway Resveratrol delivers the heart-health benefits of more than a bottle of red wine.

Franklin St. John, the founder of HerbaSway Laboratories, was taught traditional Chinese herbal medicine and qigong by a Taoist master from the mountains of China. For more information, call 1-800-672-7322 or visit HerbaSway.com.