If you’re into anti-aging skin care, then perhaps you need to ask: Can drinking red wine really make you look younger? There are some ingredients in red wine which are derived from the red grape pip and skin that would suggest so. Let’s take a closer look at the properties of red wine and whether its consumption will benefit skin care and your anti-aging regimen.

Many people only concentrate on the outside to look younger e.g.  Face creams, ointments, non-surgical facelift techniques etc, but the battle to look younger often is fought from within as well as without. In this case we look at the intake of red wine as a natural anti-aging remedy.

In the red wine fermentation process, resveratrol is produced, which has a high concentration of anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants fight free radicals like pollution, sun damage to the skin, and damage to the skin and body caused from smoking etc.

Maybe that’s why in scientific studies conducted between the Americans and the French have concluded that the French are generally far healthier than their American counterparts. While both consume high fat diets, scientists found that French people live longer , have less cancer-related illnesses, heart problems, have longer longevity, and look younger for their age. What is the common denominator that’s consistently present in the French diet, but mostly absent in the American diet? You guessed it: Red wine!

Scientists have discovered that indeed the ingredient resveratrol has anti-aging properties, and can result in humans looking younger than their age with prolonged intake of red wine. Most of the oldest people on earth come from France!

Other than its anti-aging skin care properties, what are some other benefits of consuming red wine on a regular basis?

It controls cholesterol levels as well as blood pressure
It prevents  heart disease
It prevents cancer
It aids overall health and blood circulation
It even fights obesity
It promotes softer skin
It prevents, inter alia, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s.

So does white wine act as a similar anti-aging weapon? Studies prove not. Unfortunately the white grape does not consist of the same anti-aging properties as the red grape, so you will not gain any benefits from drinking white wine from an anti-aging point of view.

Remember, the deeper the RED of the wine, the better.  A chilled sweet or semi-sweet red wine is my preference; a dry red at room temperature could be yours. As long as it’s a deep red, your anti-aging skin care program will be on track!

But beware: drink a maximum of ONE OR TWO WINE glasses of red wine per day. More than that will have the opposite effect on your anti-aging skin care efforts because excessive alcohol damages the skin and has malevolent effects on the liver over time. 

So bottoms up for drinking red wine as an anti-aging medicine! It’s deliciously good and will keep you living longer and looking younger as well as handing you a long line of health benefits, provided it’s consumed in moderate quantities.

Is red wine beneficial for health or a potent poison? In the old times Plato said that “nothing more excellent or valuable than wine was ever granted by the Gods to man.” Nowadays research suggests that a glass of red wine each day may be providing you with more than just a little relaxation.

The French seem to know something about the health benefits of red wine considering that studies that compared French and German red wines, revealed that the French red wines delivered a greater health benefit due to their higher level of antioxidants. Experts believe that red wine contains certain compounds that help protect the heart. This has opened the door for other researchers to study the components in red wine that may be responsible for its health benefits.

In the last 10 years, thousands of research on red wine showed that moderate intake of this drink improves cardiovascular health. The cardio protective effect has been attributed to antioxidants present in the skin and seeds of red grapes.

Based on the research experts advise that the antioxidants, called flavonoids, reduce the risk of coronary heart disease in three ways: by reducing production of low density lipoprotein (the “bad” cholesterol), by boosting high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol (the good cholesterol) and by reducing blood clotting.

Furthermore researchers have found that moderate red wine consumption may be beneficial to more than just your heart. One study found that the antioxidant resveratrol, which is prevalent in the skin of red grapes, may inhibit tumour development in some cancers. Another study indicated that resveratrol aided in the formation of nerve cells, which experts believe may be helpful in the treatment of neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

The most recent studies on red wine presented at the American Association for Dental Research (AADR) annual meeting, in Orlando, Florida by the Canadians show that Red wine polyphenols may help fight gum disease. V. Houde, M. Boisvert and their colleagues from University Laval in Canada investigated the role of polyphenols, including those from red wine, in scavenging free radicals released by immune cells stimulated with components of bacteria causing periodontal diseases. Free radicals are believed to be at least partly responsible for the development of gum disease and are generated by immune cells during periodontitis. In order to have healthy gums it is important to that free radicals are maintained at low levels. Their results indicated that red wine polyphenols significantly modulate several inflammatory components released by macrophages (a population of host immune cells) in response to bacterial stimuli.

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