Does Drinking Wine Help Prevent Eye Disease?


red wine pouring into a wine glass

Resveratrol and Eye Disease

Resveratrol is the naturally occurring plant compounds in red wine that people gleefully expound as the reason why red wine is good for you. Resveratrol is an antioxidant with the potential to reduce the oxidative stress and inflammation associated with degenerative eye disease.

Resveratrol has been studied as a potential treatment for cardiovascular disease, cancer, and degenerative neurological diseases.   The eye has been one of those systems evaluated for the effects of resveratrol and common age-related eye diseases:

 Resveratrol has been credited as being heart-healthy, due to antidotal evidence that the French, who have relatively fatty diets, have less heart disease because they drink red wine(‘The French Paradox’). Understand of course, that too much of a good thing is still too much and the side effects can outweigh the benefits. While resveratrol is an anti-oxidant, alcohol is a pro-oxidant.

Naturally Occurring Sources of Resveratrol

Resveratrol is a polyphenol found in the skins of grapes, that has powerful anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.  Oxidative stress and inflammation are at the root of eye diseases, such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, cataracts, and diabetic retinopathy.

Red wine is not the only source of resveratrol.  It is a plant based substance found in  grapes (including unpasteurized grape juice), peanuts (including natural peanut butter),  cocoa, and berries, such as blueberries, bilberries, and cranberries.  The resveratrol dietary supplements you buy are extracts from these plant sources.

Other Sources of resveratrol:

  • Peanuts
  • red wine
  • rose wine
  • beer
  • white wine
  • grapes
  • skin of tomato
  • dark chocolate
  • Itadori tea
  • apples

Supplementing with Resveratrol

The problem of supplementing with resveratrol is its low bioavailability (the proportion of a drug or other substance which is absorbed by the intestines to enter the circulation of the body and so is able to have an active effect.)  Also, the amounts of resveratrol in natural food and drink sources are not sufficient, unless eaten in large quantities, to provide therapeutic affect.

Scanning the available resveratrol  supplements the amounts listed on the bottles run from 100 mg to 1500 mg.  A wide range.  (Most are extracted from the Japanese Knotweed root (Polygonum cuspidatum). It has one of the highest natural concentrations.

Looking at bioavailability, researchers are studying formulas to increase resveratrol for better water solubility and therefore better absorption. How commercially available supplements are formulated is unclear.  Looking over research articles, there is no definitive recommended dose for best resveratrol effectiveness. 

No major side effects were stated in long-term clinical trials of doses  less than 1500 mg. Several clinical studies indicated that a therapeutically relevant doses is currently presumed to be 1 g.(Ref: 2) Doses of 2,500 mg or more per day, side effects may occur like nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.  Because of its anti-platelet activity, those on anti-coagulants, anti-platelet meds, and regular users of the over-the-counter anti-inflammatorys (NSAIDS), should be cautious.  Pregnant women and developing children should not take this supplement. 

 Researchers, doctors, and patients are looking for that holy grail of supplements that will prevent these age-related eye diseases.  If you have been doing your homework, you are aware of the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) that looked at a combination of anti-oxidants and zinc as to their effect on the prevention  and progression of these eye diseases. 

The result was that the AREDS formula of supplements reduces the progression of AMD by 25% over a five year period.   (Also see, 3 Most Commonly Recommended Supplements for Prevention of AMDOpens in a new tab.) Well, that is a seemingly modest achievement.  The question is:  Are there other supplements that can be taken to increase the odds for prevention and treatment of age related degenerative eye disease?

I will look at 3 commonly fund degenerative eye diseases seen in the eye doctor’s office and the research associated with these diseases and the potential for treatment with resveratrol.

Glaucoma

fundus photo of an optic nerve with glaucoma
Optic nerve, damaged by glaucoma

Glaucoma is a nerve degenerative disease of retinal ganglion cells.   The damage and vision loss is evident at the optic nerve.   This destruction is the result of high pressure and oxidative stress at the level of an ocular structure called the trabecular meshwork.  The trabeculum is responsible for fluid outflow in the eye.  This fluid outflow keeps the pressure low.  Researchers think that resveratrol has the potential to maintain the integrity of the cells of the trabecular meshwork, because of its anti-oxidative capability.   Another study found that it may have a neuro-protectve effect on the retinal ganglion cells which are the cells destroyed by the disease process of glaucoma.

Age Related Macular Degeneration

fundus photo of drusen of macualr degeneration
Drusen in the macular area

AMD is a degenerative disease in which  lipid byproducts called drusen accumulate around the supporting structure of the retina called the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE).  These drusen, as they accumulate, cause the damage and death of the RPE, resulting in death and destruction of the upper layers of the retina.   This is called “dry AMD.”  Research has shown that resveratrol has the potential to play a role in the prevention of AMD because it is an anti-oxidant and has the ability to inhibit cell death. 

If dry AMD is allowed to progress, new, fragile blood vessels begin to form.  These blood vessels have a tendency to leak and bleed, thereby causing more death and destruction to the retina.  This is the “wet” form of AMD.  The anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties of resveratrol are believed to reduce the incidence of the formation of the fragile, leaky blood vessels which are so destructive in the wet form of AMD.

Diabetic Retinopathy

fundus photo of retinal damage due to diabetes
Diabetic retinopathy, showing blood vessel leakage and hemorrhages

Diabetic retinopathy occurs as a result of elevated circulating blood sugar levels. The increased blood sugar results in an increase in retina and blood vessel inflammation.  Inflammation is destructive to the retinal tissues and walls of the blood vessels, resulting in retinal cell death accompanied by leakage and bleeding of blood vessels.

Researchers have found that supplementation with resveratrol reduces inflammation, oxidative stress, and suppress retinal and blood vessel changes associated with diabetic retinopathy.

In the End…    

Before you run out and start drinking…The potential of resveratrol to treat or prevent eye disease is not fully understood.   It is known that it has low bioavailability, that is:  while it is rapidly absorbed by the body, it is also rapidly metabolized, so it is not known how much is available to have an effect on the targeted cells of the body.   Prepared supplements have an indicated concentration of the resveratrol, but how much is able to have an effect is unknown. 

 More studies are needed to confirm the potential of resveratrol. It is questionable as to whether or not it will be a  compound studied with great interest by the big pharm companies, because it is available as a supplement and will not be profitable to study and produce.

Referemce:

  1. Khaled K. Abu-Amero, Altaf A. Kondkar,and Kakarla V. Chalam,  Resveratrol and Ophthalmic Diseases, Nutrients. 2016 Apr; 8(4): 200.

2. Sabine Weiskirchen and Ralf Weiskirchen, Resveratrol: How Much Wine Do You Have to Drink to Stay Healthy?. Adv Nutr. 2016 Jul; 7(4): 706–718.

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