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Resveratrol, mitochondria

maddietod

Senior Member
Messages
2,859
I'm going to play with increasing mitochondrial function. My initial question is.....does anybody know if resveratrol soft gels are more effective than tablets?

My doctor says the supplements for this are resveratrol (200mg/day), co q 10 (400mg/day), L-Carnatine (I don't tolerate it, so didn't ask), and d-ribose.

My experiment will probably start with resveratrol, increased co q 10, and acai as tea, plus moving closer to Wahls' diet.

Is anybody else playing with this, or having luck with it?
 

Ema

Senior Member
Messages
4,729
Location
Midwest USA
I've been reading about resveratrol. Some sites say that the trans form is most important. I haven't yet come across anything on capsule vs soft gels.

I'm also wondering if it matters where the resveratrol comes from...ie synthetic, from grapes, from knotweed or acai? Or is it all the same at the end?

I also wonder what dosage is best.
 

maddietod

Senior Member
Messages
2,859
I just came across the trans issue. My doctor said gel caps would be preferred, but I didn't ask why. He could just have a preference against tablets in general for herbals.
 

undcvr

Senior Member
Messages
822
Location
NYC
If you are going to take carnithine for mitochondria, make it acetyl carnithine (ALCAR) also take R-Alpha Lipoic acid with it. In fact RALA is more important than Alcar for mitochondria. I have had great results on both of them but RALA is the key. U can consider ubiquinol too, it is the reduced form of coQ10.

Just fyi resveratrol is a th2 shifter so I am not sure if you want that unless you already know that your immune system is more balanced on the th1 side.
 

caledonia

Senior Member
If you are going to take carnithine for mitochondria, make it acetyl carnithine (ALCAR) also take R-Alpha Lipoic acid with it. In fact RALA is more important than Alcar for mitochondria. I have had great results on both of them but RALA is the key. U can consider ubiquinol too, it is the reduced form of coQ10.

Just fyi resveratrol is a th2 shifter so I am not sure if you want that unless you already know that your immune system is more balanced on the th1 side.

@undcvr Question - is RALA the same as ALA? I get metal detox from ALA and would only be able to take teeny tiny amounts.

I'm getting some small but nice energy from l-carnitine fumarate.

I don't need to supplement with Co Q 10 any more, which I had to do for years, otherwise I would have horrible brain fog. Apparently methylation has gotten that part working.

I haven't tried resveratrol, but that's on my list of stuff to try eventually.
 

Lala

Senior Member
Messages
331
Location
EU
If you are going to take carnithine for mitochondria, make it acetyl carnithine (ALCAR) also take R-Alpha Lipoic acid with it. In fact RALA is more important than Alcar for mitochondria. I have had great results on both of them but RALA is the key. U can consider ubiquinol too, it is the reduced form of coQ10.

Just fyi resveratrol is a th2 shifter so I am not sure if you want that unless you already know that your immune system is more balanced on the th1 side.

Uh, do you have some links to studies claiming resveratrol is Th2 shifter? I just wanted to start resveratrol capsules and this information shocked me. I surely do not want to shift my immunity to Th2.
I found this study claiming resveratrol supress activity of both Th1 and Th2 cells, but frankly I am not scientist, nor am I English speaker, so I found difficult to understad the details. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1810449/
 

Lala

Senior Member
Messages
331
Location
EU
@undcvr Question - is RALA the same as ALA? I get metal detox from ALA and would only be able to take teeny tiny amounts.

I'm getting some small but nice energy from l-carnitine fumarate.

I don't need to supplement with Co Q 10 any more, which I had to do for years, otherwise I would have horrible brain fog. Apparently methylation has gotten that part working.

I haven't tried resveratrol, but that's on my list of stuff to try eventually.

RALA is r- isomer and ALA is l- isomer of the same thing, so RALA is twice as effective as ALA.
 

maddietod

Senior Member
Messages
2,859
I'm keeping it simple, not adding too many things all at once. I've successfully shifted to Wahls' diet, which is presumably supportive of mitochondrial function all by itself. I added resveratrol and acai because - what the heck? When I'm stable with feeling better, I'll remove them and see if that makes a difference.

Dr. Rey said ubiquinol is twice as effective as coQ10. But it costs more than twice as much, so I just take 400mg of coQ10 divided through the day.
 

undcvr

Senior Member
Messages
822
Location
NYC
that's the thing about the coq10 though, it needs to be recycled (reduced) in the cell and (R)Ala is about the only thing that I have read that recycles coq10, Vitamin C,E and Glutathione intracellularly. Personally I have found that Rala gave me my energy back its really sad that so many pple that need it for CFS cannot benefit from it. Rala worked even better than the methylation protocol. It suggests that there is just too much junk accumulated intracellularly that the body cannot move out of the cells.

My suggestion for detox has always been the same, get the detox engine (extracellular side) working again, ie liver and blood, then when toxins in the general system have been cleared out go after the whats stuck intracellularly.

@Lala I don't really have any studies off the top of my head, it all depends on the cytokine cascade that each herb induces but everytime I look up 'immune system th2 dominance' and go through the sites resveratrol, tumeric and even ECGC (green tea) are consistently cited as th2 promoters. The actual science lies in cytokines and interlukins and what really triggers innate and adaptive immunity. On the other hand tumeric cannot strictly be considered as a th2 herb cos it has known studies against cancer and a th2 dominant immune system is more prone to cancers.

Just be aware when you take it, it could cause your immune system to ramp up and go all autoimmune
 

Lala

Senior Member
Messages
331
Location
EU
Buhner recommends resveratrol for lyme and bartonella, though we need to support Th1 with these infection.
 

undcvr

Senior Member
Messages
822
Location
NYC
I think the form of the resveratrol he recommends is important too. I havent been to his site in awhile but it was always Japanese Knotweed. His sources of resveratrol contain dimethylresveratol too (pterostilbenes) a source of methyl groups. This might turn out to be very important as well.
 
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Lala

Senior Member
Messages
331
Location
EU
Japanese Knotweed is most common source of resveratrol, also taking trans-resveratrol and not cis- resveratrol is important. I took one capsule yesterday and one today a now I suffer from terrible headache, so apparently I will not be able to continue. :( Anyone else?
 
Messages
15,786
Japanese Knotweed is most common source of resveratrol, also taking trans-resveratrol and not cis- resveratrol is important. I took one capsule yesterday and one today a now I suffer from terrible headache, so apparently I will not be able to continue. :( Anyone else?
I also got a horrible headache when I tried resveratrol.
 

undcvr

Senior Member
Messages
822
Location
NYC
Don't mean to trivialize both your experiences but it could be the brand, fillers or the label saying that it has no cis but in fact does have cis trans in it in a 1:1 ratio. Honestly you never know sometimes with these manufacturers and cis resv is the more common isomer in nature. Pple do get headaches from drinking wine too, not sure how much of it is from sulfites. Not saying that this applies to either of you but just a thot.
 

maddietod

Senior Member
Messages
2,859
I'm using Gaia, because it's a brand I trust and the dose is low, 75mg per capsule. I haven't had any reactions. I got a PM from someone who gets good results from half that dose in this Vitacost formulation.
 

Lala

Senior Member
Messages
331
Location
EU
I think I am not anemic too, at least according to blood tests. I took some German brand in the past in much lower amount, I think perhaps10 mg and I had no reaction, too. Interesting.

I wonder what would massive amount of resveratrol, which Buhner recommends, do.
Here are his doses:

Japanese Knotweed capsules (Source Naturals Resveratrol with 500mg Polygonum cuspidatum per tablet)

150 lb adult: 1-4 tablets 3-4x daily
100 lb adult: 10 tablets total daily split into three doses
60 lb child: 5 tablets daily split into three doses, tincture is probably better here
30 lb child: 3 tablets daily split into three doses, but would prefer tincture for child this small


The frontal headache could be herx also, so who knows, though I am not very inclined to repeat my experiment.
 

August59

Daughters High School Graduation
Messages
1,617
Location
Upstate SC, USA
If you are going to take carnithine for mitochondria, make it acetyl carnithine (ALCAR) also take R-Alpha Lipoic acid with it. In fact RALA is more important than Alcar for mitochondria. I have had great results on both of them but RALA is the key. U can consider ubiquinol too, it is the reduced form of coQ10.

Just fyi resveratrol is a th2 shifter so I am not sure if you want that unless you already know that your immune system is more balanced on the th1 side.

I just got through with my first round of R-Lipoic Acid and Ubiquinol. I had a positive response to it and I'm going to add L-Carnitine or ALCAR, but try them both to see which one complements the first 2 the best.