New research may explain why a glass of red wine at the end of the day helps you unwind.
It turns out that one of the ingredients in red wine, resveratrol, may block enzymes linked to stress, depression and anxiety.
Corticosterone is produced when the body is stressed or worried, but too much stress means the hormone circulates the brain and can cause mental health problems, but in the study on mice, resveratrol helped protect against corticosterone.
Co-lead on the study with Buffalo University, Prof Ying Xu says resveratrol may be an effective alternative to drugs for treating patients suffering from depression.
However, doctors aren’t likely to start prescribing wine as an alternative to anti-depressants, but the research around resveratrol could be used to develop new treatments for depression and anxiety.
Much of the research pointing to the benefits have been laboratory or animal-based studies.
So far, research on resveratrol’s effectiveness in humans has yielded mixed results.
That’s still not going to stop us from enjoying a glass of red wine.
