The Role of Resveratrol

With extended life expectancy globally, optimising the health and wellbeing of an increasing number
of ageing population is an important economic and medical challenge facing in Australia. Since women
have a longer life expectancy than men, they experienced more of the total disease burden due to
living with chronic diseases such as dementia, rather than from dying early from disease or injury.
Having optimal mental and physical wellbeing without or few chronic debilitating diseases enable
prolonged independent living for older adults (World Health Organization, 2015). This requires
maintaining good health throughout life perhaps by continuous implementation of healthy diet and
lifestyle choices, such as regular exercise to help maintain good circulatory function as adequate
perfusion to our brain and other vital organs are crucial for bodily functions. Non-pharmacological
interventions such as bioactive nutrients have been shown to delay or reverse the circulatory
dysfunction (Barbour et al., 2014, Sinn and Howe, 2008, Wong et al., 2013b) or improve the health of
endothelium - the functional unit of the blood vessels - which can in turn boosts mental clarity, mood,
physical vitality and immune function. Of particular interest for optimising women's health is
resveratrol, a phytoestrogen, which has been shown to improve systemic and cerebral endothelial
functions in humans (Wong et al., 2016a, Wong et al., 2013a). Considering the over-the-counter
availability of resveratrol, investigating the effects of regular long-term supplementation may help to
confirm its sustained benefits, which can eventually provide pivotal evidence in the recommendation
and regulation of food fortification and functional food claims. My research will investigate whether
chronic resveratrol supplementation can deliver sustained improvements on cognition,
cerebrovascular function, cardiometabolic markers, bone mineral density and general well-being in
elderly women.