They are discussing the effects resveratrol has on anti aging etc and how resveratrols protective effects (on various cardiovascular and metabolic disorders) may occur through inhibition of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) signaling pathway.
You have to remember these are test tube studies and in the world of science for every study with 1 opinion there is usually 5 others with the opposite opinion.....especially when it comes to test tube studies.
This is why studies advance from:
- test tubes
- to rats
- then on to dogs, monkeys
- and then finally in humans.
Below are several studies which show in living subjects not test tubes the benefit resveratrol has on muscle.
1. Researchers from University of Alberta explored what effects resveratrol might have on exercise performance in rats. The study was just recently published in Journal of Physiology. In the study they subjected rats to training on a treadmill five days a week for 12 weeks. They used air puffs and electric shock to prod the rats to run and the training was made progressively more difficult over time. The rats ran essentially to exhaustion (where they couldn’t be prodded anymore).
These exercising rats were divided into two groups. The first group received resveratrol in their chow (4g per Kg chow) and the second group just ate a control chow.
The resveratrol group experienced a striking 21% increase in exercise performance versus the control group. The
force generation in the slow twitch soleus muscle was also enhanced significantly over control. Fatty acid metabolism by muscle was enhanced in the resveratrol group versus control as well. Finally, the efficiency and structural integrity of the heart muscle was improved more so in the resveratrol group.
So it appears that resveratrol can be an effective enhancer of performance and it appears to do this in large part by supporting the efficient utilization of fatty acids for fuel.
2. Improvements in skeletal muscle strength and cardiac function induced by resveratrol during exercise training contribute to enhanced exercise performance in rats. Improvements in skeletal muscle strength and cardi... [J Physiol. 2012] - PubMed - NCBI
So as you can see in the above study moving beyond a test tube and into something that is living it actually increases muscle strength and function and that's not even going into detail about the effects resveratrol has on muscle mitochondria cells.
Mitochondria:
1. Here is another study discussing the effects resveratrol has on protecting mitochondria
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/745451
2. Here is another discussing the effects resveratrol has on muscle mitochondria showing that it helps in maintaining basal mitochondrial content and a larger role in preserving mitochondrial function.
Sirtuin 1-mediated Effects of Exercise and Resveratrol on Mitochondrial Biogenesis
3. Direct quote from the study by Lagouge et al, (2006), Resveratrol Improves Mitochondrial Function and Protects against Metabolic Disease by Activating SIRT1 and PGC-1.
A striking feature of the myofiber is its ability to transform and remodel in response to environmental demands. The most notable is exercise training, which transforms the metabolic status of the myofiber to one of increased oxidative metabolism and switches the fiber from one of a fast twitch type 2 to a slow twitch type 1 (Booth et al., 2002). In this study, RSV treatment of HF-fed mice induced a similar myofiber remodeling but in the absence of increased physical activity. The myofibers from RSV-treated mice were enriched in mitochondria, exhibited enhanced oxidative capacity, and displayed a higher resistance to fatigue because of the concerted activation of a genetic program geared for aerobic metabolism. Although we were unable to prove that these progressive changes in oxidative capacity by RSV lasted long enough to induce a complete type 1 fiber transformation,
we did see advanced improvement in motor function, which is a component of the integrated physiological response required to
improve exercise performance. Comparable changes in muscle fiber types have been recapitulated in genetically engineered mouse models that trigger calcium regulatory pathways (Wu et al., 2002), mimic PPARβ/δ activation (Wang et al., 2004), or enhance PGC-1a activity (Lin et al., 2002a). The fact that RSV induces a muscle fiber type switch in the absence of genetic engineering underscores its powerful pharmacological activities.
RSV could hence be viewed as a performance-enhancing drug, which, in contrast to other pharmacological mediators, such as anabolic steroids, improves performance by changing myofiber specificity rather than by increasing muscle mass.
(In this instance below Res preserves IGF1 vs caloric restriction)
4. "Following two months of dietary intervention, we observed reduced IGF-1 levels in CR mice,
but not in resveratrol treated mice (Figure 2B). We did not observe significant alterations in any other hormones examined. Surprisingly, because we observed a large overlap of transcriptional shifts induced by resveratrol and CR in all organs examined, our findings also suggest that a large component of the transcriptional program induced by CR may be independent of CR-mediated alterations in plasma IGF-1, or insulin".
5. SIRT1 activation increases skeletal muscle precursor cell proliferation.
so you will be able to grow more muscle:
Sirt1 increases skeletal muscle precursor ce... [Eur J Cell Biol. 2009] - PubMed - NCBI
For the first time, Sirt1 has been shown to increase MPC proliferation. These findings could have clinical significance since MPC proliferation has important implications in regulating skeletal muscle growth, maintenance, and repair, and the aging-related loss of skeletal muscle mass.