If you have read reports saying that resveratrol rebuilds heart cells, find out where the reporters got there information. There are published studies that concluded it protects and prolongs the lifespan of heart cells, but rebuilding is another story entirely.

After an attack, damaged heart muscle cells cannot regenerate. The muscle struggles to pump blood. Additionally, tissue damage can lead to congestive heart failure, which leads to death in more than half of diagnosed patients.

There is research indicating that cardiac function can be restored and improved through the use of stem cells. There are other studies indicating that resveratrol can prevent the cells from dying. But, there is no research indicating that resveratrol rebuilds heart cells. Of course, it is possible to become confused.

Those things that protect a cell may be thought of as rebuilding it. But one of the worrisome things about resveratrol is that it may deliver survival or death signals to a cardiac cell, depending on the dosage. In other words, at high doses, it could cause a heart cell to die. The major concern, for health writers like me, is that some supplement companies promote the use of high daily doses of this compound, when there is no good data on when a dose becomes toxic.

Mega doses, anything higher than 400 units per day, of vitamin E cause bleeding. Vitamin A, in the animal form, is also toxic and causes liver dysfunction, along with other health problems. Zinc causes copper deficiencies at 100-300mg/day and causes acute toxicity at higher doses. Continuous excessive intake of calcium can result in cardiac arrest. All of these vitamins and minerals are essential to human health, but it is possible to overdo it.

Those basic vitamins and minerals have been studied for decades. Researchers know when too much is too much. Research concerning resveratrol has only been ongoing for the last couple of years. We understand that small amounts are good for our health. But, we have no understanding of toxicity that could occur when consuming hundreds or thousands of milligrams per day, which is what some, supplement companies recommend.

20-50mg per day is sufficient. More than 100mg per day is risky. Doses of 200mg per day or more could cause serious problems.

If you are like most people, you want to do everything that you can to protect your health and reduce your risk of serious diseases. There is still much that we do not know, but more and more information is becoming available.

It seems that dietary nutrients can help reduce our risk of cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer's, macular degeneration, type II diabetes, obesity, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and many other health problems. A good multi-nutritional supplement takes the guess work out of how much of these things you should consume every day, as long as the manufacturer realizes the risk of overdoing it.

There is no indication that I can find that resveratrol rebuilds heart cells, but it could prolong the life of those cells, as long as we don't overdo it.