Thirty days of resveratrol supplementation does not affect postprandial incretin hormone responses, but suppresses postprandial glucagon in obese subjects

What Was Tested

The paper reports a study of Glucagon, published as a randomized controlled trial.

Resveratrol, a natural polyphenolic compound produced by various plants (e.g. red grapes) and found in red wine, has glucose-lowering effects in humans and rodent models of obesity and/or diabetes.

The researchers investigated postprandial incretin hormone and glucagon responses in obese human subjects before and after 30 days of resveratrol supplementation.

Who Took Part

According to the abstract, 10 men were involved.

By PubMed's age tags, the people studied were middle-aged adults, men only.

How the Study Was Run

The design is described as randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled and crossover.

Because people in this Glucagon study were split into groups at random, differences between the groups are less likely to reflect who happened to join each one.

Neither the men nor the staff measuring them knew who was on Glucagon, so expectations could not easily colour the readings.

A placebo (an inactive look-alike) gave the Glucagon group a baseline to be compared against.

Each person switched between Glucagon and the comparison at some point, usually with a gap in between.

At the end of each intervention period a standardized meal test (without co-administration of resveratrol) was performed.

What Was Measured

PubMed files the paper under topics including Antioxidants, Blood Glucose, Dietary Supplements, Fasting, Gastric Inhibitory Polypeptide, Glucagon and Glucagon-Like Peptide 1.

What This Means in Plain Language

The paper is a randomized, double-blind and placebo-controlled study of Glucagon in 10 men.

With fewer than 40 people, it is a small study, so it is better read as an early signal for further research than as a settled answer.

Results are reported in around 3 sentences of the abstract; we leave them to the paper itself rather than summarise them.

The publication is from 2013 (Diabetic medicine : a journal of the British Diabetic Association), a journal based in England.

More context: the Glucagon compound page, all human trials.