We've been told for a while that red wine is somehow good for us - and now researchers have got a little closer to understanding the healthy benefits of the drink, and how it works.
Red wine's health-giving ingredient is resveratrol, which has a one-two effect on inflammation, and on inflammatory diseases such as sepsis, appendicitis and peritonitis.
In a test on laboratory mice, one group was treated with resveratrol, and another was not, and both were given an inflammatory agent; the mice given resveratrol did not respond.
The researchers discovered that resveratrol prevented the body from creating two different molecules that trigger inflammation.
(Source: The FASEB Journal, 2009; 23: 2412).