A new study revealed that Resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, has a number of beneficial health effects, such as anti-cancer, antivirall, neuroprotective, anti-inflammatory effects, and especially anti-aging. Resveratrol is also found in the skin of grapes and the crust of peanuts and walnuts.

The study was lead by Rafael de Cabo, unit chief of the laboratory of experimental gerontology at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, who also worked with David A. Sinclair, of Harvard Medical School. They published their results in the July 3 online issue of Cell Metabolism, according to the Washington Post.

In this study, they fed middle aged mice low-calorie diets and high-calorie diets along with low or high resveratrol doses. The mice fed high-calorie diets and resveratrol lived longer than the mice that were just fed high-calories and no resveratrol. The higher resveratrol and higher-calorie diets had similar effects to low-calorie diets and low-resveratrol diets in terms of health benefits.

Rafael de Cabo said, “It’s very hard to extrapolate from this finding to comment on the benefits of red wine directly, because red wine has many other compounds besides resveratrol, including ethanol, which have very active biological effects, but red wine is a good source of resveratrol.”

He added, “And, in this mouse study, we have shown that this particular compound has very strong positive effects on preventing cardiovascular disease, reducing heart inflammation, keeping bone health in terms of structure and function, and maintaining loco-motor and balance activity. So, if these effects translate into humans, it will have a very good impact on the standard of human health.”