(NewsMax) - Fans of red wine have a new reason to raise a glass — resveratrol, found in red wine and grapes, has been shown to fight a variety of respiratory diseases, reports a new study.

Researchers at Georgia State University found that resveratrol can help control inflammation brought on by asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), and middle ear infections. Their findings were reported in Scientific Reports.

Dr. Jian-Dong Li, a senior author of the study, said: "We showed that an important component in red wine and also grapes called resveratrol can suppress inflammation. It has been shown that resveratrol can suppress inflammation, but how it regulates inflammation still remains largely unknown. We found that resveratrol suppresses a major bacterial pathogen causing otitis media and COPD."