Washington – Researchers seeking a more reliable alternative than aspirin for heart attacks may have found it in a red wine molecule called resveratrol. University of Connecticut (U-C) researchers induced heart attacks in animals and found that resveratrol significantly reduces damage to heart muscle. Scarring and fibrosis were limited and the animals survived an otherwise mortal event. Dipak Das, professor at the U-C Cardiovascular Research Centre, Farmington, says that resveratrol provokes a ‘pre-conditioning effect’ whereby antioxidant defenses in the heart are switched on prior to a heart attack. This limits damage to heart muscle.