Aaron Boos, owner of Lawrence Nutrition Center at 4931 W. 6th St., has seen an increase in sales of resveratrol, a supplement touted as having anti-aging properties. Boos takes the supplement himself.

Sales of resveratrol, an antioxidant supplement, have been on the rise since a doctor on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” touted its anti-aging properties.

Anti-aging. Promotes weight loss. Increases energy. Cancer-fighting.

With pitches like those, who wouldn’t buy into resveratrol, a substance found primarily in red grapes and red wine?

Those pitches skyrocketed last spring, after Dr. Mehmet Oz touted the anti-aging properties of resveratrol on the “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”

“It got a lot more popular after the ‘Oprah’ doctor talked about it,” said Aaron Boos, owner of Lawrence Nutrition Center, 4931 W. Sixth St.

Boos said he sold about five bottles of resveratrol supplements per year until Dr. Oz talked about it. Now, he sells the same amount in a month. Boos said any product that gets talked about on “Oprah” instantly becomes a better seller.

The 30-year-old gets a chuckle out of the hype. That’s because he began taking resveratrol supplements a few years before the topic made a splash on “Oprah.” He currently takes a 500-milligram pill each day along with other vitamins and joint supplements.

“It is a very strong antioxidant,” he said. “It’s going to help with the immune system function. It’s going to help your body run more at its optimum potential.”

But, at $10, $40 and even $60 for a bottle of 60 pills, are they worth the hype?

Dr. Jeanne Drisko, director of the program in integrative medicine at Kansas University Medical Center, said it is too soon to tell.

“Resveratrol has been studied in red wine as a component that can be helpful for longevity, but unfortunately they’ve only studied it in yeast, fish and some worms. So it’s very, very early research at this time,” she said.

“There is promise, of course, in these early research projects that it does extend life and improves health on many levels, but there haven’t been any human studies as of yet.”

There are basically two ways to consume resveratrol, Drisko said. One is by eating red grapes and drinking red wine. But, she recommends no more than a four- to eight-ounce glass a day. She said the amount of resveratrol contained in wine is small. Dr. Oz said on “Oprah” that people would have to drink 24 bottles of wine a day to get enough resveratrol to benefit — and that’s why he suggested a supplement.

And there are plenty to choose. There are two brands and four different strengths available at the Lawrence Nutrition Center. The supplements also can be found at Walgreens, Wal-Mart and other stores.

“A number of supplement companies have capitalized on this early research, and there’s a lot of hype, as you can tell, around this topic, so it’s what I call a member of the Supplement of the Month Club,” Drisko said.

Drisko urges caution because little is known about resveratrol supplements.

“We are not sure necessarily if that concentrated supplement is going to have the same benefits as the resveratrol that’s found in the natural product — in the red wine or the fruit,” Drisko said. “They often are oversold, so to speak, in terms of what they can do.”

She said there may be risks for people who are taking prescription medicine. For example, doctors learned that St. John’s Wort — a supplement for depression — could cause life-threatening reactions when combined with certain drugs.

“We don’t know at this time if resveratrol may or may not inhibit the activity of some of the drugs patients are on,” Drisko said. “So, it’s a little bit of a warning at this time. It sounds really good, but we still have a lot more to learn about this supplement.”

Drisko expects health professionals will learn more as research continues. She said pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline has decided to look at resveratrol as a potential medication. KU isn’t conducting any research on resveratrol, but Drisko said it could be in the university’s future.

“This is a real exciting time for medicinal plants because the opportunity to develop new drugs has very good potential.”