Longevity breakthrough

[pchang]

Don't start drinking red wine

You have to realize the levels of resvertrol the mice were given would equate to about 100 bottles of red wine per day for a 70Kg human being.

[Fake Boris]

What about the homeopathic effects?

[monolith94]

100 bottles of red wine a day? Let's get cracking!

:drunk:

[DanS]

Here's a good article on the subject from the WSJ. WaPo had a front page story too.

Substance in Red Wine Appears
To Let Mice Live Longer
By DAVID STIPP
November 2, 2006; Page B1

One day last summer, a researcher at a Baltimore lab gently lowered two mice onto a device resembling a spinning rolling pin. Though the rodents were old and fat, they gamely began walking in place like log-rolling lumberjacks.

Then the device sped up and forced them to run hard until they maxed out and harmlessly dropped off. Trembling like a winded octogenarian, one fell after 81 seconds. The other lasted 144 seconds -- almost twice as long.

The animals were essentially twins that had lived under identical laboratory conditions. But the more vibrant mouse had been given daily doses of resveratrol, a substance in red wine that some researchers think may slow the aging process.

The mice were part of a new study showing that resveratrol at high doses can block many of the deleterious effects of high-calorie diets in mice, enabling them to survive significantly longer than they normally would on fattening fare. Results showing how much longer mice taking resveratrol may live aren't yet complete because some of them are still alive. But preliminary findings indicate they may have a lifespan extension of 20%.

The study follows several earlier ones showing that resveratrol can boost lifespan in creatures like fruit flies. It represents the first time a substance shown to slow aging in multiple species of lower animals was tested for similar effects in mammals. The results boost hopes that resveratrol, or drugs like it, may eventually be able to ameliorate many diseases of aging, and possibly to extend human life, but that would be many years and many studies away.

The resveratrol study was conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging, one of the National Institutes of Health. "The significance of the study on a scale of 10 is 11 in the aging and longevity field," said Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, N.Y., who didn't take part in it.

But he cautioned that the study didn't prove that resveratrol slows aging. That's because blocking the diseases associated with rich diets isn't the same as retarding general aging, which isn't considered a disease. In the study, the mice lived longer, but it isn't certain whether that's because resveratrol slowed aging or only blocked diseases associated with rich diets.

LONGEVITY RESEARCH

The study's authors are now examining whether resveratrol makes normally fed mice live longer. The data on that should be out next year.

The mice in the Nature study were given much higher doses of resveratrol than anyone could get by drinking red wine, which contains only minuscule amounts of the substance. A person would need to drink more than 300 glasses of wine a day to get the amount of resveratrol the mice got, according to a commentary accompanying the study, which was reported online yesterday by the journal Nature.

Dietary supplements containing concentrated resveratrol extracts, mostly obtained from a plant grown in China known as giant knotweed, let people ingest higher doses than they can get from wine. Various companies, such as Longevinex, based in San Dimas, Calif., sell the supplements over the Internet. But it isn't known what number of such pills might induce health-promoting effects in humans like those observed in mice, because resveratrol hasn't been tested in large, rigorous clinical trials.

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc., a biotech start-up in Cambridge, Mass., co-founded by one of the new study's main authors, recently began testing a resveratrol-based drug in patients with adult-onset diabetes, which is closely linked with fattening diets. Within about a year, the early-stage trial may give a preliminary indication of resveratrol's potential for averting obesity-linked disease in humans. Sirtris says its novel prescription drugs are far more potent than dietary supplements containing resveratrol. Definitive clinical-trial data on the drugs' efficacy probably won't be available for at least several years.

Scientists familiar with the new mouse study generally said that not enough is known about resveratrol to warrant taking the dietary supplements right away. For now, wrote the authors of the Nature commentary, University of Washington biologists Matt Kaeberlein and Peter S. Rabinovitch, "we counsel patience. Just sit back and relax with a glass of red wine."

What has sparked controversy but most interests researchers like Dr. Barzilai about the study are signs that the compound engages the same antiaging mechanisms that calorie restriction does.

Calorie restriction, or CR, entails cutting normal calorie intake by a third or so to slow aging. Discovered in the 1930s, it has been shown to extend longevity by 30% to 40% in animals. Monkey and human studies suggest it can probably also extend human longevity. But its hunger-inducing regimen is too demanding for most people. (Thus, the standard joke about it: Even if it doesn't extend your life, it will make it seem longer.)

Several other substances have shown hints of mimicking CR. A widely used diabetes drug called metformin, for example, activates many of the same genes that CR does. But resveratrol stands out for two reasons: It is the first compound shown to boost lifespan in widely diverse species -- there are four so far -- and it is a naturally occurring molecule that people have long ingested, suggesting that it is safer to take than other potential CR-imitating compounds.

Hopes that resveratrol might yield CR's gain without pain were first raised in 2003 by Harvard Medical School biologist David Sinclair, who led a study showing that the compound boosted yeast cells' lifespan by 70%, apparently by mimicking CR. The finding led to speculation that resveratrol's CR-like effects might already be evident in people in the form of the "French paradox," under which France's famously bibulous citizens have anomalously low rates of cardiovascular disease despite their fatty, high-calorie diets.

Dr. Sinclair has become the leading proponent of the idea that resveratrol mimics the effects of CR. His theory is controversial, and some researchers assert that his interpretation of existing data on the issue is wrong and that resveratrol's mode of action hasn't been pinned down.

Studies that followed those on yeast cells have shown that resveratrol has antiaging effects in roundworms, fruit flies and a species of short-lived fish. They set the stage for the new mouse study, spearheaded by Dr. Sinclair.

The researchers put the mice on high-calorie diets designed to mimic the kind of fattening food many Americans eat. The study demonstrated that while the mice gained weight on their rich diets, resveratrol largely protected them from adult-onset diabetes, the buildup of harmful fatty deposits in the liver, heart-muscle degeneration and other fallout from the rich diets. The report "suggests that guilt-free gluttony might not be a fantasy," wrote the authors of Nature's commentary.

Still, the study's findings are "very important" because they suggest that resveratrol and similarly acting drugs may offer "considerable benefits" for people with obesity-linked diseases, said Massachusetts Institute of Technology biologist Leonard Guarente. Dr. Guarente co-founded Elixir Pharmaceuticals Inc., a Cambridge, Mass., biotech company that competes with Sirtris, which Dr. Sinclair co-founded to capitalize on his research.

The study's findings paralleled those obtained in another investigation of resveratrol's effects in mice on fattening diets that Sirtris reported at a recent scientific meeting.

Besides lowering the risk of diabetes, according to Sirtris's rodent data, resveratrol and like-acting drugs may limit weight gains from rich diets. (Sirtris's chief executive, Christoph Westphal, is married to a reporter for this newspaper.)

Resveratrol pills for people haven't been tested in large clinical trials, so their efficacy isn't proven, nor is it clear what dose would yield desired effects. Still, Dr. Sinclair believes that long-term ingestion of relatively small doses of resveratrol via dietary supplements may help lower the risk of various diseases.

Resveratrol is considered safe at the modest doses available in the dietary supplements. But massive doses given to rats induced signs of kidney damage, anemia, diarrhea and other side effects, according to a 2002 toxicity report on resveratrol by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

The toxic doses were roughly equivalent to a person taking many thousands of resveratrol pills a day. The study noted that there were no observable adverse effects in rats at doses comparable to a human taking hundreds of the pills daily, a dose far higher than that used in the study described in Nature.

Resveratrol can inhibit formation of new blood vessels in mice with skin wounds, according to the federal institute's safety study. That could potentially ****** wound healing. But it may also have benefits by blocking tumor growth. Resveratrol may also inhibit blood-clotting, according to some studies, potentially risky for people undergoing surgery.

Several of the new study's findings support Dr. Sinclair's view that resveratrol mimics the effects of CR. One of the most striking results was the dramatic edge in running endurance among mice on resveratrol compared with their undosed peers. The longer mice were on resveratrol, the perkier they got. After taking it for a year beginning in middle age (the rodents generally live two to three years), elderly mice had about twice the running endurance of undosed peers. Such late-life sprightliness is also observed in old mice long subjected to CR.

Last spring, Italian scientists reported similar vigor in aged fish treated with resveratrol. The substance also boosted the animals' life span by more than 50%. Another research group, whose data aren't yet published, has reportedly seen the same effect in mice on high doses of resveratrol.

Recent studies by Dr. Sinclair's group and others suggest one reason why this energizing occurs: Resveratrol and other compounds that stimulate an enzyme called SIRT1 engender new mitochondria, tiny dynamos within cells that churn out energy for everything from moving muscles to sending signals between neurons. CR is thought to do the same thing, says Eric Ravussin, an authority on CR at the Pennington Biomedical Research Center, an obesity research center affiliated with Louisiana State University, and an adviser to Sirtris.

Dr. Ravussin adds that the fresh mitochondria appear to spew fewer damaging "free radicals," molecules whose DNA-fraying action has been linked to aging, than do the older mitochondria they replace. "It's like replacing the engine of a polluting gas guzzler with an efficient, cleaner-burning new one," he says.

[Colon™]

I hope it comes with all kinds of nifty side-effects, like mutation. Then we could have part of the human race that wanted to live forever, and had the dough to pay for it, and another part that never took that substance. Then we could have like apocalyptic wars between bourgeouis mutants and proletarian humans.

[DanS]

All good, clean fun.

[Provost Harrison]

Waiter, a glass of wine, and don't spare the resveratrol!

[Sava]

The secret to a long life isn't really a secret... good diet and an active lifestyle.

Phytonutrients, antioxidants, etc...

Drinking red wine isn't going to do much if the rest of your diet consists of meat and potatoes... or fast food for that matter.

The key is fruits and vegetables with deep, rich color. And eating a lot of different kinds of fruits and vegetables. Color is an indicator of the amount of phytonutrients in fruits.

The key to long life is already out there. It isn't going to be invented in some lab. It just requires people to stop stuffing their faces with processed foods and to get off the couch and do something every once in a while.

[chequita guevara]

I don't want to live a long time. I want to live forever.

[Provost Harrison]

Whatever they've prescribed to Sava, I want some!

[chequita guevara]

Stop smoking dope, get the right meds, and grab life by the balls.

[thesilentone]

Originally posted by SlowwHand
Oh, man. I don't want to live another 25 years extra.
I already won't be able to retire, and who's going to hire an 85 year old?
Hooray, scientists.

You really can spin your negativity into every subject can't you. Is something horrible happening in your life? Or not happening?

[DanS]

Be buff too!

Red Wine Protects Mice from Obesity, Diabetes

By Rob Stein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, November 16, 2006; 2:34 PM

A component of red wine recently shown to help lab mice live longer also protects animals from obesity and diabetes, researchers reported today.

The new research helps confirm and extend the possible benefits of the substance, resveratrol, and offers new insight into how it works--apparently by revving up the metabolism to make muscles burn more energy and work more efficiently. Mice fed large doses could run twice as far as normal.

In addition, the scientists for the first time produced evidence linking the biological pathway activated by the substance to humans, showing that the same genetic switch resveratrol mimics seems to naturally endow some people with faster metabolisms.

"It's very exciting," said Johan Auwerx, a professor of medicine at the Institute for Genetics and Cellular and Molecular Biology in Strasbourg, France, who led the research being published in the journal Cell. "This compound could have many applications--treating obesity and diabetes, improving human endurance, helping the frail. There's a lot of potential."

Auwerx and other researchers cautioned much more research is needed to study the compound and similar agents, especially to see if the approach is safe for people. Humans would have to take hundreds of resveratrol pills sold in health food stores or drink hundreds of glasses of wine a day to get equivalent levels of the substance tested on the mice, neither of which would be safe. But the new research adds to the growing enthusiasm about the approach, experts said.

"This is the first example of a drug that can apparently affect the whole aging process, not just this disease or that disease, but the mechanisms that allow these diseases to occur," said Felipe Sierra of the National Institute on Aging.

Others agreed.

"The idea of giving someone anything to improve their longevity until very recently would have been considered snake oil or crockery," said Stephen L. Helfand of Brown University. "But here we are possibly being able to move out of the laboratory from extending the lives of flies, worms and mice to humans a lot sooner than we thought."

Resveratrol is found in red wine, grapes and other foods, including peanuts. Scientists suspect it may help explain why French people have fewer heart attacks despite their high-fat diets, and why eating a very low-calorie diet can extend the life spans of many species.

Researchers recently demonstrated resveratrol did the same thing for mammals in a study involving laboratory mice. High doses of the compound neutralized the ill effects of a high-fat, high-calorie diet, extending the animals' life spans and preventing adverse effects on their livers and hearts.

In the new research, researchers fed mice even higher dosages--10 times higher-- along with a high-fat, high-calorie diet. Resveratrol significantly reduced the animals' chances of becoming obese and of developing early signs of diabetes. The mice appeared to experience no adverse side effects.

Additional experiments on the animals' cells indicate the substance works by increasing the activity of an enzyme known as SIRT1, boosting the number and activity of structures inside cells called mitochondria, the researchers said. Mitochondria are like power plants inside cells, burning fat and providing energy. They tend to get revved up by exercise, and deteriorate with age. The mice fed resveratrol had more efficient muscle tissue, sharply hiking their endurance.

"In the elderly, many of the disorders that occur with aging occur because of muscle weakness," Helfand said. "This makes you wonder what would happen if you took an older individual and revved up their mitochondria with resveratrol. You could imagine that it could have a profound positive effect on their health."

Auwerx also wondered whether the substance might be abused by professional athletes. "That could be the illicit use of these compounds -- as performance boosters," he said.

In addition to the mouse experiments, the researchers also produced evidence supporting the theory that SIRT1 plays a key role in longevity in humans in an accompanying analysis of 123 Finnish adults. The subjects born with certain variations of the SIRT1 gene had faster metabolisms, naturally burning energy more efficiently, indicating the same pathway works in humans too.

"We've all seen people who are thin no matter what they eat or do -- that have good metabolisms versus bad. This may help explain that," said Christoph Westphal, the CEO of Sirtris Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Mass., which sponsored and helped conduct the study as part of its efforts to develop drugs based on the approach.

The company is already testing a potent version of resveratrol on diabetic humans, and hopes to eventually test it and similar compounds as a treatment for a variety of diseases.

"We are targeting a gene that controls the aging process," Westphal said. "Many diseases have a link to the aging process. So these kinds of drugs clearly have the potential to treat several diseases of aging. It's very exciting."

Other researchers said the new work was interesting, but remained cautious, particularly about making the link to SIRT1.

"I think that's part of the story, but that it would be a mistake to think that's all that's going on," said Matt Kaeberlein of the University of Washington.

[Aeson]

LONDON (Reuters) - A compound found in red wine and grapes

While these studies obviously hold great potential for extending human life, the stories on it seem intent on undermining it. The "and grapes" makes me laugh. Especially in light of their exclusion from some articles on this subject completely.

Yah, I get it. People want to justfy their alcohol intake. And their caloric intake. Now you can be obese and drink yourself into a long life! Nevermind that your liver would be gone well before these effects were ever achieved from red wine... write stories with headlines that encourage people to start drinking more.

(And no, I don't think eating grapes is going to have much impact in this regard either, but at least they are rather healthy to be eating anyways.)

[DanS]

Now you can be obese and drink yourself into a long life!

Don't forget the health. You can eat and drink yourself into health and long life.