Resveratrol On 60 Minutes

Since it has been featured on 60 Minutes, the awareness of resveratrol has increased in the US, Canada and in fact, all over the world.

This anti aging compound resveratrol has been looked at by the media as well.

This includes CBS News, Fox News, ABC News and The New York Times.

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And Dr David Sinclair has been a prominent spokesperson for the scientific idiscoveries about anti aging and resveratrol.

He is a lead researcher at Harvard Medical School, and his work is much of the topic of the 60 Minutes program aired on 25th January 2009.

Here's a summary of what was said in the program.

The report starts off with the fact that it was only 17 years ago that 60 Minutes reported on the French Paradox, which was the fact that the French, despite a high fat diet had a "remarkably low incidence of heart disease, compared with Americans."

Scientists agreed that there was something in red wine that gave them this benefit.

"Now, scientists across the country have identified a substance in red wine called resveratrol that they believe might do more than just protect the heart, but could - in very high concentrations - significantly extend life by preventing a number of age related illnesses. If they're right, we all may soon be taking a pill that could give us an extra decade or two of healthy old age."

Dr. Christoph Westphal said that "Our goal is to prevent and forestall many of the diseases that strike us as we reach 50, 60, and 70. All with one pill."

It was back in 2003 that Dr Westphal met David Sinclair, researcher and biochemist at Harvard.

Simclair at that stage was looking at the genes that affected anti aging, and found a gened the sirtuin gene in yeast and other lif forms which extended life.

He believed that something in nature could activate the gene, and after testing thousands of ingredients, found that resveratrol did it.

He said that he then found on google that the top hit for resveratrol was red wine.

He was also aware of the research that had already been done on red wine and health, and he said "almost fell off my chair" when this link between red wine and anti aging genes was made.

The longevity gene was also known by scientists to be triggered by calorie restriction.

Not eating too much was one of the ways to trigger anti aging in many animal studies.

Ricki Colman, from the University of Wisconsin, said:

"The control animals are nearing the end of a typical monkey lifespan, about 27 years, and major differences in their overall health are becoming clear. The skinny monkeys actually look younger, their coats are shinier, and fewer have arthritis.

And the chunky monkeys? Many have diabetes, and a significantly higher number have cancer and heart disease.

Pound for pound, Colman says the lighter monkeys do better."

So what about calorie restriction in humans?

It was commented that we humans have a poor history when it comes to rying to diet.

Especially with busy lives and diffficulty finding healthy alternatives at times.

But they then looked at members of the CRS or Calorie Restriction Society, people who have been on calorie restriction diets for years.

They ate low calorie soup, walnuts, and green bean puree as an example meal.

The results?

"So far the participants have lowered their blood pressure, reduced body fat, and lessened risk factors for heart disease, diabetes and even cancer."

And there may be benefits in looking younger as well. One husband said "To be honest, if you saw her without any clothes, you'd see she looks pretty darn good, like a woman like of many, many years younger."

And resveratrol has been found in the Harvard studies by Sinclair, to mimic the benefits of a calorie restriction diet.

The fat mice on high calorie diets seemed to be protected against the biochemicla and organ changes of a high calorie diet.

Their physical performance improved as did their longevity.

"We have a pill that can mimic many of the effects of calorie restriction or exercise," Westphal says.

So how much red wine is needed to get these benefits of rsveratrol?

The answer from Dr Sinclair was:

"Well, the sad news is that you'd need to drink about 1,000 bottles a day of red wine, which I don't recommend."

Or you can take it in supplement form.

And the benefits are not about just longevity, its actually about 'healthy aging'.

"What we're talking about is activating the body's natural, genetic defenses against diseases. And that's very powerful if we can harness that" says Dr Sinclair.

And now, what about results on human trials?

There has been many studies on animals and mice.

According to the 60 Minutes report:

" they fast-tracked the drug into human trials on people with untreated diabetes. The results were impressive: it significantly lowered glucose and insulin levels, without the patients changing their diet or taking any other drugs."

Wetphal continued with a comment on these results:

"Originally our hope was that you'd be able to prevent diseases of aging. What we ended up seeing is actually you could therapeutically intervene in patients who have diseases of aging. And that was unexpected"

The company Sirtris is now developing a more potent drug based on resveratrol, but to be a more potent version, to be used for human trials but in cancer patients.

Can humans maintain lives into the 100's?

In answer to this question, Sinclair says, "Well, we certainly passed a corner in terms of the science. And someone's going to achieve it. And if it's not us, it's gonna be someone else."

He added:

"I keep on thinking, you know, what used to seem like it was science fiction, I actually believe the biology is right. And if we're right this may be the most important thing that we're going to do in our lives"

So there you have it.

These were the highlights of the news report on 60 Minutes about resveratrol.

It talked about the French paradox, the discovery of the anti aging genes sirtuins and the fact that they are activated by resveratrol.

Studies in mice found anti aging effects of resveratrol which not only extended longevity but also improved physical performance and protected against the negative effects of obesity and a high calorie diet.

Now, there are plans on developing an more potent version of resveratrol for use to treat medical conditions.

So if you're interested in healthy aging, then this 60 Minutes report is quite revealing.

In the meantime, you can either drink 1000 bottles of red wine a day which is not recommended, or you can take a resveratrol supplement to concntrate the antioxidant in pill form.

If you want to try resveratrol out, then get a free trial and see for yourself:

Click Here To Get Your Free Trial Of Resveratrol Now