Researchers have found that resveratrol - a component found in red wine and grapes - can significantly reduce age related health problems in middle-aged mice.
A joint team of researchers from Harvard Medical School and National Institute on Aging examined mice, which were given different diets. One group was given a low calorie diet and the other group was given high calorie diet.
Aging
When mice were at their age of 12 months, which is equivalent to human 35 years, some of the mice were given supplements based on resveratrol. Those given the supplements were found to have less age related diseases than those with no supplements. The interesting thing is that the diseases that resveratrol was able to prevent were not connected with each other at all.
Resveratrol fed mice had good cardiovascular health, strong bones, less obesity related problems, better balance and coordination, better eye health. However, these mice did not live significantly longer than those taking no supplements. Researchers mention that they are more interested in improving quality of life than just making life span longer.
Research found that resveratrol has a calorie reversing effects because technically speaking, mice on high calorie diet should be overweight or obese, but they were not. This is very similar to ‘French paradox’, when French people usually taking high calorie food stay slim, probably because thy drink red wine with every meal.
Dr David Sinclair from Harvard Medical School in Boston, US said: "I was most surprised by how broad the effects were in the mice. Usually, you focus on slowing down or ameliorating one disease at a time. In this case, resveratrol influences a whole series of seemingly unrelated diseases associated with ageing."
Resveratrol fed mice showed similar health condition as those on a low calorie diet, which is already proved to make both mice and humans healthier and life span longer. However, researchers urge that people should not just start taking resveratrol based supplements, because the supplements may be a bad combination with other drugs and may lead to adverse side effects.
resevertol: how much should one take?
how much resveratrol should one take?
100mg or 1000mg /day, 3 times a day or once?
with other minerals, vitamins, ?
perhaps with lethicin...