Resveratrol: Red Wine, Live a long time...

[American Patriot]

Potential Wonder Resveratrol = 1000 Bottles of Red Wine

By The Staff at wowOwow.com
© Shutterstock



We’ll use any excuse to drink red wine. Now, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech company has come up with the best argument for red wine we’ve ever heard: Resveratrol, a substance found in the skin of red grapes, can not only slow down the aging process and prevent diseases like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, heart diseases and possibly cancer, it can even help your diet plan.


You’d have to drink the equivalent of 1,000 bottles of red wine to match the benefits of one pill, which is said to work by triggering the sirtuin longevity gene.


"Our goal is to prevent and forestall many of the diseases that strikes us as we reach 50, 60 and 70. All with one pill," Dr. Christoph Westphal told Morley Safer on "60 Minutes" last night.


He gave a pretty compelling demonstration of Resveratrol’s effectiveness — in mice, at least. Two mice ate a high-fat diet; one received Resveratrol and the other didn’t. After 12 weeks, the one who had taken the drug wasn’t as fat and could run farther. And when they died, that same mouse had youthful, fat-free organs. (The New Yorker had some fun imagining this experiment.)


But will it work in humans? So far it’s been tested on diabetics and has lowered their glucose and insulin levels — with no diet or drug interventions. Next they’re going to try a more potent version on cancer patients. If all goes well, it’s estimated it should be available in the marketplace in as little as five years.



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[American Patriot]

Resveratrol: Facts on Resveratrol Supplements

A lot has been said already about resveratrol and its promising health benefits. But what about resveratrol supplements, should we take them?
Officially, scientists involved in studying this compound say we should wait until FDA approves a resveratrol pill, which is already in development by big pharma; that figures.


However, some researches have admitted to supplementing with resveratrol, and putting their elderly parents on red wine extract supplements. What should we do?
ConsumerLab.com (requires registration) has recently published a very detail and informative article on this subject. Here it is:


What is Resveratrol?

“Resveratrol is a plant chemical found in red grape skins and grape seeds, purple grape juice and red wine, and in smaller amounts in peanuts.


Resveratrol is also found in other plants such as the roots of the Chinese medicinal herb, hu zhang (Polygonum cuspidatum) - commonly known as Japanese knotweed - which is often the source of resveratrol in supplements. Resveratrol is also found in the roots of a South American shrub (Senna quinquangulata).


Red wine extract, red grape skin extract, grape seed extract (GSE), grape pomace extract (GPE), and Polygonum cuspidatum extract contain varying amounts of resveratrol along with other plant chemicals.


Resveratrol exists in two forms, cis-resveratrol and trans-resveratrol. These forms contain the same type and number of atoms, but the orientation of the atoms is slightly different. Cis- and trans-resveratrol have some biological activities in common while other activities are specific to only one form or the other.


Trans-resveratrol is commercially available and has been the subject of more research than cis-resveratrol — although not all research has adequately established or identified the form used.


What It Does:

The promotion of resveratrol far exceeds it’s base of clinical research. In fact, no human studies evaluating the potential benefits or risks of resveratrol supplements have been reported. However, animal research of resveratrol has demonstrated anti-aging and athletic endurance-enhancing activities.


Test tube experiments with resveratrol have demonstrated antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antiplatelet, cholesterol-lowering, and mild estrogenic activities. Despite the lack of human studies, resveratrol has been promoted for a wide range of uses including the prevention of heart disease and cancer and improving cholesterol levels.


Based on unconfirmed theories, resveratrol has also been proposed as an inhaled treatment for some lung disorders and for prevention and treatment of HIV infection.
How It’s Sold:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has rejected requests by several companies to market supplements labeled to contain resveratrol.


According to the FDA, resveratrol is not a dietary supplement ingredient because it was not marketed prior to enactment of the Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act in 1994 and does not have adequate evidence of safety in humans. Resveratrol has, however, been given investigational new drug status so that it may be tested in clinical studies.


Despite the FDA’s stance, some companies market supplements labeled to contain resveratrol. Others, in an effort to stay within the law, sell “resveratrol” products labeled, for example, as red wine extract, grape skin extract (GSE) grape pomace extract (GPE), or Polygonum cuspidatum extract.


Some products refer to “resveratrol complexes” or “resveratrol formulas,” again without indicating the actual amount of resveratrol contained. Supplements tend to offer anywhere from about 1 milligram to 100 milligrams of resveratrol per day. (For reference, one bottle of red wine has only 1 milligram of resveratrol).


Be aware that some products label their resveratrol in micrograms (µg) rather than milligrams (mg). This can make the amount look large, but it takes 1,000 micrograms to equal 1 milligram. For a product that promises 20 µg per pill, you would need to take 1,000 pills to get a 20 mg dose.


The Right Dose:

No one knows the right dose of resveratrol that is beneficial and safe for people. Positive studies on mice used daily doses ranging from 22 mg to 400 mg of resveratrol per kilogram of body weight.


In humans, this would be equal to a daily dose of about 1,500 to 28,000 mg of resveratrol, which is far more than that provided by most supplements. Even a leading resveratrol researcher, Dr. David Sinclair at Harvard Medical School, is noted as taking a lower dose: 5 mg per kilogram — about 150 mg per day for the average adult.


Apparently he and other individuals whom he knows that take resveratrol have not reported adverse effects.


Concerns and Cautions:

Although adverse effects of resveratrol in people have not been reported, its safety has not been well evaluated. Short-term studies in healthy animals have shown side effects only at extremely high doses (over 300 mg per kilogram). Long-term side effects are not known.


Resveratrol has mild estrogenic activity that has not been evaluated in humans. Until more is known, women with estrogen-sensitive conditions, including some cancers, are advised to consult a physician before taking resveratrol.


Particularly due to potential anti-growth factor properties, resveratrol should not be used by children nor by woman who are pregnant, nursing or trying to conceive.
Resveratrol reduces the activity of enzymes involved with drug metabolism. Whether resveratrol interferes with drug therapies in humans has not been studied and individuals taking prescription medications are advised to consult a physician before taking resveratrol because of potential drug interactions.


Because resveratrol demonstrates antiplatelet (blood-thinning) activity, individuals taking blood thinners are strongly advised to consult a physician before taking resveratrol because of potential drug interactions.


The Bottom Line:

Although animal studies have shown tantalizing effects with resveratrol, it is too early to know whether it is beneficial to people, what dose is best, and what side effects or even toxicities may occur.


It’s also not clear what’s really in many of these supplements and if they are free of impurities. When other types of supplements have first rocketed into public view, ConsumerLab.com has often found that many do not contain their listed ingredients.
To help shed light on the quality of resveratrol supplements, ConsumerLab.com will be testing products sold in the U.S. and Canada and reporting what it finds in early 2007. Stay tuned.�?


Posted December 2nd, 2006 in Supplements |

[American Patriot]

http://www.consumerlab.com/Search_New.asp

[American Patriot]

Can red wine help you live forever?
http://money.cnn.com/2007/01/18/maga...tune/index.htm

Turns out there's something to it. Fortune's David Stipp recounts the amazing, real story of the scientist and startup that have a shot at making it happen.


By David Stipp, Fortune
January 19 2007: 12:54 PM EST

NEW YORK (Fortune) -- If you haven't heard of resveratrol, you're probably too young to have had the experience of gazing in the bathroom mirror in the morning and thinking, "damn."


Resveratrol is the ingredient in red wine that made headlines in November when scientists demonstrated that it kept overfed mice from gaining weight, turned them into the equivalent of Olympic marathoners, and seemed to slow down their aging process. Few medical discoveries have generated so much instant buzz - even Jay Leno riffed about it in his opening monologue.

Christoph Westphal, who earned a Ph.D and an MD from Harvard in less than six years, gave up a lucrative career as a biotech VC to launch Sirtis.

David Sinclair at the lab. Sirtis is making a major bet that his theory of how resveratrol works is right.

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But the key question raised by the news - whether the discoveries will lead to pharmaceutical payoffs before we're too old to care - won't be answered in the Harvard lab from which the news sprang.


Instead look to a boxy, low-rise building a couple of miles away, an unprepossessing biotech hatchery that got little media attention in the wake of the resveratrol findings. This is the Cambridge home of two-year-old Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. Its stated goal is to develop medicines that have the same health-boosting effects in people that resveratrol had on mice.


But that hardly captures the company's sweeping promise: if it succeeds, its medicines may retard the onset or progression of a whole slew of age-related diseases, from diabetes to Alzheimer's to cancer.


The drugs may also have an extremely provocative side effect: They might extend life span. You have to go back to the advent of antibiotics in the first half of the 20th century to find such broad therapeutic potential.


For all that to happen, Sirtris, like most biotech startups, must wend through a minefield that will take many years to traverse. And no biotech gets very far through the minefield without a kind of walking contradiction leading the way - a dreamer with feet planted firmly on the ground, a science whiz who could pass as a circus ringmaster, a riverboat gambler with a passion for minimizing risk.


Three years ago one such paradox strolled into the Harvard lab that put resveratrol on the map and set in motion events that may in time radically transform the way we age: meet Christoph Westphal, Sirtris's co-founder, CEO, and dreamer-in-chief.


A former venture capitalist, Westphal, 38, was known for conjuring up dreams that spellbind investors before he joined forces with David Sinclair, 37, the charismatic Harvard medical school researcher who spearheaded the research on resveratrol. Between 2000 and 2004, Westphal co-founded five companies and served as CEO of four of them, including two hot biotechs that have gone public and now have a combined market value of over $1.4 billion. But Sirtris is probably his entrepreneurial pièce de résistance, and he quit his meteoric VC career to lead it.


MIT professor Phillip Sharp, a Nobel laureate biologist who advises Sirtris and has known Westphal for years, says he's excited about the startup's science. But it was Westphal's involvement that largely persuaded him to put his imprimatur on Sirtris. (Sharp, one of the biggest names in science, helped launch the biotech industry in 1978 by co-founding Biogen, now Biogen Idec (Charts).) "Christoph's combination of skills is very rare," Sharp says. "I haven't seen his equivalent in 30 years of working in biotech."


Venture capitalists have been equally enthralled by Westphal, judging by the $82 million they've pumped into closely held Sirtris over the past two years. That's a remarkably large sum for a high-risk, early stage biotech, and it has helped fast-track the company's drug development - it is already clinically testing its first medicine, a resveratrol-based drug that promises to help keep diabetic patients' blood sugar under control. The drug contains concentrated resveratrol and gets far more of it into the bloodstream than drinking red wine can. Most biotechs pioneering new science take years before testing drugs on people; Sirtris's drug reached the clinic less than 18 months after the company's launch.


For all his mastery at raising money, Westphal isn't your standard-issue CEO. His lead haberdasher is probably Levi Strauss & Co. his cramped, sparsely furnished office, which is shared with Sinclair when the Harvard scientist drops by, is not much bigger than a walk-in closet. And because he doesn't like cluttering his life with things like cars, he often walks five or more miles a day getting to work and meetings. A husky 6-foot 3-inch man with an edgy, no-nonsense air, Westphal doesn't so much ambulate as lunge - his body language suggests a star halfback who has just spotted a football spiraling down about five yards ahead of his pigskin-eager hands.


His colleagues are accustomed to his daily barrage of e-mails, which begins around 5:30 a.m. "I must get 50 e-mails a day from him," says Boston hedge fund manager Richard Aldrich, one of Sirtris's founding investors. "He probably over communicates."


(Westphal says that over communication is a nonissue because "nobody reads my e-mails.") In fact, just about the only time anyone can recall the boss giving his blackberry a breather was during a few startling minutes last November. It turned out that he had laid it aside for a few minutes to deliver a baby -- his own son. In fact, Westphal delivered all three of his children at a Boston hospital under an obstetrician's supervision.


At first glance, Westphal's frenetic personal style resembles attention deficit disorder. But in his case it's probably better described as bandwidth-coming-out-of-the-ears syndrome. When I interviewed him some months ago at Sirtris, for instance, he couldn't resist assembling a new sound system for his office as we talked. He managed to read the instructions, examine the pieces, and put them together without missing a beat in the conversation.


A few other résumé bullet points: Westphal plays the cello; speaks four languages (his kids speak only German with him and Spanish with his Puerto Rican wife); and has visited two-thirds of the countries on earth. He's also a disarming extrovert who genially crushes competitors into the dust. When Sirtris held a companywide weight-loss contest over last summer and fall, no one was very surprised when Westphal's team won. On the weekend before the final weigh-in, the CEO starved himself and exercised all-out twice a day, pushing so hard that his wife feared he might have a heart attack. "When you get involved with Christoph," says Aldrich, " it's all action, all the time."


It won't come as a surprise that Westphal's powers of concentration appeared early. As a youngster he told his parents, physicians who grew up in Germany and moved to the U.S. in 1967 (young Christoph grew up in the Washington, D.C., area), that he wasn't very interested in following in their professional footsteps. "Of course you'll get an MD," his mother replied. "Then you can decide what you want to do."


Rebelling in the way of a good German son, he got a Ph.D. in biology and slogged through an MD on the side - both from Harvard in five years and eight months, nearly a record. After that he worked at a hospital in equatorial Africa, where he delivered scores of babies. Then he decided that what he really wanted to do was start companies that turn basic research into drugs. That led to his furiously productive stint as a venture capitalist.

With the Renaissance man personality and the driving ambition, Westphal seems ready-made for the limelight. But he largely avoided the press until the recent news about resveratrol made that untenable. Recently he granted a few interviews, but his press persona has been low-key, guarded, almost professorial. It's not that he's shy. When a TV news team showed up one day, he put on a white lab coat and safety glasses before going on camera - a nerdy affectation that caused much mirth at Sirtris. Self-satire, he later commented, is part of his campaign "to keep us grounded. We're in trouble if we lose the ability to laugh at ourselves."

Rather, he's determined to avoid any whiff of "fountain of youth" hype - specifically, of giving the impression that Sirtris is a bunch of flakes chasing miraculous elixirs, which is the kiss of death for a startup trying to raise millions of dollars from hard-nosed money managers. He spends a lot of time explaining that his company is working to cure diseases of aging, not to cure aging itself. There's a difference, especially in the minds of regulators, who view aging as part of the human condition, not an illness warranting treatment.

Further, proving that a drug extends life span would require an impossibly long clinical trial. And then there's what Westphal calls the "vortex of inflated expectations," which invariably spins up around scientifically credible anti-aging research. "I don't want to get sucked in," he says.

But Westphal can't afford to steer Sirtris too far from the vortex. After all, it does have to impress those hard-nosed money managers in order to realize its drug-development dreams. And the possibility that its drugs actually will slow aging provides him with a very compelling case to put to potential investors and pharma partners - to wit, aging, when stripped to its dire essence, is simply a process that inexorably increases the risk of killer diseases. So a drug that retards that process should have across-the-board power to postpone such diseases' toll, making it an FDA-approvable blockbuster of unprecedented scope.

So Sirtris's star is hitched to perilously glitzy anti-aging science despite the fact that it isn't pursuing life-extension drugs per se. As a result, Westphal's media stance, like the man himself, is a study in high-speed motion as he alternately approaches and flees the vortex. In an interview last fall he enthused that "studies on long lived humans indicate there are four key predictors of longevity: low levels of blood glucose and insulin, little weight gain during middle age, and low body temperature. Our drugs positively affect these predictors in mice. That's very promising." Then he took pains to caution that "whenever Sirtris is mentioned" in the news, "it should be emphasized that it's going for FDA-approved drugs to treat diseases like diabetes, not anti-aging. No matter how often I say that, folks don't seem to listen."

Like most entrepreneurs, Westphal is fixated on the new. Ironically, however, the line of research that led to Sirtris dates from the 1930s, which is when scientists at Cornell University discovered the life-extending effects of calorie restriction, or CR. The researchers found that reducing normal calorie intake by about a third extends animals' life spans by 30 percent or more, keeping them sleek and vibrant when their normally fed peers look wasted, or are dead. In fact, CR is the only established way to slow aging in everything from guppies to dogs to, many scientists believe, humans. The big drawback, of course, is the not-eating part. CR's stomach-growling regimen requires the self-control of a Mahatma Gandhi. (It also tends to produce the great ascetic's half-starved look.)

And thus the appeal of a substance like resveratrol: Sinclair's research suggests it does many of the wonderful things CR does, including extending healthy life. Sirtris's goal is to develop medicines that function like resveratrol but are far more potent: in principle, people on the medicines could eat heartily while getting the pluses of CR. Further, they wouldn't have to gulp fistfuls of pills. (Heroic doses of resveratrol, comparable to a person's drinking hundreds of glasses of wine a day, were needed to elicit the remarkable effects seen in the high-profile mouse studies.)

The hubbub about resveratrol began with a 2003 study by Sinclair's group suggesting that the compound can mimic the effects of CR in yeast cells, boosting their life spans by 70 percent. The following year he and colleagues went on to demonstrate that resveratrol slows aging in roundworms and fruit flies. That made it the first compound to show anti-aging effects in widely divergent species. Then, last spring, scientists in Pisa, Italy, showed that its magic extends beyond creepy-crawlies: Large doses of the compound boosted life span more than 50 percent in a species of short-lived fish.

This is what happened to the mice that got Jay Leno so jazzed a few months ago: In one of the two mouse studies, conducted by Sinclair's group and the National institute on aging, high doses of resveratrol induced a number of CR-like effects, including significantly extending the life spans of mice on fattening diets while warding off diabetes and their ill effects of overeating.

In the other study, led by a French team and sponsored by Sirtris, even higher doses both protected mice against deleterious effects of rich diets - including keeping their weight down - and doubled their running endurance. All that is just what the doctor would like to order at a time when bathroom scales are groaning in terminal agony across the globe.

As for how resveratrol does its thing, therein lies a raging academic debate, Sinclair being one of the combatants. The dispute stems from the fact that resveratrol is a "dirty" drug, i.e., a blunt instrument that interacts with a complex array of molecules in the body. That makes its main mode of action, and link to CR, hard to pin down. It may be that resveratrol's effects spring from its ability to target many different molecules. Alternatively, it may be that just one of resveratrol's many targets is the really magical one - a kind of master switch that turns on CR-like effects all by itself. Sinclair is in the latter camp: he believes that an enzyme called siRT1 is resveratrol's key target, and that the compound works its magic mainly by activating that enzyme. (siRT1 is a member of the sirtuin class of enzymes, hence the company name.)

Sirtris has made a major bet that Sinclair is right about that by designing its novel drugs to activate siRT1. If it turns out that the enzyme isn't really a master switch for CR-like effects, the company's new medicines may not work. But there's growing evidence that Sinclair is right: Sirtris has already shown that its siRT1 drugs do nice things like lower blood sugar in overfed mice with diabetes, says Peter Elliott, the company's drug-development chief.

The mouse studies also gave hints that resveratrol induces basic metabolic changes akin to those that CR does. One of the most intriguing was the production of fresh mitochondria, the key components of cells that serve as power generators; they essentially burn sugar in slow motion to release energy. But like coal-burning power plants, mitochondria also pollute. In particular, they spew highly reactive chemicals called free radicals, which damage DNA and other important molecules in cells. Over time the radicals deteriorate the mitochondria themselves, which degrades their efficiency, causing yet heavier production of free radicals. The end result is a cell-degrading snowball effect that is thought to be a major cause of aging.

Resveratrol's ability to engender new mitochondria is especially exciting because it seems the fresh ones are more efficient than the worn mitochondria they replace, hence are less prone to churn out damaging radicals. CR appears to do the same thing - it's like replacing a smoky old coal burner with a cleaner burning gas-fired plant. Resveratrol's effect on mitochondria may be enough by itself to account for much of the compound's riveting effects in animal studies. In particular, the effect would seem to account for the abrupt Olympic-caliber running abilities observed in mice.

Again, that is the theory. The mouse studies didn't settle the debate over how resveratrol works, which probably won't happen until researchers with no ties to Sirtris confirm that Sinclair is right. So pursuing the siRT1 path is a gamble for Sirtris, one of many.

The large, unfathomable risks most biotech startups face make investors' due-diligence process seem like shining a penlight into Carlsbad Caverns. Thus, venture capitalists often look to the stature and track record of the people involved as the best indicator of potential. Says Sirtris board member and co-founder Richard pops, CEO of Alkermes, a biotech concern in Cambridge: "pedigree is everything" in early-stage biotech.

Westphal couldn't agree more. An avid reader of the scientific literature, he had become intrigued by research on sirtuins during his days as a venture capitalist. After Sinclair's high-profile discovery in 2003 that resveratrol extended the life span of yeast, Westphal phoned the Harvard scientist to talk about his findings' commercial potential. The research was highly intriguing, Westphal says, but Sinclair the man was equally important to him. One Sinclair forte instantly stood out: The scientist, a native of Australia with a natural flair for public speaking, has a rare knack for conveying the excitement of the grand quest to nonscientists. "Sirtris has been successful largely because we were able to raise a lot of money and get momentum early on," he says. "That's partly because David [Sinclair] is fantastic at selling the story."

The two didn't hit it off at first. Westphal, then working at Polaris Venture partners in Waltham, Mass., "came to my office in a somewhat arrogant manner," recalls Sinclair. "He said, 'Tell me more about these molecules you've found.' I told him that first he had to sign a nondisclosure agreement" to keep nonpublic details about Sinclair's work under wraps. "He said, 'I never sign those.' so I told him maybe I can't talk anymore about this. And he said, 'David, if I walk out of this office, I'm not coming back. So I suggest you tell me as much as you can.' "

After that tense beginning, says Sinclair, the conversation turned out to be "like a wonderful game of chess. I wound up telling him more than I normally would have. It soon became apparent that he's one of the smartest people I ever met. But it took me months to realize that he's also a nice guy."

Asked about the episode, Westphal says, "as a venture capitalist, you're in a world where everything is about money. That can really corrupt interactions with people."

Since combining forces with Sinclair, Westphal has organized what is arguably the most pedigree-rich scientific advisory board in biotech, including MIT's Sharp; Robert Langer, one of medicine's most prolific inventors, also of MIT; Harvard gene-cloning pioneer Thomas Maniatis; and Thomas Salzmann, formerly executive vice president of Merck's (Charts) research arm. The group now numbers 27, among them many of the world's leading experts on sirtuins.

Westphal also assembled an impressive list of directors - they include Alkermes's Pops; Aldrich, the Boston hedge fund manager and biotech veteran; and Paul Schimmel, a prominent scientist at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif., who has co-founded half a- dozen biotech concerns. Westphal's right arm at Sirtris is chief operating officer Garen Bohlin, 59, formerly a senior executive at the genetics institute, a biotech now owned by Wyeth.

The Sirtris team wasted very little time reaching its first milestone, which was to develop "high throughput" screening tests that enabled it to quickly analyze nearly 500,000 compounds for resveratrol- like activity. The rapid-fire winnowing led to several potent molecules that promise to replicate resveratrol's health benefits at doses hundreds of times smaller than are required with the natural substance. These two standard steps in drug development often take several years; Sirtris completed them in a little over a year.

Meanwhile, hoping to get an early indication of efficacy against disease, the company formulated a resveratrol-based drug, dubbed 501, to begin the tests in diabetic patients. Westphal cautions that the drug is likely to be a product for only a few indications - Sirtris's more potent medicines will probably have much broader applications. Still, in animal tests, 501's proprietary formulation gets more than ten times as much resveratrol into the bloodstream as do dietary supplements containing equal amounts of it, says the company.

The 501 trial's results should be available this year - if Sirtris decides to disclose them. So far the drug has shown only mild side effects. The main one has been occasional nausea among people taking it on an empty stomach. One reason for that could be that the orally administered liquid drug tastes awful; Sirtris hopes a new cherry-flavored version will go down easier.

Of all the decisions Westphal has made - reject the hype but not too much; which medicine flavors are least nauseating - the biggest may prove to be simply speed. Sirtris's rapid push into clinical trials, the costliest stage of drug development, is likely to force it to raise more money soon. One option: license drug rights to big pharma concerns. But those who reach into pharma's deep pockets tend to get entangled in its bureaucratic strings. Major decisions on developing a drug, for instance, must go through layers of managers.

Further, if Sirtris licenses rights to its drugs, it might hand over compounds to a pharma partner before their full value has been assessed and factored into the deal - the possibility that the drugs could treat many diseases of aging is still too tentative to put a pricetag on. Despite the controversy over how resveratrol works, there's no telling how many diseases it can treat. And resveratrol's ability to boost mitochondria, those cellular power plants, indicates Sirtris's medicines will be highly versatile. In fact, the list of disorders thought to involve malfunctioning mitochondria includes adult-onset diabetes, heart disease, stroke, cancer, and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases-all diseases of aging.

"If I had $500 million today," says Westphal, "I'd be tempted to take our drugs into the clinic against two or three devastating neurological conditions and other metabolic diseases besides diabetes. That would be incredibly risky. But sometimes I think, 'This is the kind of company that could gather enormous resources' " based on its extraordinary promise. "It would be a real shame if we didn't go for it and try to address these huge medical problems."

At some point Sirtris will probably go public, raising the money Westphal would need to pursue this vision. In fact, the excitement about resveratrol may well allow Sirtris to make an initial public offering at an earlier stage of development than is feasible for most biotechs. Westphal declines to comment on that. When asked about it, though, he suddenly reverts to vortex-avoidance mode: "part of my job is to calm people down," he says. "You have to remember, most things in biotech don't work."

Sobering words - especially for us hopeful resveratrol watchers of a certain age. But here's an antidote: pour a glass of pinot noir, and while imbibing, step back and regard the big picture. Humanity has dreamed for millennia of medicines that extend life span. Sirtris may not fulfill the dream. But the company's very existence shows that the quest for compounds that slow aging has been transformed from sorcery into the fairly routine process of pharmaceutical development. Thus, the dream is likely to be realized within, at most, a few decades. The question now is when, not if.

[American Patriot]

Red wine is a rich source of biologically active phytochemicals, chemicals found in plants. Particular compounds called polyphenols found in red wine-such as catechins and resveratrol-are thought to have anti oxidant or anti cancer properties.

1. What are polyphenols and how do they prevent cancer?

Polyphenols are antioxidant compounds found in the skin and seeds of grapes. When wine is made from these grapes, the alcohol produced by the fermentation process dissolves the polyphenols contained in the skin and seeds. Red wine contains more polyphenols than white wine because the making of white wine requires the removal of the skins after the grapes are crushed. The phenols in red wine include catechin, gallic acid and epicatechin.


Polyphenols have been found to have antioxidant properties. Antioxidants are substances that protect cells from oxidative damage caused by molecules called free radicals. These chemicals can damage important parts of cells, including proteins, membranes and DNA. Cellular damage caused by free radicals has been implicated in the development of cancer. Research on the antioxidants found in red wine has shown that they may help inhibit the development of certain cancers.

2. What is resveratrol and how does it prevent cancer?

Resveratrol is a type of polyphenol called a phytoalexin, a class of compounds produced as part of a plant's defense system against disease. It is produced in the plant in response to an invading fungus, stress, injury, infection or ultraviolet irradiation. Red wine contains high levels of resveratrol, as do grapes, raspberries, peanuts and other plants.

Resveratrol has been shown to reduce tumor incidence in animals by affecting one or more stages of cancer development. It has been shown to inhibit growth of many types of cancer cells in culture. Evidence also exists that it can reduce inflammation. It also reduces activation of NF kappa B, a protein produced by the body's immune system when it is under attack. This protein affects cancer cell growth and metastasis. Resveratrol is also an antioxidant.

3. What have red wine studies found?

The cell and animal studies of red wine have examined effects in several cancers including leukemia, skin, breast and prostate cancers. Scientists are studying resveratrol to learn more about its cancer preventive activities. Recent evidence from animal studies suggests this anti-inflammatory compound may be an effective chemopreventive agent in three stages of the cancer process: initiation, promotion and progression.

Research studies published in the International Journal of Cancer show that drinking a glass of red wine a day may cut a man's risk of prostate cancer in half and that the protective effect appears to be strongest against the most aggressive forms of the disease. It was also seen that men who consumed four or more 4-ounce glasses of red wine per week have a 60 percent lower incidence of the more aggressive types of prostate cancer.

However, studies of the association between red wine consumption and cancer in humans are in their initial stages. Although consumption of large amounts of alcoholic beverages may increase the risk of some cancers, there is growing evidence that the health benefits of red wine are related to its nonalcoholic components.

[Malsua]

Do they make red wine without alcohol that doesn't taste like condensation off of a vat of fermenting pig manure?

I'm into supplements though. The idea of reversitall(my spelling) sounds great. Where can I get some?

[American Patriot]

At this point, they are working on a pill form of this that will get enough of a dose into people to actually help "prevent aging".

I'll wait and see. Til then, I guess it's red wine for me

[American Patriot]

The Provocative Promise of Resveratrol

A new wine-derived miracle drug? Or simply the next great red hype?

Jacob Gaffney

Posted: Thursday, January 25, 2007

The Feb. 5, 2007 issue of Fortune magazine makes an intriguing promise. The headline proclaims: "Drink wine and live longer."


It's great publicity for wine. But the story is not really about wine, only one of its natural components.


The Fortune article, by David Stipp, focuses on the possible health benefits of resveratrol, a compound found in grapes, as well as in other foods such as peanuts, blueberries and cranberries. Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, a biotech company based in Cambridge, Mass., is working to create resveratrol-based medicines that could have the same amazing effects on human health that recent studies have found the compound can produce in mice: significantly extending their lifespan while protecting them from many diseases.


Resveratrol, a potent polyphenol found in the skins of grapes, is part of the grapevine's immune system. The compound is mobilized to fight invaders, such as molds and insects. Resveratrol becomes absorbed into red wine during the contact the fermenting juice has with the skins.


David Sinclair, a molecular biologist at Harvard University, has done extensive research on the topic. Sinclair claims resveratrol can extend the life of mice, even when the rodents are dangerously overweight. (Other recent studies have found that resveratrol can boost endurance and limit weight gain in mice, limit damage caused by a stroke, improve cardiovascular health, provide better lung function and reduce the growth of skin melanomas.)


Two years ago, Sinclair joined forces with Christoph Westphal, a biotech entrepreneur, to create Sirtris Pharmaceuticals. According to the Fortune article, venture capitalists have invested $82 million in the firm, which is already clinically testing a resveratrol drug that may help diabetics keep their blood sugar under control. More ambitiously, the company hopes that the drugs can someday cure or prevent many of the diseases linked to aging, such as adult-onset diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases--even cancer.


Unfortunately, however, it remains a mystery whether wine drinkers benefit from resveratrol, regardless of whether the drugs are found to work. In human terms, the amounts of resveratrol that were used to produce the amazing benefits in mice would require drinking hundreds--or even thousands--of glasses of wine per day. Though studies have shown that moderate wine drinkers tend to live longer than nondrinkers, it remains unknown if that's the result of consumed resveratrol having a cumulative effect. In that same study, though, heavy drinkers did not enjoy the same longevity.


Levels of resveratrol vary greatly in different types of red wine. According to Cornell researcher Leroy Creasy, who has examined the micromolar concentration of resveratrol in more than 100 American wines, grapes grown in cooler climates are believed to contain more of the substance than warmer-climate counterparts. That's because the vine will synthesize resveratrol in greater amounts where there is a greater threat, say, from an invading fungus. Creasy found that New York wines, for example, averaged 7.5 micromoles (µM) per liter of resveratrol, while California red wines tend to have about 5µM of resveratrol.


Creasy declared that any wine with a concentration of resveratrol above 10 µM was "extraordinary." A winery in Oregon even puts the resveratrol level on the back labels of its Pinot Noirs, which contain over 20µM per liter. But that's still a microscopic amount compared to the doses that were given to the mice in the headline-grabbing study late last year. The mice were given 23 milligrams of resveratrol per kilogram of body weight (one milligram equals 4.38µM).


"Should you give resveratrol to your mice that are on a high-calorie diet if you want them to live longer? Yes. Will long-term ingestion of these levels of resveratrol be safe in humans? We do not know," said Dr. Curtis Ellison of the Institute on Lifestyle and Health at Boston University School of Medicine. "Will such doses, if safe, lead to longer lifespan of humans on a high-calorie diet? Perhaps. Will such doses have a large effect on mortality in humans not on a high-calorie diet? We do not know. Are we at the Institute starting to take resveratrol pills? Not yet."


Therefore, there's more hope than reality when it comes to the health benefits of resveratrol, especially in the amounts contained in red wine. And some scientists even believe that other components of red wine are primarily responsible for the beverage's positive effects on health.


According to Roger Corder, a professor of experimental therapeutics at Queen Mary University of London and author of The Wine Diet, (which calls for a glass of red wine nightly to live longer), flavonoids in red wine called procyanidins are primarily responsible for reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease--a major factor in increased longevity. Procyanidins are antioxidants that lend pigment to grape skin and aroma to wine, and are also found in cranberries and dark chocolate. Procyanidin is believed to help keep heart tissue healthy by regulating the production of a peptide known as endothelin-1, which helps to prevent blood clots and maintain the overall health of veins and arteries. And they were effective at levels found in wine, Corder said.


One day, resveratrol may prove a great boon to human health. Thanks to the publicity, resveratrol supplements are flying off the shelves in health-food stores, though doctors caution there may be risks with the dose and purity level of the pills. But for now, the most pleasurable way to get your daily dose of resveratrol is in a glass or two of red wine.


--Additional contributions to this report by Thomas Matthews and Eric Arnold

[American Patriot]

Do they make red wine without alcohol that doesn't taste like condensation off of a vat of fermenting pig manure?

I'm into supplements though. The idea of reversitall(my spelling) sounds great. Where can I get some?

In answer to the first question, no. I make wine myself and the alcohol is a natural byproduct of "growing yeast". Yeast (I'm sure you know all this already) reproduce and in doing so use sugars in the mixture (called must in wine production or wort in beer production) to produce energy and give off CO2 as well as alcohol in the process.

In fact, one of the things I looked at was "grape juice". But because grape juice is highly concentrated and processed, there's no resveratrol in it.

Natural occurring sources including grapes, peanuts and blueberries though.

So, if you're not into wine, eating raw berries isn't bad for you!

In answer to the second question, apparently there are several supplements available. However, a couple of things I learned in reading up on this is that 1) Resveratrol decomposes quickly when processed and exposed to air during the pill making process, and 2) a lot of places don't have enough of the substance in pill form to actually make it into your blood stream.

It APPEARS however that simply holding the chemical in your mouth will let it get into your blood stream in greater quantities quickly. You liver will break down the chemicals before it makes it to the blood stream.

So... I would think that you would have to let the pill 'melt in your mouth" for best effects.

[American Patriot]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
http://the-aps.org/press/journal/04/30.htm

Contact: Donna Krupa
Office: (301) 634-7209
Cell: (703) 967-2751
dkrupa@the-aps.org
Red Wine Mist? Resveratrol Shows Unique Anti-Inflammatory Effects In Human Lung; COPD, Asthma Potential Seen

BETHESDA, Md. (October 28, 2004) – Homing in on mechanisms for the reported effectiveness of resveratrol, which is found in red wine, researchers at Imperial College London, England, confirmed its broad anti-inflammatory action, and found potential for applications in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, and possibly even arthritis. Clinical preparation and delivery remain issues, though an aerosol version would have obvious benefits.

Indeed, lead researcher Louise Donnelly said “Resveratrol exhibited anti-inflammatory activity in all the systems we examined: laboratory cells lines as well as ‘real’ human airway epithelial cells,” or HAEC. The research paper published by Donnelly et al. in the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, notes: “Our study is novel as it examines the anti-inflammatory mechanism(s) of resveratrol in cells relevant to human disease and explores all of the proposed mechanisms in a single study.”

Most importantly, resveratrol “inhibited anti-inflammatory mediator release from human airway epithelial cells.” And contrary to earlier conjecture, the Imperial College researchers showed that “resveratrol did not act as an estrogen or glucocorticosteroid,” each of which have patient acceptance issues.

Resveratrol from red wine has long been associated with the so-called “French Paradox,” reflecting the low incidence of heart disease among the French despite their relatively high-fat diet. It is a polyphenolic compound found in the skins of such red fruits as grapes and plums, the red skin of peanuts, and even peanut butter. However, Donnelly noted there’s “no evidence that COPD, asthma (especially in asthmatic smokers) or related diseases have lower incidence in France or elsewhere in the Mediterranean region.”

OTC versions not useful: aerosol version needed

Moreover, Donnelly warned that their research group had “looked at the over-the-counter” versions of resveratrol and found that “it’s not very pure and probably wouldn’t be worth taking.” The major problem is bioavailability. The compound dissolves only in certain solvents, including alcohol, “and is cleared very rapidly in the liver,” Donnelly said.

Especially for such respiratory diseases as COPD and asthma, developing an aerosol version for inhalation probably would be a better option,” Donnelly said, noting that it would overcome one of the problems with steroids, which is noncompliance.

The current research aimed to confirm and quantify the effect of resveratrol and quercetin, a related plant-derived polyphenolic compound that often mimics its diverse activities, and to further study the molecular mechanisms involved.

While resveratrol “exhibited anti-inflammatory activity in all the systems we examined,” the researchers said, “it appeared to be more effective, although less potent, than glucocorticoids. Resveratrol also inhibited inflammatory mediator release from human airway epithelial cells (HAEC), inhibited iNOS and COX-2 (cyclooxygenase) gene transcription, together with IL-8 and GM-CSF expression in HAEC. The inhibition of iNOS (inducible nitric oxide synthase) expression and activity in primary HAEC is significant, because steroids are ineffective in this system,” the paper states.

IL-8 (interleukin-8) and GM-CSF (granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor) are important in the inflammation development, they noted, because IL-8 plays a major role in the recruitment of inflammatory leukocytes, particularly neutrophils, and GM-CSF is a cell survivor factor, thus prolonging the resident time of inflammatory cells. “The differential inhibitory effects of resveratrol on IL-8 and GM-CSF release (shown in this study) further suggest that resveratrol is not simply acting as a general inhibitor of inflammatory mediator release but exhibits some selectivity.”

Next steps: further narrow mechanisms of broad anti-inflammatory

Donnelly et al. conclude that resveratrol and quercetin “can act as novel anti-inflammatory agents. Their mechanism of action is not via the estrogen or glucocorticoid receptor; thus these agents might be beneficial in inflammatory diseases where glucocorticosteroids have proved to be ineffective, such as COPD, steroid-resistant asthma, and arthritis. These compounds may provide candidate molecules for the development of novel anti-inflammatory therapies.”

The current study “excluded a lot” of potential mechanisms of action, Donnelly said, but we
“still don’t know what its target receptor is as it binds like a protein, but acts like an estrogen,” which it’s not. “The good thing is that it does stop inflammation” across a broad range of systems, she added.

Source and funding: The article, “Anti-inflammatory effects of resveratrol in lung epithelial cells: molecular mechanisms,” appears in the October issue of American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology, published by the American Physiological Society.

In addition to Donnelly, other members of the research team, all from the Department of Thoracic Medicine, National Heart & Lung Institute, Imperial College London, England, are: Robert Newton, Gina E. Kennedy, Peter S. Fenwick, Rachel H.F. Leung, Kazuhiro Ito, Richard E.K. Russell and Peter J. Barnes.

Research was funded by grants from Pharmascience Inc., Pharmacia (part of Pfizer Inc.), the British Lung Foundation and the National Asthma Campaign (UK).

Editor’s note: A copy of the research paper by Donnelly et al. is available to the media. Members of the media are encouraged to obtain an electronic version and to interview members of the research team. To do so, please contact Donna Krupa at APS (301) 634-7209, cell (703) 967-2751 or dkrupa@the-aps.org.

* * *

The American Physiological Society was founded in 1887 to foster basic and applied bioscience. The Bethesda, Maryland-based society has more than 10,000 members and publishes 14 peer-reviewed journals containing almost 4,000 articles annually.

APS provides a wide range of research, educational and career support and programming to further the contributions of physiology to understanding the mechanisms of diseased and healthy states. In May, APS received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM).

# # #

[American Patriot]

Red Wine -- Or Resveratrol Pills -- May Prevent Cancer Says Strong New Research



last updated: 09-Jul-2008
Posted by Melanie Haiken, Caring.com senior editor


If you're concerned about your family's-- or your own -- cancer risk, you might want to add the antioxidant resveratrol to your diet. That's the conclusion of a new study just pubished in the July issue of Cancer Prevention Research, showing that resveratrol, a plant chemical found in red wine, peanuts, and blueberries, may protect against breast cancer.
A team led by Eleanor Rogan of the Eppley Institute for Research in Cancer and Allied Diseases at the University of Nebraska demonstrated that resveratrol suppresses the abnormal cell growth that leads to most types of breast cancer. Breast cancer is fueled by estrogen, and resveratrol acts to block the action of the estrogen, preventing it from feeding tumor growth.
This study is only the latest good news about red wine and resveratrol, which is being studied by teams at several universities and cancer centers.

• Research conducted at the University of Alabama at Birmingham showed that mice fed a diet enriched with resveratrol had an 87 percent reduction in their their risk of developing prostate tumors of the most dangerous kind.
• Researchers at the University of Virginia published findings suggesting that the compound might work by blocking a protein that feeds cancer cells, causing them to self-destruct.
• And yes, it has to be red wine -- researchers at Harvard found that while men who drank red wine cut their risk of prostate cancer by half, men who drank white wine gained no such benefit, and men who drank beer actually increased their risk of cancer.

Researchers have been hesitant to hail resveratrol as the new anti-cancer wonder drug, because most studies so far have been conducted in test tubes and mice rather than humans. But reaction to the latest study suggests the scales are tipping.

[American Patriot]

Do they make red wine without alcohol that doesn't taste like condensation off of a vat of fermenting pig manure?

I'm into supplements though. The idea of reversitall(my spelling) sounds great. Where can I get some?

Here you go Mal...

Red Wine Nutritional Supplement Featuring Super Antioxidant Resveratrol Designed to Extend Baby Boomer Healthy Years Introduced by Resmed Nutraceuticals

Business Wire , June 5, 2007

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/m..._/ai_n27262046

Resmedin[TM] by Resmed Nutraceuticals Corporation -- A New Red Wine Nutritional Supplement That Features the Super Antioxidant Resveratrol -- May Help Baby Boomers Find the Key to Extending Their Healthy Years
SARASOTA, Fla. -- Resmedin[TM] by Resmed Nutraceuticals Corporation -- a new red wine nutritional supplement that features the super antioxidant resveratrol -- may help baby boomers find the key to extending their healthy years.


A recent study on resveratrol -- conducted at Harvard University -- showed the antioxidant to have impressive properties. According to the research, resveratrol showed unprecedented promise as possibly being the most powerful super antioxidant ever discovered. Researchers concluded that the molecule has extended life spans in virtually every study done to date, and on a wide variety of organisms.


Extensive media coverage seems to indicate that interest in resveratrol has skyrocketed since the results of the Harvard study were released. It has been featured in numerous national magazines and heralded by many major news organizations around the globe.


However, according to Resmed Nutraceuticals Corporation, the real issue appears to be how much resveratrol is needed -- particularly in the growing baby boomer population, estimated to be at 78.2 million in the United States according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A recent Washington Post article brings into question the health experienced by the aging baby boomer population. The article stated that, "(Baby Boomers) may be the first generation to enter their golden years in worse health than their parents."


The makers of nutritional supplement Resmedin[TM] believe a product like resveratrol can help keep the baby boomers healthier. Up until now, most wine nutritional supplements have contained very small quantities of resveratrol. The antioxidant is costly, and in an effort to save money, manufacturers have routinely offered products with as little as 5mg of resveratrol, scarcely more than can be found in a few glasses of red wine.
Two Resmedin[TM] capsules per day can supply the equivalent of up to 1,000 glasses of red wine, without the calories, alcohol or preservatives found in wine, according to Resmed Nutraceuticals Corporation.


Resmedin[TM] contains resveratrol, grape seed extract, quercetin and whole red wine extract -- all of which are found in red wine -- and they are all powerful antioxidants. Quercetin has many of the same properties as resveratrol, and when they are combined, quercetin makes the antioxidant work better by increasing bioavailability. The formula for Resmedin[TM] is so potent and unique; the company has filed for a U.S. Patent on it.
About Resmed Nutraceuticals Corporation


Resmed Nutraceuticals Corporation is based in Sarasota, Fla. For more information on Resmedin[TM] -- the new nutritional supplement that features the super antioxidant resveratrol -- and anti-aging research, go online at www.600mg.com.

[American Patriot]

Cardiologist Praises Latest Resveratrol/Red Wine Research
Tue Jun 24, 2008 1:14pm EDT

http://www.reuters.com/article/press...08+PRN20080624

New Study Finds Low Dose Delivers Anti-Aging Heart, Skeletal Muscle and Brain
Health Benefits at Genetic Level

BOCA RATON, Fla., June 24 /PRNewswire/ -- William S. Gruss, M.D.,
board-certified cardiologist and author of the best-selling book on
resveratrol, A CARDIOLOGIST'S GUIDE TO ANTI-AGING, ANTIOXIDANTS & RESVERATROL,
praises the latest research on resveratrol by a team of scientists in Madison,
Wisconsin, published June 2008 [PLoS1, available online
http://www.plosone.org/home.action ].

This newest study on resveratrol shows that low-dose resveratrol inhibited
genes that cause age-related health problems, prolonging life-span. (Previous
studies showed high doses were shown to stimulate the SIRT1 gene, which plays
a role in extending life span.) Low-dose resveratrol consumption does not seem
to activate the SIRT1 gene.

"This supports human studies showing that red wine or red wine supplements
containing resveratrol are especially beneficial for heart health," says Dr.
Gruss. "It's a very exciting study. It identifies the role of resveratrol in
supporting heart health at the genetic level."

Resveratrol is a non-flavonoid polyphenol commonly found in red wine. The
French Paradox, the phenomenon of dramatically lower rates of death due to
heart disease in France compared to the U.S., has stimulated massive research
into compounds of red wine. Many of the well-known heart benefits of red wine
have been attributed to resveratrol.

"Resveratrol has emerged as one of the most fascinating and compelling
nutritional components in modern scientific research," says Dr. Gruss.
Resveratrol has been the focus of ground-breaking anti-aging research by
scientists at Harvard University (Baur, 2006) and in France (Lagouge, 2006).
These and previous studies established resveratrol as the only known compound
to extend life-span of vertebrate (mouse, fish) and invertebrate (yeast,
roundworms, fruit flies) life forms.

Resveratrol Inhibits Aging Genes

Prior to the resveratrol research, the only known method to extend
life-span was a near-starvation diet. Caloric restriction (CR) has been found
to retard aging and physiological decline. CR is so restrictive that it is not
practical for humans as a way of prolonging life-span.

In the study, researchers fed one group of mice a control diet, one group
a calorie restricted diet, and one a low dose of resveratrol (equivalent to
about 350mg a day for humans). They found "a striking transcriptional overlap
of CR and resveratrol in heart, skeletal muscle and brain."

"The genetic profile in brain, heart and skeletal muscle tissue of the
mice on CR and resveratrol were nearly identical as they aged. They were far
healthier than the control mice," explains Dr. Gruss.

Genetic and Functional Prevention of Cardiac Aging by Resveratrol and CR
Heart disease is the number one killer of Americans. According to the
study, cardiac function declines with age in both mice and humans.

"The most exciting conclusion from this study is that CR and resveratrol
almost completely prevented the age-related decrease in an important parameter
of heart health-the myocardial performance index, an overall assessment of
cardiac function," says Dr. Gruss. "Researchers concluded that resveratrol
prevented cardiac aging at both the genetic and functional levels."

Comparing young and old mice fed the control diet, there were 1,029 genes
that changed as the mice got older. CR opposed the changes in 921 (90%) of the
age-related genes, with 536 of the genes making a significant difference.
Resveratrol opposed 947 (92%) of age-related changes as the mice got older,
with 522 of the genes representing highly significant differences between the
old control and old resveratrol groups.

Changes in genes are considered one of the major biomarkers of aging.
Supplementing with resveratrol at low doses is a "likely robust intervention
in the retardation of cardiac aging," according to the study's authors.
Genetic Prevention of Brain and Skeletal Muscle Aging by Resveratrol and
CR

CR and resveratrol also opposed genetic aging of brain and skeletal
muscle, though to a lesser extent than heart aging. Aging resulted in the
change of 515 skeletal muscle genes; 26% were opposed by CR and resveratrol.
In the brain (neocortex), CR and resveratrol inhibited 19 and 13%,
respectively, of the 505 highly significant age-related changes.

Mechanisms of Action of Low-Dose Resveratrol

Low-dose resveratrol appears to enhance health by different pathways than
high-dose resveratrol. Low-dose resveratrol did not enhance health by altering
the well-known factors postulated to impact aging: IGF-1, insulin, SIRT1,
oxidative stress.

The mechanism of action of low-dose resveratrol appears to be at the
genetic chromosome (chromatin) level. Other mechanisms of action of low-dose
resveratrol may be through stimulation of AMP kinase and nitric oxide synthase
activity.

Resveratrol and Dietary Supplements for Anti-Aging

"This study confirms that dietary resveratrol can improve genetic
performance in old age of vitally important organs. It's a tremendous
breakthrough! You can improve your genetic performance as you get older by
starving yourself, or you can take a glass of red wine or a resveratrol
supplement," concludes Dr. Gruss.

In his book, Dr. Gruss recommends dietary supplements to address the four
factors of aging: genetic breakdown, oxidation, inflammation, and reduced
mitochondrial energy.

"I prefer alpha lipoic acid and oligomeric proanthocyanins (OPCs) from
grape skin and seed as antioxidants; acetyl L-carnitine as a mitochondrial
energy booster; and quercetin to reduce inflammation. Resveratrol is obviously
the first choice for genetic support as you age," says Dr. Gruss.

All of these ingredients, including resveratrol, are available in the
dietary supplement Revatrol(TM) available from Renaissance Health, Boca Raton,
Florida. For more, visit www.revatrol.com. Renaissance Health is a leader in
science-based anti-aging formulas that contain resveratrol.
SOURCE Renaissance Health

Noah Davis, +1-561-391-8717, for Renaissance Health

[American Patriot]

Ok - so my take is.... "Pinot Noir" - made from grapes grown in the wetter regions of the planet... so, oh, NW US, NE US... France...?

[Malsua]

Now if I could just have some alcoholess pinot noir.

[American Patriot]

I take it you don't drink then?

[Malsua]

No, I don't drink. I'm not anti-alcohol or anything it's just not something I partake of any more.

[American Patriot]

No, I don't drink. I'm not anti-alcohol or anything it's just not something I partake of any more.

Understood.

I limit myself to a glass or two of wine, or a beer a couple times a week. Especially of late, since I've not been feeling too well.

[Backstop]

The way things are going, I'm not sure I care to extend my visit.


EDIT:



Figured I'd better add a smilie to signify that is sarcasm...sort of.