Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Chaoswizkid]

Sorry for the mouthful of a title.

I somewhat recently stumbled upon this: http://hms.harvard.edu/news/new-study-validates-longevity-pathway-3-7-13

The study comes out of Harvard and focuses on a chemical known as resveratrol that activates a sirtuin, "a [gene] that [is] believed to protect many organisms, including mammals, against diseases of aging". The sirtuin in question is designated SIRT1, which "protects the body from diseases by revving up the mitochondria, a kind of cellular battery that slowly runs down as we age. By recharging the batteries, SIRT1 can have profound effects on health."

Resveratrol is found in the skin of grapes, berries and in peanuts.

While a previous study found that resveratrol activates SIRT1, the findings were deemed inconclusive because a direct link between resveratrol and SIRT1 was not proven and may have been indirect or consequential. This recent study proves the direct link.

Comments of animal testing: "Mice on resveratrol have twice the endurance and are relatively immune from effects of obesity and aging. In experiments with yeast, nematodes, bees, flies and mice, lifespan has been extended."

The bottom line is that now full effort can be put into improving resveratrol or creating other chemicals that have the same effect in order to increase our own lifespans.

I wonder if this gives some more credibility to "Drink a glass of wine with dinner for your health"?


This has been Chaoswizkid reporting for Bay12News.

P.S.: Seriously, I get most of my news from the Bay12 community. Perhaps not the headlines, but I get a lot of depth into each news article from the links posted by users here. Thanks everyone.

[freeformschooler]

Stevie had it right all along!

[Xantalos]

I like this news.

[Vector]

I do, too.

[Devling]

First thought, when can this be commercalized?
Second thought, this is so awesome.
Third thought, this is so terrible.
I might benefit from a longer lifespan, but everyone else suffers from me taking more resources.
Unless this would also increase the years I/other people could work.
Then that's cool I guess.

[Glowcat]

Excellent. Now I can procrastinate even more.

[Chaoswizkid]

First thought, when can this be commercalized?

In 2006, Sinclair’s group published a study showing that resveratrol could extend the lifespan of mice, and the company Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, which was started by HMS researchers, was founded to make drugs more potent than resveratrol. (Sinclair is a co-founder of Sirtris, a GlaxoSmithKline company, and remains a scientific advisor. Sirtris currently has a number of sirtuin-activating compounds in clinical trials.)

So, not much on "when", unfortunately, but there's already been some progress. Hopefully this will speed things up/make things cheaper/etc. instead of possibly being "alternative medicine".

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I wonder if you can buy this from somewhere...

So, any takers for petitioning Congress to resveratrolate the water supply?

[Moghjubar]

Resveratrol supplements have been around for awhile.  Granted, theres probably a lot of shit ones that actually contain no appreciable resveratrol, but I'm sure theres a few good ones now.

Or, you could just eat red grapes (which you may want to wash the pesticides off of first, if you are going to be eating them often).

I think some other things contain it too, just grapes and wine was the most common source.  As for flouri...erm, resveratrolidating the water, I'm uncertain the chemical would last in the water supply.

[Loud Whispers]

So, any takers for petitioning Congress to resveratrolate the water supply?

100 years from now incredibly youthful looking sages clad in tinfoil shall declare the horrors of resveratol.


In any case this is promising and hopeful, but so is just about any scientific endeavour really. Especially one so helpful in increasing human longevity.

[penguinofhonor]

So, any takers for petitioning Congress to resveratrolate the water supply?

You're not touching my precious bodily fluids, commie.

[RedKing]

Hey, now we can make it a virtual statistical certainty that we'll all die from cancer!

Seriously....cancer is your DNA getting buggy code after a long enough time period. The longer you're alive, the higher the likelihood one of those buggy cells turns malignant and begins to try to take over your body. Aging is theorized to be one of the body's defenses against cancer, by "shutting off" cells detected to have errors in them. Without a method for preventing DNA errors, anti-aging drugs are just a minor breakthrough.

[Ochita]

woah adding something to the water supply?

Seems like a possibly bad idea. You can't really control the dose or anything, which could lead to some problems. Also the fact that no-one likes the idea of things being put into the water. Otherwise, this sounds interesting I suppose?

[MonkeyHead]

woah adding something to the water supply?

Seems like a possibly bad idea. You can't really control the dose or anything, which could lead to some problems. Also the fact that no-one likes the idea of things being put into the water. Otherwise, this sounds interesting I suppose?

Flourination all over again huh?

[Korbac]

Hey, now we can make it a virtual statistical certainty that we'll all die from cancer!

Seriously....cancer is your DNA getting buggy code after a long enough time period. The longer you're alive, the higher the likelihood one of those buggy cells turns malignant and begins to try to take over your body. Aging is theorized to be one of the body's defenses against cancer, by "shutting off" cells detected to have errors in them. Without a method for preventing DNA errors, anti-aging drugs are just a minor breakthrough.

I'd say that it's a significant breakthrough, but I agree that simply picking up cancer as a result of extended age will cause problems.

Similarly, does Livealotalol allow regeneration of brain / heart tissue? Because eventually you'll just lose your brain anyway.