Red wine compound may help fight aging

Source: Agencies  |   2008-7-5  |     NEWSPAPER EDITION

A COMPOUND in red wine may ward off a variety of medical conditions related to aging, providing heart benefits, stronger bones and preventing eye cataracts, American researchers have said.

The study, involving mice fed a diet supplemented with resveratrol starting in their equivalent of middle age, is the latest to raise hope that the compound or drugs based on it may improve the health of people.

Most of the mice given resveratrol did not live longer than other mice but were far more healthy in several important measures, according to the study published in the journal Cell Metabolism.

"The good news is we can increase health. I think that's more important than increasing life span," David Sinclair of Harvard Medical School, who led the study along with Rafael de Cabo of the US government's National Institute on Aging, said.

The mice in the study that were fed a high-calorie diet supplemented with resveratrol outlived those getting a high-calorie diet without the compound, the researchers said.

"Resveratrol wiped out the negative effect of the high fat," de Cabo said.

Resveratrol, found in abundance in grapes and in red wine, has drawn a lot of interest from scientists and some companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, which this year paid US$720 million to buy Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc, a company developing drugs that mimic the effects of resveratrol.

In the study, some mice were fed a standard diet, some a high-calorie diet and some got food only every other day.

De Cabo said while the new findings are promising, it would be premature for people to start taking resveratrol to improve health.