Toasting Red Wines Anti-Aging Effect

BOSTONNo more whining about it, researchers have found more evidence that the red wine compound resveratrol may prolong lifespan and health-span by boosting the activity of mitochondria, the cells energy supplier, according to a new study published in the journal Cell Metabolism. The findings support previous evidence that the compound benefits obesity, heart health, cancer and more.

Over the last decade, researchers at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have published a body of research describing how resveratrol improves energy production and overall health in cells by activating a class of genes called sirtuins that are integral to mitochondrial function. The cells power supplier, mitochondria are essential not just for longevity but for overall health. They studied sirtuins in yeast, worms, flies and mice. For the first three organisms they were able to thoroughly knock out SIRT1 and show that cells lacking the gene dont respond to resveratrol; however, no one had been able to demonstrate the effect in mice, which die at birth without the SIRT1 gene.

The researchers spent three years engineering a new mouse model lacking SIRT1. They found when mice were given low doses of resveratrol after SIRT1 was disabled, there was no discernable improvement in mitochondrial function. In contrast, the mice with normal SIRT1 function given resveratrol showed dramatic increases in energy.

Resveratrol is a dirty molecule, so when you give very, very high doses, many things could be happening," they said. Its standard when you study molecules that you use the lowest dose that gives you an effect because of the risk of hitting other things if you use too much. But for the downstream benefits on energy, you still need SIRT1. Our paper shows that SIRT1 is front and center for any dose of resveratrol."