Me, My Dad, and Resveratrol

What if you could take a single pill, once a day, that would let you live longer and healthier? Resveratrol may be this pill.

My dad is one of the leading experts on health and longevity in the world. I'm serious. He's not your standard scientist, but he has been experimenting with the health of his own body ever since he was in college in the 60s. For example, in college he was really tall and really skinny: 6'2" and 130lbs! Wanting to gain some weight, he decided to eat a pound of butter a day (that's two whole sticks of butter a day!). He knew that you had to eat a lot of calories to gain weight, he'd read that fat had twice as many calories per gram as carbs or protein, and he knew butter had a lot of fat in it, so he though why not? Well, surprisingly, he didn't gain any weight, but he got really sick and lethargic. Lesson learned! He's been experimenting like this since his twenties and as a result has learned a hell of a lot about his body.

He is constantly reading about the latest breakthroughs in health and longevity, and on a daily basis he tracks things like his weight, the amount of sleep he gets, the number of calories he eats, what foods he eats in what quantities, the amount of exercise he does, his blood sugar level (he pricks his finger 5-10 times per day to take his blood sugar!) all in an excel spreadsheet, and he's got data going back at least 10 years. He takes something like 100 pills a day, mostly minerals, vitamins, and other dietary supplements, and he exercises so much that he is in better shape than I am.

My dad's habits have worn off on me to some extent - I take about 10 pills a day and try to exercise regularly and eat healthily - but I don't go to the extreme he does. I just try to pick out the best of his habits and apply them in my own life. I also enjoy telling my friends about the really important and less well known things my dad discovers. In this post I'd like to highlight his most recent and promising discovery: Resveratrol.

Resveratrol is a substance found in red wine, and there is mounting evidence that it extends life span significantly (e.g. ~30%) in organisms from yeast all the way up through mice, and very likely even humans. This is a true breakthrough, because until resveratrol was discovered the only thing known to extend life span similarly in all organisms was calorie restriction, which is impractical and really hard to practice for us humans (we love eating too much :). And resveratrol doesn't just help you live longer, it improves your health while you live. Who doesn't want to be healthier and live longer? As my dad puts it, this substance could be the "magic pill", the proverbial "fountain of youth", that people have been searching for since the dawn of humanity. My dad has been taking it in various forms for many years, and I've been taking increasing doses of it over the past couple years.

Rather than go on any more about this myself, I'll just quote my dad from an email he just sent me:

Here is the best article on Sinclair's blockbuster study using resveratrol:

http://web.med.harvard.edu/sites/RELEASES/html/11_1Sinclair.html

Here is the most potent, least expensive supplement: 37.5 mg resveratrol per capsule

Nature's Way, Resveratrol Synergistic Formula, 60 Vcaps
Our Price: $10.00
http://www.iherb.com/store/ProductDetails.aspx?c=Herbs&pid=NWY-15611

No one knows the ideal dose for humans, but resveratrol has been studied for safety and is extremely safe. The studies with mice that produce such dramatic results use high doses. I am experimenting with higher doses, currently taking 6 to 8 capsules per day, 2 capsules with each of my 3 or 4 meals. Even the suggested use of the above product, 4 capsules per day, should produce good results. I was taking only 90 mg/day until a few days ago, using two other brands, and the effect on my glucose readings after meals was simple [sic] amazing.

Here is a recent video from the Dow Jones Online discussing the same research as the article my dad links to above:

Resveratrol Heightens Endurance In Mice, Study Shows


And here is a video of Charlie Rose interviewing David Sinclair, the leading researcher studying resveratrol:

Charlie Rose - Red Wine & Mice


Finally, here is a recent post to the "MoreLife" yahoo group that my dad just forwarded on to me with lots of discussion by experienced members of the group. It contains lots of interesting tidbits about how resveratrol may improve memory, enhance muscle building, and a discussion of why, if it is possible to extend life significantly, it has not been selected for through evolution.

http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/morelife/message/1387


Live long and live well, and you may just live long enough to live forever :)