Comprehensive Library Of Resveratrol News

For unexplained reasons biologists working in the field of aging fail to explain what causes aging genes to switch on or off, and why genes that accelerate aging begin to progressively exert their influence with advancing age, beginning after full childhood growth is achieved.

There are electrifying studies which assay the gene activation (called gene expression) profiles of animals and humans subjected to calorie-restricted (CR) diets, which is a known practice that prolongs the life of all living organisms.

Also, molecular CR mimetics, or so-called anti-aging pills, comprised of small molecules like resveratrol that can influence genetic machinery inside living cells, have been analyzed for their influence over the human genome.

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The Telegraph, a British online news source, announces Viagra (Sildenafil) will soon be sold in supermarkets without the need for a doctor’s prescription.  The focus of the Telegraph report is not that Viagra will be sold over-the-counter, but rather that it could be a “bad idea… according to pension experts.” Viagra would be a bad idea — not because it may have side effects or cause men to use it indiscriminately, but for another reason.

The Telegraph says it all has to do with the law of unintended consequences.  The gap between male and female life expectancy is narrowing.  Typically women live 5-8 years longer than men.  That gap is shrinking to about 4 years, according to the British Office of National Statistics.  A pension consultant quoted in the Telegraph report says this is because men are seeking medical care and visiting their doctor more than in past years, not for reasons to check up on their health, bur rather to obtain a prescription for Viagra.

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Reply to: Jennifer Johnson

Niacinamide (form of vitamin B3) is also known as nicotinamide.  You read in the following abstract that depletion of nicotinamide is sufficient to activate the SIR2 gene (which is akin to the SIRTUIN1 gene in humans) and therefore regulate longevity.  Since vitamin B3 is ubiquitous in food, starvation (calorie restriction) would deplete this essential vitamin and send a survival signal by upregulating SIRTUIN1 (SIR2 in lower life forms). [see Ref. #1 below] Of course, niacin is essential for life, a frank deficiency resulting in the vitamin deficiency disease called pellagra.  So it would not be desirable to deplete niacin, nor starve oneself, to achieve longevity, though limited-calorie (CR) diets that border on starvation are employed by a few longevity seekers (Calorie Restriction Society).  The idea of employing resveratrol is to create the same survival signal without having to deprive oneself of food. Biologists face a roadblock here because CR produces lean bodies, whereas resveratrol has only been shown to do this in animals at extreme doses (14,000 mg human equivalent dose in rodents, which is a potentially toxic dose). [Ref. #2 below]  However, it has become apparent that low doses of resveratrol work better than high doses [Ref. #3], and when combined with other small molecules such as those provided in red wine (quercetin, ferulic acid, etc.), exerts even greater biological activity and influence over the genome.  More important, when resveratrol is combined with other small molecules such as quercetin, the two molecules inhibit fat cell (adipocyte) activity. [See Refs #4 & #5 below]  Longevinex was compared to a CR diet and plain resveratrol in a head-to-head study.  Whereas it takes life-long adherence to a CR diet to significantly differentiate 832 genes, Longevinex differentiated nearly twice as many longevity genes (1711) in the short-term.  For comparison, short-term CR only exerted influence over 198 genes and plain resveratrol 225 genes.  This suggests that short-term supplementation with plain resveratrol would have to continue for decades to achieve the same effect as a CR diet, whereas Longevinex produced a similar gene expression profile as CR in the short-term.  Since many people don’t have decades of life ahead of them, the full benefits of resveratrol supplementation may not be achieved.  This is not to say resveratrol is not beneficial, but it may not mimic the longevity of CR with short-term use.

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Amyloid protein is now said to “poison” insulin-secreting islet cells in the pancreas and may be the triggering event in adult-onset diabetes say researchers in Dublin today.  It is believed amyloid protein is a “rogue protein that sparks diabetes,” say researchers.

According to a BBC News report, “the researchers said that they hoped the finding would ‘spur new research’ to target the mechanisms of the disease,” acting as if underlying mechanisms are unknown.  In fact, the accumulation and lack of control of copper has been clearly identified as the factor responsible for the accumulation of amyloid protein in the pancreas and other human tissues with advancing age.

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So often, books about super-longevity present a scenario that proposes to deliver an anti-aging pill at some distant time in the future that one wonders if it isn’t science fiction.  True, in this era of genetic engineering, biologists are on the cusp of delivering technologies that significantly extend the quality and quantity of human life. Certainly the idea of an anti-aging pill is now on the biological drawing board.  But the current science appears to be running in circles.  Researchers have their pet genes or organs they study.  But who is consolidating all the data into a theory of aging that would be practical and economical for the masses?

Anti-aging researchers can describe age-related changes inside living cells, and in the library of 25,000 human genes, but they often fail to present a framework for what causes those changes.  The current fascination with genetic switching is a distraction.  Genes don’t switch themselves on or off.

We live with the knowledge that our genes are influenced by environmental factors (diet, radiation, temperature) in what is called epigenetics.  Fashioning molecular cocktails to favorably influence the genome is the agenda of the day.  Whatever age-defying molecular cocktail is invented must also overcome deleterious factors, such as excessive calorie diets.  The building of an anti-aging pill is quite a challenge.

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