Compound in Red Wine: Endurance and Longevity Go Up, Obesity Goes Down

Nicholas Wade's article in today's NY Times summarizes even more research results coming out of the studies of mice that consumed resveratrol, one of the main ingredients in red wine. The study of resveratrol, given in huge quantities to the mice, may open up a whole new field of drugs to prevent diabetes and reduce obesity, which in and of itself is likely to lower the incidences of stroke and heart attacks, at the very least, and prolong life. This ingredient in red wine has also been shown to dramatically increase endurance and longevity in the mice who took it compared to the ones who didn't. In fact, they resembled "trained athletes" without the training, with lowered heart rate and similar muscle fibers. The latest findings were published in Online Cell and the study was led by Dr. Johan Auwerx at the Institute of Genetics and Molecular and Cellular Biology in Illkirch, France.

The articles and the research point out that the same effects in humans would require the consumption of about 100 bottles of red wine a day. Since that's not possible, it makes sense to wait for the scientists to figure out how to isolate and condense resverarol into capsule form.

For a great series of articles on this research, check out Rob Stein's summaries in the Washington Post of the various aspects of the research: " A second pour of good news about substance in red wine," "A compound in red wine makes fat mice healthy." and " Red wine compound promises longevity, study finds."