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RESVERATROL
Resveratrol has been used as an antioxidant for some time. However, the really important story of resveratrol starts in August 2003 when a landmark paper was published showing resveratrol increased the life span of laboratory yeast by 70%. Later, life span extension was produced using resveratrol in round worms, fruit flies, and fish. Then in November 2006 two mouse studies were published: the first described increased life span and protection from diseases of aging such as atherosclerosis, and the second showed doubling of exercise endurance and reduced body fat. The ability of resveratrol to produce these effects in a mammal means that it will probably work in humans in a similar way since humans have the same genes which are activated by resveratrol.
THE PROMISE OF RESVERATROL
For 70 years, scientists have known that lifespan could be prolonged and many diseases prevented by restricting the calories an animal eats. The molecular mechanism which is turned on by restricting calories is also activated by resveratrol. The importance of this discovery is hard to overestimate. Much research remains to be done but the potential implications of activating a process which appears to prevent or delay virtually all diseases in animals are unparalleled in the history of human medicine. Resveratrol is likely to have an impact on human health comparable to the changes brought by antisepsis, vaccines and antibiotics during the 19th and early 20th centuries. These developments prolonged human lifespan mainly by reducing the death rate among the very young. Resveratrol will affect chronic diseases associated with aging, including atherosclerosis (heart disease, stroke), diabetes, cancer, brain diseases (Alzheimer's, Parkinson's).
WORLD HEALTH
It is my opinion that resveratrol has the potential to change the health of the world. It is derived from a plant source which is classified as an herbal supplement under FDA rules. A giant self-experiment has begun: millions of people are or will be soon taking resveratrol. It will be used to treat a wide range of diseases and disease prevention, and dieters and athletes will use it for the fat loss, increased metabolic rate, and the increase in exercise endurance. New drugs based on the resveratrol molecule are being developed which will be more potent, but it will be years before they are available, and such drugs may therefore be superfluous if resveratrol becomes widely used.
Resveratrol is present in certain kinds of red grapes, but the high purity material used in eResveratrol is derived from the giant knotweed plant, polygonum cuspidatum, which is native to Asia. The giant knot weed is a much less expensive and more abundant source of resveratrol than grapes.
Resveratrol interferes with influenza virus replication, and through SIRT1 activation, would improve resistance to infection. It is likely that widespread use of eResveratrol would reduce the incidence and severity of clinical influenza in the next widely anticipated pandemic. It would also probably reduce susceptibility to secondary pneumococcal pneumonia, the main cause of death due to influenza.
REVERSAL OF AGING
Perhaps the most amazing effect of resveratrol described in a recent mouse study is that mitochondria, the power sources of the cells, actually were altered to be more youthful. Mitochondrial dysfunction is believed to be the basic cause of aging, and as an animal ages its mitochondria become leaky and less efficient at energy generation. In the study, resveratrol actually made mitochondria function better than normal. In other words, resveratrol actually could restore an animal to a younger physiologic state, or make a young animal's mitochondria better than normal. Until now, it was thought that the aging process could only be slowed, but not reversed, and such slowing could only be accomplished by calorie restriction. The finding that new mitochondria are formed which are more effective than normal mitochondria suggests that the aging process can actually be reversed, at least in part!
DO YOU WANT TO LIVE LONGER?
Surveys indicate that most people are interested in living longer only if they can maintain their youthfulness. They want to be physically vigorous and mobile with good hearing and vision and young appearance. There is every reason to expect that resveratrol will preserve this youthfulness. Doing everything right for life-long health such as proper diet, regular exercise, not smoking, wearing seat belts, etc., will enable one to live 3 - 4 years longer. Based on animal studies on lifetime calorie restriction, humans should be able to prolong lifespan 40% or around 30 to 50 years by either following lifelong calorie restriction or using a Calorie restriction mimetic such as resveratrol.
SKEPTICS
There are "experts" who simply deny the importance of recent findings about resveratrol and recommend having a glass or two of red wine rather than take resveratrol supplements. This is in our opinion a tragic error from a public health standpoint which will be proved wrong with the publication of human studies on resveratrol currently underway.
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About Dr. Johnson
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James B. Johnson, MD practiced plastic surgery for over 20 years in the New Orleans area. Seeing thousands of candidates for liposuction, he became acutely aware of the rising rate of obesity and its consequences. In 2003, he began research on a diet he invented, the Johnson UpDayDownDay Diet (link), based on alternate day calorie restriction. The diet is a means of weight control and confers profound health benefits as described in our publications. In August 2003, Dr. Johnson began taking resveratrol after publication of a study showing that it increased the lifespan of yeast by 70%. Both the diet and resveratrol act by turning on a gene called SIRT1, the principal lifespan regulator. Dr. Johnson continues research in both areas and created this website to make a high quality supplement available as well as to provide information and collect and analyze the experience of users of eResveratrol. |
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