Vive la France!
I was delighted to see a segment about Resveratrol on 60 Minutes last evening. We were just talking about it at the "10 Simple Things" seinar on Friday night.  As a health care professional I am often asked to recommend supplements that will significantly improve the quality of life, to both prevent and treat conditions, and Resveratrol is one of the most exciting that I have begun to speak with clients about. Last night’s  60 Minutes program focused on synthetic drugs that are being developed, however, natural Resveratrol supplements are already available to the public. I carry an isotonic (a highly bio-available, drinkable form) via my site, www.marketamerica.com/fitnessalfresco/.  Just type "Resveratrol" into the search window and select your quantity you want. If you should have any questions, you may contact me through this blog.

Here’s the link to the full story and video:  http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/01/25/60minutes/main4752082.shtml

Here are excerpts from the related article:
Fountain Of You th In A Wine Rx?
Jan. 25, 2024(CBS) Seventeen years ago, 60 Minutes first examined the so-called French paradox, which suggested that the French - despite a high fat diet and high consumption of wine - had a remarkably low incidence of heart disease, compared with Americans. Most researchers agreed that there was something in the wine that offered protection, and a few years later, even the highly cautious federal dietary guidelines say that moderate consumption of red wine can be beneficial.

Now, scientists across the country have identified a substance in red wine called resveratrol that they believe might do more than just protect the heart, but could - in very high concentrations - significantly extend life by preventing a number of age related illnesses. If they're right, we all may soon be taking a pill that could give us an extra decade or two of healthy old age.

Dr. David Sinclair, a biochemist at Harvard, and Dr. Christof Westphal have launched a Cambridge, Mass. research company. "If the promise holds true, I think this has the chance to change healthcare," Dr. Christoph Westphal tells correspondent Morley Safer.

[Resveratrol supplements] may not extend lifespan but could prevent the diseases of aging, like Alzheimer's, diabetes, heart disease, even cancer. "What we're talking about is activating the body's natural, genetic defenses against diseases. And that's very powerful if we can harness that," Sinclair says.

Resveratrol has been t ested on mice and the results have been encouraging. In a test-video … two mice were fed a high fat diet for 12 weeks. But when placed on a treadmill, one of the mice ran twice as far. He was given high concentrations of resveratrol.

"You have fat mice, and you have fat mice with resveratrol. And the ones that are on resveratrol, they can run twice as far, and they live longer, about 20 percent longer," Sinclair says.

Other studies showed that among mice fed a high fat diet, those taking resveratrol didn't gain as much weight as those not given the drug. Sinclair believes that resveratrol actually changes the physiology of the mice.

The proof, he says, is in the post-mortems. "Their organs looked pristine, youthful, fat-free, and their physiology was just like they were dieting. But they were fat."

Convinced that they were on the right path, they fast-tracked the drug into human trials on people with untreated diabetes. The results were impressive: it significantly lowered glucose and insulin levels, without the patients changing their diet or taking any other drugs.

"Originally our hope was that you'd be able to prevent diseases of aging. What we ended up seeing is actually you could therapeutically intervene in patients who have diseases of aging. And that was unexpected," Westphal says.

"Yeah, the diabetic patients with high blood sugar, and the molecules bring it down. That's treatment. That's not prevention," Sinclair adds.

Sinclair believes the se drugs will not only keep people living longer, but will keep them healthy longer. "We're talking about is potentially making a 90-year-old as healthy as a 60-year-old. A 90-year-old can play tennis, and see their great grandkids graduate from college. People will live active, healthy lives and then die quietly in their sleep. And that's really the aim here with these medicines," he says.

One measure of the potential of this research: Dr. Sinclair and Dr. Westphal’s little start-up company was recently bought by the pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline for almost three quarters of a billion dollars.