Eternal Youth in a Pill?

A new pill may provide the anti-aging benefits of a lean diet without cutting calories.

By Cynthia Dermody

From Reader's Digest

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Drastically cutting calories can help you live longer, but that's no fun. That’s why doctors are excited about resveratrol, a substance that seems to mimic the life-lengthening effects of calorie restriction without dieting.

You can get some resveratrol from pomegranates, blueberries, grapes and red wine (supplements are not proven to have benefits). Now pharmaceutical companies are working to engineer the substance into a prescription pill that may be effective enough to fight a host of aging-related diseases, starting with type 2 diabetes. Drugmaker Sirtris’s experimental resveratrol drug, SRT501, lowered blood sugar and improved insulin response in people with the condition at least as well as current drugs -- without weight gain. It's also being tested on cancer and has shown promise in treating Alzheimer’s too. It may be available within five years. Next up: Living to 150?

From Reader's Digest - April 2008

Should Everyone Read This? Yes! I vote for this story

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