Earthsky Interviews
Lenny Guarente is learning how anti-aging gene could extend lifespans
08-05-2008 - Health
Lenny Guarente: One guide would be to look at what happens in the lab when you take a mouse and give it this diet that has adequate nutrition but low calories.
Guarente said a low-calorie diet – below 1,500 calories daily – triggers anti-aging genes called sirtuins.
Lenny Guarente: That can extend their life span by something like one-third.
Guarente said there’s an evolutionary reason for this.
Lenny Guarente: When conditions become harsh, and food is less available, what these sirtuin genes do is they shift the strategy towards maintenance, and that’s the state that would promote longevity and disease resistance.
Guarente said a drug might be developed to give the same effect as a low-calorie diet.
Lenny Guarente: So in principle, If things work the same in people as in mice, and you had a perfect drug, you might imagine that you could extend life span by 20 or 30 years. Being more realistic, drugs are not perfect. I think we could get 10 years of healthier living, and possibly longer living. So instead of getting whatever disease you want to talk about – osteoporosis, or cancer, even – instead of getting it at age 70, you get it later. Or, you don’t get it at all.
There’s more good news, for those who like red wine. A natural compound called resveratrol, found in red wine, may be able to provide these benefits without the strict diet.
Our thanks to:
Lenny Guarente
Professor of Biology
MIT
Cambridge, MA
When I was taking Cell Biology, I was taugh it was the length of the telomeres and now this article says it is a gene!
This topic will be covered on the next episode of Nova Science Now on PBS, airing August 6th. It will even include interviews with Lenny Guarente!
If you can’t wait until tomorrow check it out here:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3401/01.html
Talk about a “heavy hitter” in the world of anti-aging, Lenny Guarente is an extremely respectable guest to have on your next episode. His research in this field is by far more advanced then most. Personally I’d like to live longer, but living longer and staying healthy at the same time is the important part. I look forward to the continued results from researchers like Guarente.
In response to a p garcia’s comment: I believe telomere length and stability is still important with regards to cell immortality. The science of surtuins is just another portion of the big puzzle. Do a google search on “hTert” and you will find some interesting information regarding this topic.
Live Longer,
Markus
http://www.myresveratrolexperience.com
Aciar is the second compound to show the effect that the Sinclair Harvard Study
found with Resveratrol.
Resveratrol can help you to lead a long and healthy life so says Dr. Oz.
Red and wine alone does not supply enough resveratrol to achieve the
full range of benefits. You need to take high potency resveratrol
supplements to achieve the results documented in scientific studies.
Resveratrol Supplements can also help you control your weight naturally
by increasing energy, reducing cravings, and limiting your appetite.
According to Wikipedia, Consumer Lab, an independent dietary
supplement and over the counter products evaluation organization,
published a report on 13 November 2007 on the popular resveratrol
supplements. The organization reported that there exists a wide range
in quality, dose, and price among the 13 resveratrol products
evaluated. The actual amount of resveratrol contained in the
different brands range from 2.2mg for Revatrol, which claimed to have
400mg of “Red Wine Grape Complex”, to 500mg for Biotivia.com Transmax,
which is consistent with the amount claimed on the product’s label.
Prices per 100mg of resveratrol ranged from less than $.30 for
products made by Biotivia.com, jarrow, and country life, to a high of
$45.27 for the Revatrol brand.
I just wanted to update you on what has transpired in my life since I began taking Bioforte & Transmax. I began taking Bioforte 2 months ago. After just 2 weeks I noticed that the authoritis in my ankle was much improved. My ankle use to hurt so much that I walked flat footed, and could not raise up on my toe on my right foot. Now I have full motion with so little pain that I can ignore the minor ache. I also made a real attempt to stop snacking between meals. I noticed that after beginning the Bioforte that I started to lose weight. My energy after 30 days improved noticeably. 4 months prior to starting Bioforte I had started to work out in the pool after a 40 year lay off. After the first month taking 2 Bioforte’s each day my body seemed to have much more energy. My times in the laps improved to where at age 64 I am now swimming at the same level as I did in competition when I was 18years old on the swim team in High school. On 6/21/08 I went to the Senior Olympics in Columbia Missouri. I enter 3 events, the 50yd, 100yd & 200yd Breast Stroke. I won all three. I also beat every other person in that event who were in the younger age groups. Later I discovered that I broke the Missouri State Records for the 60 to 64 age group. I will be 65 in two weeks.
I want to comment on Dave Noble’s experience and open up the two possibilities here: 1) post hoc ergo procter hoc and 2) confounding factors. The Latin phrase means a fallacy in logic that we are all prone to commit- literally: “after this, therefore because of this.” In medicine, you can overcome this problem with a double-blind controlled trial but that was not done here.
I was at the meet that Dave was at and he did indeed swim amazingly well. However, he is still very much in shape anyway. I would guess he is a lot healthier than the average 64-year-old, probably in the top 90% of the indices used by the Counsilman swimming center at IU, indices including body fat and strength, and I don’t think that all happened during the short resveratrol interval. Re the confounding factors, how much of his current swimming ability and the effects attributed to the Bioforte & Transmax are due to other factors, such as the swimming workouts and the different diet? I’d like to believe that the resveratrol did indeed have the effects ascribed to it but there are other things at work here. At the 2006 FINA World Masters’ meet, a FINA official and swimming medical adviser in a lecture on supplements noted that data support efficacy in swimming for only two non-banned exogenous supplements: water in the form of adequate hydration, and creatine. To my knowledge there is as yet no double-blind study in humans that supports the efficacy claimed for resveratrol.
Dave, keep it up, you’re swimming elite Masters’ swimming times now, go Normandy!