Resveratrol

The Harvard Medical School has been at the forefront of the resveratrol research process for quite some time, led by Dr. David Sinclair, perhaps the most respected expert on the compound and the benefits it may provide.

It’s clear now though that he’s not the only person supporting those claims, and now many new companies are beginning to develop drugs and products that could offer a huge array of health benefits, including the highly sought after life extension principles that earlier work on insects and animals showed.

The key to the benefits provided by resveratrol may be sitruin activators in the body. Resveratrol activates sirtuins, which are a specific type of protein in the body. These proteins are believed to help the body cleanse itself from toxins. This means that they can help prevent diseases, they can boost the immune system and they can even help to extend the healthy life of a person.

This extension of life is mostly caused by the prevention of major ailments and disruptions. When mice are placed on a caloric restriction diet, eating approximately 30 percent less calories, then they experience an increase in life expectancy of about 40 percent. Activating sirtuins within the body is thought to be able to provide these same benefits, to the same degree or potentially even stronger.

What kinds of diseases can be combated, and what kinds of benefits can be offered? Running down the list, you’ll see that you’ll find the majority of deadly diseases that plague the world’s otherwise healthy population. This includes diabetes, cardiovascular disease, several types of cancer including colon and lung, Alzheimer’s and more, all of which can be potentially fought off or prevented through sirtuin activation.

Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, named for sirtuins, is in the process of developing clinical drugs that can help activate sitruins and provide all of these great benefits in a safe, consistent matter. They don’t make use of resveratrol itself, but rather they make use of drugs that copy the effects of the compound within the human body.

The compounds they have developed are even stronger and more potent than resveratrol itself, which means they can be administered in smaller, more manageable doses. It also means that the benefits could be even more far reaching than what science has thus far found.

Sirtris Pharaceuticals is testing many of their new drugs and compounds in clinical trials already. Some of their compounds include SRT-501, SRT-2104 and SRT-1720, all of which are chemical impersonators of resveratrol.

Their SRT-501 compound is being put up against colon cancer and multiple myeloma; SRT-2104 is in trials for Type 2 diabetes and SRT-1720 has already been found to increase healthy life expectancy in mice. So far, as results are coming to come in as being successful, there has also been a healthy lack of side effects, meaning the research and trails are both continuing to more advanced degrees.

So how is all of this really possible? What is it about sitruin activators that can help to slow, reverse or stall the aging process? Researchers now view many aging related ailments and changes as the inevitable result of ongoing DNA mutations as you grow older. However, Dr. Sinclair actually points to these mutations changing or removing the presence of sirtuins. Therefore by combating this problem, and working on sirtuin activation in the right ways at the right time, aging can actually be reversed or stopped.

Sirtris Pharamaceuticals is one of many companies and researchers that are optimistic about this and similar potential benefits. Sirtris has a goal of putting out to the market legitimate longevity drugs within five years. With the research they have thus far backing their claims, that seems to be a strong possibility. Of course, drug development and trials are no sure thing, and early results from effectiveness trials won’t be available for at least another year.

Until then, everyone looking for the next miracle drug will have to wait. Research clearly shows that resveratrol, through sirtuin activation, can provide a slew of healthy benefits. Now, can those benefits be harnessed into a clinically proven drug for the masses?