James asked:


Welcome to the most recent, but certainly not the last, fountain of youth. Resveratrol.

Unless you make it a practice to live under a rock, avoid the news, Oprah Winfrey, Dr Oz, 60 Minutes or any specials with Barbra Walters, you have heard, by now, about resveratrol.

Eighteen years ago 60 minutes took their first look at something called the French paradox, which was the appearance that the French had lower instances of heart disease than Americans, despite a lifestyle involving a high fat diet and large amounts of red wine consumption.

Today, researchers have identified a specific substance in the red wine, a fungus to be precise, that they believe, when taken in very high concentrations, may extend life an extra ten to twenty years. That fungus is known by Sirtris as SRT501, and to the rest of us as resveratrol.

Sirtris is the company that 60 Minutes interviewed and depending on your beliefs about huge multi billion dollar companies looking out for the best interests of the consumer, sold themselves to Glaxosmithkline for about 720 million dollars.

This brings me to the number four (Were counting down) bad thing about resveratrol that you should know: The company that owns the research rights and development of resveratrol is the second largest Pharmaceutical company on the planet. Earning over seven billion dollars in revenue last year and established in over 70 countries, this is what is commonly referred to as a “Monopoly”. Just something to consider when the price to extend your life could arguably become “controlled”.

Tying in closely to number four is the number three bad thing about resveratrol that you should know: Neither Sirtris, nor glaxosmithkline have their name on any resveratrol product on the market. That’s right. If 60 minutes went strait to the source to bring us the facts about this new wonder pill, why can’t we find a bottle anywhere with their name on it being sold? Better yet, Who is making the stuff on the market currently and how good is it?

That brings us to the number two bad thing about resveratrol that you should know: Resveratrol is an herbal supplement that is NOT regulated by the food and drug administration. That’s right. With all the coverage of how great resveratrol is, anyone with Japanese knotweed or a grape vine in their back yard can dry out and grind up product thought to have the active fungus and cram it into a capsule and sell it to you for whatever price they wish to charge with absolutely zero accountability as to it’s effectiveness.

That brings us to the NUMBER ONE bad thing you should know about resveratrol.

The number one thing you should know about resveratrol is that absolutely no studies exist supporting resveratrol extending the life of humans. That is a fact.

Research Sirtris, research the sirtuin gene, research Christopher Westphal  or David Sinclair, a biochemist at Harvard studying the genetic components of aging. Even research centenarian populations in Japan and around the world and the results are always the same. Resveratrol has been proven to extend the life span in yeast perhaps, but not humans. No way, no how, forget it. No proof whatsoever.

In conclusion, should you buy resveratrol for yourself? That’s entirely up to you. The most important thing being emphasized here is just make sure you know the facts and you go in with your eyes open before shelling out hard earned cash under false presumptions.