| In
August 2003, scientists announced the discovery of a way to
boost the principal "anti-aging" enzyme in living
cells. A study involving a class of enzymes known as sirtuins
(pronounced sir-TOO-ins) have been shown enhance cell survival
during times of stress and extend life. Resveratrol, an ingredient
in the skin of red grapes, which has also been credited with
red wine’s ability to lower the risk of heart disease
and cancer, has been found to be the most potent anti-aging
booster ever discovered.
"It's looking
like these sirtuins serve as guardians of the cell,"
said Harvard Medical School researcher David Sinclair, who
led the new work published in the journal Nature. "These
enzymes allow cells to survive damage and delay cell death."
For years researchers
have known that life span can be extended by 50 percent or
more in many kinds of creatures, including flies, worms and
mice, if the animal is fed a diet that is nutritious but contains
about 30 percent fewer calories than usual. Recently scientists
found that the life-extending benefits of calorie restriction
do not occur if the animal has been genetically altered to
lack sirtuins, indicating these enzymes are crucial to this
process.
Now scientists
are coming to understand sirtuins' role in that life-extending
response. In people, they seem to halt the normal cellular
cycle that ends with old cells committing suicide and instead
help rejuvenate them by beefing up their DNA repair processes
and stimulating production of protective antioxidants.
The new
report from Sinclair's team is the first to show that it is
indeed possible to tweak the sirtuin pathway. The group screened
a large number of biologically active chemicals and found
that Resveretrol from grape skins increases sirtuin activity
more than two-fold. Resveretrol extended the life span of
yeast cells by up to 80 percent.
Human
cells seemed to benefit, too. Those treated with Resveretrol
enjoyed long lives in laboratory dishes even after being exposed
to ionizing radiation, which damages DNA and usually shortens
a cell's lifespan.
"We think we know why these plants make these molecules.
We think it's part of their own defense response, and we also
believe that animals and fungi that live on the plants can
pick up on these clues," Sincliar said.
To illustrate that theory, Sinclair noted that red wines from
regions with harsher growing conditions -- Spain, Chile, Argentina
and Australia -- contain more Resveratrol than those produced
where grapes are not highly stressed or dehydrated.
"What we think
is that if a cell is at a point of deciding whether to live
or die, these sirtuins push toward the survival mode and let
the cell try a little harder and longer to fix itself,"
said Sinclair.
Leonard Guarente,
a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
in Cambridge, says "We're very keen on the idea that
this is it" – that sirtuins are the central regulator
of the aging process.” Guarente is a founder of Elixir
Pharmaceuticals of Cambridge, Mass., which, like Sinclair
and BIOMOL, hopes to capitalize on chemicals that can boost
sirtuin activity.
The immediate goal
in people would be to slow the progression of diseases of
aging such as Alzheimer's, because a more generic slowing
of the aging process could take decades to prove.
Dr.
Hansen’s Note:
If you are taking GSE
Ultra 110 you are way ahead of the
curve. You are already getting 150ppm Resveretrol in every
capsule. GSE Ultra 110 contains 110mg of Grape SEED Extract
and 110 mg of Grape SKIN Extract, plus 250 mg of Vitamin C.
Resveretrol is concentrated in the skin of the grapes and
not found in the seeds. It has been found to have significant
and unique anti-cancer and heart protective benefits all its
own. Now you know why we call it GSE Ultra 110. So, keep taking
your GSE Ultra 110 and keep getting younger.
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