Resveratrol on NPR
My wife let me know about a short NPR broadcast about resveratrol. Nothing really new for uglychart.com readers, but it’s interesting to hear from David Sinclair (of SIRT), who I posted about previously.
“This is proving what is potentially possible with drugs of the future,” Sinclair says. “So I’m saying that there might be a time when you could be prescribed a pill for, say, diabetes and as a side effect you might be protected against heart disease, cancer, and maybe even Alzheimer’s.”
The reason why I take resveratrol is that the possible benefits outweigh the risk. There are very few negative side-effects reported from the drug in animals, while there are lots of positive findings. There is always some risk, but it is a gamble I’m willing to take - especially after trying it and noticing some positive changes in myself.
“If you look at how much red wine, for example, you would have to consume,” Kaeberlein says, “it’s something like 300 glasses of red wine a day to get a comparable amount of resveratrol to what was given to the mice in this study.”
Sinclair says it’s actually more like 100 glasses. But that’s still a lot of drinking.
The pills I take are 500mg - the equivalent of 250 glasses of red wine.
I am a little concerned about taking resveratrol over a period of many years. Who knows what the side-effects could be from taking it for so long. But it is also possible that it could have substantial positive health benefits - like prevention of cancer, more endurance, and reduced effects of aging.
Update: here is another story about resveratrol on NPR.
