So long as there is adequate nutrition, cutting calories by 40pc prolongs lifespan by 50pc or more — in yeast, mice, rats and every other species so far tested.
In 1999 David Sinclair, at Harvard, showed that a single gene, SIRT1, controlled the process of ageing. Subsequent work showed that resveratrol, found in red wine, activates this gene. Perhaps this explains why red wine seems to prolong healthy life.
Animal evidence suggests that it should work against the developed world’s fastest-growing degenerative disease, diabetes.
Now a small trial in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, in north-east England, will test resveratrol, which could lead to a whole family of new drugs with powerful effects against the diseases of ageing. Also, a proprietary version of resveratrol, SRT501, is under trial in India against diabetes, and newer versions, hundreds of times more powerful, are in the pipeline.
Personally, I’d rather eat a bit less (its cheaper and frees up time for doing other things) and have a occasional glass of red, rather than have to resort to a chemical pipeline.
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