Toast Red Wine for a Ripe Old Age?

Corks are undoubtedly popping off merlot bottles a lot faster this week in the wake of a report from Harvard Medical School researchers that found a molecule in red wine extends life spans.
Lead researcher David Sinclair and his colleagues reported in the early online edition of Nature that a class of chemicals that includes resveratrol -- a molecule that's an active ingredient in red wine -- extended life by 70 percent in yeast, worms, and fruit flies.
So dramatic are the life-extension benefits, says Sinclair, that they mimic the life-extending effects of calorie restriction, which most would view as a lot less palatable than drinking red wine.
Molecules such as resveratrol regulate other proteins, which interfere with the natural process of cell death, the researchers say.
While the news is heralded as exciting and fascinating, other researchers caution that it's a little too soon to depend on vino to get you to your century birthday bash.
"It's too early to say whether this will relate to anything to do with human health," says Dr. Arthur Klatsky, senior consultant in cardiology at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland, Calif., and a pioneer in studying the effects of alcoholic beverages on cardiac health in humans.
While red wine is the best source of the molecule, it's also found in peanuts and grape juice.
Sinclair's team is continuing the research and hopes to test the molecule's life-extending properties on rodents and, eventually, humans.
Sinclair, an assistant professor in Harvard's Department of Pathology, emphasizes that he is not a doctor. But his advice for boosting longevity -- besides waiting for further research results -- would be: "Don't smoke, walk or run at least once a week, keep your cholesterol down, and drink an occasional glass of red wine."
Before you shop, you might want to know that resveratrol is most plentiful in wines from grapes that had harsh growing conditions. That means pick Chilean or Australian red wines and pass up the California varieties, advises Sinclair.