Resveratrol - Eat Whatever and Live to 120?

Hi, this is Dr. Mark Hyman. Live to be 120 by eating as much as you want and drinking lots of red wine. That's the intriguing finding of a recent study from Harvard researcher David Sinclair and his group. The only catch? Well, you'd have to drink about 1,500 bottles of wine every day to get those results. Of course, you'd die pretty quickly from liver failure before you'd have the chance to reach age 120, but these findings are still very important. In fact, Dr. Sinclair thinks that they're so important that he started a company to produce a pharmaceutical derivative of the active compound in red wine called resveratrol, and he sold that company to a drug company called GlaxoSmithKline for $750 million. So they're on to something. Although his findings have merit, I think he's misguided in his attempt to find the magic pill that will allow you to eat whatever you want and live forever. The body is just much more complex than that. This week I'm going to explain why that magic pill won't work and what will really help you to live longer and prevent all the diseases of aging. Now don't get me wrong, Dr. Sinclair is on the right track but I believe he's focused on the wrong thing. In looking for that magic pill he's not taking the big picture into account and that will always fail. Sure there's been a lot of fanfare about this new drug resveratrol that can extend your lifespan, let you eat whatever you want and have the fitness of a trained athlete without any exercise. But that's wrong on a couple of counts. First resveratrol isn't a drug at all, it's a natural plant defense molecule or phytonutrient that's found in grapes and therefore red wine as well as in peanuts, berries and a Chinese herb called hu-zhang. Second, all the excitement reinforces the idea that a single molecule, whether from a drug or plant, can solve all your health problems. Just as in functional medicine we look at all the systems of the body, we need to consider resveratrol as one of many healthful plant compounds. You see, resveratrol is just one of a type of thousands of compounds called phenols which makes up just one class of phytonutrients. These phytonutrients act in many ways, the most important of which is a genetic control system turning on and off genes that help us stay healthy. This is the science of nutrigenomics or how food is information that tells our bodies what to do, not just a source of calories we need for energy. You see, I believe that all the excitement about resveratrol is misguided. Why? Because everyone is looking for a quick fix. and scientists, especially ones who start pharmaceutical companies to market their discoveries, are looking to make a quick buck. There's nothing wrong with that either, but in order to find the real secret to longevity and to healthy aging and fitness, we need to look at how this compound works and learn from that how to keep ourselves healthy. So what's the real secret and how does Resveratrol work? Well in one word, Mitochondria. Now that's a big word that describes something very simple. The little organ in every cell that turns oxygen and food into energy. It makes your energy. So let's examine the recent studies that shed light on this mighty little organelle, the mitochondria, and holds the key to health, weight loss and longevity. In the first study published in Nature, Dr. Sinclair and his colleagues gave one group of mice a high fat diet, 60% of calories. What happened? Well, in middle age, they all became obese, they got diabetes, fatty livers, and died early. Another group of mice were fed the same diet, but they also received resveratrol at a dose of 24 mg/kg of body weight. That's equivalent to the amount of resveratrol in about 750 to 1500 bottles of red wine a day. Now, what happened to those mice? Well, they still got fat, but they lived longer and didn't get diabetes. They were also more agile and they had more endurance than the rats who didn't get their resveratrol. Interestingly, the cholesterol profiles didn't improve, but they didn't get heart disease, showing us that cholesterol is not necessarily the big evil we think it is. But what do these findings mean for us? What they tell us is that aging and disease are controlled in large part by sugar and insulin function in the body. Now, I'm about to explain how you can use this information to reverse disease, lose weight, and live longer and healthy. But first, let me tell you about the second study, which in some ways was even more dramatic. That study, published in the journal Cell, tested much higher doses of resveratrol in mice. These doses were 18 times higher than those in the first study. That's 400 milligrams per kilogram of resveratrol, equal to about 360 capsules daily of Resveratrol for 130 pound person. Now, nobody's going to take 360 capsules of anything. And the study's findings were even more dramatic. Imagine the fitness of a trained athlete staying thin and preventing heart disease and diabetes and living to 120 all while eating a high calorie, high fat diet and of course taking 360 pills of Resveratrol a day. That's exactly what happened to the rats. Specifically, the rats fed the high doses of Resveratrol along with their calorie rich and fat high fat diet had the following effects. One, they didn't gain weight and reduce the size of their fat cells. They didn't develop diabetes or prediabetes. They increased the number of energy producing mitochondria in their muscle and also turned up their metabolic thermostat and increased fat burning. They also increased endurance and aerobic capacity without exercise. And they maintained their cell sensitivity to insulin resulting in better blood sugar control. Plus they had enhanced muscle strength and reduced muscle fatigue and improved coordination and also improved the activity of a specific molecule that controls genes that affect blood sugar with no bad effects on any organs. Does that seem incredible? Well, it's all very plausible if you understand the root causes of obesity, aging and disease. Those causes are: blood sugar control, and the health, number and function of your mitochondria. Still, it's unlikely that taking only Resveratrol, even at high doses, will allow us to live a life of sloth and gluttony and live disease free forever. But what these studies do tell us is very important. When we view these study findings from a systems perspective, that is the perspective of functional medicine, Understanding all the influences on blood sugar control and insulin and our mitochondrial function, we can create a lifestyle and a program that works to help us stay healthy, thin and young. Recently I was at a conference on longevity and aging and had a chance to have a conversation with Dr. Leonard Guarente from MIT. In 1995 he discovered a gene called the Sirt2 gene in yeast that controls longevity. He was a teacher of David Sinclair who authored one of those recent studies I talked about. I asked Dr. Guarante what he really thought was at the root of the effects of this master control gene that controls aging. Resveratrol actually works through this gene and his answer was quite simple. He said it was sugar. This gene has its master effects on aging by improving how the body controls blood sugar and insulin sensitivity. Now this isn't really surprising That's because all the effects of aging are increased through worsening blood sugar control even before you get diabetes. People with diabetes in fact have smaller and more poorly functioning mitochondria and get cancer, heart disease and dementia at a far greater rate than the general population. So if we could fix our blood sugar control and boost our mitochondria then we could live longer and disease free. So let's look at the big picture again. Taking the magic pill alone just won't do the trick. That's especially true if you factor in all the other real life insults affecting us such as poor diet, stress, environmental toxins and a sedentary lifestyle, all of which affect blood sugar control and mitochondria. Instead, you need to know all of the factors that damage your blood sugar control and your mitochondria and you need to know all of the factors, not just one, that improve or boost your blood sugar control and your mitochondria. Now these are the principles of systems medicine or functional medicine. We find the bad stuff and take it away, we identify the good stuff the body needs to thrive and we get rid of it. So what can you do to live longer and disease free other than drink 1500 bottles of red wine or take 360 pills of resveratrol a day? Well here's 10 tips to boost your mitochondria. First, Eat to balance your blood sugar. Eat protein with every meal. Increase your intake of omega-3 fats. Eliminate or partially or dramatically eliminate flour products. Find ways to relax every day and reduce stress. To boost your mitochondria you will need to exercise and build muscle. Eat foods with phytonutrients that's color and variety of plant foods. Consider some supplements that help protect and boost your mitochondria like carnitine, Lipoic acid, and even resveratrol. Avoid environmental toxins by learning to live clean and green, and learn how to help your body detoxify from those toxins. Now this is just a start of things you can do. Just remember, you need to take a comprehensive approach to health, taking advantage of the latest research to help you improve your metabolism, stay thin, and live longer. There are no quick fixes, but addressing your whole system will give you a huge advantage. Thank you.