A study done by Harvard University professor David Sinclair released late in 2006 revealed that resveratrol reversed nearly all of the health deficiencies produced in the high calorie diet of lab mice.  The drug almost eliminated all the health issues known to go along with obesity, the most stunning of which is the life span.  In this study, the obese mice lived just as long as mice of normal weight.

“Mice are much closer evolutionarily to humans than any previous model organism treated by this molecule, which offers hope that similar impacts might be seen in humans without negative side-effects,” says co-senior author David Sinclair, HMS associate professor of pathology, and co-director of the Paul F. Glenn Labs for the Biological Mechanisms of Aging.

“After six months, resveratrol essentially prevented most of the negative effects of the high calorie diet in mice,” said Rafael de Cabo, Ph.D., the study’s other co-senior investigator from the National Institute on Aging’s Laboratory of Experimental Gerontology, Aging, Metabolism, and Nutrition Unit. “There is a lot of work ahead that will help us better understand resveratrol’s roles and the best applications for it.”

One of the most interesting twists of the study was the increased insulin levels in the body.  Potentially resveratrol can be used to fight diabetes and allow sufferers of type 1 & 2 diabetes to live a longer, healthier life.

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