Group Researches Fountain of Youth Pill

What if you could add a quarter of a century to your life by simply taking a pill? It sounds like an infomercial pitch, but that's the kind of pill a team of St. Louis researchers is trying to develop and volunteers are already taking it.

What they are testing is a naturally occurring substance called resveratrol. It is found in red wine and it is a powerful antioxidant.

It's so powerful that researchers at Washington University are studying whether large doses of resveratrol, and by large we mean the equivalent of hundreds of bottles of wine, in a single pill can help people live longer. To find out, they are testing it on people.

While studies of resveratrol have already shown encouraging results in lab animals, researchers already know of a proven way to substantially slow the aging process without drugs.

It's called calorie restriction: a diet of only 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day. As part of its resveratrol study, Washington University is putting volunteers on a calorie restriction diet so they can compare the results to the group taking the pills.

Resveratrol is not supposed to make you feel any different, because if it's working the effects would be metabolic. So researchers will look for changes in things like cholesterol and blood sugar.

Source: fox4kc.com