Special Report

Lots Of Unanswered Questions After CBS 60 Minutes Report. 
Is An Anti-Aging Pill Still Beyond Reach? 

“If scientists are right, we may soon be taking a pill that will give us a decade or two of healthy old age.” – Morley Safer, CBS 60 MINUTES, January 25, 2009

In 1991 CBS 60 MINUTES first exposed the world to The French Paradox, the fact the red wine-drinking French live longer and are healthier, exhibiting a 30% reduction in mortality from heart disease compared to western countries, despite their high-fat, high-calorie diet.  The 60 MINUTES report caused a temporary shortage in red wine at the time.  

But there will be no shortage of red wine this time – researchers interviewed on 60 MINUTES said it would take 1000 bottles of red wine to produce the same life-prolonging effects they achieved in the animal laboratory.   But were 60 MINUTES reporters misled?

Alert viewers are sending emails, inquiring online about the inconsistencies in CBS’ 60 MINUTES report about resveratrol (rez-vair-ah-trawl), the red wine molecule that is fast becoming a household word, even if few can pronounce it. 

The most glaring discrepancy was the bottle of resveratrol pills shown on air.  A picture of the bottle, provided by the pharmaceutical company interviewed by 60 MINUTES, has been captured and reproduced below.  It’s not a drug at all.

Notice its label says “dietary supplement” and “250 mg per capsule” on the label.   This is not the SRT501 5000 mg plain resveratrol “drug” (microencapsulated, stabilized, emulsified) that was first used in human clinical trials (see side-by-side photos).  It’s difficult to know whether the label shown on 60 MINUTES was just made up for television viewing, or is an actual product on the drawing board by the pharmaceutical company. 

Why would a drug company, whose scientific experts claim 1000 bottles of red wine, (providing ~1000 milligrams of resveratrol) would be needed to produce a beneficial response in humans, make a pill that provides 1/4th that amount? 

Is mega-dose resveratrol needed to prolong human life -- to achieve maximum lifespan -- as drug company researchers say?  They don’t need longevity pills in France.  Their traditionally made, dark, aged red wine confers super-longevity like that found in no other country.   Examine the following chart:

Country	Centenarian population	Total population	Centenarians per million population	Wine intake /liters per annum	Caloric intake (2002)
France	20,000 (2008)	65 million	307.6	55.8	3653
Japan	36,000 (2008)	127 million	283.4	1.9	2760
United States	55,000 (2008)	305 million	180.3	8.7	3774
England	9,330 (2007)	58 million	160.8	18.9	3412

Roger Corder, author of THE WINE DIET and professor of experimental therapeutics at the William Harvey Research Institute in England, says resveratrol couldn’t possibly be responsible for the health benefits derived from wine since a 5-ounce glass of wine might provide just 1 mg of resveratrol.  It is the total polyphenolic (iron-binding) molecules, or about 60 mg per 5-ounce glass, that is responsible for the unusual health of wine drinkers. 

Almost magically, low-doses of an array of molecules found in red wine (resveratrol, quercetin, catechin, kaempferol, gallic acid, ferulic acid) appear to work better than mega-dose resveratrol alone.  A recent genomic study bears this out. 

Researchers affiliated with the University of Wisconsin conducted a global gene array study comparing calorie restriction, plain resveratrol and a uniquely patented array of molecules (resveratrol, quercetin, IP6 rice bran) found in Longevinex®.  At doses of resveratrol 17-320 times lower than prior studies, Longevinex® activated 9-fold more longevity genes than plain resveratrol or a calorie restricted diet.  [Experimental Gerontology 2008 Sept; 43(9):859-66] 

But again, something was amiss in the 60 MINUTES report.  University-based researchers interviewed on 60 MINUTES were adept at showing how calorie restriction was working in primates (monkeys), but these very same researchers conducted the above gene array study and apparently never told CBS reporter Morley Safer that a nutriceutical matrix (Longevinex®) far exceeds the genomic effect produced by plainresveratrol or a limited calorie diet.  The public was deprived of hearing about a major breakthrough in longevity science.

The point of a well designed red wine pill is to provide about the same quantity of mineral-controlling molecules provided in 3-to-5 glasses of red wine, or about 180-300 mg, without the alcohol, sugar, calories and sulfite preservatives, at a cost that ~5-6 times less than wine.  A $6 bottle of wine would cost ~3-5 a day to provide health benefits.  The cost of Longevinex®, a red wine pill designed to provide the equivalent amount of molecules found in 3-5 glasses of wine, is less than $1 per day.

Are the researchers intentionally misleading consumers, holding them off from taking resveratrol as a dietary supplement and telling them to wait for their stronger yet more expensive resveratrol-like drug?  In earlier pronouncements, drug company spokespersons said resveratrol will take a back seat to more potent “new chemical entities” and the company never plans to introduce an anti-aging pill but rather to match resveratrol with an anti-diabetic drug or a statin cholesterol-lowering drug to treat disease. 

The drug company claims it has stronger molecules that will activate the Sirtuin1 longevity gene, by 1000-fold, but these synthetic molecules are unproven, have never been used in humans, and already the drug company has switched from one of these so-called “new chemical entities” (SRT1720) to another (SRT2104) with no explanation as to why.

Furthermore, while drug company researchers said “we have a pill that can mimic the effects of a calorie restricted diet,” and were bragging on television that their resveratrol pill prolonged the life of laboratory mice, there was a big asterisk attached to that statement.  The researchers were referring to a 2006 study published in Nature Magazine where mice were fed a 60% fat-calorie diet.  But in 2008, a follow-up report published in the journal Cell Metabolism, this time conducted among mice fed a standard fat-calorie diet (25%), showed mega-dose resveratrol (360 and 1565 mg) shortened the lifespan of mice.  The higher dose produced a shorter lifespan.  [Cell Metabolism 2008 Aug; 8(2):157-68]  It’s best to stick with red wine, or low doses in dietary supplements as found in red wine, preferably from an array of molecules rather than just resveratrol.

Mr. Safer ended the 60 MINUTES report by saying: “Everybody from plastic surgeons to snake oil salesmen have been promising a ticket to eternal youth for some time.  So the prospect of a prescription pill that could trigger a longevity gene sounds too good to be true. ….  It’s a pill that diets for you, a pill that activates the survival gene … a highly concentrated form of resveratrol, a virtual vineyard of healthy living,” added Safer. 

The script read well.  It captured the attention of millions.  Yet the 60 MINUTES report was riddled with omissions, apparent intentional distortions and exaggerations.  If CBS’ Morley Safer only knew.

Mr. Safer seemed ready for the pill.  He ended the 60 MINUTES report this way:  “The question is, when do WE get this pill?” 

- Copyright 2009 Resveratrol Partners LLC, not for posting on other websites.