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Study Spurs Hope of Finding Way to Increase Human Life
By NICHOLAS WADE

[B] iologists have found a class of chemicals that they hope will make people live longer by activating an ancient survival reflex. One chemical, a natural substance known as resveratrol, is found in red wines, particularly those made in cooler climates like that of New York State.

The finding could help explain the so-called French paradox — the fact that the French consume fatty foods considered threatening to the heart but live as long as anyone else....

So far Dr. Sinclair and his colleagues have shown only that resveratrol, the chemical found in red wine, prolongs life span in yeast, a fungus, by 70 percent. But a colleague, Dr. Mark Tatar of Brown University, has shown, in a report yet to be published, that the compound has similar effects in fruit flies. The National Institute of Aging, which sponsored Dr. Sinclair's research, plans to start a mouse study later in the year.

Despite the years of testing that will be needed to prove that resveratrol has any effect in people, many of the scientists involved in the research have already started drinking red wine. "One glass of red wine a day is a good recommendation. That's what I do now," Dr. Sinclair said. Resveratrol, he said, is unstable on exposure to the air and "goes off within a day of popping the cork."...