The Human Elixir

Posted on February 8th, 2007 by Mu

fortune.jpgMy infatuation with wine’s health benefits keeps growing. It seems so righteous. Wine is consumed by all nationalities, ethnicities, races, and religions and has been around since the roots of civilization. It’s not surprising that it gives us a little more than a buzz.

In the Fortune article pictured left, it was discussed that wine, more specifically red wine, can slow down the aging process. It highlights Sirtris, a pharmaceutical company based out of Cambridge, that is working to synthesize the magical component in red wine known as Resveratrol, and hopes to deliver it in an anti-aging pill one day.

The process all starts right at the core of our life force… the energy producing components of our cells known as mitochondria, which convert sugars into energy and power the human body. Just like a coal plant produces energy and pollutes greenhouse gases that harm our planet, mitochondria also pollute in the form of free radicals that cause damage to our cells and our bodies. More so, these free radicals harm other mitochondria, causing them to become more inefficient and give off more free radicals, thus sparking the cell-degrading snowball effect that is thought to be the major cause of aging.

Wine may have an answer, however. We now know that wine has not one, but two ways to combat free radicals. First, it has antioxidants, which most people are familiar with. Antioxidants are found in green tea and orange juice and serve to soak up the free radicals produced in the body, thus eliminating their harmful impact. Secondly, and more importantly, red wine possesses this Resveratrol compound, which activates an enzyme that creates new and increasingly efficient mitochondria. To put this in perspective: Antioxidants will just make you feel better, whereas new efficient mitochondria can lead to weight loss, increased endurance, and even disease prevention, including cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimers!

Could wine become the human elixir?… More on this later

UPDATE: 1/7/2009

Grapes Kill Leukemia

UPDATE: 7/12/2010

The Truth About Resveratrol

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Tags: Alzheimer's disease, Antioxidant, elixir, Energy, Health, millennial, News, resveratrol, Sirtris, Wine

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  • Ruarri

    Indeed – that whole ‘Pom Juice’ campaign is playing directly into that. Except Pom costs $5.00 a bottle, its sickly sweet, and you can’t share it with anyone. For just $5.00 more you could get a bottle of wine, which is good for an evening; induces some good chat and does wonders for you health… This is why the French age so much better than Americans… because a lot of Europeans have a glass of wine with every meal.

  • Ruarri

    Indeed – that whole ‘Pom Juice’ campaign is playing directly into that. Except Pom costs $5.00 a bottle, its sickly sweet, and you can’t share it with anyone. For just $5.00 more you could get a bottle of wine, which is good for an evening; induces some good chat and does wonders for you health… This is why the French age so much better than Americans… because a lot of Europeans have a glass of wine with every meal.

  • http://grapethinking.com/what-does-wine-mean-to-you/ GrapeThinking.com Wine Blog – Lifestyle, Wine, and Culture…

    [...] We are extremely passionate about wine, not only for its history of bringing people together, but for what we feel the future of wine will bring. We are even more passionate about helping facilitate the coming changes within the wine industry. [...]

  • http://grapethinking.com/wine-goes-green/ Grape Thinking – Wine, Cuisine, and Lifestyle Marketing

    [...] And what’s a better place to help start this movement than wineries? Some of the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing locations in the world (just look at the rise in wine tourism) that create a product that is doctor recommended as very good for your health, with red wine having the magical anti-aging component Resveratrol. Check out an old post about this: The Human Elixir [...]

  • http://grapethinking.com/wine-goes-green Wine Goes Green | Grape Thinking

    [...] And what’s a better place to help start this movement than wineries? They’re some of the most beautiful and aesthetically pleasing locations in the world (just look at the rise in wine tourism) and they create a product that is doctor recommended as good for your health, with red wine having the magical anti-aging component Resveratrol. Check out an old post about this: The Human Elixir [...]

  • http://grapethinking.com/resveratrol-kills-cancer Resveratrol cures cancer

    [...] and transforms it from simply a sophisticated alcoholic beverage into the holistic human elixir. Check out this post we wrote a while back after reading a Fortune article about Resveratrol. As we are expanding our [...]

  • http://www.grapethinking.com/calling-all-alchemists GrapeThinking Elixir

    [...] The Human Elixir – February 8, 2007 [...]

  • http://www.grapethinking.com/the-truth-about-resveratrol The Truth about Resveratrol

    [...] powerful effects of Resveratrol. As we noted over 3 years ago around the time we started our blog (The Human Elixir), there are companies, such as Sirtris, in existence specifically to synthesize this molecule into [...]

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