BOSTON, Nov. 1 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say feeding middle-aged mice a high-calorie diet with a compound found in red wine improves their health and extends their lifespan.
David Sinclair and colleagues at the Harvard Medical School supplemented the mice diet with the compound resveratrol, a small molecule that has been shown to extend the lifespan of various animals.
That treatment shifted the animals' physiology towards that of mice fed a standard diet; they lived longer than mice on the same high-fat diet without resveratrol, and although they didn't lose any weight, their quality of life also improved.
The researchers said resveratrol-treated mice had healthier livers and better motor coordination.
Sinclair says resveratrol seems to counter various health risks associated with a high-fat diet, but without skimping on the calories. When scaled up, the doses used in the mouse study should be feasible for human consumption, but he said it's not yet clear whether the molecule will yield similar effects in people.
The study appears online in the journal Nature and will be published in print at a later date.
