The Young At Heart Drink Red Wine

This is the kind of medical news that always leads to people feeling happy and virtuous as they rush to the nearest liquor store. A new study has just revealed that resveratrol, a compound found in red wine, slowed down the genetic aging of middle-aged lab mice, and appeared to keep their hearts particularly young and healthy. Of course, resveratrol is also found in grapes, pomegranates, and other foods, and medical researchers still don't know whether the amount found in a glass of red wine has a clear effect on humans. But the report in the journal Public Library of Science ONE brings enough interesting and promising data to the table to warrant the popping of a few corks. In the study, University of Wisconsin researchers began adding resveratrol to the diets of middle-aged mice, and followed them to the doddering age of 30 months. As animals (and humans) age, many of their genes change in function, or expression. Researchers surveyed many thousands of genes in the test mice, and found that fewer age-related changes had occurred.