Red Wine Ingredient Increases Endurance

More good news about resveratrol.

We heard recently it lengthens life even in obese mice. Now it makes a sedentary animal perform with the endurance of a trained athlete.

Note that one of the sources of commercial resveratrol is hu zhang, a Chinese herb that is traditionally described to "moves blood" and "clear damp-heat", lending further laboratory support to the idea that addressing these factors is the key to longevity. These factors appear to be associated with circulatory disorders, infection, and inflammation from a modern physiological perspective. While certain so-called tonic herbs and their key components, such as astragalus and ginseng, have been shown to affect factors like short term immunity and endurance, no tonic herb has ever been shown to increase lifespan in a lab animal.

A most interesting quote from this article:

"The science of the field is still in flux, as many central details are unclear. The main theory developed by Dr. Guarente and others is that sirtuins sense the level of energy expenditure in living cells and switch the body’s resources from reproduction to tissue maintenance when food is low.

This is an ancient strategy, Dr. Guarente believes, intended to let an organism live through famines and postpone breeding until good times return. The switch to tissue maintenance involves specific action that would stave off the major degenerative diseases of aging like cancer, diabetes, heart disease and degeneration of brain cells."

Note that what is being talked about here is reproduction not sexual
activity. I suspect the major impact historically would have been on
women in this case. Most evidence I have seen on male sexual activity
suggests that in the absence of STDs, the effect on health of regular
sex is wholly beneficial. In addition, just because conception might
have been inhibited by high levels of sirtuins does not mean people
weren't having sex, it just means they were experiencing the most
taxing effect thereof, which is the bearing and raising of offspring,
particularly the need to share scarce food resources in times of famine.