One of the key investigators in the field created a company to commercialize the science of resveratrol that was purchased about 10 years ago by one of the large multinational pharmaceutical companies for over $700M.9 As is wont in scientific research, what looks to be a surefire hit often turns out to be a giant miss. Subsequent research hit a wall; resveratrol was an unstable compound to administer to subjects, its blood levels fluctuated greatly, and its effect varied widely with its concentration. Perhaps most critically for the new owners, resveratrol, being a natural compound, could not be patented as a drug. Five years after its purchase, the company folded.10
Better to Burn Out or to Rust?
Reversing aging will remain a vexing challenge for decades—if not centuries—to come. Drinking red wine is pleasurable, and perhaps doing so prolongs life. Some individuals have adopted a different approach. Take Google’s leading futurist, Ray Kurzweil, a fervent believer that dietary modifications “can help him live forever.”11 He has predicted that humans will achieve this target by 2045, the year he turns 97. By his own admission, he spends upward of $1M per year ingesting about 100 various vitamins and supplements daily in an effort to enhance his health and delay the aging process. Good luck, Ray, and I hope Google’s stock price stays high!
For the rest of us, aging is a phenomenon that we have come to accept and, at times even embrace. Indeed, natural aging creates a pattern of predictability to our illnesses. For example, we don’t anticipate gout’s arrival before the fourth decade of life, nor should we expect to see the imprint of Drs. Charles Bouchard or William Heberden’s observations in the hands until some years later. Of course, it is uncanny how we can accurately predict when the alarm is set for developing polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR), a condition that is inextricably linked to one’s eligibility date for membership in the AARP and not a day sooner!
Let’s face it, life is a finite event. … Death is programmed inside every living organism, & this is a fact of life.
Let’s face it, life is a finite event. Despite Mr. Kurzweil’s unbridled optimism, this will likely remain the state of affairs for the next millennium and possibly beyond. Death is programmed inside every living organism, and this is a fact of life. This is simply Nature’s way of drawing the circle, linking life with death.
