Hyping Resveratrol
I suspect that commercialization of resveratrol and other calorie restriction mimetics is going to reinforce an existing and undesirable view of longevity science - that it's all supplements and diet, that it's all slowing aging, that the "anti-aging" marketplace has legitimacy. This doesn't help generate support for serious attempts to repair the damage of aging and thus reverse aging - if the pill, supplement, and scam marketplace was going to help, we'd have seen some evidence of that already. But the contributions of the "anti-aging" marketplace (dietary supplements on one side and lies on the other) are largely distraction and disinformation: "The lure of eternal youth has produced a multibillion-dollar-a-year global marketplace full of potions and pills that, the manufacturers claim, can offer life-extending benefits. Amid the dizzying array, one substance is capturing prime time attention: resveratrol. Resveratrol advertisements - Reverse your biological clock! A miracle molecule! - are popping up everywhere, from the Internet to local health food stores. The stuff is even showing up in anti-wrinkle creams." Resveratrol doesn't even capture all the benefits of simply practicing calorie restriction, and slowing aging is a far worse outcome than reversing aging - the latter being a path that isn't any harder at this stage. Toiling to merely slow aging is the wrong, worse, and less helpful direction.
Link: http://www.boston.com/news/health/articles/2009/03/23/one_for_the_ages/?page=full