Resveratrol: 1st longevity pill or Randi bullshit.

Thaed

I’ve been watching this supplement for the last few years. It has all the hallmarks of snake oil. It promises longer life along with good health until the very end. It promises protection against cancer, heart disease and diabetes and a whole host of other traditional elixir hokum. Moreover, you can’t really see the effects in the short term so you really have no way of knowing right away if it is working. Thus, at the beginning, I dismissed it out of hand.

The trouble is, it won’t go away. So I read a book on it. The Youth Pill: Scientists at the Brink of an Anti-Aging Revolution by David Stipp. Despite the cringe-worthy title, Mr. Stipp does a good job of summarizing the current state of gerontology research. The book is a good read (or listen as in my case) and I recommend it. That being said, there are a couple of take-a-ways with respect to resveratrol. It makes mice and trout live longer and with greater vitality in old age. If there is anything too it, it appears to work by being a calorie restriction mimetic. That is, it helps your body function as though you were eating less even though you’re not.

The final straw for me is that GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK) bought a company that’s developing drugs based on Resveratrol (Sirtris). They paid $720 million because the research behind resveratrol seems to be real. David Sinclair is the current star of this research and there's a lot out there on him as well as on CR mimetics in general.

So there you have it. Even if you aren’t a person who is into life extension, no one wants to end his or her days incontinent, confused and drooling in a nursing home. If a supplement could prevent that, I’d take it. Thoughts?

Apreche

The problem is, from what I've read, that if you take resveratrol in pill form, an impossibly small percentage of it is actually absorbed into your body and used.

The thing is, if you really wanted to live a long time, you would actually eat a calorie restricted diet. There is a lot more evidence behind that than behind any supplement. The thing is, do you want to live a life where you are basically always hungry and you avoid food that tastes really really good?

There's no easy way out. Not yet anyway.

Funfetus

The thing is, do you want to live a life where you are basically always hungry and you avoid food that tastes really really good?

Also, extreme lack of energy.

ElJoe0

First step on the road, I still remain Sceptical.

George Patches

The thing is, do you want to live a life where you are basically always hungry and you avoid food that tastes really really good?

Wait, so it's ok to eat tasty food even if it shortens your life, but not ok to smoke?

Neito

The thing is, do you want to live a life where you are basically always hungry and you avoid food that tastes really really good?

Wait, so it's ok to eat tasty food even if it shortens your life, but not ok to smoke?

Smoking doesn't improve the quality of your life, the way a good meal can.

George Patches

Smoking doesn't improve the quality of your life, the way a good meal can.

That's an extremely subjective statement and I thing a smoker would disagree highly.

...

Wait, so it's ok to eat tasty food even if it shortens your life, but not ok to smoke?

You quoted the largest hypocrite on the forums. Yes, it's apparently OK to eat food.

balderdash

Smoking is far more destructive to your body than eating, an activity to which we are consummately adapted, and has the additional problem of polluting your immediate environment and potentially harming those around you. The closest eating comes to that is when you have too much cabbage and beans, or when that guy you know who's lactose intolerant just HAS to have some ice cream anyway.

You shouldn't have too much cabbage and beans. You shouldn't eat that ice cream, guy. Have some consideration for your friends.

WindUpBird

The additional problem of polluting your immediate environment and potentially harming those around you.

If you're really so goddamn afraid of the effects of second-hand smoke in an outdoor environment on your body, buy a fucking canister respirator and quit your bitching. In an era where marijuana legalization is becomingly likely due to potential tax revenues, you bet your ass that as long as shit doesn't get all Demolition Man, cigarettes will never be illegal. I don't smoke, and yeah, I'm irritated by vast clouds of secondhand smoke, but I've got enough common decency to sack up and keep my mouth shut when someone lights up nearby. I don't like boisterous, drunken frat boys either, but I don't begrudge them their right to legal indulgences.

Apreche

I don't like boisterous, drunken frat boys either, but I don't begrudge them their right to legal indulgences.

The frat boys aren't actively and physically harming you. If they start spilling beer on you or puking on you, then fuck they need to stop. There's a difference between someone annoying you and someone physically harming you. Loud irritating music you don't like, yeah just deal with it. Music so loud it is damaging your hearing, that shit has to stop.

Churba

That's an extremely subjective statement and I thing a smoker would disagree highly.

Correct, sir. Smoking my pipe is relaxing and meditative. A smoke with my morning coffee is peaceful and pleasant, especially taken standing out in the warm morning sun.

I don't smoke, and yeah, I'm irritated by vast clouds of secondhand smoke, but I've got enough common decency to sack up and keep my mouth shut when someone lights up nearby.

And conversely, I do smoke, but if someone is smoking in such a way that they're being an inconsiderate asshat, or at the very least impolite, I'll have a gentle word with them, and try to get them to stop, or smoke somewhere else where it's not such an annoyance to those who don't smoke.
It's a simple equation, for me - If you're making a good attempt to be polite about it, do what you like. If you're being impolite, then stop being an asshat.
This also applies to far more than smoking. It's just a case of Be Reasonable, and try to be good to the majority of other people.
Sure, you get the odd person who whinges no matter what you do, but eh, they'll die lonely in their sleep with no regrets, having never had enough adventures or done enough to have something to regret, a life of safe boredom.

Rym

I do smoke, but if someone is smoking in such a way that they're being an inconsiderate asshat, or at the very least impolite, I'll have a gentle word with them, and try to get them to stop, or smoke somewhere else where it's not such an annoyance to those who don't smoke.

Maybe the culture there is different. The vast majority of smokers here are smelly jerks in the literal sense. They throw their butts on the street, smoke where they're not supposed to, and treat it like nothing more than an addiction with no accompanying enjoyment.

There is one smoker in my entire company. You can smell him coming from around the corner. He doesn't even smoke that much, but the stench is strong and lingers profoundly.

Churba

Maybe the culture there is different. The vast majority of smokers here are smelly jerks in the literal sense. They throw their butts on the street, smoke where they're not supposed to, and treat it like nothing more than an addiction with no accompanying enjoyment.

I wouldn't know, really, I've not enough experience with the culture there to make a valid comparison. Mostly, While many smokers don't quite go to the levels of effort that I do to try and be considerate to others, they do generally try to not be dicks to non-smokers. England, people were a little less considerate generally, but on the whole, were still reasonably decent - using designated smoking areas, throwing their tabs in a bin rather than on the ground, and so on.

There is one smoker in my entire company. You can smell him coming from around the corner. He doesn't even smoke that much, but the stench is strong and lingers profoundly.

I do tend to try and keep the smell down as much as possible - Deodorant(not nasty axe shit, either), I try to keep to myself right after smoking, or I'll take the opportunity to smoke when I'll be able to let the smell go down for a while before I head back in - for example, If I've got an hour for lunch, I'll smoke at the very start, chuck on some scent, go, grab lunch, whatever, come back at the end, another small dose of scent, and we're good to go. It's not a perfect solution - at least until fabreeze makes a deodorant, that shit does really well at killing the smell - but it's pretty decent. You'd have to be pretty much hugging me or standing practically nose to nose with me to get much of a whiff of it.

It's all just part of being a considerate smoker, really. I recognise that it's a habit that's unpleasant to others, so I go out of my way to mitigate it's offensiveness to others. I try to encourage others to do the same, with moderate success, but I can't solve it for everyone. No matter what your hobby or habit is, there is going to be a portion of people who are annoying assholes about it, unfortunately.

Omnutia

Wait, who are you, what thread is this?

Casa Vino

My partner is actually allergic to the fumes, as is her mother, to the point of coughing fits and migraines; as such my opinion is biased. Cases like these are becoming more apparent in the more progressive area of Melbourne, Sydney and Hobart (fines for smokers caught in Hobart CBD, penalties for smoking at RMIT, etc) where such issues are acknowledged as health risks.

The Australian culture is pushing smokers to the fringe which I find to be a cruel albeit necessary move in social areas. After years of addiction and cultural acceptance (encouragement?) to suddenly be cast out of what were once areas welcoming to smokers, I am not totally without sympathy for smokers.

I am clearly biased in this. If you need to have a cigarette for your evening to be complete, your needs are not more important that the rights of those whose evening is ruined by your selfishness. Most people are civil enough to distance themselves whilst smoking but the jerk population is still worth noting.

On our most recent visit my partner had serious issues in Japan and we realized how we take for granted our anti-smoking attitudes and etiquette in Australia. Only recently was smoking outlawed in taxis in Tokyo. Even in areas where smoking is actively discouraged, the smell is still prominent in many public venues and vehicles long after the event.

By all means I actively encourage experimenting in anything that you enjoy, as long as you can do so safely and without putting upon another.

Rym

Even if you aren’t a person who is into life extension, no one wants to end his or her days incontinent, confused and drooling in a nursing home. If a supplement could prevent that, I’d take it. Thoughts?

If there were a supplement that demonstrated a reasonable chance of efficacy, I would be very likely to consider/use it.

I am of the mind that aging beyond one's physical prime should be considered not a natural progression but a disease, and treated as such.

Thaed

I agree with you Rym, but we are in the minority.

balderdash

We'll get there, I think, Rym. Smallpox and hookworm were once considered inevitable, too. People start to treat poor health conditions as diseases once it becomes feasible, or at least conceivable, to combat them. It's just too frightening for most people to face a currently unconquerable foe without pretending it's not a foe at all, or that they can actually beat it through some supernatural continuity... or, you know, by creating computer brains just in time to save Ray Kurzweil.

WindUpBird

I am of the mind that aging beyond one's physical prime should be considered not a natural progression but a disease, and treated as such.

Find me a way to safely remove all the free radicals and toxins from an aging human body and then reengineer DNA strands and telomeres degraded from decades of sun, carcinogen, and mutagen exposure back to levels similar to that of a newborn child, and then we'll be in business, chief.

Omnutia

Smallpox and hookworm were once considered inevitable, too.

I strongly doubt that. Likely, if you lived in rural areas, but far from inevitable.

Neito

Alternate line of thinking: Let's say there was a way to, effectively, become a Dungeons and Dragons-style Lich. You would never age, your mental abilities would never deteriorate, but you would be 100% non-human. Would you do it?

Omnutia

What is human? Baby, don't age me. Don't age me, no more.

Rym

You would never age, your mental abilities would never deteriorate, but you would be 100% non-human. Would you do it?

In a second. My "humanity" means nothing to me.

ninjarabbi

You would never age, your mental abilities would never deteriorate, but you would be 100% non-human. Would you do it?

In a second. My "humanity" means nothing to me.

2nded. Puny humans...

Josh Bytes

If you could become immortal but had to trade off your humanity. You would more than likely end up being ostracized and or hunted down.

Cremlian

You would more than likely end up being ostracized and or hunted down.

Someone needs to read some Heinlein, Short version: Lazarus long wins and has sex with your/his mom.

balderdash

I strongly doubt that. Likely, if you lived in rural areas, but far from inevitable.

Think pre-Germ Theory. Before people knew what caused 'em, they were just... bad shit that happened to you. I mean, no, I don't intend to imply they happened to everyone, but if they happened to you, they just... happened. God gettin' pissy. Unfortunate but unavoidable. Or smallpox was, anywayl hookworm actually was pretty much endemic in certain areas of the world. We are in a similar place re: aging right now, though: most people don't even realize there might be something (non-magical) we could do about it, so they just chalk it up to the will of God, if they think about it at all.

And really, "human" ain't a thing. Make mine an immortal.

WindUpBird

You would more than likely end up being ostracized and or hunted down.

Someone needs to read some Heinlein, Short version: Lazarus long wins and has sex with your/his mom.

All you zombies...

...

You would never age, your mental abilities would never deteriorate, but you would be 100% non-human. Would you do it?

In a second. My "humanity" means nothing to me.

Humanity requires no humans anyway, it's a concept. Deal.