There are often discussions online about taking a daily Resveratrol along with either Nicotinamide Riboside “NR” (FAQs) (Reviews) or NMN (FAQs). But should you follow this regimen? While Harvard’s Dr David Sinclair does (Resveratrol + NMN), his former labmate at MIT, Dr Matt Kaeberlein (who’s now a prominent scientist studying aging at the University of Washington) does not. He calls Resveratrol‘s impact on health and longevity likely a myth that unfortunately continues to dupe the public.

At the 8 minute mark of Video Podcast #1 below:

Dr Matt Kaeberlein: “So if you read the title of that paper, I’m trying to remember exactly what I think it was — “Substrate-Specific Activation of Sirtuins by Resveratrol” — not bad for — what is that a 15 year old paper now almost?

So that title I think says it all.

We didn’t say that Resveratrol doesn’t activate SIR2 or SIRT1.

What it does is — it only activates SIR2 and SIRT1 towards a very limited subset of potential targets.

And I think the question at the time, and to some extent still the question is whether or not Resveratrol can activate Sirtuins toward any targets that are relevant in a cell or for aging.

And at least in yeast, our conclusion was the answer is “no”.

That when you treat yeast cells with Resveratrol, you don’t get any activation of SIR2 towards its normal targets.

And you don’t get lifespan extension.

And that was different than what had been previously published by the Sinclair Lab.

And, you know, nobody to my knowledge has ever been able to replicate that initial study from the Sinclair Lab where they claimed lifespan extension from Resveratrol.

So, you know, I can’t tell you why we didn’t get the same result.

All I can tell you is we didn’t get the same result.

And then we looked at the biochemistry and what we found is that indeed Resveratrol can activate Sirtuins — but it’s only towards this very specific artificial substrate that is relevant — what we call “in vitro”, outside of cells.

I think it’s still an open question whether Resveratrol activates mammalian Sirtuins towards relevant substrates in a cell “in vivo”.

David Sinclair’s Lab has published that it does — and they’ve published a mechanism which is plausible.

I kind of stopped studying Resveratrol when we couldn’t get it to work.

I tend to try to study things that actually work.

So I haven’t looked into it in mammalian cells.

So I can’t really comment on that except to say that when I look at the Resveratrol literature overall, there’s a lot of smoke, there’s not much fire that I’ve seen so far.

There isn’t a ton of evidence in my view that Resveratrol is a potent activator of Sirtuins certainly in mammals.

And, I think there are enough people who’ve been taking lots of Resveratrol, high-dose Resveratrol for long enough now that if there were big positive effects we’d know about it.

And the fact is, we don’t.

It’s still pretty speculative.

So my view is again — I can’t say that Resveratrol doesn’t tweak that network. It probably does.

But it probably doesn’t do it in a very effective way.

And, so, I’m not super enthusiastic about Resveratrol as something I would take to try to have an impact on health and longevity”

At the 60:50 Mark of Video Podcast #2 below:

Dr Matt Kaeberlein: “…there are all these forces that influence what gets attention, what gets funded, what gets into high profile papers.

And the high profile papers determine what gets attention and what gets funded.

So I don’t have a solution.

I can’t say how we avoid it.

I think to some extent it’s just the nature of the system and the scientific process and things eventually work themselves out.

But it takes a long time.

I mean you look at Resveratrol.

I think certainly within the scientific community by and large we’ve moved on.

But, it took 15 years for people to figure out that that initial hype was hype and not substance.

And, then it got into the public realm and that takes even longer to kind of wash its way out.

So, I think it’s just an unfortunate aspect of the scientific process and the way that knowledge kind of bubbles up and we figure out what’s real and what’s not — and we discard what’s not and we stick with what’s real.

But it just takes a really long time to to get there”

RELATED:

  • Resveratrol + Nicotinamide Riboside (NR)? Another Scientist Says Evidence Doesn’t Support Popular Beliefs about Resveratrol (Link)
  • FAQs on NMN (Link)
  • FAQs on NR (Link)(Reviews)

Podcast Video #1:

Podcast Video #2: