Fountain of Youth? Drugs Eyed to Slow Aging

Scientists are hoping new drugs can battle the effects of aging, extending our lives or at least keeping the years from slowing us down, the New York Times reports. At the heart of the research is the discovery that caloric restrictions can extend life in mice. If humans can make our bodies think we’re cutting calories, perhaps we can reap similar benefits.

Many in the scientific community brush aside such ideas, calling the caloric-restriction concept an “illusion”: Just because it works in lab mice doesn’t mean it will work for people. Studies of wild mice and monkeys offered debatable results. But clinical trials of potentially life-extending drugs are going ahead anyway, with a focus on the drug reservatrol, which is found in grapes. (More aging stories.)