Eating Chocolate And Drinking Wine Prevents Ageing

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With a couple of glasses of wine in you, you can feel 18-years-old again; twerking ‘sexily’ while instigating questionable romantic encounters.

A creamy bar of chocolate can also bring you a little buzzy feeling of happiness, breaking you away from the sensible dieting and restraint of adult life.

However, did you know these naughty treats could actually be keeping you young?

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Scientists from the Universities of Exeter and Brighton have discovered how a chemical compound, found in red wine and dark chocolate, could help to rejuvenate inactive senescent cells, slowing down the ageing process which awaits us all…

In an exciting new study, these compounds – known as reversatrol analogues – were found to make cells look and behave young n’ spritely.

The team made the discovery by applying reversatrol analogues to cells in culture, which caused splicing factors to be turned back on.

Furthermore – within hours – older cells had begun to divide and were found to have longer telomeres –  chromosome ‘caps’ which shorten during the ageing process.

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According to Research Associate at the University of Exeter, Dr Eva Latorre:

When I saw some of the cells in the culture dish rejuvenating I couldn’t believe it. These old cells were looking like young cells. It was like magic.

I repeated the experiments several times and in each case the cells rejuvenated.

I’m very excited by the implications and potential for this research.

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We become more vulnerable to disease as we grow older because of tissue accumulating age living senescent cells, which are not growing or functioning as they once did.

Scientists believe these new findings could lead to special therapies which help people to ‘age better, without experiencing some of the degenerative effects of getting old’.

According to Professor Lorna Harries, the Professor of Molecular Genetics at the University of Exeter:

This is a first step in trying to make people live normal lifespans, but with health for their entire life.

Our data suggests that using chemicals to switch back on the major class of genes that are switched off as we age might provide a means to restore function to old cells.

Professor Richard Faragher from the University of Brighton said:

At a time when our capacity to translate new knowledge about the mechanisms of ageing into medicines and lifestyle advice is limited only by a chronic shortage of funds, older people are ill-served by self-indulgent science fiction.

They need practical action to restore their health and they need it yesterday.

A chocolate and wine night sure beats pricey anti-wrinkle creams.

We are living in exciting and delicious times indeed…

Julia Banim

Jules studied English Literature with Creative Writing at Lancaster University before earning her masters in International Relations at Leiden University in The Netherlands (Hoi!). She then trained as a journalist through News Associates in Manchester. Jules has previously worked as a mental health blogger, copywriter and freelancer for various publications.