Researchers may be closer than ever to discover the secret to longevity, as new research by the National Institute on Aging and Harvard Medical School reveals that a compound in red wine, called resveratrol, appears to protect against many of the health ravages linked to the process of growing old.

As part of their study, researchers led by Rafael de Cabo, unit chief of the laboratory of experimental gerontology at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, along with David A. Sinclair, of Harvard Medical School fed mice a diet supplemented with resveratrol when they were 12 months old, roughly the same as 35 years in a person.

The researchers discovered that most mice given resveratrol did not live longer than other mice but were far healthier in several important measures. “The good news is we can increase health. I think that’s more important than increasing life span,” Sinclair told Reuters.

More exactly, the researchers found that resveratrol warded off the effects of age on heart, bones, eyes and muscle of mice on a standard diet, thus promising a way to curb factors that make the elderly frail, such as cataracts, osteoporosis and poor motor coordination. “So, if these effects translate into humans, it will have a very good impact on the standard of human health,” de Cabo said.

Besides red wine and grapes, the crust of peanuts and walnuts are also good sources of resveratrol, which has drawn a lot of interest from scientists and some pharmaceutical companies. Even this year, the second biggest pharmaceutical company in the world, GlaxoSmithKline, paid $720 million to buy Sirtris Pharmaceuticals Inc., a company developing drugs that mimics the effects of resveratrol.

Sinclair is one of Sirtris’ founders and is co-chairman of its scientific advisory board. In April, the company reported that SRT501, its variant of resveratrol, reduced glucose levels in diabetic patients. Clinical trials are on the way, as many researchers believe it is far too early to take the drug, especially using wine as its source. More study has to be done so the drug’s safety and effectiveness are proved.

However promising the new findings, published in the July 3 online edition of Cell Metabolism, are, the researchers said it would be too early for people to start taking resveratrol in order to improve health, as the compound might interact with other drugs.

No further than June this year, another study led by University of Wisconsin-Madison’s professor Richard Weinruch and published in the journal PLoS ONE, tested resveratrol on lab mice and found that it “retarded some aspects of aging” by up to 30 percent. Resveratrol was also studied in the past, including one study that turned regular mice into athletic super-mice.

Dr. Edward A. Fisher, a professor of cardiovascular medicine and cell biology at the New York University School of Medicine in New York City welcomed Sinclair and de Cabo’s study saying it is the most elaborated studies ever done on the effects on resveratrol. “But by looking at specific outcomes tissues, this work is certainly more detailed and rigorous And it further supports the hypothesis that this compound staves off the effects of aging,” he said, as quoted by the Washington Post.