A new potentially death-defying pill could help fight aging, despite potential roadblocks from the Food and Drug Administration.
The chemicals used in the pill have been found to lengthen the life spans of mice and worms, and work by altering the body's metabolism, MIT reported.
The pill is in the works by the startup company Elysium Health, which was founded by 62-year-old MIT biologist Leonard Guarente.
The problem with the potential "miracle pill" is that it will take decades to test its actual effect on the human lifespan. To combat this, the company will market the drugs as nutraceuticals, which do not require FDA approval or clinical trials; this means the pill will hit the market this week. The pills will be sold exclusively through the company's website.
The pill, dubbed Basis, contains the chemical precursor to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), which is a compound cells use to elicit metabolic reactions such as the release of glucose.
"NAD replacement is one of the most exciting things happening in the biology of aging," said Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, who has coauthored scientific papers with Guarente but is not involved in Elysium. "The frustration in our field is that we have shown we can target aging, but the FDA does not [recognize it] as an indication."
Other researchers have said that while NAD has been proven to decline with age, there is no significant evidence that putting more into the human body can increase lifespan. The pill also contains pterostilbene, an antioxidant that is believed to stimulate sirtuins in a different way.
Guarente says he takes Basis daily, along with the red wine compound resveratrol. He is not bothered by the fact that he has not yet seen any obvious benefits from his anti-aging routine.
"I think that's the way it would be if something is really acting to slow your progression into decrepitude-you're not going to notice that," Guarente said.
