New Fountain of Youth: Red Wine Pills

You've no doubt heard that drinking red wine is good for your health. But scientists and Big Pharma alike are getting excited about putting the health-boosting essence of red wine in pill form. GlaxoSmithKline is working on a slew of new pills that do just that, the Daily Mail reports, after a recent study in the journal Science showed the huge potential of resveratrol, a chemical found in red wine. Resveratrol activates a protein called SIRT1, which is believed to have an anti-aging effect.

"Ultimately, these drugs would treat one disease, but unlike drugs of today, they would prevent 20 others," one Harvard geneticist explains. "In effect, they would slow aging." The most recent studies show the drug could help treat a host of illnesses, from cancer to Alzheimer's to type 2 diabetes. GlaxoSmithKline has developed around 4,000 synthetic forms of the activator, each 100 times more potent than a glass of red wine, and is already testing three in human trials. In animal trials, they extended the lifespans of overweight mice by 15%. (More health stories.)