Here’s the Fountain of Youth in Pill Form, Maybe

Science? Scam? Both?

August 24, 2016 9:00 am

From the Orient to El Dorado to South Florida, humans have long searched for the Fountain of Youth.

But if one MIT researcher is correct, they should have just headed to Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Leonard Guarente, the head of MIT’s Glenn Lab for the Science of Aging, claims to have created an anti-aging drug that works by messing with your body’s metabolism and tricking it into thinking it’s starving in order to catalyze the release of chemicals that have been proven to extend life.

Guarente’s company, Elysium Health, says its Basis pills “focus on the cellular level” to support “critical metabolic processes like cellular detoxification, DNA repair and energy production.”

The pills — which were brought to market without going through FDA testing but are now in clinical trials — have reportedly been causing “subtle changes in overall feeling of well-being, sleep quality, energy consistency, cognitive function, and skin health.”

Guarente, 64, takes the pills himself, but has yet to notice any obvious benefits, a development he finds encouraging. “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,” he told MIT Technology Review.

So is it legit science or just a scam?

We’re not sure, but check back with us in about 80 years.

Win the Ultimate Formula 1® Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix Experience

Want the F1 experience of a lifetime? Here’s your chance to win tickets to see Turn 18 Grandstand, one of Ultimate Formula 1® Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix’s most premier grandstands!