Juan Ponce de León (1474-1521) is known for leading the first European expedition to Florida, and for later becoming the first governor of Puerto Rico. One of the “gentleman volunteers” of Christopher Columbus’s second journey to the New World, de León was actually searching for the fabled “Fountain of Youth” when he discovered the future home of Publix, Walt Disney World and Bath Salts. The fountain, however, was not found and he returned to Puerto Rico.
He wasn’t the first human to search for the fabled waters of everlasting vitality, however. de León is joined by the likes of Alexander the Great and even referenced in the writings of Herodotus for the search of the fabled fountain, within which whoever drinks or bathes from its waters will find themselves restored to their youthful vigor and vitality in physical form. It’s a myth as old as mankind, and at its core lies a simple human truth that with time and wisdom, we sometimes wish we could go back and do it all again.
Flash forward to 2004 inside a newly built, $5 million lab inside Harvard and you’d find Dr. David Sinclair hard at work, seeking to understand the relationship between sirtuins and NAD, or nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide. NAD is a critical coenzyme found in all living cells, and as our own medical director, Dr. Wilks has stated, “Without this molecule, life as we know it would cease to exist.”
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