A group of Bay Area scientists say they've discovered the cause of aging ... and part of the cure can be found on the shelves of health food stores.

Would you take a few pills that would give you the energy of a youngster, flexibility and vitgor ... even improve your memory? In essence, reverse the effects of aging, with virtually no side effects?

UC Berkeley and Children's Hospital Oakland researchers say they've turned old rats into younger rats, improved elderly rats' modility,vitality and memory, with a diet supplemented by two naturally occurring compounds: one is an amino acid-like supplement, and the other an anti-oxidant.

It's the work of cell biologist Bruce Ames.

"In cells, what happening is you have the nucleus and then you have mitochondria... each cell has about 500 of these little chemical engines, and they wear out."

Ames says a combimination of the two supplements found on the shelves of most health food stores -- acetyl-L-carnitine and alpha-lipoic acid -- boosts the health of mitochondria, but only when taken together, and in moderation.

Research to be published today by the national Academy of Sciences showed after a month, the supplement diet gave old rats youthful vigor. What's good for rats is most often good news for people -- the basic principles are the same -- but Ames says it is much too strong to call this a 'fountain of youth.'

Ames: "I'm convinced that once people understand what's the right thing to do, life expectancy is going to get longer ... Now there are all these people who are going to be smoking, and eating only hot dogs or doughnuts, and there's nothing you can do about them."

Ames says the supplements simply tune up an otherwise healthy cell. Lab research if just beginning into how much of the supplements -- if any -- humans should take.

Collaborators also found that other micronutrients, such as iron, play crucial roles in the health of the mitochondria.

Biochemist Patrick Walter: "Iron deficiency is a severe problem and it really doesn't get the recognition it deserves."

Walter's research will also be published tomorrow, showing that diets low in iron damage mitochondria.

Researchers say it's more and more clear ... your health depends on what you eat -- and maybe you can even turn back the sands of time.