Sumner Redstone's anti aging secret

Sumner Redstone's anti-aging secret

There may be some debate about future control of Viacom and CBS, but the media mogul doesn't plan to bequeath his empire anytime soon - thanks to a little purple elixir.

By Tim Arango, Fortune writer
September 4 2007: 5:14 PM EDT

(Fortune Magazine) -- As the years tick by, Sumner Redstone just gets more optimistic. Earlier this year the 84-year-old said he planned to live another 50 years; two years ago he was predicting another 20.

His age has been in the spotlight lately because of the recent public spat with his daughter over his succession plans, but the controller of Viacom (Charts) and CBS (Charts, Fortune 500) has lately been getting a bit of help in the form of a little-known superjuice called MonaVie. "It's a miracle drug," he told Fortune. "I feel great."

Redstone attributes his good health to a Brazilian berry.

A dark-purple elixir with a cult-like following, MonaVie is an antioxidant-rich concoction whose main ingredient is the Brazilian açai berry (pronounced ah-sigh-ee), long touted among health nuts for its anti-aging ingredients.

Vitamin-water it's not: MonaVie costs $40 a bottle, and you can't get it in stores; it's marketed only through the company's network of thousands of individuals who sell it out of their homes (think Avon or Tupperware).

Redstone first heard of the juice from Viacom exec Bill Roedy on a trip to Germany in January. After learning that his butler's sister-in-law was a devotee too, Redstone ordered some up and started drinking four ounces a day. "Since I've been on MonaVie I haven't taken a sleeping pill," he says.