LONGEVITY MEME NEWSLETTER
June 30 2003
The Longevity Meme Newsletter is a biweekly e-mail containing news,
opinions and happenings for people interested in healthy life
extension: making use of diet, lifestyle choices, technology and
proven medical advances to live healthy, longer lives. To subscribe or
unsubscribe from the Longevity Meme Newsletter, please visit
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/.
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HOW TO LIVE A LONGER, HEALTHIER LIFE
This newsletter has garnered a fair few new readers since I last
discussed practical ways of extending your healthy lifespan using
presently available techniques. The past few months have largely seen
me talking about:
a) Activism in support of medical research, and
b) Legislation that blocks or will block important medical research
These have been at the top of my mind over topics such as supplements
and calorie restriction. So for the benefit of the new folks, here is
the Longevity Meme take on healthy life extension in three easy steps.
1) Stop Damaging Your Long-Term Health
Smoking, junk food day in and day out, obesity through overeating, and
not having a good relationship with a good physician: all these things
will hurt you far more than current healthy life extension techniques
can compensate for. The most important of these is finding and making
good use of a good physician. Get regular checkups and listen to what
you physician has to say about your health.
2) Adopt a Better Diet and Lifestyle
After you've sorted out the most pressing problems from step (1), you
can look at how to really work on a longer, healthier life.
Adopt a calorie restriction diet. Calorie restriction is currently the
only scientifically proven way of extending healthy life in mammals.
It has a number of other beneficial effects on health, and is highly
praised by practitioners. You can find out more about calorie
restriction at the CR Society website:
http://www.calorierestriction.org
Take a modest amount of supplements appropriate to your age and
health. There is a wealth of supplement information available, but
most of it is worthless, propagated by irresponsible sellers. This is
perhaps the hardest topic to research, and in the end you will have to
make a number of decisions yourself. A good starting point is to
become a member of the Life Extension Foundation. Membership benefits
include a wealth of very useful and fairly independent information on
supplements, physicians and healthy life extension delivered to your
door.
http://www.lef.org
Exercise as recommended by your physician. The benefits of a modest
level of exercise for most people have been well known for long, long
time.
Living a longer, healthier life is really just common sense: calorie
restriction, supplements in moderation and modest exercise.
3) Support and Advocate Medical Research
The previous steps will only help you to live a healthier, longer
natural lifespan still a valuable increase over the alternative.
However, you will be just as dead and buried two centuries years from
now. The future of healthy life extension, of the defeat of aging, of
living for as long as you want: this will come from the medicine of
tomorrow rather than the techniques of today.
Speaking out in favor of medical research is just as important as
practicing present day healthy life extension. The medicine of the
near future holds great promise, a promise that can only be realized
if research and development is adequately funded. The fields of aging,
anti-aging and regenerative medicine are currently very poorly funded.
Politicians and bioethicists oppose the most promising medical
research. If we do not speak up to defend our future health and
longevity, then medical research and investment will decline. By
failing to speak out against legislation that slows or criminalizes
vital medical research, we hurt ourselves.
Do you want to live a longer, healthier life? Then you have to stand
up and say so!
As you may have noticed, step (3) returns us to the topic of advocacy
and legislation. I believe that this is an essential part of any
personal healthy life extension strategy. If you want to live a long,
long time in good health, then you must work towards the medicine of
the future.
For a longer and more useful version of his commentary, see the "Start
Here" section of the Longevity Meme:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/start.cfm
FIN
That's all for my commentary this time: a news roundup for the past
two weeks follows below.
DISCUSSION
Have comments for us, or want to discuss the newsletter? Visit the
Longevity Meme forum at http://www.longevitymeme.org/forum.cfm, or
send e-mail to newsletter at longevitymeme.org.
Reason
reason at longevitymeme.org
Founder, Longevity Meme
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RECENT NEWS
Exploring The Genetic Roots of Longevity (June 29 2003)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-06/uoc--sfw062603.php
>From EurekAlert, news of more good research work on the genetic
underpinnings of the aging process. This whole process is much like
unraveling a ball of tangled yarn. Scientists know some of the basic
mutations that extend lifespan, and now they are much closer to
understanding how these mutations actually work. This latest set of
results was for the humble roundworm, but is still very applicable to
further research in humans. It is very exciting to see our
understanding of the mechanisms of aging advancing in such leaps and
bounds in a few short years!
More on Link Between Cancer and Aging (June 27 2003)
http://www.lef.org/news/aging/2003/06/26/eng-ascribe/eng-ascribe_182518_7172134088309635771.html
Here is a much more comprehensible article (at the LEF News) on the
recent research on the fundamental links between cancer and aging. It
certainly raises some interesting questions. It looks more and more
likely that defeating cancer will be a prerequisite for creating
healthy life extension medicine that blocks the biochemical processes
of aging. Fortunately, as regular readers will already know, cancer is
on the way out as a threat. There are currently many viable cures in
development or trial around the world.
"A Small Window of Opportunity" (June 27 2003)
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20030627/02/
Some more clear, concise commentary on current and pending
anti-research legislation in the US and abroad is over at BioMed
Central. They take the glass half-full view in seeing that there is
opportunity for research amid the slow turning of legislative screws.
But still, one can't help but look at the sum total of all the
obstacles thrown up by politicians and wonder why they don't want
better medicine and longer, healthier lives. Visit our "Take Action!"
section to see how you can help make things better.
Life Extension By Dealing With Heart Disease (June 26 2003)
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993880
Every now and again, someone points out the enormous benefits to
healthy life span that can be attained by universally preventing the
most common fatal illnesses of aging. Here is one from the New
Scientist: researchers estimate one or two decades of additional
healthy life could be gained by having everyone over 55 take a daily
pill containing the most effective drugs to prevent stroke and heart
attack. The prevelance of these sorts of violent heart problems are
quite possibly a consequence of poor diet, however. A person on a
calorie restriction diet might gain the benefits offered by the drugs
in any case. Still, food for thought.
BIO 2003 Again (June 26 2003)
http://www.reason.com/rb/rb062503.shtml
Another update from BIO 2003 is at Reason Online. This one largely
focuses on bioethics and (bad, overly restrictive) legislation. It's
all interesting, but scroll down to the "Stem Cells and Cloning"
heading for items of interest to the healthy life extension community.
As I have long been saying, vital work on regenerative medicine is in
danger of being shut down in the US. It has already been greatly
damaged by legislation passed in 2001, and further legislation will be
further delays before better medicine reaches us all.
Canada Moves Ahead With Stem Cell Research (June 25 2003)
http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20030625/02/
BioMed Central notes that the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
are pushing ahead with funding stem cell research. This has been
delayed for three years due to legislative back and forth; yet another
example of politicians holding up vital medical research and thereby
damaging the prospects of future health and longevity. From the
article: "Public opinion polling has consistently shown 60 to 70%
support for unrestricted stem cell research."
Rapid Regeneration From Stem Cells In Mice (June 24 2003)
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-06-24-1
(From Betterhumans). Researchers have triggered rapid organ
regeneration in mice using adult stem cells taken from bone marrow.
This is indeed "very, very cool" as one of the researchers puts it. A
quote from the article: "We were unaware that an adult mammal of any
kind was capable of regenerating organs that fast." This raises
further questions and opportunities for investigation in this rapidly
evolving field of medical research. We have to hope that recent
demonstrations of the utility and promise of stem cell therapies
convince the US Senate not to ban this research. You voice counts, so
make yourself heard!
Genetic Link Between Cancer and Aging Identified (June 24 2003)
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2003-06/cshl-sig062303.php
EurekAlert reports an important discovery in the fight against both
cancer and aging. The article is a little heavy on the scientific
language, but the digest would appear to be that this is a large step
forward in understanding the fundamental links between the processes
that cause cancer and the processes that regulate aging. The more
researchers understand of the grant scheme of cellular biochemistry,
the closer we will be to cures for cancer and aging.
BIO 2003 (June 23 2003)
http://www.reason.com/rb/rb062302.shtml
Ronald Bailey is reporting on the BIO 2003 conference over at Reason
Online. Most of this first report is on GMOs, but there is a fair
amount on stem cells, biotech medicine and the disappointing
legislation of same. The anti-GMO and anti-medicine crowds seem to be
two sides of the same anti-progress coin. It's sad to see so much
energy expended by people bent on ensuring that we don't have better
medicine, that science doesn't help the poor and hungry, that we don't
live longer, healthier lives. Remember to speak out if you want your
voice to be heard.
Stem Cells: The Potential To Cure All (June 23 2003)
http://www.infoaging.org/feat24.html
A new section at InfoAging provides a comprehensive, readable
introduction and overview of the future of stem cell medicine. Here
are replacement organs grown to order from your own cells, cures for
degenerative diseases of aging, and a call for the US government to
stop blocking research. Also included are links to good resources for
further reading. If you've been wondering what the big deal about stem
cells is, go and take a look at this article.
Take Care With Weight Loss Strategies (June 22 2003)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/928861.asp?0dm=C15OH
Losing that excess weight is widely agreed to be a good strategy for
improving your general health and lengthening your life (by reducing
your risk of early onset of many aging conditions). As this MSNBC
article points out, however, the weight loss industry is rife with
deceptive practices, scams and misinformation. Always, always do your
research carefully before adopting a weight loss strategy. While
you're researching, you should take a look at calorie restriction
diets as an option. It's the only proven, available way to extend your
healthy lifespan at this time.
Regenerative Medicine For Broken Bones (June 20 2003)
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993844
(From the New Scientist). Work on repairing shattered bones is where
to look if you want to see the cutting edge merger between developing
replacement body parts and biotechnology. The new work described in
this article creates scaffolds in a 3-D printer (or fabricator) that
can be implanted into the body. Advanced materials science means that
these artificial bone fragments can be shaped as needed, are strong
enough for use and are slowly replaced with real bone as the body
heals. As usual, this wonderful, promising regenerative medicine is
years away from human trials due to the onerous requirements of the
FDA.
More on FDA Blocking Lifesaving Stem Cell Therapy (June 20 2003)
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-06-18-1
Betterhumans is carrying more on the recent hard-line move by the FDA
to block a successful stem cell therapy from being carried out again.
It is worth noting that it takes five to ten years and tens or even
hundreds of millions of dollars for any procedure to pass through FDA
testing; an enormous waste of time and effort on inefficient
bureaucracy. This slow-down bodes ill for the rapid development and
wide availability of real regenerative medicine in the US.
Longevity Section at MSNBC (June 19 2003)
http://www.msnbc.com/news/HEALTHPKGS_front.asp?0ct=-385
I noticed today that MSNBC has a longevity section in amongst the
health news part of the site. This is good to know; seeing the
mainstream press paying more attention to longevity, life extension
and aging studies is very gratifying. The more that this area is drawn
into public debate and the mainstream media, the better. This is an
important part of the process of legitimizing research and obtaining
greater support for real, meaningful anti-aging medicine.
Summary: Low-Fat Vrs Low-Carb Diets (June 19 2003)
http://www.veritasmedicine.com/d_home.cfm?type=WU&did=6&cid=72576&rfr=vpt
>From Veritas Medicine, a good summary of the recent back and forth
over Atkins vrs other diets (such as calorie restriction or more
traditional low-fat approaches to dieting). While this is written from
the point of view of diabetes patients, the conclusions are applicable
to most of the rest of us also. The conclusion to listen to, I think,
is that low-calorie diets (like calorie restriction) are the way to
go. Although, like the author of this article, I too know of a few
people who have had good results from low-carb diets.
Stay Mentally Fit As Well As Physically Active (June 18 2003)
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=553&ncid=751&e=10&u=/ap/20030618/ap_wo_en_he/na_med_us_avoiding_dementia
>From Yahoo!, another study adds to the value of keeping mentally fit.
"Use it or lose it" appears to be the order of the day for our mental
as well as physical fitness as we age. This is all good, commonsense
health advice, to go with the occasional pieces posted here regarding
general physical health. So exercise your mind today, and you'll be
helping to ward off the onset of age-related dementia tomorrow. As
usual, we should still be cheering on and supporting the medical
research that will lead to a cure for these horrible degenerative
conditions of aging. Merely practicing preventative techniques is
certainly not good enough for those of us who want to live long, long,
healthy lives!
Aging Never Gets Old (June 18 2003)
http://www.thetimesonline.com/articles/2003/06/16/features/seniors/d3f98f1ec690e76286256d44006e46b6.txt
There are some colorful characters in the field of aging studies.
Here, The Times profiles Dr. Denham Harman, who first developed the
free radical theory of aging. His views are interesting, to say the
least, especially since he thinks life expectancy will not increase
much past 85 years! Of course, I and many scientists differ with Dr.
Harman on that count, but I can't fault his dedication to his work.
It's an interesting article, well worth reading.
Stem Cells Fix Neurological Damage (June 17 2003)
http://www.betterhumans.com/News/news.aspx?articleID=2003-06-16-5
An article from Betterhumans covers recent work that demonstrates stem
cells to be effective at repairing neurological damage. In light of
recent very successful trials involving direct injection of stem cells
into patients with heart damage, this new finding is not unexpected.
Of course, the FDA stepped in to stop the successful heart trials,
with no real reason beyond the fact that they can. Unless something
changes there, you and I are unlikely to see the benefits of this
research any time soon.
AMA Endorses Theraputic Cloning Research (June 17 2003)
http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/06/17/ama.cloning.ap/index.html
(From CNN). The American Medical Association has stepped up to the
plate to endorse theraputic cloning and stem cell research. This is an
important event in the ongoing political fight over medical research.
In addition to taking a pro-science stance, the AMA is backing a
future in which real anti-aging, regenerative medicine will be widely
available. Every major group that takes this position will make it
harder for the anti-research forces in the halls of power to legislate
against medicine.
Back and Forth on Vitamin E (June 16 2003)
http://www.lef.org/news/nutrition/2003/06/12/pr/0000-4184-dc-crn-lancet-study.html
Supplements, supplements, supplements. Here's a good summary of recent
exchanges between parts of the scientific and supplement communities
on vitamin E, from the LEF News. Up front, I'll say that modest
supplementation is undeniably good for you. This article highlights
two things: 1) don't base your own healthy life extension strategies
on recent news, 2) the supplement industry as a whole generates far
more noise than useful information. Meaningful future longevity will
come from regenerative medicine, while supplements are an important
way to maintain your health now.
FDA Blocks Successful Stem Cell Therapy (June 16 2003)
http://www.detnews.com/2003/health/0306/13/d01-192073.htm
Disappointing, frustrating news from Detroit News. The FDA is blocking
further use of a successful stem cell therapy for heart damage. There
are 400 people waiting to try this new therapy after it likely saved
the life of a teenage accident victim, and as the article says: "About
100,000 to 200,000 people a year could benefit from this." Once again,
people in the US government have shown themselves to be anti-research
and disinterested in the future health and wellfare of people like you
and I. This attitude, displayed so flagrantly over the past few years,
is a real problem. Legislation and short-sighted politics threatens to
hold back real progress in medical science.
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Do you have comments for us, or want to discuss the newsletter? Visit
the Longevity Meme forum at http://www.longevitymeme.org/forum.cfm, or
send e-mail to newsletter at longevitymeme.org.
