A very dramatic story about the effects of L-Dopa on twenty patients with severe Parkinson’s disease is contained in Oliver W. Sack’s book Awakenings. Between 1916 and 1927, nearly five million people fell victim to encephalitis lethargica (sleeping sickness). A third of those affected died either in a coma or in a profound state of […]
BHT has extended the life spans of mice in experiments by Dr. Denham Harman. In some species which have a naturally short life span and tend to die of cancer, the BHT’s life extending effects probably stemmed from its suppression of cancer development. Harman has also demonstrated an increase in average life span with BHT […]
Mutations to your DNA caused by free radicals are a major cause of cancer. Free radicals can make blood clot abnormally in our arteries by destroying our body’s ability to make PGI, (prostacyclin), a natural anti-clot hormone found in healthy arteries. Free radicals are also implicated in arthritis. Most of the brain damage caused by […]
As we mentioned earlier, some nutrients effective to a degree in slowing cross-linking include cysteine (a sulfur-containing amino acid, which helps maintain sulfur in proteins in the reduced state); vitamins A, B-1, B-5, B-6, C, E; the mineral selenium; and other antioxidants. Removal of calcium and heavy metals from collagen by chelating agents may be […]
Read more Cross-linked Molecules and Aging in Skin, Arteries, and Other Tissues V
As you grow older, your body becomes stiffer, less elastic, and less agile. This is due to cross-linking at a molecular level. You become stiffer for the same reason that old rubber becomes brittle and stiff—your large structural molecules such as collagen (an important protein in connective tissues) are welded together by cross-links. This process […]
Read more Cross-linked Molecules and Aging in Skin, Arteries, and Other Tissues II
“A vitamin C is a vitamin C is a vitamin C.” A synthetic (made by a chemical factory) molecule of vitamin C is exactly the same as a natural (made by a plant’s biochemical factory) molecule of vitamin C. It is argued that there may be nutritional cofactors (some possibly unidentified) accompanying natural vitamins. It […]
In scientifically sound studies, researchers allow for variations by using a device called controls. Controls are experimental subjects who are exposed to exactly the same conditions as the test subjects—those receiving treatment— except that they do not receive the treatment being tested. Ideally, this should be the only variable between control and experimental groups. Controls […]
Longevity is only desirable if it increases the duration of youth, and not that of old age. The lengthening of the senescent period would be a calamity. —Alexis Carrel, Man the Unknown (1935) Nothing is too wonderful to be true. —Michael Faraday Many people fear that an extended life span would mean even more time […]
“Cheshire Puss,” she [Alice] began . . . “would you tell me, please, which way I ought to walk from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. —Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland There isn’t just one aging process, and there isn’t just one way to retard […]