Are you Cognitively Impaired or Vitamin Deficient?

By Irene A. Masiello
Certified: Holistic Counselor, Adult Educator & Stress Management Consultant

My book, Paradise Costs, A Victim’s Daughter Fights Back against Elder Abuse, is a chronicle of my father’s deterioration into the abyss of severe cognitive impairment. This was the consequence of Alzheimer’s and resulted in his subsequent abuse and exploitation by neighbors in Walterboro, South Carolina.

Dad’s tragic decline took years. It was heartbreaking to see a robust and vibrant man once captivated by his love for animals and nature become apathetic, depressed and withdrawn.

Writing Paradise Costs took ten years to complete. It was a stressful marathon filled with agonizing memories, requiring intense focus while processing deep sorrow. Most of my time was spent indoors in front of my computer. I’ve attributed some health issues to the stress and, recently, I was diagnosed as a possible diabetic.

Over the course of this past year, I developed severe and crippling pain in my shoulder, rib cage, chest and foot. I felt weak and exhausted all the time no matter how much rest I got. I was unable to concentrate, was unsteady on my feet and unable to make decisions. I felt overwhelmed and anxious over slight matters and somewhat immobilized.

My internist, a wonderful man (and a consultant for Paradise Costs), was looking towards a diagnosis of diabetes, especially, since my Dad was insulin dependent. However, under his supervision, I went on a crash diet and lost over 20 lbs. Fortunately, he diagnosed me as glucose intolerant rather than diabetic.

My glucose numbers were not extremely high. But, rather, they jumped around with great sensitivity to what time I ate, how I slept, the amount of pain I had, stress, etc. The numbers did not follow a pattern and, ultimately, were low enough for my internist to conclude that I needed no medication for diabetes but rather very careful monitoring of carbohydrate and glucose consumption. Exercise was advised but that was tough for me because I was feeling so weak.

Because of a blood issue I have and my hematologist’s orders, I had stopped taking a multi-vitamin years ago. Though I recently asked her again about vitamins, she was adamant. My body is making too many red blood cells and its thought that vitamins would stimulate my bone marrow to produce even more of them.

However, with this new diagnosis of glucose intolerance limiting what I could eat, some vague yet alarming red flags were swirling around my head and I was struggling with them. While somewhat immobilized and beleaguered, I started to wonder if I could be properly nourished since I could not eat fruit, drink a glass of orange juice, have a white potato, etc. How could I consume enough vitamins and minerals to stay healthy now?

I started thinking about the trace minerals I was doing without. I wondered about Vitamin C and my immune system because it seemed that all this pain had started around Christmas last year when I came down with a fever and stayed sick for months. During this time, the symptoms mentioned earlier seemed to be getting worse.

I was struggling to string this together but really, cognitively, I was not sure I was the person I once was. I justified it saying, “Well, none of us are who we used to be.” A couple of my friends seemed to be saying the same things, too, and feeling somewhat like me. More justification came with our saying “we’re all aging.”

Then one friend reported that he had been diagnosed with vitamin D deficiency. Once a gal pal was diagnosed with the same shortly after, I hit the Internet running. What I saw online horrified me for I was described perfectly in the pages of symptoms of vitamin D deficiency. It explained so much. I called my internist who said, “Most people are D deficient so you probably will be too. We’ll check.”

He was shocked at the result and stated he never saw a vitamin D level so low. The normal range of vitamin D in the blood is 30-74. Mine was NINE! The Net said this level of vitamin D deficiency is dangerous.

Vitamin D deficiency is a contributing factor in diabetes and glucose intolerance. It’s thought to help safe guard us against breast, bladder and colon cancer. Deficiency of vitamin D causes body pain, weakness, cognitive impairment, confusion, brittle bones, exhaustion, more.

Vitamin D’s presence in the blood stream regulates the absorption of calcium (a lack of calcium causes osteoporosis, etc.) in the body and my doctor told me my calcium number was high.

The Net says calcium cannot be absorbed without vitamin D and that any slight deviance from the normal calcium range could change someone’s personality both emotionally and cognitively. It pointed out that magnesium was critical to the absorption of both vitamin D and calcium as well.

After only three and a-half weeks of vitamin D therapy, the pain I wrestled with for months was reduced by about 60%. The confusion and lethargy lifted somewhat, I felt more cognitively aware and I started to return to who I was. My glucose numbers came down, too. Finally, I was well enough to start walking without feeling faint.

On an outing with a childhood friend, I remarked, “Imagine what could have happened to me had I fallen and broken a hip, landed in a nursing home, and lost ability to make cogent decisions for myself all because of a vitamin deficiency.”

It’s too easy to look at the changes in oneself and dismiss them as simple aging. It’s more difficult to stay informed and active in the information loop. As we age, our nutritional needs change and, certainly, anyone who is bedridden or a shut-in needs more careful medical supervision and monitoring.

Your physician’s assistance and support is critical. Doctors know a lot but they don’t know everything and, usually, they’re the first ones to admit it. Certainly, mine did.

Our healthcare system has dramatically reduced the quality of medical care. Doctors spend too much of their very valuable time complying with insurance company mandates and doing paperwork rather than practicing the art and science of medicine which they love and have dedicated their lives to.

We, as patients, must remain pro-active and do our homework in partnering with our doctors. With the state of our health care system in shambles and it failing us all, both doctors and patients need to work together as a team.

Please find an informed advocate to help you navigate the system, if possible, and, remember, nutrition is a science. Please discuss your nutritional needs with your physician and ask him or her about consulting with a nutritionist. Many insurance companies will pay for this care.

Question….do you get 15 minutes of sunlight every single day? If not, please ask your doctor for the blood test as soon as possible for you may be vitamin D deficient.

Irene A. Masiello is the author of Paradise Costs, A Victim’s Daughter Fights Back against Elder Abuse, www.ParadiseCosts.com, afterword by Bennett Blum, MD, www.BennettBlumMD.com, and proprietor of Kayla Grace Designs affordable handmade jewelry especially created for baby-boomers see: www.etsy.com/shop/kaylagracedesigns. PLEASE NOTE: The above article is not a replacement for the care of your licensed healthcare professional. Please consult your physician for all your healthcare needs. © Copyright, June 2011, Irene A. Masiello, All rights reserved. Do not reprint without permission of the author. Reach her at irenemasiello@msn.com.

Happy 94th Birthday ! Clara G. Fernandez

Clara G. Fernandez who is the inspiration behind this blog celebrates her 94th birthday after losing all her civil rights, and immigrating for the 2nd time in able to escape oppressive government who seemed to condone the confiscation of everything she stood for after a generation of toil, sacrifice and hard work....


I really thank the G-d above for having allowed this amazing woman so many years who has taught me never to give up and for having given an example that will live forever in the many lives that she has touched.


Clara left the United States shortly after receiving this letter of consfiscation, she was under house arrest having lost all civil rights, rights to travel, rights to enjoy her retirement when the American Dream turned into a hellish nightmare and was forceful separated from her husband for purely financial reasons. Her husband retired Dr. A.J. Fernandez M.D. did not survive the stress of the situation and died shortly after being separated from his wife Clara of 58 years.

Letter of Consfiscation

click to enlarge

Clara was being forceful given a cocktail of strong psychiatric medications that made her subject to many debilitating falls and were designed to keep her in a distressed , zombie like estate which she would have NOT survived for long had she not gone into exile to a third country where she is totally off drugs,thriving and in a loving family environment, as it should be.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLARA !

The Genocide of an Elder Nation

Written By Dr. Mark Stengler submitted by William Roberts

It's absolutely heartbreaking. All over America, nursing homes are filled with frail, feeble residents suffering from dementia. In many cases, these folks are so far gone they don't even recognize their own children.

But I'm going to let you in on a dark, dirty secret: Many of these patients do not have dementia at all. Their memory loss, confusion, and delirium are caused by prescription drugs!

And so are many of their other problems.

This is not just speculation on my part. It's fully documented in the medical journals. In fact, it's so common that there are even medical terms for it. Like "polypharmacy," which means giving a patient too many different drugs. And "iatrogenic illness," which means any illness caused by doctors.

According to the medical journals, polypharmacy and iatrogenic illness are rampant in this country.

One study concluded that one of the major causes of falls in nursing homes is the side effects caused by medications.
Another study found that 97% of nursing home patients take at least one drug, with 17% taking 5 or more!
Yet another study found that many drugs can cause Parkinson's-like symptoms and concluded that "drug-induced parkinsonism is frequent."
And still another study listed 22 different categories of drugs that can cause symptoms that mimic Alzheimer's... plus 14 different over-the-counter drugs that can cause those symptoms!
Here's a typical scenario. A healthy person goes to the doctor for a checkup and is told his cholesterol or blood pressure is high. So he starts taking medication, which causes side effects. This leads his doctor to give him a second drug to treat those side effects. But, of course, that second drug causes new side effects. So the doctor prescribes a third drug to treat the side effects of the second one!

Before you know it, the person's health is spiraling downward and he soon needs people to take care of him. And everyone just chalks it up to "old age."

Except for the insurance companies. They know better. Recently, I spoke to a 72-year-old woman who was turned down by THREE different long-term care companies, even though she passed her physical with flying colors. The reason given? She was on too many prescription drugs.

Yes, the insurance companies know that if this woman continues to take her meds, it's only a matter of time before her health deteriorates. And they don't want to be the ones footing the bill when that happens.

But you can fight back against this system of medicine run amok. First of all, make sure you always try natural remedies first. Pharmaceuticals should be a last resort, not a first option. Secondly, if you have a loved one in a nursing home, talk to a naturally minded physician about possibly weaning them off the drugs. This single step may make a huge difference in their health and well-being.

Life Expectancy Has Shot up by 178% in a Century

Renuka Bisht, Hindustan Times Email Author

When he heard that Britain's Queen Mother had died at 101, the News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch is reported to have responded, "An early death!" The diet and exercise conscious septuagenarian plans to be on the topside of the experts who say that the average Australian will live to be 100 by 2050.

Thanks to a complex web of modern innovations in clean water and sanitation, biomedical advances against infectious and parasitic diseases, and improved diets, the developed world has already seen its life expectancy rise by 50 per cent in the last century, exceeding 75 years today. In India, the life expectancy of 64 years may lag behind that of the developed countries but still represents a spectacular 178 per cent jump since 1901 when it was only 23 years.

A position paper on the scientific goals for an ageing world presented at the 2007 conference on healthy living and longevity explains that people who remain physically and mentally functional beyond 100 prove that genes associated with the extension of healthy life already exist in the human genome. If you combine this with the recently found ability to reverse cellular ageing in the laboratory and the promise of stem cells to repair or replace damaged organs, it seems that science’s ability to extend youthful vigour through an extended lifespan is now a plausible goal. Dozens of people have already interred themselves in cryonic chambers, in the hope that technologies of the future will revive them to health.

And new scientific breakthroughs are proliferating. Just last month, the Nature Genetics journal reported the identification of naturally occurring processes allowing many genes to both slow ageing and protect against cancer in animal experiments. Cancer, significantly, is 100 times more likely to attack people at the age of 65 rather than 35

Abridged =>>

Many unaware of cholesterol's role in heart disease

By JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH of the Jerusalem Post

The faster people reduce their risk factors for heart disease and the faster people with symptoms go to the hospital, the greater their chances for survival. This is the message of World Heart Day, organized by the Israel Heart Society as part of the International Heart Federation's global events in over 100 countries.

World Heart Day was marked on Sunday, but the public campaign to increase awareness of heart disease will continue, says Prof. Basil Lewis, head of the society who works at the Lady David Carmel Medical Center and the Technion's Rappaport Medical Faculty in Haifa.

One of the most important numbers that people should know is their cholesterol level - specifically that of their low-density lipoprotein (LDL,) which should be as low as possible (70 if someone is at high risk for heart disease.)

The high-density lipoprotein (HDL,) which helps protect against heart disease, should be as high as possible, says Lewis. "Many people haven't realized that cholesterol is greatest single factor that accounts for heart attacks and vascular disease, even more than obesity. If you smoke and/or have hypertension, your risk is even greater."

High LDL levels are very treatable, he continues. "Go to your doctor periodically to be tested and to be prescribed a statin, which lowers LDL. "In England, you can even get a small dose of statins over the counter, without a prescription, but we do not recommend this in Israel," he said, as accessibility to doctors here is very high.

"If I had my way, I'd even put a statin into the National Water Carrier," he said with a bit of exaggeration. "We have no vested interest in promoting one drug or another, but we want people to lower their cholesterol levels."

So far, he said, there is no drug proven to raise HDL levels, but "we are researching it. Exercise certainly helps," Lewis adds.

There is also not enough awareness in Israel of the need to rush to a hospital if you have symptoms of a heart attack, including chest pains, shooting pain up the arm, pressure on the chest, shortness of breath and the like.

If you do suffer a heart attack, he says, "don't wait to go to your health fund clinic the next day. Go immediately to the hospital!" Israelis typically wait to see if the symptoms go away by themselves, and women take even longer to seek help, he says.

A recent Teleseker survey of men and women aged 45 to 65 found that many were unaware of the importance of high LDL cholesterol in the risk of heart disease.

How to Live to 120... and Still Remember Where You Left Your Car Keys

Incredible opportunities for you to live to a ripe old age, while enjoying the mind and body of youth, are right around the corner. In fact, there are several things you can do, starting today, that could add from 5-15 healthy active years to your life. If you take advantage of them now, not only will you look better... feel better... and live longer, but you'll increase your chances of being alive when extreme life extension measures will be developed and available to you.

For now, the three best things you can do are:

For a simple approach to health and longevity, click here for a downloadable copy of the SALADS™

Join the Life Extension Foundation. Click on http://www.lef.org/. Life Extension Foundation offers perhaps the single most complete source of information on health and longevity in the world - as well as the highest quality and affordable cutting-edge supplements available. The Foundation also directs their profits to life extension research projects.

Read Fantastic Voyage by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman. Click on http://www.fantastic-voyage.net/. Fantastic Voyage is essentially a how-to manual on adding as many healthy years to your life as possible, while avoiding major illness and disease. It also gives you a peek at a comprehensive collection of future life-extending technologies.

Buy a copy of The Life Extension Revolution: the New Science of Growing Older without Aging by Philip Lee Miller, MD. This book is must reading if a long and healthy life is your goal.

Exploring Life Extension

A film by the Immortality Institute that explores various aspects of extreme life extension including cryonics (cryogenics), caloric restriction, transhumanism, and other scientific pursuits of extreme life extension. ...

Exploring Life Extension

Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS): A practical way to cure human aging - Website of Dr. Aubrey de Grey

Immortality Institute ~ Advocacy & Research For Unlimited Lifespans

U.S. Life Expectancy Below That of 41 Other Nations

Life expectancy in the U.S. has reached its highest point ever, but it is exceeded by the rates in 41 other countries, the AP/Arizona Daily Star reports. The U.S. has been slipping for decades in international rankings of life expectancies as other countries are improving health care, nutrition and lifestyles, according to the AP/Daily Star. Countries that rank above the U.S. include Japan, most of Europe, Jordan and the Cayman Islands. A U.S. resident born in 2004 has a life expectancy of 77.9 years, placing the U.S. in 42nd place, down from 11th place two decades ago.

Researchers say the lower U.S. ranking is attributed to the high uninsured rate among the population, in addition to rising obesity rates and racial disparities in life expectancy. Black U.S. residents have a shorter life span, at 73.3 years, than whites. The U.S. also has a high infant mortality rate compared with other industrialized nations, with 40 countries having lower infant mortality rates than the U.S. in 2004. The country with the longest life expectancy is Andorra at 83.5 years. Swaziland is last at 34.1 years, attributed to sub-Saharan Africa's high rate of HIV and AIDS, as well as famine and civil strife.

Christopher Murray, head of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said, "Something's wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most on health care, is not able to keep up with other countries." According to Murray, improving access to health insurance could increase life expectancy, but he predicted that the U.S. ranking would not improve as long as the health care debate is limited to insurance. Murray said policymakers must direct their efforts to reducing cancer, heart disease and lung disease. Murray supports additional efforts to reduce tobacco use, control blood pressure, reduce cholesterol and regulate blood sugar.

A "growing body of evidence" indicates that the U.S. is not a "leader in providing good medical care" but a "laggard," a New York Times editorial states. According to the editorial, a comparison of the U.S. and other industrialized nations in several important areas of health care finds that:

"All other major industrialized nations provide universal health coverage" -- most with "comprehensive benefit packages with no cost sharing by the patients" -- but the U.S. "to its shame" has 45 million uninsured residents and millions of residents with inadequate coverage;

U.S. residents receive "prompter attention" than those in most other nations, but "even Americans with above-average incomes find it more difficult than their counterparts abroad to get care on nights or weekends without going to an emergency room";

The U.S. "ranks dead last on almost all measures of equity," with the "greatest disparity in the quality of care given to richer and poorer citizens";

The U.S. ranks "near the bottom in healthy life expectancy at age 60" and 15th among 19 nations in deaths that would not have resulted "if treated with timely and effective care";

The U.S. ranks "first in providing the 'right care' for a given condition" and high for preventive care but performs "poorly in coordinating the care of chronically ill patients, in protecting the safety of patients and in meeting their needs and preferences";

The U.S. in a recent comparison of five nations "had the best survival rate for breast cancer, second best for cervical cancer and childhood leukemia, worst for kidney transplants, and almost-worst for liver transplants and colorectal cancer";

U.S. residents "hold surprisingly negative views of their health care system," and "American attitudes stand out as the most negative" in a recent comparison of five nations; and

The U.S. health care system -- despite "our vaunted prowess in computers, software and the Internet" -- is "still operating in the dark ages of paper records and handwritten scrawls," with many U.S. physicians "years behind doctors in other advanced nations in adopting electronic medical records or prescribing medications electronically."

The editorial states, "With health care emerging as a major issue in the presidential campaign and in Congress, it will be important to get beyond empty boasts that this country has 'the best health care system in the world' and turn instead to fixing its very real defects," adding, "The world's most powerful economy should be able to provide a health care system that really is the best" (New York Times, 8/12).

World's oldest person dies in Japan at 114: report

TOKYO (AFP) - The world's oldest person, a Japanese woman who counted eating well and getting rest as her hobbies, died Monday at age 114, a news report said.

Yone Minagawa, a widow who lived in a nursing home but was still sprightly late in life, died "of old age" Monday evening, Kyodo News reported.

There was no immediate answer to a telephone call placed to city hall in her town in southern Fukuoka prefecture.

Born on January 4, 1893, Minagawa was already in her 50s when Japan surrendered in World War II.

She had been certified as the world's oldest person by the Guinness Book of World Records after Emma Faust Tillman, the daughter of freed American slaves, died in January.
Despite her advanced age, Minagawa was said to enjoy eating sweets and counted eating well and getting a good night's sleep as the secrets of her longevity.

Her nursing home said Minagawa had celebrated becoming the world's oldest person earlier this year with a Western-style lunch of bread, stew, salad and a dessert.
Japanese women are the world's oldest living people, in what experts attribute to a traditionally healthy diet and high standard of medical care.

Their life expectancy was a record 85.81 years in 2006, according to the government.
Japanese men are the world's second oldest with a life expectancy of 78.8 second only to men in Iceland who on average live to be 79.4.

More From Transvision 2007

by Ronald Bailey

Ronald Bailey brings us another report from Transvision 2007 at Reason Online: "The Tuesday evening session was devoted to another sort of speculative revival technology, cryonics.

Presentations were made by three members of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation. ... Alcor currently has 850 members with 78 patients who are cryonically suspended. The first talk was by nanotechnologist Ralph Merkle who gave the standard line that cryonics is an experimental technology for life extension. The question is do you want to be in the experimental group or in the control group? ... Alcor has a team that flies to the bedsides of clients whose hearts are about to stop.

Once they do stop, the team begins immediately to try to limit damage to their brains. To do that Alcor technicians pump patients' bodies up with cryoprotectants that prevent the formation of damaging ice crystals. ... Alcor is about to begin experiments with mice to see if they can be cooled and then revived. ...

A Peek at Developing Technologies of the Future

Andrew Rosenson, a doctor who heads up Chicago Heartscan, didn't peer so much into the future, but showed us the results of some remarkable recent advances in medical imaging. Combining various imaging technologies, CT scans with PET scans enable physicians and surgeons to precisely isolate areas of disease within a patient's body. Last year, given my family's history of heart disease, I decided to take advantage of this technology by having my heart scanned by a 64-slice CT scanner. Contrary to my critics' views, I do, in fact, have a heart:

Later in the day, Sirius satellite radio founder, Martine Rothblatt, discussed "Cybernetic Biostasis." The idea is that people should be creating digital mindfiles throughout their lives that could be used to revive them by means of mindware when sufficiently strong artificial intelligence is developed. As Rothblatt explained, mindfiles would record aspects of an individual including mannerisms, personality traits, recollections, feelings, beliefs, attitudes and values. This can be done compiling digital photos and videos, blogs and diaries, the results of psychological testing, and sensecam data. Rothblatt specifically cited the work of information scientist William Sims Bainbridge on personality capture.

To enable the creation of mindfiles, Rothblatt's Terasem Foundation has created the websites, Cyberev.org and Lifenaut.com. Cyberev is short for "cybernetic beingness revival."

The Tuesday evening session was devoted to another sort of speculative revival technology, cryonics. Presentations were made by three members of the Alcor Life Extension Foundation.

Abridged More >>

Cancer, Longevity, Statins and the ' Ape Diet'

ANDRÉ PICARD PUBLIC HEALTH REPORTER
A customized vegetarian diet can lower cholesterol levels just as effectively as state-of-the-art drugs, according to a new Canadian study.Researchers found that a modernized "ape diet" -- one that is high in fibre, nuts, soy and extracts of leafy greens -- can reduce cholesterol by almost 30 per cent.

By Randall Parker Biomedical

The ape diet had 4 major categories of components.
The key components of the ape diet are plant sterols, found in plant oils and enriched margarines, viscous fibre, found in oats, barley and aubergine, and soy protein and nuts.
The margarines enriched with plant sterols (which compete with cholesterol for absorption) used in the study may have been the commercial brands Take Control, Benecol, and Benecol Light. To up your plant sterol content using natural foods one possibility is pecans with 95 milligrams of plant sterols per 100 grams. However, the level of plant sterols in the margarines is about two orders of magnitude greater (1.7 grams sterols in 14 grams of Take Control) and clinical trials in plant sterols have used about 2 grams per day. Still, the nuts have other heart-healthy benefits.

The researchers claim this diet works because it recreates the kind of diet humans evolved eating.

"We went right back in time to, hypothetically, five million years ago, when the diet would largely be leafy vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds," Dr. Jenkins said.


The results of this study are sufficiently dramatic that JAMA recommends its use before cholesterol-lowering drugs are tried.

In an accompanying editorial, James Anderson, a professor of medicine at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, said the findings have dramatic public-health implications. He suggested that physicians prescribe the "ape diet" to patients before even considering drugs.

This diet is an improvement on the Garden of Eden diet the same researchers developed.
The daily volume of food was about a third of that of the Garden of Eden diet, Jenkins said, adding the people who followed it didn't complain about how much they had to eat but said they couldn't eat any more.

Those who lost weight were asked to, however.
Most of the reports on this study didn't pick up on one particularly interesting result the researchers observed.

Surprisingly, the diet also lowered the levels of C-reactive protein, considered a risk marker for heart disease.

The CRP drop was dramatic.
Equally impressive was a 28 percent drop in C-reactive protein, a substance found in the blood that is a sign of inflammation and possible heart disease. The statin group had a 33 percent drop.
The Scientist has a good recent survey of the many ways chronic inflammation appears to contribute to the development of many diseases. (requires free registration - and I really recommend taking the trouble as they are one of the better science news sites)

Peridontal disease also causes arterial inflammation and increased risk of heart disease.

However, many clinicians were unclear of the cause of elevated CRP levels. A study published earlier this year in the Journal of Periodontology reported that inflammatory effects from periodontal disease, a chronic bacterial infection of the gums, cause oral bacterial byproducts to enter the bloodstream and trigger the liver to make proteins such as CRP that inflame arteries and promote blood clot formation.

Keep your teeth clean and your gums healthy.

Excerpt from Do statins cause cancer or affect longevity?

CONCLUSIONS--Extrapolation of this evidence of carcinogenesis from rodents to humans is an uncertain process. Longer-term clinical trials and careful postmarketing surveillance during the next several decades are needed to determine whether cholesterol-lowering drugs cause cancer in humans. In the meantime, the results of experiments in animals and humans suggest that lipid-lowering drug treatment, especially with the fibrates and statins, should be avoided except in patients at high short-term risk of coronary heart disease.

Cancer Gene Therapies Improving

July 2007 -

Effective gene therapies for cancer are becoming more plausible for the near future as illustrated by this report from EurekAlert!:

"A molecularly engineered therapy selectively embeds a gene in pancreatic cancer that shrinks or eradicates tumors, inhibits metastasis, and prolongs survival with virtually no toxicity. The researchers call the system a versatile expression vector - nicknamed VISA. It includes a targeting agent, also called a promoter, two components that boost gene expression in the target tissue, and a payload - in this case a gene known to kill cancer cells.

It's all packaged in a fatty ball called a liposome and delivered intravenously. In a test of the therapy against two aggressive lines of pancreatic cancer in two different types of mice, researchers loaded the VISA system with a mutant version of a gene named Bik, which expresses a protein that naturally forces cancer cells to kill themselves. The team created the more lethal mutant and named it BikDD. Untreated control mice in both experiments all died within 40 days. Mice treated with the mutant gene delivered via a less-targeted viral promoter driven expression system employing cytomegalovirus (CMV) all died within 90 days, most much earlier.

In both trials, the VISA-BikDD mice lived longer, with at least half surviving for 14 months with no detectable sign of cancer recurrence."

Nanotechnology and Life Extension

by Chris Phoenix ( cphoenix at CRNano.org)

This chapter is not really about life extension. Instead, its focus is on health extension: keeping the body in a state of good health. This is a simpler topic, because we can ignore several philosophical questions. However, as the chapter unfolds, it will become clear that life extension is a natural consequence of health extension. As diseases are cured, causes of death will be avoided; as people make use of technology to improve their health, they will find themselves living longer--perhaps much longer.

A few thousand years ago, people lived about thirty years. From their point of view, we have already extended our lives to an amazing degree. However, from where we stand today, we can see that we still have a long way to go. Some people still die in their 40's from cancer, heart attack, stroke, and infections. This is tragic, and frustrating. Today's medicine is only somewhat able to deal with these and other conditions--and it has barely started to attack the problem of aging. But we can see light at the end of the tunnel.

Fifty years from now, what causes of death will be preventable? That depends largely on the technology we will have available, so let's start by projecting some technology trends. Gene sequencing and identification will be as easy as a blood sugar test. Medical devices such as artificial hearts and insulin pumps will be implantable and well-integrated with the body's natural demands. Surgical instruments will be more delicate and less destructive; what today is "major surgery" will be done with an office visit. Computers will be millions of times faster than today's machines. Last but not least, we will probably have the ability to build strong, useful, complex machines out of individual atoms and molecules. This is called "nanotechnology" or simply "nanotech", and it will make us healthier in several important ways.

Can we expect technology to solve all our medical problems? This chapter will answer that question by examining what nanotech can do for medicine.

Nanotech is a huge topic, Read about this fascinating topic here >>

Stem Cells Enhance Hearing Recovery

Researchers have shown that bone marrow stem cells injected into a damaged inner ear can speed hearing recovery after partial hearing loss.

Hearing loss has many causes, including genetics, aging, and infection, and may be complete or partial. Such loss may involve damage to inner ear cells called cochlear fibrocytes, which are fundamental to inner ear function. Some natural regeneration of these cells can occur after acute damage, leading to partial recovery of temporary hearing loss. But could such restoration be enhanced by using bone marrow stem cells, which can differentiate into various tissue-specific cell types"

Dr. Tatsuo Matsunaga of National Tokyo Medical Center pursued this hypothesis by utilizing a well-characterized rat model of drug-induced hearing loss. This model specifically destroys cochlear fibrocytes and leads to acute hearing loss. Although partial recovery occurs over many weeks, high-frequency hearing remains extremely diminished. Using this system, the investigators examined whether direct administration of stem cells into the inner ear could restore the cochlear fibrocyte population and aid hearing recovery.

Stem cells injected into the inner ear survived in half of the injured rats, where they migrated away from the site of injection toward the injured region within the inner ear. These stem cells divided in the new environment and expressed several proteins necessary for hearing, suggesting tissue-specific differentiation. Further, transplanted cells that migrated to the damaged area of the inner ear displayed shape similar to that of cochlear fibrocytes.

New Works by Dr. Gavrilov

Dr. Leonid Gavrilov Ph.D. Who is a writer/researcher in the fascinating sciences of subjects that concern us all . Besides being a E.A. reader and a fascinating person Dr. Gavrilov is a brilliant writer/research whose works and web site Longevity Science are vanguards in the fields of Biotechnology and Life enhancement topics.

Greetings,I am pleased to share with you the list of new published books, organized in the following categories (just click on the titles below):-- Anti-Aging-- Aubrey de Grey Ideas-- Brain Aging-- Cryonics-- Geriatrics-- Growth Hormone-- Human Longevity-- Immortality-- Life Expectancy-- Life Extension-- Menopause-- Population Aging-- Rejuvenation-- SENS: Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence

Hope this helps!

Dr. Leonid Gavrilov, Ph.D.

What The Experts Say

"Few people not directly involved in gerontological research are fully aware of the exciting developments in the study of aging and what I feel is the very real prospect of devising effective means of postponing age-related disease and functional decline and yes, prolonging life."

Andrzej Bartke Ph.D. Prize Record Holder

We are on the verge of a revolution in medicine:

"We are on the verge of a revolution in medicine: understanding, treating, and ultimately preventing the causes of degenerative aging. But medical revolutions only happen if we all stand up in support of funding and research. We did it for cancer. We're doing it for Alzheimer's. We can do it for aging - and create an era of longer, healthier lives!"

The Engineer's Viewpoint: Treat Change as Damage and Fix It

Here Are Facts for Older Americans Month 2007

Population 65 and older nearing 40 million, more than 12% of Americans

495 millionCurrent world population 65 and older. Projections indicate the number will increase to 997 million by 2030. <http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idbagg.html>

May 1, 2007 - A meeting with the National Council of Senior Citizens resulted in President Kennedy designating May 1963 as “Senior Citizens Month,” asking the nation to pay tribute in some way to older people across the country. In 1980, President Carter’s proclamation changed the name to “Older Americans Month,” a time to celebrate those age 65 and older through ceremonies, events and fairs. Read more...

Interesting Statistics about Seniors >>

How Old Can Humans Get?

It is as much a philosophical question as a scientific one: How old can humans get? The evidence from a new study published in the journal Science suggests we have yet to find the answer.

The study shows the maximum life span increase in Sweden -- and by inference, other industrialized countries -- has continued to rise in the past century, but most especially during the past 30 years. From 1861 to 1969, maximum age at death in Sweden rose less than half a year per decade. Since then, the rate's more than doubled -- to 1.11 years per decade. The oldest Swedes now die at an average age of 108 -- eight years older than their counterparts from the 1860s.

"It's clear that people are living longer, and it's clear we can see no end with the improvement of life span," says Richard Suzman, PhD, associate director of Behavioral Social Research at the National Institute on Aging. "What accounts for the improvement in life span is a complex question that I don't think we have the full answer to. ... How much of it is related to medicine, public health, improved education, wealth, improved prenatal care, and early childhood conditions? I think all of these factors play a role, and we don't fully understand how to rank their importance."

Bob Roush, EdD, MPH, of the Huffington Center on Aging at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, says preventing senility and frailty are two of the key challenges facing an aging population. "'Don't do me any favors making me live until 110 if I don't know what's happening at 98.' That's the conundrum," he says.

"My whole pitch on increasing the quality of one's geriatric life is not just for today's older people but tomorrow's older people," Roush tells WebMD. "[You can live well] by staying strong, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, keeping your cholesterol down, alcohol in moderation ... don't outlive your resources. Prepare for a long life -- physically and financially -- and don't forget the spiritual side of things. Plan on living for a long time -- because you probably will."