expanding interest in life extension

Doug Skrecky (oberon@vcn.bc.ca)
Mon, 24 May 1999 09:27:54 -0700 (PDT)

cryonet@cryonet.org
In Message #11810 Ben Best <benbest@benbest.com> wrote:

> The new President will bring in a fresh approach which may
> invigorate the organization. Paul wants to expand both the
> explicit and the implicit interest in all forms of life extension
> rather than maintaining a narrow focus on cryonics.
>

Great idea - I've always felt one bird (life) in hand was worth two in the bush. With numerous breakthroughs being made in eliminating the rigours of old age in rodents, as well as reducing disease processes in humans, we're entering into the golden age of life extension. For those with a scientific bent, specific examples of the former are rejuvenation of both mitochondrial function, and ambulatory activity independantly by both acetyl-l-carnitine and lipoic acid. (see Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 95: 9562-9566 August 1998, and FASEB J. 13: 411-418 February 1999) Examples of the later are reductions in human cardiovascular disease mortality by consumption of nuts, and omega-3 fatty acids, and of prostate cancer by tomato ingestion. Note the recent dates on the rodent studies. Things are moving faster now than ever before in the field of life-extension. Worried about becoming senile? Avoid omega-6 fatty acids like the plague, and guzzle down omega-3's as well as monosaturated fats!
A lot of this cutting edge research simply has not had time yet to filter through to the general public. It looks like even now we have the ability to largely empty out old age homes of their occupants, and restore relatively normal lives to most of them. I would be very surprised if at least some of us are not around at the end of the next century.