-- Greetings,
Here is the SECOND piece of the recent media coverage of the
International Conference on Longevity held in Sidney,
Australia this month:
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Sydney Morning Herald, Australia - Mar 5, 2004
Never say die
March 6, 2004
Yes, you can have eternal youth, but you will probably have
to give up the cake, writes Deborah Smith.
Worms that crawl around in the soil are usually associated
with death, not life. But mutant earthworms created late
last year could hold the key to how to delay decay and live
for a very long time.
By tinkering with genes, American researchers were able to
extend the life span of the worms to six times the normal
length, a record for any creature. "In human terms, these
animals would correspond to healthy, active 500-year-olds,"
the University of California team who made them estimated.
Worms and people share a surprising amount of body chemistry
in common. And these slimy Methuselahs are a good example of
the promise of longevity research, and its early stage of
development.
Despite a flourishing anti-ageing industry, major scientific
successes have so far been restricted to worms, fruit flies
and rats. Only three ways of extending life span in animals
have worked so far - breeding programs, semi-starvation and
genetic modification, none of them great options for humans.
This vacuum between desire for a fountain of youth and the
reality makes for lively debate.
Dr Michael Fossel, one of the leading experts on ageing
attending the inaugural International Conference on
Longevity in Sydney this weekend, believes that within a
decade ways to "reverse" ageing, by resetting genes to the
way they operated when a cell was young, will become
available.
We may even be able to live for a "couple of centuries"
longer, until we're 300, predicts Fossel, of Michigan State
University.
An Australian ageing expert, Dr Robin Holliday, disagrees.
"It's totally irresponsible nonsense," says Holliday,
formerly of the CSIRO.
Other experts at the conference are setting their sights on
an industry that has burgeoned in the US, selling unproven
pills and potions to slow ageing. Professor Thomas Perls, of
Boston University, claims it "engenders a pernicious
societal bias against older people".
Scientific advances in understanding longevity are beginning
to be made. But "any responsible pursuit of therapies has
been completely overshadowed by a greedy, amoral and
dangerous industry".
He singles out the use of human growth hormone as an anti-
ageing treatment as "the most blatant and organised instance
of quackery today".
In the next 20 years the number of people aged 60 or over
will double to 1.2 billion and the figure will be more than
2 billion by 2050.
Given the seriousness of the issue, the longevity conference
has backing from the World Health Organisation. But its
unlikely organisers are a Byron Bay criminal lawyer, John
Weller, and his son Noah, a naturopath.
The Weller family have spent $1 million on the conference
and the launch of the Sydney-based non-profit International
Research Centre for Healthy Ageing and Longevity, which will
run annual conferences for the next 10 years.
John Weller says he was moved to action by the frustration
of seeing his parents and grandparents in old age move in
and out of hospitals and nursing homes. "Our philosophy is
to bring together world experts in healthy ageing and
longevity for the betterment of humankind," he says. This
includes alternative approaches, and presentations by
scientists are interspersed with sessions on yoga,
complementary medicine, Eastern longevity strategies and
even a performance on a Native American flute. Clown doctor
Patch Adams and environmentalist Dr David Suzuki are also
attending.
"We wanted a conference with a warm-hearted environment,"
says Weller, who adds that formal presentations of non-
orthodox medicine are evidence-based.
Holliday says the misconception that ageing is a mysterous
process persists. But it is now well understood.
In mammals at least 10 maintenance mechanisms have been
identified that help repair damaged DNA or the immune
system, or other problems. The better the maintenance
system, the longer-lived the creature.
Our system is relatively good. But it's not perfect.
"Eventually maintenance becomes less capable of dealing
with accumulation of the multiplicity of defects in organ
systems which have not evolved to last more than a life
span," he says.
Holliday says doctors tend to treat diseases as different
entities, but they are all part of the ageing process.
Better understanding of the cellular mechanisms that cause
diseases will help delay their onset. "That's the challenge
of the 21st century," he says.
People wouldn't live that much longer as a result, he says.
Some experts put the gain at only 15 years. But health costs
would be much reduced.
In animals, breeders have been able to select for longevity
genes to produce long-lived varieties of dogs, horses and
cattle. "People say you should choose your parents wisely,"
says Fossel. "But you can't, of course."
A conference speaker, Dr Natalia Gavrilova, of the
University of Chicago, has shown that if you want to live
beyond 80 you had better hope you have other close long-
lived relatives, because genes, rather than environment, are
most influential in survival into the ninth decade.
Having a mature dad is bad news for girls. "Daughters
conceived to older fathers live shorter lives, while sons
are not affected," she says.
Dr Nir Barzilai in New York has also studied 300 Ashkenazim
Jews who have lived to 100. The 70- and 80-year-old children
of centenarians inherit significantly better health, he has
found, with 50 per cent less diabetes and 60 per cent fewer
heart attacks than normal.
He has also recently identified a genetic mutation in a gene
that controls levels of good cholesterol that triple the
chance of getting from 70 to 100. The research could lead to
new drugs to help everyone live longer, says Barzilai, of
Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
The extraordinarily long-lived worms in California were made
by reducing the activity of a gene called daf-2, as well as
removing the worms' reproductive tissues. In humans, similar
genes are involved in the production of insulin and control
of growth and metabolism. And studying this pathway, and
possible drugs that could regulate it, is becoming a major
area of ageing research.
Fossel's preferred approach is to reset genes. Genes in an
old cell are the same as those in a young cell, except that
over time some have become more or less active. It's like an
orchestra playing the wrong score, he says.
Substances such as telomerase could be used to make the
genes play the right young tune again, he says. It's been
done to turn old skin cells into new ones in the lab. The
approach could be tried now in a dozen or so people, for
example, to repair ulcered skin, he says. "It just takes
money, about $3-$4 million."
The scepticism of people like Holliday doesn't worry him.
Eating less also works, says George Roth, of the US National
Institute of Health. "Calorie restriction is the only
intervention conclusively shown to slow ageing and maintain
health and vitality."
People on the Japanese island of Okinawa, for example, who
consume 40 per cent fewer calories than Americans, live an
average four years longer. The life spans of mice have been
extended by as much as 50 per cent, simply by restricting
food intake.
Roth says people would find it difficult to stick to a diet
that reduces calories by the 30-40 per cent necessary.
Holliday adds that animals on caloric restriction also shut
down their reproduction
very desirable."
Roth, however, says there is now fierce competition to
develop drugs and dietary supplements that mimic the effects
of caloric restriction, without limiting food restriction.
Hopefully, one day, it will be a case of "having one's cake
and eating it too", he says.
In the meantime, just give up the cake, if you want to live
longer, says molecular biologist Professor Brian Morris, of
the University of Sydney.
This story is available at: smh.com.ausmh.com.auOpen ↗
2004/03/05/1078464645918.html and at: longevity-science.orgsmhOpen ↗
2004.pdf