Sadie Kaplan is one hundred and four years old and quite a firecracker for her age. She reached the age of regal minority without the use of any pills or doing anything in particular to fulfill a personal quest for longevity.
She has no idea why she was chosen to outlive so many others – her longevity is very mysterious to her as she enjoys somewhat of a celebrity status at the nearby Jewish senior center. Amazingly she still maintains her own apartment and often likes to slink into Popeye’s Chicken restaurant for a pleasant dinner by herself.
She says she keeps herself busy and simply does not have the time to get old! At least that is what she tells her “kids”, who range in age from sixty two to eighty years of age. They are amazed that she has survived nearly everyone she knows. They knew something was different about their mom when she was in her nineties.
Four years ago Kaplan agreed to take part in a study called the Longevity Genes Project at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, part of Yeshiva University. Along with other centenarians, these elder seniors were being counted on by the researchers to provide some answers of scientific value and erase any thought that hers and the other aged subjects were surviving due to some divine chronological calculator.
Part of Kaplan’s obligation to the study was to furnish scientists with her biological profile data and in March this information revealed that shorter women for example might have some genetic mutation related to prolonged life [Kaplan was never taller than five foot two inches and today is just barely above five feet]. Investigators are studying roughly four hundred fifty Ashkenazi Jews between the ages of ninety five years and up. They have found that these elderly folks and their children have a much higher amount of HDL cholesterol – the “good stuff” – over others, the size of their HDL proteins is bigger than the standards. The genes of Kaplan and other contributors to the study have been utilized to locate longevity markers that would seem to enable people to live prolonged lives but they also seem to elevate the mental function and safeguard these folks from dementia.
Studying participants such as Sadie Kaplan as well as doing lab and in vitro work on yeast organisms, flies, worms and rodents aid the researchers into better understanding how to impede the aging process and learn what actually causes it. The idea behind the process is to take what is learned in the laboratory and apply it to real life scenarios.
From a biological perspective, there is potential that someday the average eighty year life span of humans could be extended by upwards of a decade, eventually reaching over one hundred years old or more. What is even more crucial to the scientists is that not only would lives be extended but they would be more healthy and of higher quality due to medical involvement at the vital mid life phase of aging. The thought by experts is that someone in their forties could take something of an “age antidote” and continue taking this for the next fifty years.
The prospects for an anti aging pharmaceutical of this variety can be envisioned by many but not for some years down the road. There are major obstacles to overcome before a drug of this nature is available. Another issue is just the fact that before anything close to it would be approved, years of trials and study would need to be conducted to verify the safety of such a drug for human consumption. There is also the problem that right now there is no research being done that is close to defeating the process of aging or extending life. There is some promising research underway but nothing that will produce the kind of results to life spans experts would swoon over. That said, anti aging research is into some interesting and productive areas.
Oddly, the most hyped anti aging therapies and those garnering popular attention in the media are not what gets the experts excited. Stem cell research, human growth hormone and testosterone therapies and tissue engineering procedures aren’t ranking high with the scientists on the cutting edge. Some of their research is at crossed purposes with the popular versions. One expert is researching HGH proteins and sees a lower rather than higher level of a certain protein that reacts with HGH that is associated with living a longer life.
The well known life extension experts such as Aubrey de Grey, a renowned British scientist out of Cambridge University, believe that aging in an issue that relates to a difficulty with our engineering and is preventable when we discover what causes senescence and beat it with development of meat and potato medical and biomedical progress. This could be anything from developing new organs and tissue to restore aging bodies, or certain other procedures being studied in the advanced field of human regenerative medical science. However, those experts in the field of aging and understanding its causes believe this type of research will not have an impact on human aging for awhile still.
Referring to the aging situation in humans as an engineering problem is such a rudimentary statement to make when one understands the complexities of the engineering process in humans. Nevertheless, top anti aging scientists are in pursuit of a few opportunities they think might at some point prolong our life spans. What follows are the top contenders based on what the experts believe:
Cutting Significantly On The Amount We Eat
This theory is known as caloric restriction, [or CR], which is when the subject decreases the quantity of food they ingest by at least thirty percent and as high as seventy percent being the touchstone of caloric restriction in order to initiate longevity. CR is the lone science at this time that has revealed any kind of life extension success and has shown an added benefit of reducing age related diseases in laboratory testing on yeast, worms, flies rats and even rhesus monkies, primates that offer hope for future success in human studies currently underway.
One individual who has been a convert to CR for more than ten years is approximately five feet ten inches in height and consumes about eighteen hundred fifty calories per day. This is about three hundred calories less than required for someone of his size. It was the potential for a longer life that instigated his Restricted calorie intake and he admits not having a clue as to how it will affect him long term from a life expectancy perspective. All he says is ask him in a hundred years when he will understand the results better!
The advocates of CR have stated they have lower cholesterol levels, reduced risk of cardiac events, reduced infections and less inflammation along with other benefits that seem related to a change in the metabolic enzymes responsible for novel development of proteins and restoration of any that are damaged. The obvious drawback to CR is the significantly lowered food consumption and these folks might live longer but their quality of life in denial will make them quite miserable to be around.
At least this is was what happened to one person practicing CR. He also amalgamated his CR with a weight training program and other calisthenics over a number of years in the hope of increasing his life span by about ten percent. He ate twenty two hundred calories per day which was roughly eight hundred less than required for his amount of training and he found he had the shakes; he was on edge always and had continual thoughts of death while thinking of nothing more than eating.
Subsequent to getting divorced, this individual quit his CR regimen, returned to a normal diet and found other ways to achieve well being. He continues with a balanced diet and consistent training activity but more important he has discovered a certain peace throughout his trial. Many experts worry about the consequences to the immune system due to existing on a CR diet and that it is an issue that humans can become too skinny while enduring a CR eating regimen.
There are currently clinical studies underway focusing on Caloric restriction in humans that appear to verify the protective tendency from heart disease, hypertension and elevated cholesterol but there is strong belief that the entire practice of CR could just be too much for most humans to sustain over an extended period of time.
Calorie Restriction Mimicking
Medicines or supplements that have a duplicating effect of CR only without the starvation malnutrition fears would be a huge step forward in longevity circles. But a significant problem exists. Although there are numerous hypotheses regarding how CR actually works, the true mechanics of the process remain a mystery.
To this point, the best contenders seems to be the ones that react to a number of proteins called sirtuins, that might sway the procedures that oversee the cell metabolism and mortality. The most vital in humans appears to be the SIRT1, a gene that seems to aid in regulating the metabolic conduits related to the aging process, specifically the ones tied to diabetes and obesity. SIRT1 is the forerunner to pharmaceuticals that would be CR mimetics.
There is already a drug in trial called SRT501 that is a proprietary mix of the sirtuins elevator resveratrol, the innate substance causing a stir in health and anti aging commercial circles and media. Found in the skin of grapes and certain other fruits and seeds, red wine and berries, resveratrol has been under scrutiny for some time by experts. SRT501 was released over a year ago by Sirtris Pharmaceuticals for use against mellitus diabetes – the type 2 variety. It was meant as a therapy just for the diabetes alone but experts understand that patients will realize the anti aging potential.
Some scientists think that too much has been made of sirtuins and their effect, that what is required is a lot more study to determine if they indeed do enhance longevity and assist with age related illnesses in lab animals that are actually healthy as well as human studies in the same vein.
Science Understanding Resveratrol
There is much ambiguity swirling about resveratrol. In 2006, investigators revealed that resveratrol safeguarded obese lab mice from the results of consuming a diet high in fat as well as aiding in their longevity. When this information hit the headlines it created a large demand from people for resveratrol supplements which hit the store shelves post haste. Potential trial participants were lining up to take part in research.
What seemed to be missing in al they fuss was that the mice who responded were obese and there was no evidence that the same result would occur in average sized lab rodents. Currently there is no hard factual evidence that resveratrol will help a human live longer. Much more research is needed so that long term effects can be studied regarding humans and consequences of resveratrol.
Experimenting With Cellular Growth Pathways
Research scientists have been working on methods of modifying the pathways that manage the development and nutrition in cells. There are two hopeful opportunities; one is the insulin / insulin – like growth factor 1 pathway otherwise referred to as IGF1, and the mammalian target of rapamycin pathway, called mTOR.
The science behind IGF1 is a sequence of hormone indicators that instigate child development, and this decreases over time through life. Defects that reduce insulin / IGF1 indications and stunt growth have displayed noteworthy augmentation to the life expectancy of worms, flies, and rodents. It was data regarding the amount of insulin / IGF1 in Sadie Kaplan and her female offspring that added to the discoveries by scientists that these alterations could connect shorter women to an increase in longevity for humans also.
Next, the mTOR is a protein implicated in the indicating reactions from cells and it is this action that might be responsible for any prolonging of life due to caloric restriction. When experimenting with the pathways, it is possible that cells can be a part of modifying the process of aging according to some professionals.
This mTOR research was of late enhanced by the detection of twenty five collective genes that manage aging in yeast and worms, two forms of life that are removed by about 1.5 billion years worth of evolution. Just as astounding, scientists discovered that fifteen of these genes also reside in humans. This is thrilling due to the fact there are certain human illnesses and diseases which can be duplicated and studied in worms, this means that if we could intercede on aging processes we could also affect these diseases.
When mTOR actions are manipulated it has displayed reduced aging in yeast, worms and flies but once more the experts say that any assistance to human beings is a long way off.
Stem Cells, Telomeres And Antioxidants
Other scientific research hyped as possible methods of achieving longevity are in the same situation. This includes telomeres, the DNA substance caps that cover the ends of chromosomes preventing them from unravelling. Telomeres get shorter as time progresses and when the telomere end becomes too short, the cells die off. An enzyme called telomerase has been utilized as a means of saving the chromosome strand from fraying but the evidence is in short supply at this time.
The same results are happening with antioxidants, the innate molecules thought to be antidotes to the free radical menace that can ravage the body. Vitamins C and E, zinc, selenium, manganese and different foods have been considered defenders against free radical harm and able to reverse it when they contribute to damage and disrepair. The results of antioxidants for the most part could be considered as negative according to the experts.
Stem cell transplants have been touted as a means of combating the advance of age are also in this negative grouping. This is mainly due to ethical controversy and political and moral restrictions because of the intended uses of embryonic stem cells contributing to one large problem. This slows down research and information is very unclear just how stem cells may restore tissue and prolong life say the medical and scientific experts. Telomere science is still a distant opportunity and stem cells remain even more distant as a viable anti aging option.
Even though the world is being teased into a tizzy regarding the prospects of extending life – or even simply adding on a few more years of life, it all remains intangible. As tough as this is to admit, people need to be reminded that human life expectancy continues to increase, albeit slowly, as time goes on. Te average life span in America was seventy eight years old in 2005. That is up dramatically from sixty years old in 1930.
As badly as everyone wants answers, we are hoping for something that will take some time due to the complex issues surrounding the aging process in humans. There are not even any revolutionary prospects for medicine in the next five years according to many in the scientific community that is of course unless resveratrol comes up big in some manner.
Science and medical professionals tell us that rather than waiting for the magic pill we need to do certain things while we wait. We all won’t be the next Sadie Kaplan who was active in her life but not a health buff. She was not really big on physicians either according to her family which is even more jaw dropping. She does have some hearing loss but will not get a hearing aid and she has only had a single mammogram her entire life. It is evident that something special is happening in Kaplan that most of us will never attain. Sadie Kaplan is a spirited individual and this may be a part of her longevity but she no doubt has a very desirable genetic makeup going for her.
Science is behind the curve on progress with longevity and anti aging elixirs and medical interventions of any kind so this means the greater majority of us must practice the age old methods of maintaining our youthful vitality. We must get regular exercise, eat a balanced diet and not get fat and eradicate harmful habits from our lives.
Given the effects of aging on humans in general and the suffering many experience, at the present time the prospects of lasting much beyond the average life expectancy does not hold much appeal. If we are doomed to an aged existence in pain and mental purgatory than what would be the point? Only optimal health and a great quality of life that we can truly enjoy would make additional years worth the effort.
Tue, May 11, 2010
Anti Aging Theories, Bioscience, Longevity, Stem cells