X-Message-Number: 18833
From: 
Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 22:38:32 EST
Subject: Re: CryoNet #18814 - #18822

In a message dated 3/16/02 5:00:50 AM,  writes:

<< Message #18817
Date: Fri, 15 Mar 2002 09:40:08 EST
From: 
Subject: cure for aging - Charles Platt

 Well, I agree with everything you said, Charles.  There is a "quick fix", 
but it is economic and social, not technical. It involves billions of people 
working together in a market system to produce all the little fixes, largely 
using techniques that we don't have yet.
  BTW, Creative Biomolecules can make the tooth protein (the mineral part is 
fairly simple chemistry), so a visit to a "tooth sculptor" every twenty years 
could keep your teeth built up (after we do the telomere extension on the 
cells in the tooth root...) The eye lens is a toughie. First of all 
antioxidants will preserve your existing lens for twice as long or so (you 
have been taking them since birth, right?) Hmmm... then we have to grow you a 
new eye, I think. >>

The eye lens is no "toughie."  Very servicable plastic substitutes have been 
implanted for years now. Millions of North Americans, Europeans, Japanese, 
and Australians [i.e. all first worlders] have them, restoring sight to a 
crisp 20/20 into their '80's and '90's. I also  doubt that regrowing organic  
lenses will be much of a challenge within the next few years.  We can also 
remold the cornea with lasers at will to correct virtually any refractive 
condition. The much tougher eye problems are with the retina, really an 
extension of the brain.  If you are lucky enough to live into your mid 
nineties, you will also very likely have the bad luck to lose your central 
vision which will drive you crazy.  The blood-brain barrier in the eye is a 
thin membrane which breaks down in very old age, allowing leakage from the 
choroid into the seeing part of the eye, especially in the center ["macula"]. 
 The result is a congealed mess which we call "age-related macular 
degeneration."  Even here, however, we are making modest progress, and the 
National Eye Institute, part of the NIH, spends millions in this area every 
year.
Progress on the many aspects of the eye and vision has really been impressive 
over the whole of the twentieth century and stands as a model for other 
areas.  I speak with some knowledge as a practicing optometrist with a lot of 
recent training and study in ocular disease and co-management of Lasik, 
cataract, diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, and other conditions.  Ron Havelock 
PhD, OD (just call me "doctor doctor", but I would be very happy if I could 
shed one off and award it to Prof Robert Ettinger, far more deserving than I 
for any such honor).

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