X-Message-Number: 25697
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2005 08:15:41 -0500
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #25692 - #25696

Hi everyone!

Thanks to Rudi Hoffman, of course. 

For some reason unknown to me (by now there are plenty of religious
people in Russia, too --- openly religious, so that's probably not
the reason) Russians have been more active and open about means
to deal with aging than people in the West. They may also have been
able to simply get more funding for their activities. Russians and
also Ukrainians have already found several drugs which prolong
lifespans in healthy rats and mice, and I've tried to tell of every
one of them (funny: when I was doing math, I thought at first that
I should learn to read Russian, but Russian math was translated
on a regular basis ---  while French math wasn't. I ended up learning
much more French than I learned Russian --- so that some of my
knowledge of Russian research in AGING has been behind). Already,
in the GUIDE, I discuss 2 drugs, phenytoin and phenformin, which Dilman
found to increase the lifespans of rats and mice. The latest work
on antiaging drugs adds epithalamin to my chapter 10 on melatonin, 
and I'm working on another chapter, a Chapter 16 on thymosin, 
because Vladimir Khavinson has brought out a good book in English
telling about his work with various peptides and proteins. He's
responsible for the experiments showing that epithalamin and 
thymosin increase lifespans of mice and rats. (There's two other
Updates independent of this work completely).

Pity that I cannot attend or understand most of the talks Igor
describes.

(Incidentally, phenformin is no longer accepted as a drug for
humans. Metformin, a less toxic form, may have the same lifespan
effects plus be usable by us human beings. I understand tests
are in progress).

           Best wishes and long long life for all,

               Thomas Donaldson

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