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 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=25697