X-Message-Number: 29380
From: 
Date: Sun, 1 Apr 2007 13:22:04 EDT
Subject: Re: CryoNet #29379

Actually resveretrol is promising and available. It gets written up in such  
mainstream publications as Scientific American. First it was shown to extend 

the  lifespan of yeast, and the critics said "Sure, but yeast are not animals."
Then  worms and fruitflies, and they said "But those are not mammals." Then 
mice. As  they mentioned on this program, when middle aged mice got 

resveretrol, their  lifespans increased 10-20%, equivalent to as much as 16 
years in  

humans. And mice are indeed not people, but since the stuff is not  known to be
toxic and since it has worked in everything they have tried it on,  it looks 
like a good bet to me. Life Extension Institute sells it, and others  probably 
do too.
 
The trouble with testing anything on humans or even monkeys is that they  
live so darn long you can't live to see the end of the experiment. Which is  

probably why they started with middle aged mice. I suppose if they started with

50-80 year old humans, they might get some die-off-rate results in 5-10 years,
and I'd like to see them try that.
 
But what do you think, Dr. Havelock?
 
 
Alan
 

I agree that  the Rose round table piece was great and should be watched 
by anybody  interested in where the research is going.  This highlights 
what I  would call the life extension R&D of "normal" science.  For  
anyone who wants a really long life for themselves the progress in this  
field will seem agonizingly slow and perhaps not very adventurous.   It 
holds out no promise that the elixer of life will arrive any time soon.  
However, the implications are extremely good for one of the  
assumptions of cryonics, that   extending life indefinitely is  where 
our science-based culture is headed in the long run and we will  surely 
get there, though these panelists don't dare say so in so many  words 
because it still sounds kooky to most people.  Several  commented that 
what they were into now would have sounded kooky a  generation ago.
Another point for those on this list to keep in mind is  that life 
extension and cryonic suspension are two quite different ideas  although 
the second depends on a chain of logic that stretches back to the  
first.  The level of public interest in life extension, even by means  
of quackery, is extremely high, even though there is no realistic hope  
that it can be achieved within the life time of anyone now living as an  
adult. One panelist, probably Olshansky, said it was a 42 billion  
dollar industry [or maybe he said 4.2 billion, I'm not sure.]  It  
remains to me a bedevilling fact that the level of public interest [as  
distinct from awareness] in cryonics to so pitiably low despite the  
fact that this is the only hope for most of those now living to benefit  
from what the normal science of longevity will eventually and surely  
provide.

Ronald Havelock, Ph.D, O.D.
CI Science  Advisor







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