X-Message-Number: 3500
Subject: CRYONICS: The Las Vegas A4M Conference
From:  (Ben Best)
Date: Sun, 18 Dec 1994 00:32:00 -0500


   I told Kevin that if no one made comments about the Las Vegas
American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) conference by this
weekend that I would do so. The weekend has arrived and no one else
has commented, so I am on the hook.

   The conference planners were expecting an attendence of about 400
people, but 1,100 came -- so they had to build a special tent on the
hotel grounds for the proceedings and the banquet. There were about 30
exhibitors who paid $1,400 each to promote their wares -- including
Alcor and the Life Extension Foundation. CryoCare participation was
a last-minute idea -- Brenda Peters held a CryoCare hospitality suite
party on all 3 nights of the conference.

   On the first night Brenda posted signs and handed-out personal
invitations to participants leaving the proceedings. On the second
day, Brenda was prevented from distributing invitations to participants
leaving the proceedings -- and it was rumored that this was due to
complaints by Alcor people. The CryoCare party was well-attended on the
first night and sparsely-attended on the subsequent two nights. I don't
know why Alcor people didn't have a hospitality suite.

   Virtually all of the sessions were presentations by MDs or PhDs. I
heard it said that many professionals came incognito, but readily
"came out of the closet" when confronted with so many well-qualified
scientists speaking openly about anti-aging medicine. The sessions
were tape-recorded and video-recorded (helpful since most presentations
used slides), so I will not attempt to review them all. Write to the
American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (1510 West Montana; Chicago,
Illinois 60614) for information on availability.

   A number of the sessions dealt with conventional diseases of
aging -- cancer, dimentia and cardiovascular disease, but there were
many sessions devoted to more "radical" anti-aging approaches. Two
hormones that decline with age, DHEA and melatonin, are the subject
of hundreds and thousands (respectively) of scientific papers yearly.
At this conference, DHEA received much more attention. DHEA seems to
be of value for most of the major diseases of aging, as well as for
AIDS and Epstein-Barr virus. Increased DHEA levels have been associated
with a 48% reduction in cardiovascular disease. Richard Cutler's
presentation on Lifespan Extension was basically a summary of an article
by him that I had recently read (found in PROSPECTS IN AGING, 1993,
ISBN 0-12-200745-N --- sorry, I don't know the Editor).

   Dr. Grace Wong gave a presentation on "Cytokines and Aging" -- and
she ate a lunch at a table where Steve Harris, Paul Wakfer and I were
having lunch one day. Her work involved injecting lymphotoxin into mice
and subjecting them to radiation. After 20 days, all control mice had
died and all lymphotoxin-injected mice survived. Lymphotoxin induces
production of the mitochondrial enzyme manganese superoxide dismutase
(MnSOD). Paul Wakfer was hoping to use Dr. Wong's methods on the
anti-ischemia work being done at 21st Century Medicine.

   Dr. Roy Walford was the keynote speaker at the banquet. I met a group
of life extensionists who are practicing Caloric Restriction (virtually
all were "skinny young men"), and this group met with Dr. Walford and
his daughter in an apartment one morning. Paul Wakfer and I attended
(Paul is no longer practicing CR, but I have lost 30 pounds in the last
6 months).

   I can't say enough about all the interesting people I met -- and
could have met, but didn't have time to meet -- so I won't try. Before
the conference I had some fear that people without PhDs or MDs would be
treated as inferiors, but I didn't experience any of this. I was very
impressed with Dr. Don Kleinsek, President of GeriGene Medical
Corporation. He is a geneticist currently doing research on gene
therapy for hereditary diseases. He told me that with lots of money he
has little doubt that aging could be eliminated in ten years.

   This conference will be an annual event, and next year's is also
scheduled for Las Vegas, probably in the first week of December, again.
Possibly there will be a cryonics presentation next year (this year
there was none, although there was a presentation on Nanotechnology
by Dr. Merkle and Organ Cryopreservation by Dr. Fahy). A4M seems to
be a success, and has announced plans for a quarterly magazine.

   I spent an extra day in Las Vegas after the conference, so I was
able to do some sight-seeing. Very many of the casinos on The Strip
are scenic wonders on the outside, but Caeser's Palace, MGM Grand and
the Luxor are scenic wonders inside and out. I particularly recommend
the Secret of the Obelisk trilogy at the Luxor. Episode 1 is my favorite
-- the computer-animation is awesome. Episode 2 hardly seems worth the
wait for a few moments of stunning 3-D images, although the
government-bashing is amusing. Episode 3 offers an inspiring vision of
life 100-years in the future, but predicts self-destructive "anarchy"
in 200-years.

                 -- Ben Best ()

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