X-Message-Number: 9050
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: Re: CryoNet #9032 - #9036
Date: Sat, 24 Jan 1998 13:00:23 -0800 (PST)

Hi!

To Marty Nemko:

While I think the idea of transplanting a body, though crude, is a good one
at our present state of technology, it's far from clear that transplanting
your body and retaining your head will do much for your lifespan.

The problem is that many of the glands, such as the pituitary and the pineal
gland, and even the hypothalamus, which also secretes various guiding 
chemicals, have significant control over your aging. As an example, Pierpaoli
has actually done cross-transplantation studies with pineal glands from
rats. The younger animals got pineals for older animals, the older animals
got pineals from the younger animals. And this aged the younger animals and
tended to make the older animals live longer.

Even if we assume that oxidation and glycation are the sole causes of aging
(not really a good assumption: we must also consider our body's systems for
self repair, and whether they are working) then transplanting your head
to a young body would at most give you an aging head on a younger body. So
your brain would age just as fast as before. Not only that, but hormones
from the pituitary, the pineal, and the hypothalamus control your other
glands, including your testes/ovaries (yes, Marty, I know you're male),
so that the younger body will quickly take on many features of an older
one.

Transplanting bodies does have some use. First, there has been lots of 
work on healing cut spinal cords, so I can see that as an obstacle which 
won't persist (the work has at least experimental success). But for aging,
no.

			Best and long long life,

				Thomas Donaldson

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