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How the world got lost on
the road to an anti-aging pill
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June 6, 2019: by Bill Sardi
As for A, the double-blind human study is an impossibility. It is not only 20 years away, meaning many people who read this will not live long enough to benefit from the results of the study, but it is impractical. Getting human subjects to reliably take a pill for two decades is never going to happen. With no change in diet or health habits, this means such a pill would have to overcome a bad diet to produce a life-prolonging effect. This is maybe asking too much of a small pill. So, what modern medicine considers the “gold standard” for medical evidence, is an impossibility. Markers of aging would have to substitute, such as gene activation. For example, the Sirtuin1 survival gene is one such epigenetic marker.
As for B, maybe health consumers can’t make decisions for themselves and follow others lead, but paid endorsements cheapen any such discovery. If it works, why would anybody of notariety need to endorse it?
As for C, friends may have influence over others. Word-of-mouth advertising is always the best. But what works for one does not necessarily work for all.
As for D, a dog study would be endearing to the hearts of many who often spend more money on their dog’s health than their own. I’d just bet many people would be positively influenced by a dog study for emotional reasons.
As for E, doctors aren’t likely to put themselves out of business. An anti-aging pill would by definition eliminate or delay more than 20 major diseases. For example, the medical profession knows what a resveratrol can do, which is (but is not limited to):
This author is dismayed every time he hears someone say they will check with their doctor after hearing me talk about the promise of resveratrol pills. Their doctor is not only uninformed, but is in denial when he hears from patients about reported health benefits. For example, when otherwise hopeless patients with retinal disease, for whom all other therapies failed, report resveratrol helped improve their vision, their eye doctors are incredulous.
This reminds me of Scott Van De Mark’s novel, published in 1998, entitled Elixir, which presented the story of a biologist who invented a youth pill (actually a “sex forever pill,”). After hurdling the Catholic Church, the American Medical Association and population control groups, doctors embraced the pill, but only after they were given exclusive right to sell it in their offices, and then proceeded to hoard the pills for their own families! That is not so fictional.
There is no foreseeable or existing drug on the planet that can compete with resveratrol, yet it is largely unused and is not even in the top one- hundred herbal product sales.
In the study mentioned above, when resveratrol was accompanied by other molecules, similar to those concentrated in fermented wine, it worked far better.
One flaw in laboratory studies is that they don’t calculate for the fact most animals internally produce their own vitamin C, enzymatically converting blood sugar (glucose) to ascorbate (vitamin C). The only true animal test would be to genetically alter the gene responsible for the enzyme that converts blood sugar to vitamin C so a true comparison between animals and humans can be achieved. Humans do not endogenously synthesize vitamin C. Results of negative or null studies involving resveratrol would likely be reversed if these animals were in the same predicament as humans. Due to a gene mutation, mankind lost the ability to internally produce vitamin C many generations ago. It is estimated the human lifespan was shortened by two-thirds when this universal gene mutation occurred. Efforts to correct this gene mutation and restore vitamin C synthesis in humans are underway. Bottom line: most animal studies involving resveratrol would be more demonstrative if the lab animals were on par with humans, who don’t synthesize vitamin C.
As for F, this was an actual animal study published in 2008 and ignored by modern medicine. A decade later the nutraceutical used in this study is still the closest molecular mimic to a lifespan/health span-doubling calorie-restricted diet. Even though this brand of resveratrol is the best- tested anti-aging pill, the few consumers who do purchase resveratrol pills mostly shop on price rather than science or performance. Any resveratrol pill will do.
The most studied resveratrol pill is also the only brand that has undergone toxicity testing. In fact, unlike other resveratrol pills this particular resveratrol pill did not exhibit toxicity even when given in mega-doses. It is the safest resveratrol pill on the market. (Longevinex®)
There is a lot that never gets mentioned in public discussions about anti-aging pills. Modern medicine is not going to confess it is dragging its feet over such a development.
The most prolific resveratrol researcher was falsely accused of research fraud, stress from which led to his untimely death. His work was vindicated later. Modern medicine wants nothing to do with resveratrol. Turning heart attacks into non-heart attacks (no tissue damage) upsets the income stream of the cardiology business. One lone cardiologist who does prescribe resveratrol is reported to have had no patients experience a second heart attack after engaging his medical services, a fact proven by a Medicare audit.
The second unmentioned issue is that Medicare and Social Security aren’t about to endorse resveratrol pills for fear of bankrupting already empty trust funds. Retirees living another 20-50 years, beyond one-hundred years, could throw these public trust funds into insolvency unless reduced health care costs (let’s say minus $1 trillion) could then be transferred to the retirement fund. S. Jay Olshansky of the University of Illinois posits that just 7 more years of independent living would actually keep Medicare solvent.
Caught In Between Two Public Institutions
That Shun The Idea Of An Anti-Aging Pill,
Modern Medicine and All Of Its
Expensive Income Streams,
and Medicare/Social Security
That Would Go Broke Divvying Out Benefits
To Millions of Centenarians,
The Public, Waiting For Some
Convincing Go-Ahead Signal,
Can’t Make Up Its Own Mind
About Anti-Aging Pills
For myriads of reasons, most Americans are unsure of so-called anti-aging pills and delay adoption of any life-prolonging technology until the collective mindset agrees they aren’t falling for some charade. Some people feel such decisions are more certain when society moves ahead as a group.
Futurist Ray Kurzweil claims all disease will be eradicated by the year 2030 due to the exponential growth in the human knowledge base. This includes cancer as well as aging itself which he says will follow. Mr. Kurzweil, high-tech wizard that he is, says this may occur sooner rather than later. He speculates physical immortality will be achieved by 2040. Obviously, Mr. Kurzweil’s predictions would alter business models and human expectations. This is all revealed in a noteworthy report published in the San Diego Union Tribune, in November of 2015.
But would modern medicine ever embrace any technology that takes a trillion dollars out of its pocket? The health care industry projects growth in disease care, not a decline in demand for care. A health care industry outlook report lists “a shift to wellness rather than illness” as a potential threat to the growth of the health care industry. Health will be portioned out to the masses on modern medicine’s terms.
Modern medicine adopts whatever technology reimburses the most insurance money (heart bypass surgery, immunotherapy, stem cell implantation, anti-growth factor injections into diseased eyes), which explains why so-called anti-aging pills like resveratrol, that promise to eliminate a couple dozen major chronic age-related diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart disease, has floundered (not even in top 100 herbal product sales).
That leaves the public clueless how to make a decision to embrace any anti-aging technology on their own.
The anticipation of super-longevity is not shared by all. Keeping the human heart pumping and extra fifty years while a super fragile bedridden individual is kept alive by machinery and drugging is an imagined horror many people have in the back of their minds. Understandably, no one wants to live super long without accompanying super health.
As previously mentioned, animal studies have their drawbacks. Health-minded consumers also need to disregard human group studies. They only tell us what would be beneficial to a group of humans, such as determining whether to fortify public water supplies with resveratrol. Such studies are not precise in serving to provide instruction to individuals who seek healthy longevity.
Strikingly some humans, without even making a concerted effort, are living super long. So, the possibility of super-longevity is real. The International Database on Longevity keeps track of individuals who have attained the age of 110 years or more, called supercentenarians. None of these longevinarians takes an anti-aging pill. But this author believes they did in some way mimic with their diet and other habitual practices mimic what an anti-aging pill does.
For example, fasting would mimic a calorie restricted diet that double the lifespan and health span of laboratory animals. And many molecules, namely polyphenols like resveratrol (grapes, wine), quercetin (apples, onions), catechin (tea), oleuropein, tyrosol (olives), curcumin (turmeric) mimic a calorie restricted diet by virtue of their ability to control minerals such as iron, copper, and other heavy metals.
On a disconcerting note, Jean Calment’s title of longest living human of 122 years was recently cast into doubt as it appears her daughter took her mother’s name after the mother died. But that doesn’t erase the many bona fide cases of super-longevity that have been reported worldwide since improved communications have made it possible to discover and monitor such claims globally.
Certainly, altering a single gene like the Sirtuin1 survival gene cannot bring on an unlimited lifespan. Or can it? Researchers, countering prior reports, now say there may be no fixed limit on human longevity. Super-longevity is within the realm of possibility. You may live an extra 50 years but you haven’t got 50 years to decide.
Longevity seekers are left to make their own decision to adopt or pass up anti-aging pills like resveratrol. Given many people are averse to making independent decisions of any kind, be it religion, career choice, or where to invest their money, it would not be surprising, despite the overwhelming evidence in favor of such a pill, to find most people are indecisive and forgo taking such a pill. This appears to be the current situation. Resveratrol out-performs all known drugs, but out of fear you don’t see people abandoning their drugs.
As a guesstimation, maybe 250,000 Americans take resveratrol pills on a regular basis, which would amount to just ~2/10ths of one-percent of the age 50-plus population (108.7 million).
For comparison, an estimated 50 million Americans take an aspirin tablet every day which results in mortal side effects for many. Aspirin kills ~3,000 Americans annually. Resveratrol has been reported to be a safer alternative to aspirin. According to the American Association of Poison Control Centers, resveratrol pills have yet to be reported or associated with a single death since their inception in 2004.
Short of making it possible for a cow to jump over the moon, what more would resveratrol pills have to do to get Americans to adopt them into their daily health regimens?
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