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How the world got lost on
the road to an anti-aging pill
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September 11, 2017: by Bill Sardi
Mirror, mirror on the wall,
Why am I looking older
When I don’t have to at all.
Aging is scientifically optional. If you missed that news headline that went round the world in the year 2000 you needlessly aged 17 years biologically. That scientific breakthrough was only marginally put into practice by modern medicine and never fully adopted by the public.
For starters, I’m talking about your throwing away your reading glasses, cancelling arthritic joint surgery, eliminating the need for facial skin creams, not watching your hair turn grey, reversing damage (scarring) after a heart attack and never getting cancer.
Put simply, we’re letting ourselves needlessly grow old. The visible signs of aging can be slowed or reversed with simple affordable nonprescription molecular medicine. Why isn’t every American adult using it?
Readers of this report will predictably run to their doctors to ask about the youth restoring technology this report addresses and their doctors will be clueless. Doctors embrace this technology, but only if they control it and profit from it. The public’s inability to make health decisions on their own cripples them from being beneficiaries of a natural anti-aging molecule that goes unused.
Over a decade and a half ago Americans failed to heed an observational lesson that human beings don’t have to progressively look old as they age. The lesson came from Japan.
Hoards of people in Japan are reported to purchase over $4 billion of hyaluronic acid (HA) annually after an ABC News report in the year 2000 featured a small village in Japan where residents defy the clock hands of time and live without wrinkles, have thick hair and flexible joints throughout life. These people defied their calendar age.
The village of Yuzurihara, known as “the village of long life,” was extolled in news reports around the world. Of 990 villages and towns in Japan surveyed by the World Health Organization, there were ten times more people living beyond the age of 85 in Yuzurihara than anywhere in North America.
Soon after that ABC News report oral hyaluronic acid pills became the rage in Japan. That idea never fully caught on in the USA, even among vain and appearance-conscious youth seekers in America.
In contrast, Americans with a population 2.5 times that of Japan only purchase only ~$4 million of hyaluronic acid products annually (2011 figures). If Americans adopted hyaluronic acid into a daily health regimen like the Japanese do, over $10 billion of hyaluronic acid would be sold annually yielding functional, health and cosmetic benefits far exceeding its retail price.
You can revisit the astounding village of Yuzurihara and view the original jaw-dropping ABC News report online. Watch the video where it says most of the villagers there have never been sick a day in their life and you will grasp why American medicine doesn’t want the secret of Yuzurihara to be put into practice. The secret is hyaluronic acid (HA).
Dr. Toyosuke Komori, the town doctor, noted a female in her 90s without any facial wrinkles or age spots whatsoever. He attributed this youthful effect to a low-iron diet. He said the youthful appearance of these villagers was because of a molecule called hyaluronic acid (HA).
What is hyaluronic acid? It is a gel-like water-holding molecule that fills space between living cells in the body (connective tissue) and exudes all of the visible qualities of youth.
ABC News reporters could only guess which component in the Yuzurihara diet was attributed to the youthfulness of the villagers and mistakenly thought it had something to do with sticky vegetables the villagers grew in their gardens.
But I concluded on my trips to Yuzurihara that it was the combination of a low iron diet (confirmed by the town doctor) and the phytoestrogens and enzyme inhibitors in their miso soup and other fresh-grown plant foods. Yes, estrogen and weak estrogen-like molecules in plants help to produce hyaluronic acid (HA).
The very reason why females have thicker lustrous hair, smoother skin, and greater skeletal flexibility than males is that estrogen sends a signal for fibroblast cells to make abundant amounts of HA. When women go through the change of life and their ovaries cease producing estrogen, their skin starts to wrinkle, their hair begins to thin and their joints stiffen.
Yes, for the above reasons middle-aged women who face the onset of menopause need to seek a doctor’s prescription to replace their estrogen. Bio-identical hormones are the best choice. But oral HA supplements should be employed to waylay the accelerated aging changes that occur once the ovaries cease to produce estrogen.
And the latest study is just in — oral HA supplements vanquish crow’s feet wrinkles among males and females up to 59 years of age. American women ought to be running to the health food store to get a bottle of HA capsules. Instead, in a futile attempt to delay or erase wrinkles, American women plaster their faces with skin creams. In Yuzurihara, Japan the women unconsciously rely on natural production of HA throughout their lifetime.
The No. 1 anti-aging skin product in the USA, Olay Regenerist (Proctor & Gamble ) generated ~$103 million in sales annually in the US in 2014. The top ten anti-aging facial creams in the US generated ~$847 million of sales in 2016.
A 75-year old person has only one quarter of the amount of hyaluronic acid in their skin compared to a 19-year old.
Contrary to what doctors maintain, that oral HA is not absorbed, the latest science as well as earlier published reports show large molecular weight HA is broken down by stomach acid and is effectively absorbed. Oral HA moisturizes skin from the inside out, adding luster and suppleness to male and female complexion.
Using oral hyaluronic acid to activate more youthful levels of HA from the inside out is a far more effective way of restoring or maintaining a youthful appearance than cosmetics. Only a few anti-aging skin creams even include topically applied HA in their formulas.
Oh, doctors do prescribe HA — injectable HA. Dermatologists and orthopedists believe in HA. They inject HA as a lip-filler and in knees that are arthritic. But doctors disingenuously maintain oral HA is too large a molecule to be orally absorbed. Oral HA is on par with injectable HA.
And oral HA does so much more.
Oral HA supplements often have a profound effect upon restoration of the aged eye.
The vitreous jelly that fills the human eye is filled with hyaluronic acid. HA is considered a substitute for the vitreous. As the eye shrinks with advancing age, strings or clumps of HA may cast shadows on the retina, a phenomenon known as floaters. Floaters are visually perceived as cobwebs in the line of sight. Based on observational evidence, I’ve observationally found oral HA often resolves floaters. This makes scientific sense.
The human eye shrinks as it ages and falls back in the eye socket. Eyes with glaucoma exhibit an 80-90 percent decrease in HA. The fluid drain (trabecular meshwork) collapses and fluid pressure rises in the eye– what is called glaucoma. Depletion of HA from glaucoma patients’ eyes correlates with this eye disease. My suggestion that glaucoma sufferers supplement with oral HA almost always reported to normalize elevated eye fluid pressure that if left untreated can damage the optic nerve at the back of the eyes.
The macula is the visual center of the eyes. Holes may form in the macula. These more often occur among women in menopause who no longer secrete as much estrogen as they did when young. Macular holes are associated with the use of anti-estrogen drugs. Since estrogen raises the levels of hyaluronic acid, it is possible reduced levels of HA may give rise to macular holes.
The provision of oral HA may help push retinal detachments back into place. Injected HA is currently used to treat retinal detachments.
As people age the focusing lens of the eye loses its flexibility and around age 40 reading glasses are need to see close-up objects such as for reading. In other words, our vision shifts towards being more farsighted. This is called presbyopia.
It is also not uncommon for HA supplement users to report less dependence on eyeglasses. As supplemental HA stimulates the eye to produce more HA, the eyes fill with HA and the focus point on the retina may be shifted so a farsighted patient may need a thinner eyeglass prescription or none at all. Could this be the reason why some geriatric residents in Yuzurihara did not need to rely on eyeglasses to read when I visited there over a decade and a half ago?
An abnormal fold in the retina (aka epiretinal membrane or macular pucker) may be therapeutically addressed by consumption of oral HA.
Again, doctoring gets in the way of applying HA to these eye maladies. Eye doctors want to sell spectacles and eye drops or even perform surgery to reduce abnormally high fluid pressure in the eyes. Readers of this report will predictably run to their eye doctor to ask about hyaluronic acid and the doctor will be clueless. He will say it is unproven. But it is not disproven.
HA also lubricates and cushions the voice box (larynx) to maintain a young-sound voice. As people age their voice often sounds raspy. Those with scarred vocal cords would be most likely to benefit. People who rely on their voice, like singers and newscasters could prolong their careers by taking oral HA.
Every time I see someone, usually women, wearing a support around their wrist or elbow I guess they are battling carpal or ulnar tunnel where the nerves in the hand or arm are frayed. I want to tell them to try oral HA.
Smoking does more to age the face than any other factor. Wrinkle lines around the mouth are telltale evidence of life-long smoking. It is not surprising to learn that tobacco use accelerates the loss of HA from the skin and promotes premature wrinkling.
Which twin smokes cigarettes?
Oral HA would have application to cushion the sciatic nerve that when inflamed produces shooting pains down the leg. The same goes for TMJ joint pain (jaw bone pain).
The human spine is comprised of bone and spongy material that gives it flexibility. As the spine ages the center of the discs in the spine (the nucleus pulposus) has significantly less water content. Perplexingly, herniated discs exhibit greater amounts of HA than undegenerated discs in the spine. However, this is because the body produces more HA in states of disease and degeneration.
I don’t know how many people I’ve recommended HA to with life-long back trouble who found lasting relief from chronic back pain.
There is evidence that leads one to believe oral HA supplements may be a remedy for hemorrhoids.
Oral HA may be a strategy to preventing recurrent urinary tract infections in postmenopausal females without the use of problematic antibiotics.
As women age they find sexual contact is often painful. Oral HA may re-cushion nerves and eliminate vaginal dryness, itching, burning and painful intercourse.
Vaginal dryness is common among postmenopausal females. A woman reports that an oral hyaluronic acid supplement taken for joint pain alleviated her stubborn vaginal dryness that was not improved with “all kinds of lubricants” to the point where she says she can “now have sex any time I please.”
When HA injected into animal hearts following an experimentally induced heart attack, the damaged (scarred or fibrotic) area of the heart decreased by 53%. The number of new blood capillaries and arterioles (small arteries) increase by ~150%.
A published report states: “HA has been widely used as a biomaterial for heart regeneration after a heart attack. Indeed, HA and its derivatives are biodegradable and biocompatible, promote faster healing of injured tissues, and support cells in relevant processes including survival, proliferation, and differentiation. Injectable HA-based therapies for cardiovascular disease are gaining growing attention because of the benefits obtained in preclinical models of myocardial infarction.”
In the animal laboratory, injection of HA has been shown to increase the pumping power (ejection fraction) of the heart following a heart attack.
None of this should be surprising. It was Dr. Lester Morrison in the 1970s who prescribed supplemental chondroitin sulfate (~5000 mg), a precursor for hyaluronic acid, for his post-heart attack patients and reduced cardiac death rates. This startling discovery was ignored, just like HA has been long ignored.
The HA degrading enzyme hyaluronidase is what keeps HA from accumulating excessively in living tissues.
HA is called “the magic glue” but its eraser is hyaluronidase. With advancing age iron and copper accumulate in the body and increase the activity of hyaluronidase, which results in the visible signs of aging – facial wrinkles, hair thinning, etc.
This enzyme breaks down HA, decreases viscosity of body fluids, which then facilitates the spread of infection and toxins (example: snake venom) and facilitates the spread of cancer. Natural hyaluronidase inhibitors like quercetin and resveratrol can be employed to maintain youthful levels of HA with advancing age.
HA supplementation may be of little benefit if the degradation of HA exceeds its synthesis. In nature, the subterranean naked mole rat consumes roots and tubers that contain polyphenolic hyaluronidase inhibitors.
The naked mole rat never develops cancer in its natural lifetime. The naked more rat doesn’t avert cancer because it makes more HA but because of its diet of natural hyaluronidase inhibitors. HA facilitates a natural phenomenon called contact inhibition – as long as cells are in contact with each other they do not become malignant and grow out of control. It is not surprising to learn that the skin of this cancer-poof animal is also very elastic and this animal does not exhibit skin wrinkling with advancing age. Naked mole rats exhibit neoteny – prolongation of youth via HA. These hairless animals live up to 10 times longer than other rodents.
It was Dr. Ewan Cameron who in 1976 taught the spread of cancer, what is called metastasis, results from the breakdown of hyaluronic acid via an HA degrading enzyme called hyaluronidase. Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) inhibits hyaluronidase and therefore the spread of cancer.
As biologists describe them in a report published in Physiology Reviews, “old naked mole rats do not become covered with wrinkles, participate in procreation throughout life, and their survivorship does not dramatically decrease with advancing age.” Here, here!
The naked mole rat doesn’t inherently produce more hyaluronic acid than other species. It consumes tubers rich in polyphenols that inhibit the enzyme that breaks down and degrades HA. Polyphenols such as quercetin and resveratrol.
As a subterranean species, naked mole rats require elastic skin to navigate underground tunnels. Hyaluronic acid is a space filler, cushioning agent and is characterized as the key moisturizing molecule in wrinkle-free human skin.
Iron chelators (key-lay-tors) or binders inhibit the degradation of hyaluronic acid. Quercetin, naturally found in red apple peel and red onion, is an iron binder on par with pharmaceutical iron chelators. IP6 (inositol hexaphosphate) derived from rice bran is nature’s is a superior iron binder and is completely non-toxic compared to pharmaceutical iron chelators.
In 1978 researchers in Japan reported that vitamin B5 (pantothenic acid) and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine) supplementation significantly improved HA content in skin by ~30% for each vitamin. The mechanism of action was unknown but researchers surmised these vitamins had an estrogen-like effect and acted synergistically with estrogen to increase HA skin levels.
It is interesting to note that children with the premature aging syndrome called progeria excrete abnormal amounts of a gel-like water-holding molecule called hyaluronic acid and their hair thins and falls out, their skin wrinkles and they look old and they develop cataracts and joint problems.
Precursors for HA such as glucosamine-chondroitin ($246 million sales, ranked #16) and plain glucosamine ($43 million, rank #54) and chondroitin alone ($1.4 million) are widely sold in health food stores. But HA supplements are ranked #156th in sales. Go figure.
I recall Cheryl who in middle age wrote me after she began taking oral HA supplement she heard me talking about on the radio. She was having trouble with her knees – they were painful. She thought she was headed for knee surgery. Oral HA vanquished that pain. She also discovered her hair was growing thicker. Her hairdresser pointed it out to her. And the wrinkles around her eyes began to vanish. And she was astonished at the fact she was seeing better without the aid of her reading glasses. Yes, this really happens. Hair, skin, joints, vision all positively age-reversed by HA.
By the way, ancient Egyptians did something that today seems very archaic. Traditional pharmacologists of the time ground up animal eyes to produce medicine. Hyaluronic acid is abundant in mammalian eyes. This crude “HA supplement” was treasured by royalty.
The end of aging is for real. No, you won’t look like you are 18 when you are 60 years of age. But you don’t need to look like you are 65 when you are 40.
Over reliance upon physicians who tend to ignore therapies that aren’t reimbursed by health insurance is one primary reason why HA is underutilized. Another is that modern medicine relies upon disease rather than health to collect its rewards. A confused and uninformed public cannot fathom, if some off-the-shelf natural remedy is so remarkable, “why doesn’t my doctor know anything about it?” Let’s not ask doctors questions that produce foreseen and income-protective answers.
Oral hyaluronic acid is a compelling but largely unapplied health promoter. Over the 17-year period since the world learned about Yuzurihara, Japan, oral HA supplements appear to be safe and more than marginally effective. HA is not some placebo. If it is, then conventional doctors need to stop injecting it.
Some of the accumulated positive testimonials received from HA consumers over the years are so astounding as to compare to the Biblical miracles.
In one instance, an older woman confined to an electric chair to get around began taking HA after hearing me talk about it on the radio and reported her electric chair was now parked in the garage and she didn’t need it any more. Sounds like the Bible story where Jesus instructed a lame man to “take up his bed and walk.”
This HA update report should serve as an indictment of modern medicine’s shunning of HA. It appears the public is going to have to move ahead and apply HA therapy without guidance of their physicians. But the public hasn’t and God only knows what will prompt them.
Sadly, patients can opt for preventive medicine on their own but organized medicine is not going to place oral HA in their treatment guidelines institutionally nor are politicians likely to mandate use of HA collectively as they do vaccines.
Americans, particularly long-living Baby Boomers, seem to be waiting to be educated and receive some sort of affirmation from an independent third party that HA therapy lives up to its promises. ©2017 Bill Sardi, ResveratrolNews.com
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