Newsletter - September 26, 2005

September 26, 2005 - In this Issue

Scientists Study Aging Gene
by HHMI News
Sugar Group Claims No Link Between Sugar and Obesity
by RedNova News
Some Jobs Increase Risk of Brain Disorders
by MSNBC Health News
Antioxidant Gene Modification Associated With Longevity
by BBC News – Health
A Chocolate Shake That Tastes Good and Is Good For You (and your kids)
Bird Flu Could Be Easily Contained - If Proper Action Taken
by MSNBC – Health News
Rice Genome Mapped - Will Help Feed Billions
by Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent – Times Online
Taking Stock of Life Extension
by Joanna Glasner – Wired News
Codex Alimentarius Update
Longevity Evaluations Available at Frontier Medical Institute

Scientists Study Aging Gene
by HHMI News

Researchers from Children’s Hospital in Boston have determined that the SIRT1 gene limits the number of times that a cell can divide, at least in mouse cells. SIRT1 seems to play a key role in suppressing longevity.

This new information suggests that suppressing SIRT1 could prove important in techniques that researchers use to generate long-lived cells for research. SIRT1 deficient cells seem to have the ability to divide indefinitely, unlike normal cells, which eventually self destruct.

Dr. Grossman's Comments:
Studies such as this suggest that researchers are zeroing in on some effective means to counteract the destruction of self that is currently programmed into our genetic code.

We humans are actively programmed to wither and die, but this process seem to be controlled by only a few genes, perhaps only a dozen or so. In the not too distant future, scientists may be able to delete or replace these genes entirely, but, even now they possess the ability to silence the expression of some genes (which is almost as effective) by a technique known as RNAi (RNA interference).

As these techniques are perfected, it is conceivable that radical increases in human lifespan may be achieved.

Sugar Group Claims No Link Between Sugar and Obesity
by RedNova News

A U.S. sugar industry group declared in a meeting in Sun Valley, Idaho that there isn't a link between sugar consumption and obesity. According to Andrew Briscoe, president and chief executive of the Sugar Association noted that "Every major, comprehensive review of the total body of scientific literature continues to exonerate sugars intake as the causative factor in any lifestyle disease, including obesity."

According to the Sugar Association, it is excessive consumption of calories and lack of exercise that lead to weight gain, regardless of sugar consumption. The Sugar Association has concluded that sugar remains an important part of a healthy diet.

Dr. Grossman's Comments:
Wow, I thought I’d heard it all before, but this one really "takes the cake." Claiming that, “Every major, comprehensive review of the total body of scientific literature...” does not associate sugar with any diseases or with obesity is a pretty broad statement.

It is also a complete lie. For instance, the World Health Association recently recommended that sugar consumption be slashed from 25 to 10 percent! It is sadly true that the sugar lobby managed to get the U.S. Department of Agriculture to ignore this WHO recommendation and consequently, even the 2004 Food Pyramid makes no mention of avoiding sugar.

"Big Sugar" knows that what they’re selling is bad for you. They know it is the single biggest reason people around the world are becoming fatter. They try to tell us that it’s because people eat too much and don’t get enough exercise, both of which are true statements for many people. But, in my experience as a practicing physician, my patients can try to eat less and exercise more, but if they don’t cut out the sugar, the soft drinks and desserts, they rarely lose any significant weight.

Sugar has so much going against it. Sugar increases the risk of cancer (cancer cells love sugar); sugar increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes; sugar rots your teeth; and, no matter what the Sugar Association says, sugar makes you fat. A fundamental aspect of any healthy diet is sugar avoidance.

If you are one of the relatively rare individuals able to eat small amounts of sweets on a rare occasion, then, by all means, do so. Yet, the same thing could said for the occasional cigarette. I don’t think there would be much health risk associated with smoking one cigarette a month, but most people can’t do that. Nicotine is highly addictive – and, for most people, so is sugar. They can’t eat just one cookie or just one dessert a week. And if you, like most people, are a sugar addict, then my advice is to just avoid it completely.

Some Jobs Increase Risk of Brain Disorders
by MSNBC Health News

A new study suggests several serious degenerative brain diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, may be associated with certain occupations. Previous studies have suggested a link between job-related chemical exposures for farmers, welders and hairdressers. This study found an increase in brain diseases among teachers, clergy and bank tellers, according to the research led by Robert M. Park of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Dr. Grossman's Comments:
This study found that bank tellers, clergy, aircraft mechanics and hairdressers have the highest odds of dying from Alzheimer’s disease; while biological scientists, teachers, clergy members and other religious workers have an increased risk of Parkinson's. Veterinarians, hairdressers and graders and sorters have a higher risk of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

It makes some sense that farmers suffer neurodegenerative disease because they are exposed to pesticides, a group of chemicals that act as toxins to the nervous system of insects -- and to some degree, humans as well.

But what about teachers and clergy? Could it be that some occupational exposure (chalk dusk, copier chemicals?) is more toxic to the nervous system than previously realized?

More research clearly needs to be done, but the importance of eating organic food and avoiding environmental toxins as much as possible seems to have been given an even greater boost.

Antioxidant Gene Modification Associated With Longevity
by BBC News – Health

A group of scientists from the University of Washington headed by Dr Peter Rabinovitch have bred a strain of mice that over-express the enzyme catalase. These mice lived 20% longer and had less heart and other age-related diseases. Catalase acts as an antioxidant enzyme in the body by neutralizing damaging hydrogen peroxide, which is a produced naturally in the body and is a potent free-radical. This is a first step in studying how controlling free radicals could affect aging.

According to Professor Pat Monaghan from the University of Glasgow,"Making the leap from what is going on in the cell to what happens to the animal is difficult and often controversial since there are so many intervening steps. However, this study does seem to point to a direct link between mopping up free radicals at the cellular sites where they are generated and consequences for the lifespan of the whole animal.

Dr. Grossman's Comments:
The body has 3 built in antioxidant enzymes: SOD (superoxide dismutase), glutathione peroxidase, and catalase, the enzyme mentioned in this study, which neutralizes peroxide. These enzymes are critically important in controlling free radical damage, one of the major culprits in the aging process.

Until now, our strategies for neutralizing excess free radicals in the body have been limited to avoiding exposure (for instance, avoiding burning sunlight, not smoking and not eating deep-fried foods) and taking antioxidants such as vitamins C and E and alpha lipoic acid. It has proven difficult to increase levels of our built-in antioxidant enzymes such as catalase. Being able to genetically modify levels of catalase, as in this study, was found to add an additional 20 percent to the healthy lifespan of these mice.

If these findings were translated into humans, life expectancy would rise to about 100 years. It is premature to expect that an identical increase in life spans for humans would occur, but these results are promising, and as scientists are able to modify all of the antioxidant enzymes together, even greater increases in life expectancy might be possible."

A Chocolate Shake That Tastes Good and Is Good For You (and your kids)

Over 60% of U.S. adults are either overweight or obese. One popular way to control calories without sacrificing nutrition is using low calorie meal replacement beverages.

The problem is that most of the products on the market are loaded with ingredients that are anything but healthy ... such as artificial sweeteners, colorings, flavorings and preservatives. Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman spent over a year developing Ray & Terry's Deep Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake, a product that is not only delicious ... it is blended with ingredients just the way nature gave them to us.

Ray & Terry’s Deep Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake is intended for use as a complete meal replacement, using healthy, natural, non-artificial ingredients to fill you up and inhibit your need for additional food for several hours. It also provides a high source of vitamins, minerals, fibers and proteins to create a nutritionally balanced diet as part of a weight control and maintenance program.

Each of the ingredients contained in Ray & Terry’s Deep Chocolate Meal Replacement Shake is natural -- and the formulation contains no artificial ingredients (e.g., colors, sweeteners, etc.)

One serving of the meal replacement composition provides:

10 g of carbohydrates of which 7 g are fiber for a net carbohydrate yield of 3 g
4 g of fat of which 0 g are trans fats and 1.5 g are saturated fat
18 g of protein
200 mg of sodium
Total calories are 117 of which 35 calories (30%) are from fat

When mixed with sugar-free soy milk, the shake is still only has 185 calories. And it’s made with Ghiardelli cocoa and tastes great. Your kids will love it too!

Bird Flu Could Be Easily Contained - If Proper Action Taken
by MSNBC – Health News

Public health scientists say millions of human deaths in an avian flu outbreak in Southeast Asia could be prevented if authorities rapidly impose quarantines and travel restrictions and widely distribute antiviral medications.

To work, they said such an emergency plan must be enacted within two days and the spread of the virus limited to a few dozen cases, even though communications in much of the region are rudimentary and entire economies and transportation networks could be disrupted.

Dr. Grossman's Comments:
When this article first appeared on the Associated Press wires on August 3, 2005, I felt optimistic that it would be possible to put a plan into place to avert the beginning of the much dreaded bird flu pandemic.

This was a few weeks before Hurricane Katrina hit the coast of the U.S. Judging by the difficulties encountered by the world's richest nation in meeting the challenges of a potentially lethal large scale disaster, I now wonder how realistic it is to expect that relatively poorer nations in Asia would be able to quarantine large numbers of people and administer costly anti-viral mediciations to them within 48 hours.

In the United States, even with the most sophisticated storm tracking and information dissemination system in the world, we weren't able to get more than 80 per cent of the population of a large U.S. city to follow the instructions to evacuate. Is it more realistic to imagine that people in China or Thailand or Viet Nam would observe a quarantine and take medication to prevent a disease that they didn't even have yet?

I think the likelihood of quarantining and immuninizing most of the people in a threatened area would be essentially nil, unless the authorities in the area were to impose martial law and establish severe penalties for failure to comply. Even so, I wonder if they would succeed. Given the recent experience in New Orleans, I have serious doubts this would work in the U.S. We may need to continue to look at other ways of delaing with the influenza pandemic threat.

Rice Genome Mapped - Will Help Feed Billions
by Mark Henderson, Science Correspondent – Times Online

The genetic code of rice has been mapped in its entirety by an international team of scientists, paving the way for critical improvements in the crop that feeds more than half the world’s population.

The completed genome sequence has been hailed as a “Rosetta Stone” for understanding rice and developing much-needed new varieties. It will also shed important light on the biology of other key cereals such as wheat, corn and millet.

Full details of the 37,544 genes that make up the genome of the world’s most important food crop — compared with a human being’s 25,000 — will transform scientists’ ability to increase its yield and improve resistance against drought, pests and disease.

Dr. Grossman's Comments:
Say what you will about the relative merits or demerits of grains in the diet, grains still supply the majority of the calories to the world. Rice alone supplies about 20 per cent of the world's dietary calories, while wheat contributes 19 per cent and corn 5 per cent.
Half of the people of the world or about 3 billion people are kept from starvation by grains. In Asia, more than 2 billion people rely on rice for over two-thirds of their calories.
Consumption trends suggest that 4.6 billion people will be reliant on rice by 2025 compared to about 3 billion now. Production must rise by 20 per cent to meet demand.
With the genetic information available from the rice genome project, it will be a relatively simple matter to create designer strains that will be more productive, will require less fertilizer, have greater nutritional value, and might require less pesticide application.
For people terrified of the very concept of genetically modified food, please bear in mind that genetic modification is something that nature does all the time as part of the fertilization and pollination process. Modifying grains so that they would possess these characteristics offers an affordable means of avoiding starvation for millions in the developing world during the next two decades.

Taking Stock of Life Extension
by Joanna Glasner – Wired News

In this online edition of Wired Magazine, Dr. Grossman was interviewed by Joanna Glasner with a view towards telling readers how they might be able to benefit financially as well as healthwise from the coming advances in biotechnology and nanotechnology.

Codex Alimentarius Update

U.S. Representative Susan Davis of California has introduced HR 3156, The Dietary Supplement Access and Awareness Act, that proposes to revise the "unreasonable risk" clause of DSHEA by significantly altering FDA's burden of proving that an ingredient is unsafe for use in dietary supplements. This bill is cosponsored by Henry Waxman -- also of California.

This bill replicates a bill introduced in the last Congress with the addition of new material that appears to relate to the recent ephedra ban.

HR 3156 specifies that “presence of even a relatively small risk of a serious adverse health effect” and would be considered unreasonable in the absence of a “sufficient benefit”. It would specifically permit the FDA to ban any dietary supplement “even though there are uncertainties as to the levels of a dietary ingredient that may present a risk.”

Dr. Grossman's Comments:
This bill represents a serious threat to the freedom of the public to keep their access to many nutritional supplements. It would be easy to establish that essentially any substance possesses a "relatively small risk of a serious adverse health effect." As such, even water would meet this criterion and should be banned.

The language of this bill is too vague and represents an unacceptable loss of health freedom in return for dubious benefits of protecting the public. See the link below for how ways to contact your congress people to oppose this legislation.