I think a man actually spends his life healing from his childhood. (…) It’s hard to grow old without being an adult. Jacques Brel (Belgian singer).

We only think of death as something future. But the future one day will be the present. You are selfish about yourself, your future self, the person you will become. Fortunately, there are ways to stop this terrible disease of aging. But mankind invests too little effort in it. (…) Perhaps we will be part of the generation of those who will live eternally, or perhaps we will be the generation that will fall forever into oblivion. Bold quote from 4 creepiest mysteries of the body.

---

Theme of the month: The Old Man and the Child

---

Some say that the value of life comes from its brevity. And yet children have their whole life ahead of them. Do you see in young people a lack of willpower, a form of boredom? Sometimes perhaps, but less so than in adults.

It is often the same people who also say that if we had a much longer life or a life without limits, we would be affected by a kind of lethargy. Indeed, nothing would be urgent any more. Do you think when you look at our very young fellow human beings in a kindergarten, a playground or in a group outside a café that, because the horizon seems limitless to them, they tend to take everything slowly?

On the contrary, the broad horizon usually contributes to enthusiasm and energy. In fact, would you be more active, energetic and enthusiastic tomorrow if you knew you had only a few weeks to live?

The human being is the only animal to be aware of the inevitability of its end. But until the age of 3 or 4, children are not at all aware of what death is. Then he or she becomes aware of it, but first of all without realizing that it concerns all humans. Little by little, the child will perceive that death is an irreversible and inescapable phenomenon. However, even after the discovery of inevitability, adolescents see aging as a more than distant future.

Of course even in middle-aged adults this awareness is still relative. This concerns believers who affirm that there is life after death. This also concerns non-believers. This aspect was addressed in a 2010 letter concerning the Terror Management Theory. This theory states that we are so terrified of death that in order to make the idea of death bearable we need to see it as positive, so that imagining how to find a remedy for it becomes null and void; impossible.

Young children thus discover the inevitability of aging and physical death, along with the often ambivalent attitude of their parents. They will often be outraged. This will sometimes enable them to be pioneers in the struggle for longevity.

Nina Khera is a 13-year-old gifted young scientist from Canada. She studies longevity and genomics and specializes in the fight against senescent cells.

Laura Deming was 12 years old when she started working. At that age, she travelled halfway around the world from her native New Zealand to join the California laboratory of aging specialist Cynthia Kenyon. Today she is an adult who is convinced of the importance of research and investment in this field.

Laurent Simons, at the age of 9, already wanted to become a scientist and a doctor in order to put an end to aging.

One of the impressive aspects concerning Laura Deming and Laurent Simons is that their ideal was born out of the same concern at a young age: to protect their grandparents.

Laurent Simons declared in a Flemish newspaper: My goal as a scientist is to prolong life. My grandparents are heart patients and I want to help them. And make them live forever.

Laura Deming explained in an interview: I remember once when my grandmother came to visit us. I had never spent time with anyone over 60 years before. (…) for my grandmother, just getting up from a chair was really painful. It hit me. (…) Then I remember asking my parents what the disease was. They told me: she doesn’t have a disease, she is old. I asked them what disease it was to be old. They said, « Oh, no, no, you don’t understand, it’s a natural process. And as a child, you say to yourself: This is stupid. Why is there a natural process that we should all get, a disease that makes us so damaged?

The youngest people are often the most inclined to be concerned about the fate of the oldest people and to defend them. They have not yet learned to put up with injustices, even if they are those of nature.

---

This month’s news: Coronavirus research and artificial intelligence for antibiotics

---

While concerns about the SARS-CoV-2-virus (coronavirus) are widespread, two aspects are important and concern the « fight against aging »:

• It has been noted that the risk of death is much greater in the elderly. As with any infectious disease, one of the main aggravating factors is age.
• Archivists have mobilized to ensure that all scientific articles useful in the fight against the new disease are accessible regardless of copyright. They speak of a moral imperative. They therefore implicitly argue that the right to life takes or should take precedence over the right to profit.

Finally, in another area, this time concerning pathogenic bacteria, for the first time an antibiotic has been developed using artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques. The new antibiotic, called Halicim, has already proved its effectiveness in mice and human cells.

---

To find out more:

• See in particular : heales.org, sens.org, longevityalliance.org and longecity.org.
• Source of the image

 

 

My mother died of lung cancer, apparently because she smoked. Her risks increased fivefold with smoking. It’s terrible, this fivefold increase, of course, it’s potentially fatal. But from the age of 20 to 70 your chances of getting cancer are multiplied by a thousand and we are not talking about aging. David Sinclair, Australian biologist.  Cracking and reversing the aging Clock. 2019, June 2019.

---

Theme of the month : Ethics committees, a brake on the right to health and advances for rejuvenation? 

---

We live in an extraordinarily complex administrative and political environment, particularly with regard to decision-making processes. As a result, in the field of health, in the world, there are tens of thousands of public institutions with authority at one level or another. Of these, medical ethics committees that give their approval in relation to human experimentation are not among the best known.

Let us take the case of political and social security decisions in the field of health in three wealthy countries: France, Belgium and the United States. The averagely well-informed citizen knows that decisions on drug approvals depend on certain authorities (the FDA – the US Food and Drug Administration – being certainly the best known) and that the most important decisions are decided in parliaments and prepared by ministers. If he or she is Belgian and well-informed, they will know that in this small country there are 9 ministers with responsibilities for health matters, numerous mutual (‘friendly’) societies, a directorate for each public hospital (sometimes several hospitals are grouped together), doctors’ organizations and multiple advisory committees. If they live in France, they will most likely have come across the Caisse primaire d’assurance maladie, the Ministry of Health, hospital directorates etc.

But does a citizen, even an informed one, know that for almost every medical trial, which could one day save him, hundreds of organizations are able to prevent research (but not to require research to be done)?

The institutions vary greatly from country to country. The biggest are in the United States. They are known by the abbreviation IRB for Institutional Review Board. In France, there are Committees for the Protection of Persons, in Belgium Medical Ethics Committees. In Belgium alone, there are 144 active committees!

If these institutions are little known this is partly because organizations carrying out medical trials rarely express fears of slowness or blockages. Firstly, because it would send a signal to the public and potential investors that lengthy administrative procedures are still needed before products can be placed on the market. Secondly, because stakeholders almost always feel that the choice of discretion rather than media coverage in relation to difficulties in these areas gives a better chance of success. Moreover, while an appeal is theoretically possible in the event that a trial is refused by an ethics committee, such an appeal will almost never occur.

To avoid the blocking effect of the committees, some people are tempted to experiment in countries with much less restrictive legislation. This does not usually give good results because organizing an experiment in an « exotic » part of the world:

• presents many difficulties (insufficient medical infrastructure, risk of corruption or fraud and of course the need to work remotely or to travel);
       
• could be bad publicity for those organizing the trial because they could be accused of not respecting the ethical rules;
• Most importantly, the results of the trial would be difficult to publish; even if the results were potentially useful, they would therefore be poorly or not at all publicized and the available therapy could not be made available.

Finally, it should be noted that ethics committees also exist in countries often reputed to be little attentive or even indifferent to these issues, such as Russia or China.

Let’s imagine that today an ethics committee is asked to give an opinion on a potential human journey to the moon, not for reasons of prestige, but for medical reasons, for example by sending identical twins (monozygotic) to a space base (some remaining on earth, others leaving to measure the effects of reduced gravity, cosmic radiation, life in a confined space, etc.). No ethics committee would accept this experiment, which would nevertheless be a considerable source of useful information. And this would be so even if there are informed and aware people willing to risk their lives and/or who are suffering from diseases that are incurable and are fatal in the near term and who would therefore be happy to be able to devote their last days to being useful.

In French-speaking countries, an ethics committee appears at first glance to only give opinions but not to decide. This is because the ‘opinions’ (avis) of a committee can be of two kinds. In legal terms, this will be described as avis conforme or an avis simple. The latter is a real opinion that the one who decides is free to follow. The former however is best translated in English as ‘assent’ and is in fact an authorization procedure. And for the vast majority of ethics committees, what is required is assent.

The multitude of competent bodies depending on the place where trials are carried out is a strange arrangement. Human rights are generally regarded as universal and scientific research should cross borders, especially a country’s internal borders. Why would a trial for longevity be ethical in a Parisian hospital and not in a hospital in Lyon? It should also be noted that the fact that these committees are often small and therefore directly linked to an institution also implies the risk that an advisory committee is not concerned with the public interest or the interest of patients, but first and foremost with the interest of the institution in which the committee is located; or that the committee is not very attentive.

Above all, ethics committees only have the power to block, not to trigger or to encourage. While research that is triggered too quickly can cause injury or even death to people who have accepted the trials, delayed or abandoned research can prevent the survival of millions, or even billions, of people. If vaccine experiments, for example against polio, had been prevented, millions of people would have died in often excruciating suffering.

In a world more concerned with the collective interest, ethics committees would therefore be competent first and foremost, not to hinder medical progress, but to request useful medical trials. A change of perspective on this subject is not simple, but it is possible.

---

Good news of the month : A positive interview with George Church and a great French-language video in favor of longevity

---

The famous American scientist George Church gave a detailed and optimistic interview about longevity research: The goal of a Harvard geneticist: to protect humans from viruses, genetic diseases and aging. (With respect to the time horizon of age reversal in humans,) it is in clinical trials in dogs right now. So this veterinary product could be available in a few years, and then it will take another ten years for human clinical trials to be completed.

The ‘Zetetician’ (a person who casts doubt on and verifies unusual scientific claims) Samuel Buisseret has made a long video about how the search for immortality (more precisely life without aging) is a conceivable and desirable goal. He proposes in particular to envisage a better future, to dare to dream that « in 2100 we will all, including you and I, live as masters of our longevity in a world that will have been able to adapt and enrich itself with the consequences of its mistakes (…). There is nothing irrational about imagining such a world today. »

---

To find out more :

 

• See in particular: heales.org, sens.org, longevityalliance.org and longecity.org

 

My goal as a scientist is to prolong life. My grandparents are heart patients and I want to help them. And make them live forever. (Belgian newspaper, De Morgen, November 12, 2019, translation). Laurent Simons is 9 years old, born in Ostend, Belgium and studying at the University of Eindhoven in the Netherlands. In a few days, he is expected to become the youngest academic in the world. And he may also soon become one of the most brilliant longevists on the planet.

---

Theme of the month: Medicines (and other substances for longevity)

---

Many researchers have been working for decades to slow down aging, or even one day to make possible real rejuvenation mechanisms.

Many avenues of study are being explored and different products are being studied. This letter provides a fairly extensive list of promising substances. Be careful, these products should not be used for yourself without medical advice and are often not available without a prescription.

Senolytics

Senolytic drugs are said to allow us to get rid of cells that are at the end of their life-cycle.

Remember that our cells are programmed to divide a certain number of times, but as we age, they stop multiplying (or multiply with errors) before dying and being eliminated by our immune system.

The problem is that, as we get older, this « cleaning » system becomes less and less effective. On the other hand, these cells at the end of their life could be eliminated by senolytic drugs. They have the ability to eliminate our aging cells without affecting healthy cells, which helps us fight cellular aging and as a result all the chronic diseases associated with aging. Currently, these drugs are still in the experimental stage – started in 2015 by Jim Kirkland, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic. 

The best known products are dasatinib, quercetin and fisetin.

The mixture of dasatinib and quercetin improves the health of older mice and extends their lifespan. First short clinical trials have also been conducted in humans and are promising. Some side effects have occurred. While quercetin is found in apples or onions, dasatinib is originally an anti-cancer drug.

Metformin

Metformine is an old, cheap drug that has been widely used to regulate blood sugar levels in diabetic patients for decades. Today, it could perhaps reduce age-related diseases and improve longevity.

From the biguanide family, this drug treats type 2 diabetes orally. Its interest, for these non-insulin dependent diabetics, is to lower blood sugar levels without increasing insulin secretion. In addition, insulin is now known to reduce inflammation in the body.

For several years now, anti-aging medicine specialists have been studying the case of metformin to combat health problems associated with aging. In particular, it is said to reduce glycation, a process in the body linked to metabolism of sugars and which degrades our proteins, causing the loss of flexibility in our supporting tissues and accelerating overall aging.

Metformin is also known to promote the effects of rejuvenation and cellular regeneration, known as autophagy. This is a process during which a cell can repair its defective components (a true autonomous overhaul). It has been shown that other substances such as resveratrol, green tea or rapamycin also promote this autophagy, as does fasting, as does simply fasting.

Even if a study shows less impact of degenerative diseases (linked to aging) in treated diabetics, and fewer cancers, thanks to this product, as for all other currently available products the impact on maximum lifespan (beyond 95 or 100 years) is low or even zero.

Rapamycine

Easter Island or « Big Rapa » is known for its 900 enigmatic stone statues. This is also the name Canadian researchers have given to « Rapamycin », a molecule produced by the Streptomyces hygroscopicus bacteria. Rapamycin or « Sirolimus » has been used since 1999 as an immunosuppressive drug against organ transplant rejection – including Pfizer’s « Rapamune ».

Different strains of mice have their health improved and their lifespan increased by rapamycin, starting at different life stages. Tests are underway in dogs (« Aging Dog » study). The side effects of rapamycin make it difficult for human use as a preventive measure to progress.

Statins

Researchers from the University of Naples have shown that statins can slow down the cellular aging process by preventing telomere shortening. Telomeres are sections of DNA that cover the tips of chromosomes and protect them from damage associated with aging. Statins can activate an enzyme called « telomerase » which extends the length of the telomeres. This length is a fairly well known index of longevity.

Already used in the treatment of heart disease, diabetes and cancer, statins could also be used in anti-aging therapy. But the sometimes serious muscle side effects of statins mean that current use for prevention remains moderate.

NAD+

Cells have the innate ability to repair DNA damage – which happens, for example, every time our skin is exposed to the sun. However, this ability tends to decrease with age.

Researchers have discovered that the metabolite oxidized nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+), which is naturally present in every cell of the human body, plays a key role as a regulator of protein-protein interactions that control DNA repair.

For example, treating mice with a NAD+ precursor improves the ability of their cells to repair DNA damage caused by exposure to sunlight or aging.  

« We have never been closer to creating a safe and effective anti-aging drug. It could even be available in just three to five years if the tests are successful, » Professor David Sinclair has said.

Hormones

The decrease in our hormones is certainly one of the most marked and early effects of aging. From the age of 30, hormone production decreases with significant consequences.

Among those that are best known, here are the most important ones whose levels decrease with aging: DHEA, melatonin, estrogens, progesterone, testosterone, pregnenolone, growth hormone and cortisol.

While it is medically accepted that a rise in hormone levels is accompanied by a significant increase in fitness, hormone replacement therapy is not a panacea.

While growth hormone has a clear and positive effect on the skin, bones and muscles, no one has yet been able to increase the lifespan of mice and rats with growth hormone, or at least their maximum lifespan. Thus, these positive effects are probably accompanied by side effects as well, which remain to be identified. The recent regrowth of the thymus through injecting growth hormone and DHEA (and other substances), “accompanied by a decrease in biological age » (measured by the methylation of DNA from blood cells), therefore leads to some caution on long-term effects.

A balanced diet is important, especially for a sufficient supply of proteins and amino acids (especially after 65 years of age), but also of certain vitamins and minerals involved in the production of hormones in our endocrine glands.

Aspirin

Doctors have known since the 1990s that aspirin appears to reduce the risk of cancer; in the case of colorectal cancer, the risk reduction is at least 40%, but researchers do not fully understand the nature of this protective mechanism.

Two scientists from the Swiss University of Basel examined the link between lifestyle and genome aging in 546 women over 50 years of age. They determined that aspirin slows down the aging of the genome, particularly by fighting against changes that play a role in the development of tumors. However, the researchers warn that it would not be wise to start taking aspirin regularly just to fight cancer, given the side effects that can accompany taking the drug. The conclusions of this study are published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

Overall, it is considered that low-dose aspirin (« half a baby aspirin »: one hundredth of the dose taken for headaches), taken during meals to avoid ulcers, has a positive effect for people at proven cardiovascular risk, and neutral (and possibly negative) in other cases.

Vitamins 

Years of poor nutrition accelerate the aging process. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies can have harmful effects on the health of the elderly. Recent studies indicate that some vitamins have antioxidant properties and prevent the oxidation process. These vitamins are vitamins A, E, C and Beta-carotene. Thanks to these properties, they can delay the aging process.

They also prevent the degeneration of blood vessels, heart joints and eye lenses.

Known as an antioxidant and anti-aging vitamin, vitamin B1 plays an important role in the normal functioning of the nervous system, carbohydrate regulation and good digestion.

Antioxidants

There is a lot of talk about taking these famous antioxidants that must protect us from « free radicals » and accelerated aging.

To understand antioxidants, it is necessary to understand free radicals (FR). These are produced during reactions involving oxygen (breathing, digestion, muscular effort, defences against infection, etc.). They are various molecules with in particular one « excess » electron, which makes them particularly unstable and reactive. As long as an antioxidant system has not stopped the process, free radicals will « contaminate » other molecules, which then become free radicals in a chain process. This contagion of the “excess electron” is called oxidation.

An imbalance in our anti-radical defences may be linked to a lack of antioxidants in our diet. In particular, overcooking and food preservation destroy a large number of antioxidants.

Certain factors (like aging, smoking, and obesity) will increase the production of Antioxidants are found in a large number of foods, their sources are very varied. However, plants, permanently exposed to the sun’s UV rays, have had to develop powerful antioxidants to survive, especially polyphenols and carotenoids. For these reasons, a diet rich in undercooked fruits and vegetables is healthy.

Foods rich in antioxidants:

• Vitamin C: pepper, guava, sorrel, lemon, orange, kiwi, cabbage, papaya, strawberries…
• Vitamin E: sunflower oil, wheat germ, soya, corn, butter, margarine, eggs, etc.
• Vitamin A: liver, butter, eggs…
• Selenium: fish, eggs, meat…
• Zinc: seafood, meat, wholemeal bread, green vegetables
• Coenzyme Q10: soy, beef, small fish, spinach
• Lycopene: tomato and red fruits
• Astaxanthine: krill, shrimp, crustaceans with red pigment
• Alpha-lipoic acid: spinach, red meat, broccoli
• Polyphenols (flavonoids and tannins in particular): all colored fruits and vegetables, berries, wine, teas…

Other substances with antioxidant potential:

• Some B vitamins: B1, B5, B6,
• Some amino acids: acetyl L-carnitine, methionine, cysteine, taurine…
• Omega 3 fatty acids
• Hyaluronic acid
• Methylene blue
• Flavonoids

Unfortunately, in the United States, studies on the intake of vitamins or dietary supplements by citizens have not yielded positive results.

In conclusion

The inventory that has been compiled here is incomplete. Many other products are still considered by some to have the potential to promote a longer life, for example certain proteins, resveratrol, sirtuins… For all these substances, the question of dosage is of course fundamental, « not too much, not too little » as well as the study of the combined effects of several products (see in particular the « polypill » projects and the Data Beta test).

Currently nowhere in the world is a public or private organization systematically examining the positive lifetime impact of these many substances, either for laboratory mice or for humans.

The extreme administrative and legal complexity, paradoxically, makes testing more difficult today than in the past. An awareness of the importance of these studies could be accelerated thanks to the recent attraction for senolytics, the development of more automated tests using artificial intelligence and, above all, a long-term awareness of the possible gains in public health and well-being.

---

The good news of the month: a Longevity Week in London

---

Among the many conferences held around the world, those held from 11 to 15 November during Longevity Week in London were particularly promising. They saw meetings between potential investors, scientists and politicians, mainly from the United Kingdom, of course, but also from the United States.

To find out more:

• See: heales.org, sens.org, longevityalliance.org and longecity.org

 

 

‘If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.’ Nikola Tesla.

---

Theme of the month: Contested theories

---

This monthly letter provides an introduction to theories commonly not accepted by the scientific community. The main part of the letter is devoted to describing some of these theories. The sentences in italics are intended to give the currently generally accepted scientific point of view.

Not all of the alternative medicines are dealt with in this letter. Notably, it does not cover: 

• Yoga and other practices related to body movements and manipulations (gymnastics, dance, osteopathy…) and the attainment of modified states of consciousness (hypnosis, music …)
• fasting and all forms of dietary instructions (paleo diet, veganism, vegetarianism, …)
• aromatherapy and other theories related either to the ingestion of substances  (phytotherapy, gemmotherapy, ingestion of clay, certain plants not used in the classical pharmacopoeia…), or to inhaling substances 
• the therapeutic use of colors or crystals
• theories based on purely religious convictions  (the therapeutic role of prayer, or miracles, …)

Chakras, meridians, …

According to Eastern concepts our body has energy centers or chakras, located along our spinal column, which begins at the base of the sacrum, the « root chakra », capturing telluric energies, and ending above the skull, through our « coronal chakra », capturing cosmic energies. So we are said to be like a cosmo-telluric antenna. According to this way of looking at things, if all our chakras are well opened (through meditation, mindfulness, dance, yoga, energy massages or by using the sounds of Tibetan bowls), we receive enough energy, which can circulate and balance the whole body, thus maintaining good health.

In electricity, the less resistance there is in a wire, the more energy it conducts. By cultivating serenity through meditation, a state of non-resistance is created in the body and more vitality can be felt.

Energy body medicine provides a holistic approach to health and longevity.

According to traditional Chinese medicine, the body is traversed by a complex network of energy channels called “meridians”:

In Chinese diagrams of the human body, these energy networks look like an electronic wiring diagram. Using acupuncture needles, Chinese doctors check their patients’ energy circuits just as engineers check electronic circuits to detect electrical « pathologies ». 

For other alternative medicine advocates, it is the ear, or similarly, the hands and feet that are said to be connected to the organs of the rest of the body and the use of needles or massages in many of these organs is said to positively influence the functioning of the body. 

According to present day scientific knowledge however, the existence of chakras, meridians and other energy links to the body cannot be proven and the therapeutic effects are not measurable.

Water is conductive

We know that our body is made up of more than 70% water. The quality of this water is therefore essential. Studies conducted by Masaru Emoto have shown that water has a « memory ». Depending on the intentions or melodies emitted, water does not form the same ice crystals, hence its structure differs according to the thoughts or music captured by the vibratory field of the water. The fact that water has a « memory » and is influenced by its past has been demonstrated by the doctor and immunologist Jacques Benveniste.

Water is a complex molecule with far more states than we generally think. However, no studies show a better state of health due to the use of water molecules with a specific past, as the assumptions of « water memory » are currently considered invalid..

Homeopathy

This is a branch of medicine according to which extremely diluted products have a therapeutic effect based on the principle of similarity. The basic idea, put forward by doctor Samuel Hahnemann in 1796, is that substances that cause disease in healthy subjects could cure sick people.

Homeopathic treatments have been and are used by hundreds of millions of people around the world, with a very high level of patient satisfaction and with doctors who are on the whole more attentive towards their patients. Homeopathic medicines are used even for animals with significant results.

The general scientific consensus (and verified by numerous experiments) is that homeopathic products have no other effect than a placebo. Moreover, their dilution is such that there is no longer any molecule of the active principle.

Vibratory medicine

When it comes to ancient knowledge, sound, frequency and vibration have always been perceived as powerful forces that can influence and modify life down to the cellular level.

Sound healing methods are often used by shamans, who use drums and singing to access trance states. Research has even demonstrated that drumming and chanting can be used to slow deadly brain diseases, and that they can generate a sense of unity with the universe.

Sound therapy can have many medical applications, particularly in the field of psychological and mental health. In repeated controlled experiments, the frequencies, known as the Oscillating Pulsed Electric Field (OPEF) technology, invented by Royal Rife, killed an average of 25 to 40% of leukemic cells, in some cases as much as 60%. What is more, the procedure even slowed the growth rate of cancer cells by as much as 65%.

Sound or other vibrations have, of course, physical effects and often effects on the body. However, there is no significant therapeutic use recognized by the majority of the scientific community.

Electrical biology

Thanks to magnetic resonance imaging, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have found that certain proteins have an internal ‘vibration’ that pulsates billions of times a second. This revelation led to the conclusion that it is not only the complex folded shape of these molecules that influences their function, but their internal movement.

According to Dr Joshua Wand, « The situation is similar to the debate in astrophysics, where theorists predict that there is mysterious matter or energy that no one has yet seen”.

A book published in 2010 in Switzerland, Der Urzeit-Code, details experiments that show how a fluctuating electric field can alter gametes to the point of creating new species.

In these laboratory experiments, the researchers, Dr Guido Ebner and Heinz Schürch, exposed cereal grains and fish eggs to an « electrostatic field ». Unexpected primitive organisms were born from these seeds and eggs: a fern that no botanist could identify, primitive corn with a maximum of twelve ears per stem; wheat that was ready to be harvested in only four to six weeks. And a giant trout, with so-called salmon hooks, which has been extinct in Europe for 130 years. It was as if, in the electric field, these organisms had access to their own genetic memories on command, a phenomenon that the English biochemist Rupert Sheldrake, for example, considers possible.

Given what Der Urzeit-Code reports, it would not be an exaggeration to think that electric currents can resonate proteins at variable rates and thus change their behavior, or, by triggering a change in the state of the morphic fields, have a positive therapeutic effect.
The spectacular effect of electric currents on the development of various animals into adulthood was notably demonstrated in December 2018 by an American scientist, Michael Lewin.

The contemporary scientific community hardly uses electric currents for therapeutic purposes anymore and considers positive effects to be unproven. It should be noted that research in these areas is much less developed than in the past.

The placebo effect (and its opposite, the nocebo effect)

These effects are a proven consequence of our powers of autosuggestion. It shows that we can influence the physiological mechanisms of the body through thought. We live in a culture where antidepressants and many other medications work, in large part because people believe in them!

The placebo effect is not considered a false science or alternative medicine. However, it must be noted that the reasons for effectiveness lie essentially in the « power of the mind » without a precise demonstration of the mechanisms involved. The placebo effect is only scientifically recognized because it has been measured countless times.

The power of the mind and quantum biology

According to Bruce Lipton, our health is determined not only by our DNA but by our environment and the power of our thoughts and beliefs.

Here is a summary of what he said about this new vision of biology:  

There are today, two systems of thought with regard to human biology, one based on physical reality, according to which everything in the universe is made of matter; it is a Newtonian vision of conventional medicine. The other vision is based on quantum physics; it assumes that the universe is made of energy and that everything that we consider to be matter is in reality energy.

The main difference between the two is that invisible forces play a key role in the new vision of biology.

The current approach towards genetics has changed significantly. The old approach that had been learned and taught was called genetic determinism. According to this, our genes determine not only our structural characteristics but also our physical, emotional and behavioural characteristics so that our lives reflect our genetics.

There is a new science called epigenetics. « Forty years ago, I saw for the first time what this consisted of in my stem cells in culture. I had identical cells in 3 boxes but I changed the environment of each one, giving rise to tissues from different organs. This notion of environmental control over genes is epigenetic control. »

Our world view is fundamental because our perceptions are transformed into substances that control our behavior and genetic expression. Research combining quantum physics, electrical engineering, chemistry and biology is particularly relevant, as it could lead to therapies with far fewer side effects than drugs. However, this research will confirm what scientists and non-scientists already « know », without having realized it: every organism, including humans, communicates with its environment and decodes it by evaluating the energy fields.

Since humans are closely dependent on spoken and written languages, they have neglected their energy sensors as a communication system. As with any function, non-use leads to atrophy. Aborigines still use this hypersensitive function on a daily basis and there is no sensory atrophy in them. Thus, they are able to feel the water buried deep in the sand. As for the shamans of the Amazon, they communicate with the energy of medicinal plants.

Knowledge of epigenetics related to longevity was addressed in a letter of June 2019. The past influence of the external environment is well-established and strong at the epigenetic level. But the influence of quantum fields or other energies is unproven.

In conclusion

A healthy lifestyle that allows our energies to flow in a balanced way, and positive thoughts promote our health and longevity.

This state is both beneficial for expressing good genes (such as tumor suppressor genes) and inhibiting the expression of « bad » genes such as inflammation, certain cancers or autoimmune diseases,…

Aging without the symptoms of age is what energy medicine, epigenetics and quantum biology teach us, showing us how to regain control of our health. It is a way to rethink our capacities while benefiting from new current health research and a more global vision.

All the theories described above are considered by most of the scientific and medical community as invalid for two main reasons:

• the absence of accepted evidence of the mechanisms that occur;
• the absence of evidence of therapeutic effectiveness.

It is also true that alternative therapies are very often sold to suffering people for profit. Products for better health and a longer life have been sold to the powerful and the poor for millennia. However, conventional pharmaceutical products are also sold for huge amounts and the scientists who create them are also motivated by financial gain. In many cases, they also do not hesitate to sell products whose effectiveness is questionable.

Science has made immense progress, but scientists must remain humble with regard to medical progress, especially in longevity. In A.D. 6, Cicero’s widow, Terentia, died at the age of 104. In 2019, Kane Tanaka, the oldest woman on the planet, is only 12 years older and does not dance the tango every day.

Some alternative research approaches could be tested according to recognised scientific criteria, notably with double-blind experiments. The space given to « non-conventional » research can be linked to attention to everything that is unexpected, to an attitude favourable towards serendipity. However also knowing that the same applies to the claims of alternative medicines and research as to the claims of « conventional” scientific medicines and research: today, nothing still works beyond a little over 110 years, no matter how beautiful the theories may be, how powerful the declarations may be, how unusual or not the ideas may be and how much money may be invested. And this despite the fact that the objective may well be within our reach.

---

The good news of the month: progress is accelerating in genetic ‘editing’

---

According to an article published in Nature on October 21, two American researchers, David Liu and Andrew Anzalone, discovered a genetic modification tool that is more efficient and accurate than CRISPR techniques. Thanks to a new enzyme (the result of the fusion of two other enzymes including the CAS9 enzyme), a very specific area of the DNA can now be « edited » or « rewritten », without the need to cut the DNA strand.

According to the article, the researchers have already tested this method on human cells in vitro and have perfectly carried out 175 genetic modifications on cells affected by various diseases.

This new step in a rapid evolution also opens up potential opportunities for « positive » gene therapies, for improvement and not only for the fight against genetic diseases.

To find out more:

• See: heales.org, sens.org, longevityalliance.org and longecity.org
• Source of the images: chakras, méridiens

[Quoting Shakespeare] As flies to wanton boys, we are to the gods; they kill us for their sport. Soon the science will not only be able to slow down the aging of the cells. Soon the science will fix the cells to the state [‘return them to their original state’?] and so we become eternal. Only accidents, crimes, wars would still kill us. Eric Cantona, 29 August 2019, in a slightly off-beat speech, when asked what was going through his mind, on the occasion of him receiving the UEFA President’s Award 2019.

Theme of the month : Experimenting for longevity, right or duty?

Over the last few decades, societies have gradually developed a huge web of legislation to protect the health of people who undergo experiments; to a point that is no longer favourable either for medical progress or for people who wish to experiment for the common good.

Medical research in the past

For centuries, experiments involving humans were conducted with far less respect for the rights of the people undergoing the experiments than were accorded to other citizens.

The results of medical research starting from the Renaissance and especially in the 19th and early 20th centuries were extraordinary. But the lack of respect for the human rights of those undergoing experimentation was often also spectacular.

For a long time, very often, it was convicts who were ‘made use of’, cut up… At times when the death penalty was still common, this could be a way to escape the ultimate penalty. But this is all the more potentially unenviable especially since anesthesia had not yet been practiced.

In addition to those convicted by the courts, there were people with fewer rights, particularly from black Africa. For example, a doctor from the southern United States, James Marion Sims, James Marion Sims first experimented on black female slaves before operating on white women.

But when the subject of unethical medical experimentation is brought up, it is above all the atrocities committed during the Second World War, including those of the infamous Docteur Mengele, that we think of. He was responsible for dozens of deaths of women, children and adults. Those which were committed by doctors of the Japanese Imperial Army of Unit 731 are less well known. And yet the experiments were carried out under even more abominable conditions and caused thousands of deaths. What is more, most immorally, there were very few prosecutions after the war and no convictions of the main perpetrator Shiro Ishii.

It is these atrocities that were the trigger for strict legislation. But these developments were gradual. For example, until the 1970s the American authorities continued to experiment on African Americans.

The contemporary situation

Today, at least in the countries where the majority of medical experiments take place, legislation is very strict, mainly expressed in the Helsinki Declaration. By a kind of excessive pendulum swing, a person who is subject to clinical trials is better protected than an ordinary citizen. In order to carry out a trial, the organisation concerned must in particular be authorised to do so, the trial itself must have been accepted by an advisory body, and the “testers” must have given their « informed » consent, which means completing numerous and complex documents. It is also necessary, of course, that the health risk for these testers is not considered to be disproportionate.

Then the study itself consists of several phases. After establishing its probable safety, usually in animal trials, the same safety should be established in a group of people without testing efficacy (Phase I). Only then is the effectiveness of the treatment itself examined, first in a small group, then in a larger group, compared to another treatment or placebo (phases II and III).

The result of all this is that testing is extremely time-consuming and expensive. As very often trials are carried out by companies linked to the pharmaceutical world, investments are mainly made for patentable products and methods and with great difficulty for others. This explains, for example, why a longevity experiment on metformin took years to organize due to lack of resources.

However this slowness issue must be qualified. Accordingly, in the context of the Ebola epidemic some trials were carried out much more quickly. In the event, two aspects probably played a role:

• Fear of lethal consequences of the epidemic for the populations concerned and of the possible spread to other continents.
• And, in a much less ethically understandable way, a lesser concern for the rules of protection when the subjects of the trial are in Africa.

Areas for improvement: duty to share data and duty to experiment

At present, many people consider that medical data belongs to patients. Those responsible for carrying out the treatments could therefore not use them without consent. This is understandable when the data could be used « against patients », for example by an insurance company or an employer. But can the same be said for the results of medical research, which can be useful to everyone, starting with the weakest? Assuming that I possess a type of blood that is unique in the world because of its coagulating properties, would it be fair if I refused the use of this data, condemning people to death because they could not benefit from certain medical advances?

The answer should be obvious. Moreover, in practice, in the vast majority of cases, the formulas for consent to data sharing are bureaucratic red tape. It amuses lawyers above all, or more precisely, it provides them with a source of income without creating real consent, since almost everyone signs and almost no one reads it (and those that do read it will not make much sense of it).

In an ideal environment, the first question asked would be « How can we ensure that medical research allows a longer and healthier life for those who want it without harming those who provide the information?” All of us as patients would have a moral duty, even a legal obligation, to share our data. There would also be a strict obligation for organizations using the data to share results for scientific and therapeutic use and an equally strict prohibition on using the data for other purposes.

We would therefore all become testers without any additional effort, by pooling information on all aspects of the billions of medical procedures (surgery, drugs, tests, etc.) we undergo each year. This may seem worrying to some, but it can also be seen as reassuring because it allows more access to data and therefore more control. This sharing is already partially done in some countries, particularly in France. Indeed, much medical data is shared through, among other things, the National System of Health Data, but with an insufficient degree of accuracy.

It should be noted that this perception of the desired use of medical data is tending to spread quite rapidly, particularly in France. As medicine becomes more and more computerized, it depends more and more on accessible digital data. It is becoming increasingly clear that it would be immoral for a patient benefiting from the data of others to refuse to give theirs to others.

At the same time, however, medical trials will still be necessary.

A first means of acceleration could be self-experimentation. It has been quite frequent in the past and it still exists. For example, the controversial Liz Parrish as well as the renowned biogerontologist Greg Fahy have practised it.

But the main avenue is faster testing with more realistic rules on many aspects. It should be noted that speeding things up can be more of a guarantee of protection for those who will be the subjects of the tests. This is the case when information is shared more quickly, without being « blocked » because of rules on excessive appropriation of intellectual property rights or other reasons. What is needed, notably, is to have a more wide-ranging approach, ideally international, and to have a globalized ethical authorization procedure. Above all, what is needed is awareness of the urgency, once it is established that the probability of achieving the objective is no longer negligible.

Conclusion

Every day, 110,000 people die worldwide from age-related diseases. Effective testing must focus on the oldest (on young people, it would take years or even decades to see sufficiently convincing results). Elderly people should have the right to take part in experiments, and in better conditions. We may even consider that, for older women and men who are informed and who have the financial, social and psychological means to do so, it is an ethical duty; a duty of assistance of the same order as the duty we may feel to give our blood in the event of a disaster.

---

Good news of the month : Trials of metformin for longevity are about to begin. A trial with 5 « rejuvenating » products indicates a positive result.

---

The « TAME » project, that is to say a trial on positive effects of taking metformin by elderly people in good health is going to start in the United States. It is a piece of good news that must be tempered by the fact that this start has been awaited for two years now due to lack of funding.

An extremely promising one-year trial of five products with a small group of men aged 51 to 65 has succeeded in establishing in this group a 2.5 year average increase in the age indicated by « epigenetic clocks ». In other words, it appears that rejuvenation is demonstrated over the two year period for people taking these products. This is extremely promising, but must be confirmed by larger-scale experiments.

---

To find out more :

• See : heales.org, sens.org, longevityalliance.org and longecity.org

Painting : La vaccine ou le préjugé vaincu, 1807 (vaccination, or prejudice vanquished).

Sovereign, my master, aging has come, old age has struck down, exhaustion has arrived, weakness keeps returning. Every day is spent sleeping, as if one had gone back into childhood. Sight is worse, he becomes hard of hearing, strength is lacking, the heart is weary, the mouth is silent, it no longer speaks, the heart is no longer in it, he no longer remembers yesterday, all the bones are suffering, the good is transformed into bad. Every taste disappears. The impact of old age on humankind is bad in every respect. The nose is blocked, it doesn’t breathe anymore, it’s as painful to get up as it is to sit down.

Thus, 44 centuries ago, did the vizier Ptahhotep, who was going to take on an « old-age stick », i. e. an assistant, describe to King Djedkare Isesi at 110 years old the infirmities that were beginning to overwhelm him. The Age of 110 and old-age among the Egyptians. Gustave Lefebvre. 1944. Note: it is explained in the article that these were invented lifespans; no Egyptian of antiquity probably lived more than a hundred years.

---

Theme of the month: Living longer, an inequality in favor of women?

---

Differences among animals

In many animal species, there are sex differences when it comes to lifespan. These differences can be dramatic, for example, in the case of social insects. Certain queens of an ant species can live up to 30 years, while males die quickly after fertilization, a few days after reaching adulthood.

Among animals in general, sex differences are mostly not significant. A distinction must also be made between the average or normal lifespan, lifespan in the wild and maximum lifespan protected from the elements and predators in captivity. For lifetime in the wild, the strongest animals (which can be the females or the males depending on the species) live longer. In captivity, it tends rather to be the smallest animals that live longer.

In some species the time of reproduction is the end of life, the most well-known and spectacular example being that of salmon. Sometimes females can live longer so as to bear the next generation. This is the case for the antechinus, a kind of marsupial. The female will survive until the young can become autonomous and sometimes the female may even have a second litter. As for the male, it has the shortest life of all mammals, less than a year, a life that ends very soon after reproduction.

One factor that could create a significant gender difference, namely the menopause mechanism, exists, outside humans, only in some cetaceans, including killer whales.

Differences between women and men: the natural and the cultural

It is widely known that women today live longer on average than men. Thus in France in 2017, life expectancy reached 85.4 years for women and 79.5 years for men. This is, of course, due in part to the fact that maternal mortality in childbirth has become a very rare event. While slightly more men than women are born, the number of women on the planet exceeds that of men. Until a few decades ago, sex difference was first evident in the higher number of deaths of young boys than girls. Today, except in the poorest countries, infant mortality has become low or even negligible and it is mainly in later life that differences become noticeable. In France in 2018 58% of people aged 80 were women, 69% of people aged 90 and 81% of centenarians. Among the very few people aged over 110 there are almost no men. The 10 people who have lived (in a proven way) the longest in the history of humanity are for that matter women.

In all the countries of the world apart from who extremely poor ones (Mali and Eswatini, formerly Swaziland), women live longer on average than men, despite having a standard of living, including access to healthcare, which is often lesser than that of men, especially in old age, often synonymous with isolation.

Life expectancy, both average and maximum, is, therefore, an area where it is better to be born a woman than a man.

The causes of these differences are almost certainly biological but there are also socio-cultural reasons:

• less risk-taking, for example, fewer deaths in car accidents;
• less violence, especially fewer murders (committed, but also suffered, despite feminicides);
• fewer suicides; 
• less tobacco and alcohol consumption.

In many rich countries with long life expectancies, life expectancy for men is increasing more than for women and therefore the difference in life expectancy between women and men is decreasing. This is probably due to a cultural reason, namely that the behavior of people of both genders is becoming more uniform, but perhaps also because without ground-breaking medical progress we can hardly progress in life expectancy any more and therefore those who are « at the top » no longer climb up much.

 Finally, also much less positive, according to statistics on healthy life expectancy, the part of life without significant health problems is generally lower among women. With regard to inequality in the face of suffering and non-fatal diseases, some of the explanations are certainly cultural, particularly the poorer medical cover and assistance for elderly women. But biological differences can also explain this situation, particularly the profound transformations that occur during menopause. According to a recent study by Austrians, it appears that women’s faces change more quickly than men’s after the average age of 50, the average age of menopause.

Castration, a recipe for longevity?

This paragraph is not supposed to be taken too seriously. As they say, Don’t try this at home. Some people believe that the removal of male hormones has a positive effect on longevity. A 2012 study found that eunuchs lived longer than other people whose age of death was known in Korean royal palaces. However, this could be due first of all to the better treatment of these people compared to the « ordinary » members of the entourage of the Korean leaders of the past.

In a much less invasive way, some have proposed hormone injections as a way to promote longevity. But as there are major effects on physical appearance there have been no large-scale experiments with men taking female hormones.

 It should be noted, with regard to sex and longevity, that sexual abstinence has often been proposed as a means of longevity, of « preserving energy », with this being seen as complementary to various religious factors, for example in Taoism. However other sources suggest that a regular sex life, within reason, promotes longevity.

Today a lot more people are changing sex than used to be the case. It is as yet too soon to estimate the impact on life expectancy. And psychological and social circumstances will very probably have a major impact in this area before the purely physiological aspects.

Future avenues for a much longer healthy lifespan for women… and for men. 

The difference in life expectancy can be explained in particular by better behaviors and a better lifestyle (in the case of women), despite generally less favorable conditions. Modest gains in longevity are possible for men by examining differences and imitating what women do.

And yet all too often medical experiments only concern men. And even as far as animal experiments are concerned, very often they are only carried out on male animals. It is obviously harmful to women not to observe specific health issues, but also potentially for all humans.

When it comes to significant gains in longevity, the difference in maximum life expectancy can ultimately be explained by genetic factors. There are differences between women and men. We know that many genes are associated with longevity and we know that almost all men and women differ in the presence of two Y chromosomes in women and an X and a Y in men.

To date, no « longevity gene » with a significant impact has been found on the X or Y chromosomes (or indeed on any gene). It is probably more likely to be due to the combination of genes. Research that focuses on the potential sequencing of millions of people may be able to detect some.

---

The good news of the month: The World Health Organization (WHO) is asking people for their views about a decade of « healthy aging »

---

The WHO has announced that the 2020-2030 decade will be devoted to healthy aging (but the term longevity would be preferable to aging). It invites citizens and organizations to take a position on this issue. Several international organizations have spoken out in favor of making biomedical research for a much longer healthy life the priority for progress in this area.

If you wish to you may support or take inspiration from the position of the International Longevity Alliance so as to express on the site of the WHO, until September 8, 2019, your point of view on the subject.

---

To find out more:

• See notably: heales.org, sens.org, longevityalliance.org and longecity.org

 

 

There are people who think that without the prospect of death, life somehow becomes meaningless. But you know, I look at young children. They are full of joy of life. They bounce out of bed in the morning; they want to get together and play games. They’re not doing that because they think that in the future they’re going to die. They’re living for the sake of life. They’re not living for the sake of death. And it’s my view, we’re quite capable of finding lots of purpose in life, even if there is no threat of death ahead. David Wood, author of The abolition of aging. On the  Skynews channel. June 19, 2019.

---

Theme of the month: A copyright for the immortality pill?

---

Introduction

About 26 centuries ago, the inhabitants of Sybaris, a Greek colony in what is now Calabria, invented copyright.

Sybarites were known for their taste for luxury in all respects, including food. They granted cooks the exclusive right to their recipes. According to Phylarchus of Naucratis, an Egyptian Greek from the 2nd century BC: « If a cook invented new and succulent recipes, no other of his fellow chefs was allowed to put them into practice for a year, he alone having the privilege of freely preparing his dish. The stated aim was to encourage other cooks to compete in creating ever more refined dishes.

In 2019, the legal fictions that are intellectual property rights invaded the world’s social life, becoming mixed up in the most improbable areas of our activities: arts, writings, lyrics, dances, inventions, performances and even much of what is natural but theoretically appropriable from certain living species to extra-terrestrial objects. The following are notably « appropriable »: medicines, medical techniques, scientific articles on research for a longer and healthier life, product names….

All this is part of a framework in which signs, symbols and virtual objects occupy an increasingly important place in social life. The resulting complexity, volatility and contradictions generate an increasingly slow decision-making process, a process that unfortunately takes little account of longevity objectives derived from research for health and a better environment.

The ancient Greeks would probably be surprised to find that despite all the imagination of those who profess to monetize any production of the mind, cooking recipes are  generally considered today to be non-appropriable. A diet recipe, a variant of the Cretan diet, presumed useful for longevity, will not be protectable.

But he would be even more surprised to know that if a 20-year-old girl writes a beautiful text for health promotion today and publishes it in what is now France, theoretically, her text will be able to financially benefit her descendants (but practically her publisher) until the middle of the 22nd century, precisely until the year 2159 if the person dies at age 90. Even in a century, in theory, they will be able to refuse to have it published in a way that they consider having a purpose contrary to the author’s ideas. And if research for longevity one day allows a life of unlimited duration, copyright will no longer have a limit (unless there is a change in legislation, of course).

Intellectual property rights – Copyright – Trademarks – Patents

 Here is a very brief summary of a field that spans millions of pages.

Intellectual Property (IP) is the set of rights that allow people to restrict the right of others to use certain things, creations, works on the basis of intellectual « property ». In theory, these rights protect the creator. In practice, these rights almost always protect the creator’s representatives, most often without the creator him or herself gaining anything and having any real choice about the contract. For example, a scientific publishing house or a rights management company may prevent an author from putting his or her knowledge at the service of the community, a company that has bought medical patents can prevent the inventor of a new medical technology from making it available to those who need it…

Copyright is the most classic intellectual property right. A scientific or popular medical article, on paper or online, but also most other forms of original cultural expression such as a photo, a medical plan, relaxing music, an original anatomical sculpture… will in principle always be subject to copyright protection.

The specific word « copyright » is the term used in English-speaking legal systems, notably in the United States and Great Britain, but the concept is more or less the same everywhere. In the « Anglo-Saxon’ countries » legal systems it affects most of the prestigious medical and scientific journals (The Lancet, Elsevier, Springer, Nature…). Generally, copyright, in English-speaking countries and elsewhere, does not expire until 70 years after the author’s death (50 years in certain countries). Today, this right is no longer subject to any formalities, the famous © sign being generally no longer an obligation.

Trademarks benefit from protection that extends to sometimes absurd areas such as common objects (even an apple or windows !). In the medical field, one of the harmful effects arising from this right is that many similar medicines have variable names in order to be able to sell more, which makes them less accessible (due to lack of transparency, confusion about the names of medicines, different pricing, etc.).

A patent is an intellectual right related to an invention. It allows the right holder to benefit from an exclusive right to the economic rights resulting from its exploitation. The right is much shorter than copyright (20 years, sometimes extendable by 5 years) and requires a formality, namely registration. Drugs and medical devices are generally patented.

The consequences of copyright for medicines and therapies

To the question « What can be used for medical progress without fear of legal recourse? », the short answer is « Almost nothing ». Indeed, some people specialize in legal action (on the basis of all commercial law, not just copyright) against any innovative use or more precisely try to obtain profit from any innovative use. Some of these approaches would be comical if they were not particularly harmful to the community. For example, pharmaceutical companies have tried to seize products that have been used by indigenous peoples for centuries. Very often, for copyright reasons but also for tax reasons, these appropriations are attempted by entities with legal status such as « start-ups » and/or with a highly opaque international dimension. Finally, the legal aspects contribute, in an already extremely cumbersome administrative context, to an environment of often surreal complexity generating millions of forms of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs), author’s contracts and other provisions whose implications are not fully understood by anyone, not even the lawyers and other legal professionals who write them.

More broadly, another development may be an overall modification of researchers’ wishes based on the lure of profit but also on the search for respectability resulting from agreements with private companies. Without a start-up, some researchers may (wrongly) think they are nothing. And yet the original goal, for the researchers, is often to bring benefits to the community.

The most well-known negative consequence is the growth of prices to inaccessible levels for some therapies because companies have to generate profits. This concerns the treatment of so-called orphan diseases and also many innovative therapies. Many poor patients die as a result. And where the healthcare system allows for public funding, the costs to the state are high.

 In addition, for products to sell well, it is important to present results in the most positive way and to minimize negative results, which hinders transparency.

 When a pharmaceutical product becomes royalty-free, companies that had patents will feel obliged to conduct research aimed at slightly improving the product much more for commercial than therapeutic purposes. And above all, with regard to progress that is « hard to appropriate, sell or patent », research will be very difficult to achieve by private companies. This is the case for promising research on metformin (whose patent has expired) in the fight against aging.

Generally, DNA and therefore all genetic modifications, particularly in humans, are (fortunately) considered unpatentable. On the other hand, the means to achieve genetic modification are not. A complex legal confrontation exists between the different researchers (and especially the companies!) involved in CRISPR-type research. If, one day, gene therapy is discovered that has an impact on a much longer healthy life, making it accessible to all should be easier legally than photocopying a Tintin cartoon album for your little cousin. 

Consequences of copyright for publications

The publication system for scientific articles is widely recognized as aberrant. A few private publishers have a de facto monopoly on publishing prestigious scientific journals accessible online. Access to these journals is extremely expensive and is therefore in principle almost inaccessible, not only for ordinary citizens, but even for researchers except in « rich » universities. Fortunately, in recent years, considerable progress has been made with the following developments:

 Many publications are published without the consent of the publishers in order to make them accessible to researchers. The best known and most effective initiative is Sci-Hub created by Kazakh computer scientist Alexandra Elbakyan. These approaches are generally considered illegal, even it may sometimes be considered that necessity is its own legal argument in order to allow research that saves lives. In practice, there are many other ways to obtain documents, for example by requesting access from those involved.

 At European level, the S Plan aims to require that from 2021 onwards all publicly-funded scientific publications be published in open-access journals. This plan is part of a logic that should be obvious: what is paid for with public funds must be made available to the public. It is quite surprising to note that the most « progressive » regulation in this area is the  American federal legislation which provides that that which is done by the federal administration is in principle accessible to everyone: from photos of the earth by NASA to documents useful for medical research.

Conclusion and prospects

Despite the gloomy picture above, copyright has certainly had some utility for medical research in the current social and economic environment. Without it, many researchers would no longer have income and much research for products that could be useful for longevity would have to be abandoned.

But a radically facilitated pooling of projects and research results through investment, particularly public investment, would be a considerable factor in progress. It would be useful to have simple and comprehensible legal provisions ensuring that research results are « copyright free » and that the fair compensation of researchers and private partners should in no way hinder the provision of therapies to citizens.

---

This month’s good news: CHAI, California Initiative on Healthy Aging for a referendum in the Silicon Valley area

---

Longevist activists in California and elsewhere are supporting an election initiative to provide $12 billion in public funding for research on aging over the next 12 years. California is one of the states where citizens can create laws directly through their votes. In 2004, this process was successfully used to allocate $3 billion to stem cell research. But collecting signatures and educating the public is a costly proposition. They will need a broad coalition of interests (probably with hundreds of thousands of citizens’ signatures) to allow the referendum to take place.

 This is a considerable challenge. If the referendum were to be held, it would be the first time that millions of voters would be directly asked to vote on research for longevity. And what better place to address these issues than Silicon Valley?

---

For more information:

• See in particular: heales.org, sens.org, longevityalliance.org and longecity.org

 

 Pessimism is about selling; optimism is about fighting. (…) If you look at life expectancy, you see that, around the 1850s, it was 30 years for women. Thirty years! Today, it is 85. She’s not the same woman anymore. It’s not the same body anymore. Michel Serres. Philosopher and science historian. Le Soir Monday, June 3, 2019, quoted following his death.

---

Theme of the month: The epigenetic clock, a marker of aging 

---

A brief introduction to epigenetics

For a long time, biologists used to say that our body was made up of billions of cells, all different but all with the same genetic code. This was of course DNA, a molecule in the shape of a very long ribbon wrapped in a complex way in 23 pairs of chromosomes and which “unfolded » would be two meters long. In the traditional view, everything was at stake at the time of conception. After this, the cells divided very many times and became specialized, but keeping the same code, the same DNA. In principle, therefore, nothing changed before the creation of reproductive cells.

But this understanding of the fundamental code of living things has been refined. We now know that from time to time, the DNA of the cells that make up our body changes either spontaneously or under the impact of external circumstances and that even identical twins (monozygotic) do not have exactly the same genetic heritage. As we advance in age and when external circumstances are unfavorable, these changes are more and more significant. Cells have means of repairing damaged DNA, but the ability to repair appears to be reduced for people in poor health.

To this already very complex vision, we must add the dimension of a phenomenon that was still almost unknown twenty years ago: epigenetics (from the Greek « epí », « above »). This refers to mechanisms that modify gene expression without changing the nucleic acid sequence (DNA).

It is epigenetics that makes it possible to explain in particular that, while all the cells of a multicellular organism have (almost) the same genetic heritage, they develop in a totally different way according to the category of cells to which they belong, so that a skin cell « knows » that it must not develop as a heart cell.

So what exactly are epigenetic modifications?

Epigenetics is not about the transformation of DNA as such (which is the genetic code), but rather it is about changes that also take place in the cell nucleus and are closely linked to DNA. Some of these changes acquired during life can be passed on to subsequent generations, for example as a result of trauma, contrary to the principle, that was previously thought to be hard and fast, that only DNA determines how the offspring will be.

Epigenetic alterations include three mechanisms called DNA methylation, histone modifications and chromatin remodeling.

DNA methylation conditions the expression of genes in each cell. Nucleotide bases can be modified by the addition of a methyl group. This DNA modification is carried out by specific enzymes called DNMTs (for « DNA methyl-transferase »).

Histones are proteins that allow DNA to become compacted. Through this mechanism, DNA is wrapped around the histones like wire around a coil.

Chromatin is the material composed in particular of RNA and proteins in which DNA is parceled up and compacted, a little, here again, like a ball of yarn, but much more complex. The most « parceled up » parts have the least contact with the outside and the genes located there express themselves less or not at all. Chromatin remodeling, is the modification of this « packaging ».

The above is highly simplified. It is fascinating and vertiginous to think that each of the tens of thousands of billions of cell nuclei in our body constitutes a small universe. Each central element of the basic unit of our body, therefore, contains not only almost everything necessary for the creation of a human being, but also components organizing the expression of genetic heritage, subtle and yet indispensable differences and countless mechanisms that we still only very partially understand.

Epigenetics and measuring aging

Just as it is now getting easier and easier to decipher DNA code including differences between different cells (e.g. genetic characteristics of cancer cells), it is also easier and easier to measure differences in epigenetic components.

These components vary with the passage of time, which is why the expression epigenetic clock is used.

But if the variations of the components were only proportional to chronological age, measuring the results of this clock would not be of interest for the calculation of aging.

In fact, it turned out that the speed with which the clock advances was strongly correlated with other aging mechanisms. An aged person (or indeed an aged mouse) in poorer health will have more epigenetic changes.

It, therefore, seems possible, simply by examining at regular intervals the number of epigenetic changes in a human being’s cells, to get an idea of the speed of his or her aging.

More specifically, since epigenetic modifications are multiple mechanisms, there are many components that can be measured. These include those measured by California professor Steve Horwath and those measured by another American scientist Gregory Hannum.

As in many areas related to the causes and consequences of senescence, there is no consensus as to whether epigenetic changes are first and foremost a cause or a consequence of aging. According to some gerontologists, epigenetic changes can be considered as the engine of growth and of the development of the body and aging as a continuation of the epigenetic program. The epigenetic clock, a good predictor of causes of death, would therefore not only be one biomarker among others, but it would also be an important cause of aging, if not the most important.

A scientist from the East Coast of the United States, Josh Mitteldorf, has the ambitious project to measure thousands of epigenetic profiles of volunteer citizens undergoing anti-aging treatments of all kinds in all parts of the world over a two-year period. This project is specifically designed to look for combinations that work well together, that interact in a highly positive way. In two years, provided Josh finds funding, we could have a global vision of the effectiveness of hundreds of anti-aging treatments.

This would be immensely useful, to limit research in directions that prove to be ineffective and above all to intensify research into what works to enable millions of citizens advancing in age to take adequate preventive and curative treatment.

---

The good news of the month: French public project for longevity

---

A project called ExtenSanté is currently being examined in France by citizens, decision-makers, and scientists to promote research and treatments to combat age-related diseases. The campaign already underway includes a text explaining the approach (let’s work on causes rather than consequences), background information provided by different groups, and posters.

---

For more information:

• Heales.org, sens.org, longevityalliance.org and longecity.org

Image source in.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics#/media/File:Nucleosome_1KX5_2.png. DNA associated with histone proteins to form chromatin