X-Message-Number: 10572 Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 11:08:44 -0400 From: Thomas Donaldson <> Subject: CryoNet #10562 - #10570 HI everyone! To Jan Coetzee: Calorie restriction begun in early life comes close to doubling lifespan. However quite a number of studies (you should be able to find them yourself) show in animals that calorie restriction begun after puberty WILL increase lifespan. By not nearly as much, in fact by about as much as various drugs are claimed to increase lifespan. But the effect is still there. It would have been good if the ongoing monkey experiments had also tried using monkeys for which calorie restriction began after puberty, but so far we have no such experiment for primates. So we have the same problem with calorie restriction (begun as an adult) as we do with all the other animal experiments suggesting increases in lifespan. The fact that it doubles lifespan when started early is irrelevant to readers of Cryonet, and probably to everyone interested in treatments which might increase their longevity. (And if you are a bright child and try it, your parents are likely to stop you very quickly). Sorry, but I haven't memorized the references to what I say here. If you are REALLY interested please write me a message directly and I will dig them up. To Charles Platt: If you read the actual proposals of Jeff Davis for videos promoting cryonics, you will note that he does not promise a damn thing. This casts some light on just what he means when he writes about ethics here. Some people feel reluctant to promote cryonics at all since we certainly cannot promise that it will work. As for myself, I do not feel reluctant because there is one thing I am very sure I can promise: if you are NOT frozen then you will NOT revive in the future. Yes, I too would like to see the technology improve, and tried to push for that ever since I joined a cryonics society. But research is slow, and some of us (and yes, I'm thankful I wasn't among them) simply will not live long enough to use those improved techniques. I assume that you are happy to help such people become frozen, given that they want it. Best and long long life to all, Thomas Donaldson Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10572