X-Message-Number: 19982
Date: Wed, 4 Sep 2002 08:35:42 -0400
From: Thomas Donaldson <>
Subject: CryoNet #19979 - #19981

For "Basie":

While I am not affiliated with any drug companies and cannot answer
for them, a few points about aging itself need to be mentioned. 
Basically aging is a quite GENERAL breakdown in the body and brain
of the aging person. To say that statins help heart disease but
the victim of heart disease still doesn't live much longer than
otherwise just emphasizes the generality of aging itself. Most 
people, other than unfortunates born with a genetic fault which
causes them to get heart disease early in life, get heart disease
BECAUSE they have grown old, and their defenses against it which
worked fine when they were younger have ceased to work now. 

And as you can guess, even if we cure heart disease completely,
older people will still show the same breakdowns, and come down
with some other fatal condition a few years later.

So I would not resent the drug companies too much. They too are
still stuck with the beliefs about aging which are even now are
far too common: it is inevitable, should not be fought against,
a normal condition, etc etc. And so when they say it cures heart
disease, they don't mean it prolongs life. They wouldn't put
it this way, but they are saying that it keeps you from dying
from heart disease so that you can die of cancer instead.

		Best and long long life to all,

			Thomas Donaldson

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