X-Message-Number: 4860
Date: Sat, 9 Sep 1995 10:51:20 -0700 (PDT)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: Be careful with those pills....

 
 Peter Merel writes,
 >Last I heard on sci.life-extension, deprenyl isn't necessarily useful
 >unless you're fifty and older, and even then I think the jury is out -
 >but perhaps the wiser heads here can confirm or deny. 
 
 Deprenyl isn't necessarily useful even if you are fifty and older. 
 However I agree that the evidence that deprenyl MAY be beneficial
 is strongest in older individuals. The evidence also hints that
 quite conservative supplementation may be best. I take 5 mg/week
 myself. I would also agree that an age limit is appropriate for
 deprenyl supplementation, but would place this at 30 years of age,
 rather than at 50. I'm sorry, but us over 30 types tend to forget
 that young people might also be interested in surfing the cryonet. 

 >As to melatonin, be careful. The mel. studies that showed life
 >extension properties in rodents supplemented to match a youthful mel. 
 >profile - just popping an OTC mel. supplement won't do that at all.  In
 >fact supplementing mel. in a naive fashion might actually work to
 >suppress average levels of the hormone generated by your pineal and
 >gut, which might make you age faster ... 

 The Life Extension Foundation suggests only people over the age of 30
 consider melatonin supplementation. This recommendation is based on the
 findings that melatonin given to young rodents does not reduce their
 mortality rates. This benefit acrues only to middle aged and older
 animals. 

 >Chromium picolinate, though, sounds like lovely stuff. Only problem I
 >have with it is that I can't get it OTC in Australia. Nor mel. either,
 >I think.  But wonderful results have come out of the CR experiments,
 >and that's something the Australian government hasn't figured out how
 >to legislate against. Yet. 

 Agreed. 

 Melatonin can be obtained through the mail from: 
     The Life Extension Foundation
     P.O. Box 229120
     Hollywood, Florida
     U.S.A. 33022-9120

 Chromium picolinate can be obtained from: 
     NutriGuard Research
     P.O. Box 865
     Encinitas, CA
     U.S.A. 92023

 V. Adrian Lynskey writes,
 >Another comment I want to make is the following: I want you to imagine
 >that an announcement was made in the newspaper that a vaccine was made
 >available that would add 25 years to one's life.  Let's say everyone
 >went down and got the vaccine.  So what.  Nothing would change. If
 >you think about it most young people think they are immortal anyway. 
 >The final point I want to make in this post is that there should
 >be a separate news group for morons who want to speculate on all
 >the different things in the universe that are impossible. 

 I have always been under the impression that the life extension movement
 could be more accurately called the duration extension movement. 
 Increased longevity by itself is certainly not going to create a heaven
 on earth. Unhappy people will always create trouble for themselves and
 others. Life extension I feel should incorporate a mental component in
 addition to the duration one. Life = happiness * duration. 
 Younger people for whom the duration component is not of immediate
 concern will naturally be more interested in increasing their
 happiness. Older people will naturally become increasingly concerned
 with duration. A practicing life extensionist should seek means for
 increasing both his own and other's happiness as well as longevity. 

 I believe what Mr. Lynskey is rebeling about is the overemphasis on
 duration. Happiness always comes first. People who are not happy are
 rarely interested in longevity and quite rightly so. If happiness = zero
 then life = zero * duration = zero. Increase duration all you want
 and nothing will change. 


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