Moralizing

I was reading the comments on this Newsweek article about life extension and got a little annoyed. Comments like this are easy to make when you are young and healthy:

Getting older and staying alive with drugs sounds so unnatural. I am 32 years old I have never taken any kind of real hard drugs prescribed or other wise and I look like I am no older than 17 years old if not younger.

I myself am 32 years old and can pass for mid twenties. But now that I am a mother of 2 small children, I have really come to fear death in a way that is new and unfamiliar to me. I want to be here to see my children grow, marry, have kids and see great-grandchildren. And I want my parents too to be able to live long enough to see great-grandchildren. I love my husband and I want to spend many, many more years with him.

Not only do I want to live a long time ( and have my loved ones live long too), I want us all to be in good health. There is no use in being old if you are not healthy and vibrant as well. It looks like TA-65 can do that for some people. And if you can afford the $18,000 to add years to your life (and life to your years) then who are we to judge if that money is well spent? Or it its "wrong" or "unnatural" to do so?

Geron to implant embryonic stem cells into humans

Geron Corp., a California-based biotech company, has been given the OK to implant embryonic stem cells in eight to 10 paraplegic patients who can use their arms but can't walk. Stem cell injections will be given within two weeks of the injury. The study will begin this summer, and will be conducted at up to seven different medical centers.

This is the same Geron that discovered TA-65. Geron is reportedly also working on other telomerase activators.

Does TA-65 really cost $25,000??

From Newsweek magazine http://www.newsweek.com/id/172561

Telomere biologist Bill Andrews of Sierra Sciences is taking a telomerase-boosting supplement called TA-65. "I believe it's safer than driving my car to work," he says. Since he started taking it a year and a half ago, Andrews says he has moved from the back of the pack to the front in 100-mile runs known as ultramarathons. But don't expect to find TA-65 at your local Vitamin Shoppe. It is available only from TA Sciences—for $25,000 a year.

Newsweek has it wrong. TA-65 costs less than $25,000. Prices are listed on the Patton Protocol page. And a good part of the fees come from testing your biomarkers of aging.

Astragalus Root

A new UCLA AIDS Institute study has found that a chemical from the Astragalus root, frequently used in Chinese herbal therapy, can prevent or slow this progressive telomere shortening, which could make it a key weapon in the fight against HIV.

The study, to be published in the Nov. 15 print edition of the Journal of Immunology, is available online at www.jimmunol.org/cgi/content/full/181/10/7400.

TA-65 is made from the Astragualus root. But according to T.A. Sciences, you can't just run out to the healthfood store and swallow a bunch of herbs. They have a special process to make TA-65. The drug used in the UCLA study is TAT2. TAT2 and TA-65 were both discovered by Geron.