MATURE MARKET HEADLINES updated 12/9/99
Fountain of Youth Pill in the 21st Century?
Gallon of milk, loaf of bread, head of lettuce, box of corn flakes, and bottle of life-extension pills. Is this a typical grocery list for the 21st century? Could be. A day doesn't go by without some kind of new discovery for prolonging life. But this time, researchers have taken a giant step from mere life-extension to ultimate immortality. Take a look.
Telomerase, an enzyme, has been touted as a veritable "fountain of youth", says Robert Sanders, University of California - Berkeley (UC-B). That's because telomerase is believed to hold the key to making human cells immortal. Recent findings by UC-B researchers add new credence to telomerase's life-extending qualities. Their work was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and UC Berkeley. Now, that's a great way to see your tax dollars at work.
The UC-B research confirms that telomerase renews human tissue. Here's how it's done. Telomerase makes cells youthful by replacing short DNA tags that drop off the chromosome ends, called the telomeres, each time the chromosomes replicate and divide. Without the enzyme, the tags disappear one by one until the ends are so short they can start sticking together. This halts further division, and the tissue no longer regenerates, thereby contributing to aging.
While the telomerase gene is turned on in the fetus, it appears to be switched off shortly after birth, so that most cells in adults contain no telomerase activity. As a consequence, most human cells grow only for a fixed number of years. "Turning off telomerase starts a natural clock that gives a cell only a certain number of divisions before it stops," says Kathleen Collins, assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at UC-B.
Sounds like all we need is to introduce telomerase back into the human body. But don't hold your breath waiting to see a telomerase life-extension pill on your grocery shelf any time soon. Like many great breakthroughs, there's a "glitch". Using telomerase to stave off aging carries the possibility of encouraging the growth of cancer cells as well as normal cells, say UC-B researchers. As a result, Professor Collins is cautionary about use of the enzyme. "If there were a telomerase pill, I'd take it," Collins said. "Not at the age of 10, but much later - maybe at 60."
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Telomerase Update on Life Extension
Bionic Brain Battery Battles Parkinson's
Brain Chemical Called Death Messenger
Worldwide Gains in Life-Expectancy
Genes Don't Always Fit Longevity Profile
Is Longevity An Equal Opportunity Event?
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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High Protein Diet Accelerates Osteoporosis
A change in blood acidity caused by a high-protein diet accelerates osteoporosis by depleting bones of their calcium, say researchers at the University of Rochester. Apparently, bones sacrifice themselves to compensate for the acid-producing foods we eat.
"When we eat, we generate acid," explains David A. Bushinsky, M.D., professor of Medicine and of Pharmacology and Physiology at the University of Rochester. "These acids are ultimately excreted by the kidneys, but as we age, our kidneys don't function so well. If the kidneys can't keep up with our appetite, the bones step in and absorb the excess acid. That's good in the short term, but in the process the bones surrender calcium, phosphorus, sodium and everything they should be keeping to stay strong." The process is called metabolic acidosis and it can become a problem for a middle aged or older person whose kidneys are not working as efficiently as those of a younger person's.
"An older woman with kidney trouble should definitely watch how much protein she eats," says Bushinsky. As much as 30 percent of post-menopausal white women, the group at greatest risk, have osteoporosis. Protein generates more acid than other foods, and the proteins in red meat generate more acid than those in fish or poultry. Vegetable proteins give rise to the least amount of acid.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Osteoporosis Is Preventable Says Chinese Medical Team
P&G's Actonel Drug Battles Osteoporosis
Nasal Spray Medicine Fights Osteoporosis
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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HKUST: East Meets West to Fight Alzheimer's
It's funny how new words creep into American culture from distance lands? Words like Yin-Yang, acupuncture, shanghaied. Soon these foreign-sounding words are so commonly used that we scarcely believe those words have ever been anything but American. Well, get ready to increase your vocabulary by at least one new word, Qian Ceng Ta. It's a Chinese herb that you'll be hearing a lot more about because it appears to be of significant value as a treatment for Alzheimer's Disease. But, I'm getting a little ahead of myself. Here's the whole story.
Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) announced significant progress in the fight against Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Dr Paul R. Carlier and Dr Yifan Han of the Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry respectively of Hong Kong University are working on an Asian herb that could lead to more effective treatment for Alzheimer's Disease (AD). The herb, "Huperzine A", is produced from the Chinese herb Qian Ceng Ta.
Although at present there is no cure for AD, pharmaceutical companies have developed drugs that can significantly improve memory and general intellectual function in patients. Such drugs could greatly improve the quality of life of AD victims and their care-givers in the first five to ten years after the onset of the disease.
Unfortunately most of these drugs have serious side effects which elderly patients find intolerable, leading to discontinuation of drug therapy, say HKUST researchers. One promising exception is Huperzine A, which has exhibited superior efficacy and tolerability in clinical trials on Mainland China. However, use of this drug to treat AD outside of China has been hampered by the high cost and scarcity of the herbal source.
Working with Dr Yuan-Ping Pang (a collaborator at the Mayo Clinic in the United States), Han and Carlier demonstrated that two commonly used AD medicines (Tacrine and Huperzine A) can be combined into a more potent hybrid treatment. Huperzine A is used in China, and Tacrine is used abroad in the West. The hybrid treatment is a combination of both.
Dr Carlier says, the resulting hybrid drug is very easy and inexpensive to produce and expected to be much less toxic than Tacrine itself. Dr Han showed it is more potent than Huperzine A. This drug literally combines the best of "East" and "West". HKUST believes that this discovery signals a new direction in the modernization of traditional Chinese medicine in Hong Kong.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Cell Enzyme Bio-Marker for Alzheimer's
Enzyme Linked to Brain Functioning in Alzheimer's
Researchers Crack Alzheimer Gene Code
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Retired Couples Happiest in Traditional Roles
Can two people who have enjoyed a successful marriage for three decades share a retirement without driving each other crazy? The answer is "no" in some cases, according to psychologists Jungmeen E. Kim, Ph.D., and Phyllis Moen, Ph.D., professors at Cornell University and members of the American Psychological Association. Noting that most couples do not retire at the exact same time, Kim and Moen, Ph.D. found various levels of marital satisfaction and depression for different combinations of employment and retirement.
Newly retired women tend to be more depressed than continuously retired or not-yet-retired women, especially if their husbands remained employed. Newly retired men experience more marital conflict than nonretired men. In addition, newly retired men with employed wives tend to show higher martial conflict than newly retired men with nonemployed wives. However, men who are retired and re-employed with wives who are not employed have a higher morale than couples where neither spouse is working.
"This suggests that late mid-life men in our sample appear to be more satisfied with their lives when their spouses are following traditional gender role expectations," states Dr. Kim. "For men, postretirement employment appears to be beneficial for their psychological well-being. Those who are retired and re-employed report the highest morale and lowest depression," said the authors. "By contrast, men who are retired and not
re-employed experience the lowest morale and most depression." The researchers did not find the same statistical differences for women who became re-employed.
"We do not see retirement as a one-way, one-time, irreversible exit from paid work," states Dr. Kim. "Many retirees go on to new careers or are rehired back as consultants by their old employers." "It is crucial to consider the work/retirement status of both partners because each spouse's retirement transition represents an important life event for the couple, requiring adjustment on the part of both spouses."
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Boomer Couples Cling to Role Stereotypes
Mature Couples Find Spouses Demanding
Husband Says Home Chores Lead to Sex
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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Eldercare Costs the Average Worker $659,000
The nearly 23 million Americans who provide care for elderly relatives are paying a huge price, according to the "1999 MetLife Juggling Act Study". Caregiving costs individuals upwards of $659,000 over their lifetimes in lost wages, lost social security and pension contributions, says Dr. Sandra Timmermann, director of MetLife's Mature Market Institute.
The breakdown on the $659,000 includes $567,000 in lost wages, $67,000 in retirement contributions, and $25,000 in social security benefits.
This in-depth analysis of the caregiver burden is a follow-up to a national survey conducted in 1997 that found that 25 percent of all U.S. households provide care for an elderly person. The new MetLife study discovered that 84 percent of caregiver employees made adjustments to their work schedules in the following manner.
- taking sick leave or vacation time
- decreasing scheduled work hours
- taking a leave of absence
- switching from full to part-time work
- resigning or retiring.
"Only recently", says Timmermann, "have policy-makers and business leaders begun to recognize the sacrifices and contributions made by working caregivers." It's important that the business community take notice of this enormous problem because the cost of lost productivity due to employee caregiving is in the billions annually. That figure may double when the baby boomer generation, which is twice the size of today's older population, reaches retirement age.
The "1999 MetLife Juggling Act Study" was produced in cooperation with the National Alliance for Caregiving and the National Center for Women and Aging at Brandeis University.
See related articles in the AgeVenture archives.
Family Trends Foster Eldercare Challenges
Assisted Living Offers Cure for Elder Care Limbo
Eldercare Trend Grey, Global and Growing
AgeVenture News Service, www.demko.com
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