Healthy Life Extension

If you read an article in the popular media about multivitamins the week before last, you might have drawn that conclusion. Question everything, pro and con. Unfortunately, when the media publishes something, the heard mentality often takes it as gospel.

Remember this: The media makes money from advertisers. Advertisers spend their money largely based on circulation and viewership. Those in turn are usually based on sensationalism. Progress and research typically move slowly, and real science is boring. So when a controversial study is reported, the media are quick to latch onto the story if they think it will sell.

Did you see or hear the story? Millions did, and Cristiana Paul, MS Nutrition www.CristianaPaul.com, among others, were quick to refute it. Of course the media did not pick up the rebuttals. They were busy selling ads.

I am a strong proponent of supplements. However, I am not certain everything I take and the amounts I take are helping me. I’m not even certain some are not working against me. But I do feel strongly about many, and you’d have to fight me to stop taking those.

Following are excerpts from a recent Gerontology Research Group (GRG) discussion posting by Ms. Paul. If you would like to see the whole article, please let me know:

A report from a study of vitamin takers is misinterpreted and turned into alarming news by the media. It is a well known fact that media favors shocking and unexpected news, often greatly exaggerating and not checking their facts thoroughly. In this spirit, many media outlets released articles during the week of Oct 11, 2011 implying and extrapolating that a recent survey study found a real link between the usage of nutritional supplements (vitamins and/or minerals) and increased mortality rates by a few percentage points.

The study in question was entitled “Dietary Supplements and Mortality Rate in Older Women: The Iowa Women's Health Study” and was published in the AIM Journal, Oct 10, 2011. The conclusions presented by the authors of this study are not considered scientifically valid by numerous respected medical doctors that have researched and used nutritional supplementation for more than 30 years. See numerous quotes from them at the end of this commentary. All of them concluded that one cannot derive valid conclusions from this publication. This is because the results reported were based on surveys with incomplete data followed by a biased statistical analysis.

Even the authors of the study in question caution against interpreting their data inappropriately: "It is not advisable to make a causal statement of excess risk based on these observational data". In other words one cannot establish cause and effect from their study results and imply that vitamins and minerals increasing will for sure increase the risk of mortality. However the media did just that, and the statements sent out by them were irresponsible and naive interpretations of the data provided by the study. They are also ignoring thousands of previous findings that showed benefits of vitamins and minerals in well-designed studies.

In general, studies based on epidemiological/observational surveys such as the one in question here, are not expected by the nature of their design to prove a cause and effect relationship between nutritional supplements and health outcomes. These studies can only show vague associations between various factors, which may or may not be occurring by chance or due to other coincidental factors (developing disease, use of artificial hormones or particular medications with serious side effects, etc). A good example of associated facts that are not related by cause and effect is birds migration the leaves changing color every autumn. These two phenomena occur at the same time every year but that does not mean that one is causing the other. However they are both caused by a third factor, the change in seasons.

The media has done a great disservice to the public in this instance by reporting facts that were simply misinterpreted and not scientifically proven by the paper in question 1. This is a typical case of “the devil is in the details”, where the details of the data collection and interpretation diminish the credibility of this report’s conclusions.

In her rebuttal, Ms. Paul outlines many details.

Even the authors of the study admit this important deficiency in the way they collected the data.

Here are some comments regarding the study in question from a few very well respected medical doctors that have studied, taught and used nutritional supplementation in their practice for more than 30 years:

David Heber MD, director of the UCLA Center for Human Nutrition: "I wouldn't recommend anyone change what they're doing based on this study," "It's very hard to conclude cause and effect.”

Alan Gaby, MD, author of the book “Nutritional Medicine”: “However, while the study achieved widespread media coverage, it did not provide any convincing evidence that nutritional supplements are harmful.” “The new study does not negate previous research demonstrating that vitamins and minerals can have a wide range of health benefits.”

Steven Sinatra, MD, world renowned cardiologist: “All of the nutrients taken in the study were “self-reported” so we don’t know the doses, brands, quality, or even how regularly the nutrients were taken. Additionally the study didn't account for what nutrients were taken in combination with each other. Given the lack of this critical information, drawing conclusions based on this type of study is ridiculous.”

Long Life,

David Kekich

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LATEST HEADLINES FROM FIGHT AGING!

WORKING ON BUILDING BLOOD VESSELS WITH BIORAP Friday, October 21, 2011 http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/10/working-on-building-blood-vessels-with-biorap.php

Another group working on machinery to produce tissue engineered blood vessels: "German researchers have been working at growing tissue and organs in the laboratory for a long time. These days, tissue engineering enables us to build artificial tissue, although science has still not been successful with larger organs. Now researchers at the Fraunhofer group of applied research institutes are applying new techniques and materials to come up with artificial blood vessels in their BioRap project that will be able to supply artificial tissue and, perhaps, even complex organs in the future.

The aim of tissue engineering is to create organs in the laboratory for opening up new opportunities in the field. Unfortunately, researchers have still not been able to supply artificial tissue with nutrients because they do not have the necessary vascular system. Five Fraunhofer institutes joined forces in 2009 to come up with biocompatible artificial blood vessels. It seemed impossible to build structures such as capillary vessels that are so small and complex and it was especially the branches and spaces that made life difficult for the researchers. But production engineering came to the rescue because rapid prototyping makes it possible to build workpieces in line with any complex three-dimensional (3D) model. Now scientists at Fraunhofer are working on transferring this technology to the generation of tiny biomaterial structures by combining two different techniques: 3D printing technology established in rapid protoyping and multiphoton polymerisation developed in polymer science."

A REVIEW OF THE STATE OF TISSUE ENGINEERING OF CARTILAGE Thursday, October 20, 2011 http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/10/a-review-of-the-state-of-tissue-engineering-of-cartilage.php

An open access review paper: "In tissue engineering fields, recent interest has been focused on stem cell therapy to replace or repair damaged or worn-out tissues due to congenital abnormalities, disease, or injury. In particular, the repair of articular cartilage degeneration by stem cell-based tissue engineering could be of enormous therapeutic and economic benefit for an aging population. Many people over the age of 40 suffer from degeneration or injury of their cartilage, leading to a reduced workforce and increased medical expenses. Thus, improvements in cartilage repair using a cell-based tissue engineering approach will greatly benefit public health and the economy. Personalized cell therapy for cartilage repair using cell-based tissue engineering technologies would provide clinically practical methods for producing a cartilage tissue equivalent.

A number of biomaterials are available as scaffolds, and research continues to help us understand more details about how tissues develop and which cell type should be applied. These studies have provided details of how tissues grow in vitro and in vivo, but clinical applications depend on working with surgeons and the translation of these materials and technologies to in vivo models that are more relevant to patients. When cell-based cartilage tissue engineering technologies are applied to new animal models, we attempted to find better functional compositions for successful applications than were observed in previous studies. Although stem cell-based cartilage tissue engineering systems may demonstrate success even in animal models, there are a number of new challenges when the technologies are applied to humans. Further research on in vivo application must address immunological issues, integration of host and stem cell-based engineered cartilage, and the variability of tissue development in an in vivo environment, depending on surrounding disease processes, age, or physical activity. Therefore, interdisciplinary studies are not only necessary but crucial before cell-based cartilage tissue engineering can reach its full potential in cartilage repair and regeneration."

ANOTHER LOOK AT EPIGENETIC INHERITANCE OF LONGEVITY Thursday, October 20, 2011 http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/10/another-look-at-epigenetic-inheritance-of-longevity.php

Researchers investigating calorie restriction have noticed that its effects on longevity can be inherited through epigenetic variations - which makes sense, given the reasons why individual longevity variations in response to available food evolved in the first place. If it is advantageous for a given individual at a given time to shift metabolism into a mode that allows it to live longer due to a decline in available food, then it's probably also advantageous for the children to do that from birth as well: "The tiny soil-dwelling worms C. elegans, when given mutations that make them live longer, transmit that trait even when their progeny don't inherit the life-extending mutations. ... Although much more research remains to be done, the new study raises the tantalizing possibility that if Grandma practiced caloric restriction - which affects the expression of longevity-enhancing genes - her descendants might reap the benefits.

The inheritance occurs through "epigenetics": alterations not in the coding sequence of DNA (those ubiquitous A's, T's, C's, and G's) but in chemical changes that affect whether genes are expressed. [A] protein complex called ASH-2 [alters] histones in C. elegans, reconfiguring the histone-DNA complex into an 'open' state that promotes gene expression. Deficiencies in ASH-2 extend the worm's life span by as much as 30 percent. [researchers] blocked the three key proteins that make up the ASH-2 complex by mutating their genes. As expected, the worms lived longer - typically, an extra seven days beyond their lab life span of 20. [Researchers] bred the mutated worms with normal worms until their descendants no longer had the mutations.

Nevertheless, the progeny still lived longer, as did their own descendants: even though their genes for the key proteins were normal, an epigenetic memory of longevity persisted."

DISCUSSING THE NEAR FUTURE OF TISSUE ENGINEERING Tuesday, October 18, 2011 http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/10/discussing-the-near-future-of-tissue-engineering.php

From MSNBC: "The latest science and schemes for achieving long life and the "singularity" moment of smarter-than-human intelligence came together at the Singularity Summit held [in New York] October 15-16. Some researchers explored cutting-edge, serious work about regenerating human body parts and defining the boundaries of consciousness in brain studies. The most immediate advances related to living longer and better may come from regenerative medicine. Pioneering physicians have already regrown the tips of people's fingers and replaced cancer-ridden parts of human bodies with healthy new cells.

Success so far has come from using a special connective tissue - called the extracellular matrix (ECM) - to act as a biological scaffold for healthy cells to build upon. Badylak showed a video where his team of surgeons stripped out the cancerous lining of a patient's esophagus like pulling out a sock, and relined the esophagus with an ECM taken from pigs. The patient remains cancer-free several years after the experimental trial. The connective tissue of other animals doesn't provoke a negative response in human bodies, because it lacks the foreign animal cells that would typically provoke the immune system to attack. It has served the same role as a biological foundation for so long that it represents a 'medical device that's gone through hundreds of millions of years of R&D'. If work goes well, Badylak envisions someday treating stroke patients by regenerating pieces of the functioning human brain."

P38 MAP KINASE AND FLY LONGEVITY Tuesday, October 18, 2011 http://www.fightaging.org/archives/2011/10/p38-map-kinase-and-fly-longevity.php

Researchers report another longevity gene: "Scientists have previously found mutations that extend fruit fly lifespan, but this group of genes is distinct because it acts specifically in muscles. The findings could help doctors better understand and treat muscle degeneration in human aging. [Researchers] started investigating a pair of genes called "p38 MAP kinase" in fruit flies with the expectation that they could play a role in learning and memory. Along the way, they discovered that mutations in these genes speed up the process of aging and make the flies more sensitive to oxidative stress. It was really just dumb luck, because we found a mutant that had almost completely lost gene activity, but had enough activity to be born.

If both genes are defective in the same fly, the flies die very early. The experiment that made us nervous was when we asked whether having more p38 could increase lifespan. You can make flies sick and shorten their lives in a hundred different ways easily, but finding one gene that makes a big change in lifespan is more significant. Fruit flies normally live about fifty days in [this] laboratory, depending on temperature and conditions. Some strains of fly that overproduce p38 MAP kinase live on average about 75 days, 50 percent longer than regular flies. For this effect, it is sufficient that p38 is overproduced in muscles only. A protein that protects cells against oxidative stress that is found in mitochondria, superoxide dismutase (MnSOD), is responsible for at least some of p38 MAP kinase's effects on aging." That last point makes this look rather like the mouse studies in which life span was extended by genetic engineering to boost levels of natural antioxidants present in the mitochondria.