Dr. Dave Woynarowski Telomeres – Singing the Tune

I wrote my portion of the Immortality Edge months before its release in late 2010. It was an interesting experience as no one really knew what to do with the information-even though we spelled it out!

My co authors Mike Fossel and Greta Blackburn gave exercise recommendations. Subsequently the positive effect of exercise on telomere length was demonstrated multiple times.  We told you what to eat.  Subsequently the positive effect of diet was demonstrated many times.  We told you what supplements to take including Pharmaceutical Grade Fish Oil.

We also told you to keep your eye on this space because amazing things would be happening and that we were for the first time in human history really on to something.  I showed you how I grew my own telomere length over 1200 base pairs in 2-3 years and validated it with 3 separate telomere tests including the most valid.

Other things I told you about were high fat low carb diets, fish oil and telomeres and longevity, stem cells and inflammation modulation, sleep and its effect on your cells and how you age.

Now I am not going to stomp my feet and cry out loud that no one is listening to me but I will say this: all the people who wrote negative reviews of our book on Amazon never came back and admitted we were right.

Not one.

So what has happened since then?

Since then I have seen the emergence of tons of “new thought leaders” who I never heard of.  Of those I did know of beforehand, more than one of them were critical of my writings over the past years in public.

Now they all seem to be singing the “Telomere Tune”.  I gave a recent speech at the A4M Orlando on lifestyle and its effect on telomere length.  Do you realize it has been 7 years since they asked me to speak on this topic?

I have my theories on why that is related to the fact that I “sell things on the internet” but let me tell you something.  Selling those things on the internet has put me into a position where I can now afford to do some studies and research that I have not been able to do in the past including working with BioStem Technologies. So for all of you who have been loyal supporters over the past decade and a half and of course my new friends, I thank you.

Dr. Dave Woynarowski will continue to be a telomere guinea pig so you don’t have to.

I make the same promise I made back then- I will continue to bring you what really works. I will continue to be a guinea pig so you don’t have to and I will not recommend anything for you I do not use myself.

Have any of those famous TV gurus you’ve seen said that to you?

Now here is the tough part. As much as I want you to live the longest healthiest life you can I am not going to argue with you or try to convince you.  In the words of rapper Sweet Brown, I ain’t got time fo’dat!!!!

Frankly I would be doing what I do for myself and a few loved ones even if no one knew who I was.

But the good news is you can come along.

This coming week I will update you more on the telomere story.

 

Til’ then keep Singin’!!!!

Doc

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Telomerase and Cancer Part 8

Yes it’s true I have written 8 different articles about cancer and telomerase since 2009 and I suppose I should prepare to write 8 more.

The most recent stir up in the field came from an internet news blitz entitled “Long Telomeres May Increase Cancer Risk” detailing the findings of an erudite Southern California lab based at the same University as Telomere Nobel Laureate Elizabeth Blackburn.

This group has major scientific star power and lots of science cred to back up what they say.

Naturally the “see we told you so” crowd picked up on this immediately and interpreted it as Telomerase causes cancer. The more they dislike me and what I do or the more I pissed them off in the past for not buying into what they are doing the more vociferous the email nasty grams.

One person even suggested “Your telomerase activators are giving people cancer and your book is full of deadly information!”

So after a week or so of this I did what it seems I have to do more and more often these days. Break my vow of silence and answer the questions directly all the while trying to remain nice, calm and objective.

So here is the background.

In this particular study the scientists were looking at a rare and deadly tumor known as glioma (there are several different forms of this brain cancer and none are good!).

They found an association with long telomeres and glioma and used a technique known as Genome Wide Association Study (GWAS) to establish a link to mutations “in the area of the telomerase gene” that “might “ account for the increases in Glioma they saw.

Using my least favorite way of determining telomere length QPCR they found said association in 3 different areas “related” to the telomerase gene.

More background: the telomerase gene and other “longevity genes” such as APO and glucose/insulin genes are located in areas that are hypermutatable for lack of a better term.  This means that more mutations than expected are found in these areas than many other areas of the genome.

The reason for this is unknown but please understand it is a well documented and rather widespread phenomenon that is not limited to the telomerase gene.

These mutations are called SNPs or single nucleotide polymorphisms because the result in one change in one molecule of DNA.

Please understand that SNPs are a favorite of scientists studying cancer and other diseases because if they can reproduce them in animal models then they can study the cancer that way. At the same time it is likely that most human cancers do not occur as SNPs but rather as epigenetically driven changes.

Even the most famous BRAC SNPs associated with breast cancer are estimated to account for 5% or less of human cancers. Put another way 95% of breast cancer is not due to these SNPs.

Also understand that SNPs are often inherited meaning the changes they cause in the genome are present from the time of conception until death. In terms of the SNPs that are associated with glioma they occur in the general population  between 50 and 70% of the time and are present in over half of the control group which is 4x larger than the cancer group. That control group did not get cancer.

Glioma is also associated with older age at the time of onset.  The older you are the more likely you are to get glioma. The control group that has no cancer and longer telomeres is likely to live considerably longer than an equal group with short telomeres.

Gliomas are also well known to use the ALT non telomerase method to lengthen their telomeres rather than increasing telomerase.

So here is my list of questions for the authors:

Why did you use QPCR the least accurate method of measuring MTL which misrepresents telomere dynamics and introduces a large potential for inaccuracy? My guess is once we get past all the other political stuff would be “Because that is what lots of other people are using!”

Next when does a SNP become considered normal?  If it’s present in over half of the population at large then how do we know it’s a mutation.

Finally did they factor in age at diagnosis as an independent risk factor since gliomas go up with age.

Now the truth is they did not need to look at all this stuff because they were not saying Telomerase Causes Cancer or Long Telomeres Cause Cancer ( again JAMA Dec 2010 showed exactly the opposite: short telomeres are associated with cancer!). They were saying mutations in the area of the telomerase gene are ASSOCIATED with one rare Cancer.

Big difference.

Especially when you consider that genetic mutations are forever and for life in many cases and cause elevations of gene products as well as dysfunctions of gene products that are not associated with short term telomerase activators.

In addition there is no data to suggest that using supplements like fish oil which appears to preserve telomere length, or TA-65 which may lengthen telomeres has ANY association with cancer of ANY kind in.

I applaud the scientific discoveries made by scientists and of course the use of GWAS is interesting in looking at SNPs. But I remind you the word associated does not mean cause. You could potentially find that eating pizza is associated with a higher death rate in motor vehicle accidents.

And we went through this last summer when a study cited a 2% change in Omega 3 levels as associated with a 73% increase in prostate cancer.

For most of us SNPs are the least of our worries. Shortening telomeres on the other hand is a 100% given. Read some of the other myths about telomeres and telomere supplementation here.

 

 

Doc

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Men, Muscle Mass, and Mortality- The 3 Musketeers of Aging

Back in the year 2000 when I started to practice anti-aging medicine, hormone replacement was a major part of our therapy.  At the time it was the one thing that other doctors did not really do much of especially for men.

As a matter of fact it was downright quackery in the eyes of some of our more established (read old) colleagues. I have made many comments on the transition that has taken place mainly driven by Big Pharma’s ability to patent testosterone patches and creams. What was once quackery is now sanctioned by the establishment and the question “Is it low T?” is being asked in doctors’ offices around the world.

I have to tell you it’s because of all the wrong reasons.  Much like the Viagra revolution which is a thinly veiled attempt to legitimize recreational drug use (by treating erectile dysfunction) testosterone replacement is being used to make men feel better about themselves. Now really there is nothing wrong with that but it misses the point: testosterone replacement is a real treatment for other legitimate diseases like heart failure, diabetes and bone loss in men (and women!).

My most memorable case was that of Joe F. aged 86 who had intermediate grade prostate cancer and was in the hospital every 2 weeks in heart failure much to the chagrin of our cardiologists.

I decided to treat Joe with 100 mg of testosterone cypionate a week.  I was called by no less than 3 of my colleagues asking me if I had lost my mind. Didn’t I know the testosterone was absolutely contraindicated in prostate cancer?  Didn’t I know I was going to kill the patient?

Fortunately for Joe I did not listen to them and went with what I knew would help Joe. He was never again admitted for heart failure and his diabetes went away as well. His quality of life was much better and he lived another 6 years to die of pneumonia.

If only we had had TA-65 then!

I had to laugh when 3 years ago world renowned Harvard based testosterone expert Abraham Morgantaler was lauded for being radical by treating men with prostate cancer with testosterone. That is almost as radical as Dr.Oz endorsing the Paleo diet and telling you it’s OK to eat butter. My coauthors and I made our preference for that diet known back in 2010 with our book The Immortality Edge.

But we are not from Harvard nor do we have a TV show!

So last week I read 2 back to back studies that I will sum up for you here.

These studies primarily looked at men but they apply to a degree to women as well. They basically said that power output and muscle mass were independent predictors of aging and death. The less muscle you had the more likely you were to die. The funny thing is I recently had the occasion to listen to the introductory fish oil CD I give all my new customers.

I had a long, long drive ahead of me and I was thinking maybe I should redo that CD- after all it was recorded in 2007. The more I listened the more I had to give myself a pat on the back and the less I wanted to tackle the redo.  I never use notes for any of my lectures and the CD is no exception. Honestly I do not know how I packed all that info into one CD.

One of the things I talk about is power and muscle mass as it relates to Omega 3 levels. And I specifically talk about how it relates to morbidity (sickness) and mortality (death rate).

So now 7 years later science has given us 2 specific studies that show that muscle mass and strength along with testosterone and activity levels are independent predictors of how well you will age and how long you will live.

And all of this without telomeres.

 

So here it is in a nutshell:

The way I practiced medicine as an anti-aging doc- trying to maximize hormone levels safely- should probably be standard of care especially for men, since it directly affects mortality.

Next since big Pharma now has patented testosterone formats it has become “OK” to do this since we are not taking away their profit margins by doing it ourselves the way I did so long ago.

Next, not doing these things – exercise, hormone management, telomere management, omega 3 management is not taking care of yourself or your patients to anywhere near the degree we would all want to do and have for ourselves and our loved ones.

Turns out it may be more important than you think.  It may not just help you look great this summer, it may help keep you alive and healthy much longer!

 

 

Doc

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Telomeres and Memory

Memory is a fragile thing.  I am sure you have had days where you can’t seem to find a name, a set of keys or even get a bit confused on what should be a familiar ride or hike, especially if the season has changed.

Then there is the specter of Alzheimer Disease which is looming larger and larger as our population ages.  It is in the minds of many an unavoidable risk of aging.

It’s been nearly 10 years since the Nobel Prize was awarded to Liz Blackburn and her colleagues for their work in telomeres and the discovery of telomerase, the enzyme that lengthens them.

While much of the work they did predated the prize by 20 years, almost no one had heard much about the telomere let alone telomerase. But a small group of dedicated men, people like Bill Andrews, Jerry Shay and Woody Wright, my Immortality Edge co-author Mike Fossel and of course Cal Harley at Geron had been working on the concept of lengthening telomeres to extend life.

I have been fortunate to speak at length and learn at length from each of them. Mike in particular was and is championing the concept of increasing telomerase expression in brain cells to de-age them.

My friend in Spain, Maria Blasco has already shown telomerase increase increases life span in mammals without increasing cancer.  Many people who have other agendas cling to other ways of improving life span and health span- ways other than telomerase expression.

I wish them well.

But like it or not lengthening the telomere does some pretty amazing things including de-aging specific areas of the body.  Namely the immune system.  Now I am personally 100% convinced that it does this by stem cell activation.  I am also 100% convinced that it does this in other areas of the body as well.

I look at it this way.  Everything else that is claimed to lengthen life does so by increasing life span within what is already normal.  I am sure to go beyond normal ( 80 years for most of us and 122 maximum so far) we are going to need to turn on telomerase and keep it turned on for a long time to stabilize our genes, our epigenetics and our long term health.

The first words out of a skeptic’s mouth are, “You can’t prove it!”  Bottom line no one can about any technology and no one will. As I have said for 5 years now when it becomes obvious to everyone, everyone will simple accept it as law and pretend they never said anything else.

The time grows closer and closer each month.

This month, a study equating longer telomeres with less degeneration in the memory areas of the brain was released by the Blackburn lab at Stanford and UCSF.  I have cited other studies in the past that equate telomere length to the presence or absence of Alzheimer Disease as well.

IN my own experience I have seen several years of reversal of biologic age as defined by increased telomere length ( they are supposed to get shorter as you age!) and a decrease in the critically short telomeres.

It shows itself as a 1300 base pari increase over 4 years.  Now there are human studies that show improvement in length and stabilization of telomere loss that have been done in 2010, 2011, and 2013 but these studies were only done over 1 year.  I wish they could have waited longer because this does take some time.  I try to remind my TA-65 users  of that while they are getting the more obvious benefits.

I do not want Alzheimer Disease.  I don’t want my 88 year old mother to suffer from that. Guess what she takes high doses of every day. Guess what other telomere supplements she takes?  I do not need to remind her even though she was never a vitamin person.

I might need to remind you and I will do so from time to time because I do not want you to face the prospect of not being able to remember reminders!

 

The studies continue to mount.  What are you waiting for!

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Weight Loss, Fat loss and Telomere Length

If you have read one iota of my writing over the past few years then you know I am a “telomere guy”.

I think that telomeres also known as the biologic time clocks because of their effects on cellular aging and ultimately on how YOU age are the biggest thing we have found in the field of anti-aging and regenerative medicine.

And, because of the Nobel Prize in Medicine 2009, they are getting a lot more air time than they used to. This means a lot of studies relating Telomere length to supplements, diet, exercise, and life style modification are hitting the news media front and center.

You can scan any number of my blogs recent and past (Are you Immune to Aging) and find out why this is so.

An interesting study just recently released now equates bariatric (weight loss) surgery to “longer telomeres”.

Whenever I see this kind of report I get a bit skeptical because I know the only true way to lengthen telomeres is to turn on telomerase. Everything else just slows down the loss and while that is good it’s not good enough for me, and it’s not accurate to say that something lengthens telomeres when it does not. It is even worse to say it “reverse the aging process” when it does not.

Part of the problems usually exists in the way the telomere measurements are obtained.  Most people are still using something called QPRC or TRF technology to measure telomere length.  If you have thousands of people in your study that is probably good enough. But when it’s a few hundred or a few dozen those measurements can be wildly inaccurate and misleading.

I know this because I actually ran parallel tests on myself using different commercial measurements.  The only one that was actually reproducible even though it was the same time and same blood (mine) was the LifeLength assay.  The others varied by several hundred base pairs which equated to several years of difference in biologic age.  Not good enough for you or me to tailor our individual approaches to staying young in other words!

Another problem in addition to small study size and inaccurate measurements is what I call “dilutional effect”.  Telomere length is measured on circulating white blood cells.  These cells are very sensitive to illness, stress and particularly inflammation.  If any of these things are either present or absent and you measure telomere length you will get a number that reflects the condition of those cells “at that moment”.  If you remeasure (as you always should) after you modify one or more of those factors you will see a noticeable change in the white blood cell telomere length that reflects the increase or decrease in those factors.

The authors in the weight loss surgery study noticed that while there was not a big change in telomere length in most of the subjects one subset in particular “lengthened their telomeres”.  That subset was the people with the worst (highest level) of bad cholesterol and the highest inflammatory marker known as CRP. These people had a significant positive increase in their telomeres.

Here is the quote on the conclusion: ““This is the first study to demonstrate that surgical weight loss leads to decreased aging by increasing telomere length,” said lead author John M. Morton, MD, MPH, director of bariatric surgery, Stanford University in Stanford, Calif.

With all due respect guys that are not what it demonstrates. What it demonstrates is that being fat, having high bad cholesterol and a high CRP is a very inflammatory condition for the body in general. It demonstrates that this will stress out the (immune) white blood cells and the ones that are circulating will have “shorter” telomeres.  After you fix those conditions s and decrease the inflammation you have decreased the stress on the immune system and the next batch of cells you measure under those improved conditions will have “longer” telomeres simply because they are not eroding as fast.

They are healthier than the ones you measured before and it shows in their telomere length.  But are they really “younger” and have you really “decreased” the aging process by lengthening telomeres.

Clearly the patient is healthier and that is good but you did not “decrease aging” . You at best decreased the rate of aging.

This is slowing the loss of telomeres not adding length.  If you start measuring HSC or MSC telomere lengths like I am trying to do as we speak you will see the stem cells are the true reflection of what is really going on with biologic age.

So what do we learn?  You need more than a before and after snap shot of telomere length if you are going to use it.  You need an accurate test  if you are going to use it.  If you can prove a trend over 2 or 3 measurements the way I have being on TA-65 for 5 years now and under stable conditions without stress illness big changes in body weight, life style or inflammation at the time of your blood draw then the peripheral WBC’s are just fine as long as you use the right test.

The much touted “Ornish” study suffered from almost all of these flaws. That tiny study was used to say eating healthy lengthens your telomeres.  What it really says if you take a few stressed out men with prostate cancer and teach them to eat right, exercise, meditate and prove to them they are not going to die of their cancer then the “dilutional effect” of healthier white cells with “longer telomeres” will show up.

None of the above things are “bad”!  Eating right losing weight if you are fat and probably losing fat if you are average weight, not dying of cancer , exercising and meditating are all good as we covered in our book “The Immortality Edge”  in 2010.

I just don’t like people who should and in some cases do know better telling you the wrong thing!

If you want to “decrease aging” you need to add length to your telomeres. Personally the only way I know to do that is TA-65.

Doc

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The Keys to Minimizing Stress Related Aging

Gee I was so happy to find out that the London Daily Mail published an article explaining the key to avoiding premature aging and stress related aging.  I was even more ecstatic to find out it involved my favorite topic – telomeres.

You know, those small end caps on your chromosomes that determine how long and healthy your cells will live!

The rest of the study findings were well, shall we say amusing and typical although relatively benign in the misinformation department.

This particular study was done at the University of California. While they did bother to do blood tests they confounded the accuracy of the study with the dreaded “patient questionnaire”.  Sometimes that is all you have to go on so I won’t be too hard on them for this.

Of the 250 women who participated those who ate “well” whatever the hell that means, slept well and exercised had less telomere shortening than those who did none of the above. This was true even if they had significant stresses like divorce, grief or other high index stressors.

The final conclusion was: “We need to stress the importance of healthy lifestyles and promote healthy living.”

Ok now comes what you’ve been waiting for.  You didn’t think I would waste your time on something this banal without a retort did you!?

I wrote a book about this 8 years ago called The Immortality Edge. While this kind of information was not exactly new then it’s beyond boring now. WE ALL ALREADY KNOW THIS!!!  Why waste a million bucks proving it for the 20 millionth time?

What this study really outlines that is important is in what it points out very clearly.  Eat well Sleep Well Exercise, and you will still lose telomere length.

I have spent the past 5 years of my life trying to get people to understand the following: Slowing the loss of telomeres is not aging backwards.  It’s simply aging more slowly.  Now don’t get me wrong that is good and its necessary and we should all be doing it.  But it will not get you something that is visibly different than what your parents are getting right now.  If, as the women who wrote me a while back said, “85 is what my parents got and that is fine with me!”  Then by all means stop there and do nothing more to impact your future.

If however you aspire to 100 or more and healthy and happy then you cannot sit on your arse and do the same things doctors and everyone else have been telling you to do for centuries, especially when the definition of what is really healthy  keeps changing.

And you can’t live the way your parents lived either and expect something different!

No, if you want to avail yourself of the last 40 years of unlived life your parents didn’t get and you want it served on a healthy platter you need to act.

Here are 2 things I recommend right now: TA-65 and Ultra 85 Fish Oil Following the 80/20 rule, 80% of your supplement benefits can be had from these 2 things alone.

It’s nice to know eating right, sleeping right and exercise are slowing down the aging process and you and I deal with stress induced aging better.  All of us in the anti-aging field dream of the day when we can harness the unseen forces of our mind and body and heal ourselves while we reverse the aging process.

We just ain’t there yet! You can fight that, you can deny it, you can get mad about it, you can hate me for it but I will simply invoke one of my favorite personal quotes:

“I didn’t make this world. But just like you I live in it!”

 

 

Doc

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TA-65, Telomeres and Stem Cells

As we forge ahead in figuring out how to stay younger I want to remind you that although the science world has barely recognized the importance and unity of the two fields: stem cells and telomeres, there is no doubt in my mind the two are intimately involved.

There is growing evidence to hard core scientific evidence to support it as well.

In my own clinical experience I can tell you this much about people on TA-65. We can usually predict which people are on TA-65 when we draw blood samples or bone marrow.  The immune compartment of their blood is very cellular well developed and their marrow is often fat free and “young” looking and again very cellular in a healthy way. The only thing they have in common is the TA.

Now I realize this is not scientific, merely observational, but it is a predictable and repeatable phenomenon.  Maybe someday soon I can quantitate it for you.  I can give you some quantitation on my own labs though at my recent blog post: Giving of myself – my time, my blood, my labs, and my experiences!

Stem cell aging is a very hot topic these days and frankly no one honestly knows all the ways that stem cells can age.  Somatic cells (the ones that make up mature adult tissue) age primarily due to inability to repair themselves, accumulation of damage, mostly free radical induced and of course telomere loss which is all part of those processes.

Another thing I want to remind you of is the link between skin aging and stem cell function.  The skin may well be the largest repository of stem cells in the body, even more than the bone marrow, though not as concentrated. This means that skin is amenable to stem cell therapies as well.

In addition to telomerase activation with TA-65 and additional telomere supplements we have developed a specific line of skin stem cell activators.  The RG Cell line has been out for a little over a year and our competition is still scrambling to try to copy it, unsuccessfully I might add!

Below is a simple study we did to look at 2 of the things the major cosmeceutical companies usually brag about.  The first diagram (left) shows the increase in cell viability (how many healthy cells are alive at the end of the day). The first column on the left is the normal untreated cells. Next is the serum alone and then on the far right is the serum + the booster.  In each case you can see the improvements.

The right hand diagram is showing the same things, this time showing increased collagen production.  Collagen production drops as cells age and increases as cells behave like younger cells.

So more healthy cells and more supportive collagen means the cells are acting like younger cells not older.

Clinically this translates into younger healthier skin with fewer wrinkles.  We will do some telomerase assays on these cell samples in the future but I am sure you can enjoy the benefits long before we prove that. Thousands of people already have.

Younger skin makes you look younger any way you slice it!

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What if you could grow younger as you get older?

First I may as well tell you this email is going to make me a few enemies. No matter! I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em!

So what does it feel like to age in reverse- to grow younger even though you are “getting older”.
And maybe the more important question- how do you know for sure?

Well the first thing is you have to start feeling like you are indeed getting older in order to feel younger. Otherwise you will just feel the same and you will say, “I feel fine already so how can I possibly tell?”

The short answer to that question is stop what you are doing – I mean all of it for 6 to 12 weeks and see what happens and how you feel. Honestly there were times in the past when I had to do just that in order to be 100% sure that the stuff I was doing was working. It became crystal clear that it was and I have NEVER HAD A DESIRE to repeat that experiment again. Ever!

The other thing of course is measure! You can do finger stick blood tests for lots of things I recommend like Omega3 ratios, blood sugars, ketone levels etc. You can also do blood tests for telomere length which I highly recommend.

The truth is not a ton of people will go to these lengths and will think it’s extreme. I personally do it all the time and I think its super necessary if you are serious. After all I am always telling you what to do and unlike most of the “thought leaders” out there I actually do and take and practice the very things I ask of you!

One of the issues comes out something like this, “But they’re just supplements”. Implied in that attitude is a complete lack of real understanding of just how powerful supplements can be and just how many things can change because of them.

Of course there is another side to that coin. “I just want to feel better!” People in general don’t give a hoot about Omega ratios or telomere lengths they just want more of the following:

That is the short list but it pretty much sums up 99% of what I hear.

If those things are important to you and you are an “all in” kinda guy or gal than take careful look at this.

If price is an issue and yes I know for most of us it is try this first.

I am sure I have aged in reverse because I measure all those things I told you about and they are all at the level of at least 10 years younger. My physical abilities continue to grow as do my mental abilities and life just keeps getting better, richer more rewarding and FUN!

I am not alone here either as this “getting younger lady” shows:

“I like you Doc but I didn’t believe you with all your measurements. I thought OK that is like Oprah or Oz they have access to all these things and can spend more than me. Hey it’s their job to be that way. They have chefs and trainers and contacts galore. I live in big city USA with lots of younger pretty people and am just getting older. But then I went for the Telomere Edge Packs and Fish oil and within 6 short weeks people started telling me I must be doing something because I am looking better and younger! Thanks Doc I am saving up to go for a lot more soon.”
Pamela Durantes, Dallas Tx.

I get about one of these a week by the way and You Go Girl!

I am going to step out on a limb here and tell you something that is probably going to offend some people. Let me preface what I am about to say by telling you I just notice this, I am not saying I act on it.

About 5 years ago I would have told you that the opposite sex pretty much stopped looking at me in “that” way. For sure most younger women could not be bothered. Now I am way past caring about stuff like that but hey I do still NOTICE it. In the past 2 years I have gotten a LOT MORE attention from women 20 years and more younger than me.

Ladies before you start sticking pins in your Dr Dave Voodoo Doll let me remind you it works both ways!

And that my friend is what it feels like to age in reverse!

Doc

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Your Telomeres

The telomere bandwagon is growing albeit slower than I would have thought. TA-65, the only proven telomerase activator with several human studies, now has several “competitors”. I put that in quotes because while there are now at least a half a dozen products directed at telomere health, none of them but TA-65 has any human data, at least none they are willing to publish that is relevant to your telomeres.

With that as a background I was recently approached by a group of people who wanted to sell my products. I told them that TA-65 was an anti-aging essential and everything else was in my opinion second best. They were however interested in other of my products which of course makes me very happy. You and I understand that there is not simply one pill, one action, one thing only that magically reverses the aging process.

If you recall I wrote a book on all the essentials of staying young. In that book TA-65 figured prominently. I also recently published my own telomere lengths measure over a time frame of close to 5 years using all of the commercially available technologies so there could be no argument about their veracity.

But I remind you that while America still wants the magic pill it is not in existence yet. You still have to sleep, exercise, eat right and practice moderation to get the most out of your genes and epigenes!

I offer many different things that contribute to that end point on my The Longevity Edge web site.

The fact that someone else has taken notice is actually a very good thing.

We will not solve aging without a team of people and a broad based approach. This is currently the fatal flaw and the molasses in the mix. Everyone is trying to be a hero and more likely to “own” the secret sauce.

There are likely to be several sauces all of which contribute something valuable.

For my part TA is the answer.

 

 

Doc

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What we really know about aging- an update with critical advice

The strangest things come up in science. Every week there is a “new pathway” or a new “possibility of a drug that will help in the fight against cancer”. Sometimes it’s new dietary advice or a reiteration of some previous advice.

But what do we really know and what can we actually hang our hats on in terms of truly effective anti-aging therapy?

Well let me tell you something I hear a lot. It goes like this:” Doc you can’t prove anything you do has any effect on aging. Nothing has been shown to work so far and all of it is speculation!”

Truth is this is usually someone who is pissed off about how much TA-65 costs and is justifying not using it for that reason.

Telomerase activation in the form of TA-65 has a growing body of human data. But don’t take my word for it! Look it up for yourself on Pub Med!

Now the speculation part is partly true. There is absolutely nothing out there at this very red hot moment that will work for every single person on the planet under every single situation. The bottom line is that you probably need to do a lot of things to get the maximum benefit out of any anti-aging program. It’s also true that most people are not going to go to the extent I do or spend the money, time and effort I do or pursue staying young and healthy with the same passion I do. There are people out there who are trying but most of them are following some guru for advice and frankly most of those gurus are wrong. Many of them will die younger than they should and in an unhealthy situation.

I just read about one of the icons in the alternative medicine world who just passed away. He influenced a ton of people and tons more quote him or follow his advice or the advice of one of his “disciples”.

He died of a chronic age related illness and was at least a few years younger than the average age of death for most men. Adele Davis one of the early pioneers of healthy diet and vitamin supplementation died at age 70 of cancer. Famous health publisher (Clean Eating) died of cancer at age 73. Jim Fixx who along with along with Kenneth Cooper MD probably started the running revolution died in his 50’s of heart disease.

My point is we need different advice than we have been given because as it stands now most people are probably going to die at about the very age they would had they simply done nothing special.

Also I would be careful who you follow and manage your expectations.

Personally I do expect to live a long and health life.

I do expect that the advice and life style I am giving will work for many if not most people.

But you will notice it is not “typical” advice in any way. Telomerase activation, high dose fish oil  ketogenic diets and most of the other stuff I advocate have been panned by every major alphabet agency out their including those representing my field of traditional allopathic medicine (the MD kind).

No one can prove anything for human longevity for one very simple reason: no one has done a lifelong study on a cohort of people and controlled for every single variable that there ever was. If you are getting the idea that no one ever will do this kind of study you are right. So it will always be correct to say “I dare you to prove anything you say works”.

But since it can never be done it’s basically a cheap shot. The converse is true as well. If you do nothing you are absolutely 100% guaranteed to not have anything different happen in your life or death.

I am not one to sit on my ass and let the years pass by gently accepting the same fate as my parents or of the rest of my species. Frankly you should not be either since neither of us have anything to lose and much to gain.

More life and more health! What a wonderful concept and what a wonderful desire. But you can’t follow someone who is not making that the center of their lifestyle. My whole goal has been to give a step wise program for anyone who wants to do SOMETHING!

I don’t expect you do to what I do. There are only about 6 other people in the world who are and I know all of them!

But you can choose something simple like taking more and higher quality Omega 3.

And you can now even try the new low dose TA-65 at a much lower price,

As to the more complex things, I am working on them. Those things are what is the healthiest way to eat, how much should we sleep and how much should we exercise and what kind.” Those questions will be a lot harder to answer than what you should be taking!

But don’t fret. I will get you that answer before I shed this mortal coil!

Best, Doc
PS here is a list of my current gurus:

  • Maria Blasco
  • Matt Furey
  • JC Santana
  • Rafael Gonzalez
  • Undurti Das
  • Bill Lands

Note that not one of them is an MD!!!!!

 

UPDATE!! I’ve posted part 2 “What do we really know about aging“ and part 3 “The Exercise Industry’s Dirty Little Secret” of this series!

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