Greetings:

The following article might be very interesting to both of you.

[Yes this news is certainly interesting. It has been on several venues for a few
days now and it is actually similar to the information about the p53 enzyme
which was brought to light many years ago and clearly stated by Judith Campisi
(see for example PMID: 16957734, PMID: 16081723, PMID: 15734683, PMID: 15610762,
PMID: 14991040, PMID: 14602974). This new enzyme merely works differently in a
different area (p53 was not specific to stem cells). --Paul]

[The same research was noted on sci.life-extension in an article written in the
San Francisco Chronicle 9/7.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/09/07/MNGT8L0FE01.DTL
However this author made no mention of calorie restriction. **Kitty]


I am
not familiar with the research described (PMID: 16957735) there, but I
was interested in what the chief researcher stated in the New York
Times article:

He (Dr. Norman E. Sharpless) quickly modified that by noting that a
calorically restricted diet is one intervention that is known to
increase life span and reduce cancer, at least in laboratory mice. The
reason, he said, is probably because such diets reduce cell division,
the prime source of cancer risk.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/07/science/07stem.html?ex=1157860800&en=47395f1c7\
c4a8f08&ei=5087%0A

[Nevertheless, calorie restricted mice still die predominantly of cancer. They
simply die at later average ages than control fed mice. The reason why mice
generally die of cancer is because of their small size. The cells of a mouse are
still about the same size as the cells of a human. Therefore, a cancer only
needs to grow (by cell division) a relatively small amount compared with humans
before it is large in size compared with the size of the mouse and thus is too
large a load on the mouse for it to sustain the cancer and its life. --Paul]


If what he says pans out, what do you think could reduce cell division
without harm if even something like this would be possible, beyond
caloric restriction in general. It certainly seems that what you have
said on morelife about diet being the most important thing you can do
to extend life, seems to be true, and may be the only thing that
really can extend life.

Erich Brueschke

[Yes, right now, diet, exercise and other lifestyle methods are the only things
that can extend one's life. Cell division is not automatic except where and to
the extent it is desired and in the case of cancers. Hopefully, this paper will
push someone to investigate inhibitors or downregulators of this newly found
enzyme (p16(INK4a) - which helps prevent cell proliferation and thus cancer, but
inhibits stem cells from performing their important functions). Then those
taking such inhibitors will also need to take large numbers of anti-cancer
chemicals at the same time (which will decrease the cell division of the
unwanted cancer cells). It is like the old saw "everything has both a good and a
bad side". What is beneficial during youth and development can be quite
detrimental in older age. The human body is in an eternal conflict with the
external forces of nature which all act to stop it from continuing to be in
homeostatic stability. There is no choice but to be eternally vigilant and
expend great effort and resources to combat those natural effects of the
environment. --Paul]