Philip Lee Miller M.D. - The life extension revolution: the new science of growing older without aging

Table of Contents

To Maimonides, Paracelsus, Galileo, Semmelweiss, and Linus Pauling. We stand on the shoulders of the giants who, before us, had the courage to challenge entrenched ideas and beliefs. That is the true measure of human progress.

P.M.

Why hasnt conventional medicine been able to cure many of todays diseases?

Because many scientific findings never make it into mainstream medicine, millions suffer and die while proven therapies exist. The good news is that a leading anti-aging physician and the anti-aging secrets discovered by the renowned Life Extension Foundation are revolutionizing medicine. Now reaching middle age and beyond no longer means inevitable weight gain, joint pain, cognitive decline, heart attacks, strokes, or cancer. With this book, you can begin today to enjoy the extraordinary benefits of a groundbreaking anti-aging program that combines the latest medical discoveries with novel but proven natural therapies.

THE LIFE EXTENSION FOUNDATION SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

Eric R. Braverman, M.D.
Craig Cooney, Ph.D.
Gary Goldfaden, M.D.
Denham Harman, M.D., Ph.D.
Steven B. Harris, M.D.
Don Kleinsek, Ph.D.
Richard Kratz, M.D., D.S.C.I.
Daniel Laury, M.D.
Deborah C. Mash, Ph.D.
Michele G. Morrow, D.O., F.A.A.F.P.
Thomas J. Slaga, M.D., Ph.D.
Stephen R. Spindler, Ph.D.
Stephen B. Strum, M.D.
Karlis Ullis, M.D.

Disease Prevention and Treatment, a comprehensive reference published by the Life Extension Foundation, contains more than 1,600 pages of up-to-the-minute research and treatment protocols. A searchable CD-ROM of the entire book is available free to anyone who has purchased TheLife Extension Revolution. If the postage-paid response card is missing from your book, simply call 1-877-877-9705, and request the CD by mentioning code REV.

Introduction

The Life Extension Vision

I DID NOT BEGIN MY career practicing anti-aging medicinefar from it. My specialty was emergency medicine and neurology. The patients I treated were in crisis, suffering from chest pains, difficulty breathing, loss of circulation, or in full-blown cardiac arrest. Even then, I knew that most of them were suffering from conditions that might have been avoided through a healthier lifestyle, nutrition, and preventive medicine. But in the emergency room, theres no time for that. There is just a never-ending flow of sick and dying people needing aggressive or even heroic measures to save their lives.

Burnout is common among emergency room doctors. After a while, it begins to feel like fighting a fire that continues to blaze out of control because no one has time to turn off the gas. After several years in emergency medicine, I was looking for a new direction. When I saw a notice for a conference being held by a new organization called the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (known as the A4M), I immediately knew that this was my future, and the future of medicine as a whole.

I can remember the electricity and excitement that was in the air at that first meeting. Here was a group of outspoken doctors and scientists who were no longer willing to accept the conventional approach to medicine but had a much different visionone in which common diseases are obsolete, eighty-year-olds are fit and healthy, and the outer limit of human life span is measured in centuries rather than decades. It wasand still isa radical vision, but one that is fueled by stunning recent advances in our understanding of the mechanisms of aging, right down to the molecular level. Youll find these cutting-edge discoveries throughout the chaptersand the anti-aging programthat follows.

THE LIFE EXTENSION FOUNDATION

It was at that meeting that I met the organizers of the Life Extension Foundation (LEF), a group of researchers, writers, and advocates for anti-aging and life extension medicine. I was immediately impressed by their courage in challenging the conventional wisdom with provocative new ideas about health and medicine. LEFs track record for getting it right and getting it first is long and impressive:

Since the early 1990s, antioxidants have been widely recognized as essential to maintaining health and preventing disease. But LEF first put forward the notion that antioxidant nutrients could stave off disease back in 1980, long before others in the medical community were paying attention to these important compounds.

In 1981, LEF identified the importance of lowering homocysteine to prevent stroke and heart disease. Over ten years went by before mainstream researchers began to acknowledge the role of homocysteine in heart disease.

In 1983, LEF published its conclusion that aspirin therapy could prevent heart attacks, a position that the American Heart Association didnt fully endorse until 1997.

By the time mainstream medicine began looking into a little-known nutrient called coenzyme Q10, LEF members had already been reaping the benefits of this miracle anti-aging nutrient for many years. In fact, LEF was the first to introduce CoQ 10 in the United States, in 1983.

LEF introduced its findings on lycopene in 1985, but it was well over a decade before the nutrient became widely recognized for its ability to prevent and slow the growth of certain types of cancer.

In 1999, LEF took the controversial and highly contested position that leading estrogen replacement therapies might not provide protection against heart diseasea position that later was proven to be entirely correct.

Science has repeatedly ratified the many controversial positions LEF has advanced. Over the years, the foundations careful, rigorous, and responsible approach has made it well regarded by even the most conventional of physicians.

The foundation has also been tireless and outspoken in its advocacy for the rights of doctors and patients to have access to the best information and most promising treatments. More than a decade ago, LEF helped to convince the FDA to fast-track approval for lifesaving experimental drugs. It has since sponsored bills that allow Americans to purchase prescription medications more cheaply, and fought against government opposition to legitimate alternative medicine therapies. LEFs commitment to freedom of information and access has led to landmark court decisions that protect these rights. I can think of no other organization that is so purposeful and articulate on this issue.

In addition to making important information more widely available, LEF has contributed greatly to our knowledge about disease and aging by supporting much-needed research through its nonprofit foundation. It has funded a wide variety of groundbreaking research, including an experimental antioxidant/drug cocktail that can protect the brain against severe oxygen deprivation, cutting-edge technology to preserve organs for transplant, and a project that will identify the genes that control aging and longevity. Now celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary, LEF is the largest organization of its kind, dedicated to radically extending the healthy human life span by developing methods to control aging and disease.