University of Southern California

Research Shows 72 Hours Fasting Can Reboot the Entire Immune System of Humans.

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Recently, a research by a team from University of Southern California claimed that three days’ fasting can effectively regenerate our immune systems. This brilliant discovery can organically lead to a better and healthier immune system.

 New findings about fasting

Earlier, fasting was not supported by doctors and nutritionists. However this research shows how fasting can help in the creation of new white blood cells, essential in fighting infection. The more we age, the weaker our immune systems become, making us prone to common diseases. This organic method can benefit the elderly and those whose immune system is very weak, like cancer patients. Fasting for 72 hours protects cancer patients from the harmful effects of chemotherapy.

Fasting initiates a regenerative process by producing more white blood cells that reboots the entire immune system. A researcher of this study and a professor of Gerontology and Biological Sciences at the University of California, Valter Longo, vouched for this natural approach to immune system regeneration. He says that this process removes the damaged and old components of the system and rebuilds the immune system.

 Conducting the study

People participating in the study were initially asked to fast for 2-4 days regularly for 6 months. It was seen that starving not only helped in creating a new immune system but also decreased PKA enzyme, which generally causes tumor growth and cancer.
Prolonged fasting made the body use its fat and glucose storage and also the white blood cell level lowered. This reduction causes changes leading to stem cell related regeneration.

Professor Longo said that when we start fasting, our system gets the cue to save energy and it ends up recycling many damaged and unimportant immune cells. They could not believe that this natural method would be so beneficial in stem cell based regenerative process of the hematopoietic system.

Diets That Mimic Fasting: How To Lose Belly Fat, Improve Memory, And Increase Lifespan The Safe Way

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Losing Weight With Fasting
Fasting diets can lead to more benefits than just weight loss. 

“Strict fasting is hard for people to stick to, and it can also be dangerous, so we developed a complex diet that triggers the same effects in the body,” said the study’s lead researcher Valter Longo, director of the USC Longevity Institute, in a press release. “I’ve personally tried both, and the fasting mimicking diet is a lot easier and also a lot safer.”

The human trial involved 19 participants and was designed to replicate Longo’s yeast andmouse trials. Once a month for five days, participants limited their caloric intake by 34 to 54 percent — just low enough to mimic the effects of fasting. For the other 25 days of the month, participants returned to their normal eating habits.

After three months, Longo and his research team measured the participants’ biomarkers and found they were at a decreased risk of aging, diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. They’re calling it the “fasting mimic diet (FMD),” and it was shown to cut belly fat, improve learning and memory skills, and increase the number of stem cells ultimately leading to a longer lifespan.

It turns out that when there are a certain amount of proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and micronutrients, the body lowers the amount of hormone IGF-I it produces. Not only is this hormone responsible for promoting aging but it has also been linked to cancer susceptibility, which means less of it is better. Longo proved this theory before when he demonstrated how to starve cancer cells while protecting other cells from harm.

“It’s about reprogramming the body so it enters a slower aging mode, but also rejuvenating it through stem cell-based regeneration,” Longo said. “Not everyone is healthy enough to fast for five days, and the health consequences can be severe for a few who do it improperly.”

Fasting can hurt the body if it’s not done right. Women who try water-only diets, for example, put themselves at risk of developing gallstones if they aren’t properly supervised, Longo explained. Fasting isn’t for everyone, either. People with a body mass index below 18 — considered a normal weight — should not engage in fasting of any sort.

Diabetics also shouldn’t partake in fasting or fasting mimic diets while they receive insulin or other drugs because the body uses up glucose energy supplies before it begins to burn fat. The process of burning fat to convert into fuel, also known as “ketosis,” makes the blood become more acidic, leading to bad breath, fatigue, and eventual kidney and liver damage. The FMD diet, however, is unique in that it allows the person to return to normal caloric intake for a majority of the month. Some fitness experts like Jillian Michaels, believe fasting can turn into an unhealthy “yo-yo” effect, and cause a person to cyclically fast and binge. The trick to avoiding the dreaded yo-yo effect is to not cut calories altogether but instead limit calories for one week a month, and gradually return to your normal caloric intake for the other three weeks.

The research team is set to meet with Food and Drug Administration officers soon, Longo said. They’ll work out the details on how to implement the diet safely in order to prevent and treat obesity. In the meantime, patients shouldn’t try it at home until Longo and his team finish testing through a randomized clinical trial, which will involve 70 patients over the span of six months.

“It’s not a typical diet because it isn’t something you need to stay on,” Longo said. “If the results remain as positive as the current ones, I believe this FMD will represent the first safe and effective intervention to promote positive changes associated with longevity and health span, which can be recommended by a physician.”

Sitting out hunger pangs on a five-day fast

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Kale chips

Scientists in California are conducting a clinical trial to test a diet that may help people lose weight while also boosting resistance to some diseases. One of their guinea pigs was the BBC’s Peter Bowes, who reports here on his experience of fasting for five days per month.

It’s been tried on mice and now it’s being tried on humans – a diet that involves multiple five-day cycles on an extremely low-calorie diet. Each of those five days is tough, but the upside is that for much of the time – about 25 days per month – people eat normally, although not excessively.

The low-calorie period includes small amounts of food to minimise the negative effects of a total fast. Designed by scientists to provide a minimum level of essential vitamins and minerals, the diet consists of:

  • vegetable-based soups
  • energy bars
  • energy drinks
  • dried kale snacks
  • chamomile tea
“Start Quote

I was so hungry I would practically lick the soup bowl and shake the last kale crumb from its bag”

These meals are extremely low in calories – about 1,000 on day one and 500 for each of the next four days.

With the exception of water and black coffee, nothing else is consumed.

The limited selection of food (with no choice of flavours) means that everything has to be eaten. It’s monotonous… but at least it makes meal planning easy for five days.

“The reason why diets don’t work is because they are very complicated and people have an interpretation problem,” says Dr Valter Longo, director of the University of Southern California (USC) Longevity Institute.

Spinach soup
Spinach soup: Dinner, three nights out of five

“The reason I think these diets work is because you have no interpretation. You either do it or you don’t do it. And if you do it you’re going to get the effect.”

Dr Longo established a company to manufacture the food, based on research in his department at USC. He has shown in mice that restricting calories leads to them living longer with less risk of developing cancer.

The food used during the trial is the result of years of experimenting. The idea is to develop a diet that leads to positive cellular changes of the same kind seen in mice that have been made to fast.

“It turned out to be a low-protein, low-sugar-and-carbohydrate diet, but a high-nourishment diet,” explains Longo.

“We wanted it to be all natural. We didn’t want to have chemicals in there and did not want to have anything that is associated with problems – diseases. Every component has to be checked and tested. It’s no different to a drug.”

Peter Bowes

Peter Bowes

The popularity of intermittent fasting has grown over the past year or so. The 5:2 diet, which involves dramatically reducing your calorific intake on certain days of the week, is one example. But more clinical data is needed to confirm the benefits of such regimes. Doctors are generally reluctant to recommend them.

Longo stresses that the experimental food could not be made in your kitchen.

But it is a big leap from laboratory mice to human beings. Restricting the diets of rodents is easy, but people have minds of their own – and face the culinary temptations of the modern world.

I knew the diet cycles would be difficult.

I love to eat. I enjoy a big, healthy breakfast, exercise a lot and – left to my own devices – snack all day before digging in to a hearty evening meal. At 51, I am in good shape. I weigh 80kg (12 stone 8lbs / 176lbs) but like most middle-aged men, I struggle with belly fat. I have never tried any kind of fasting regime before.

The diet meals were better than I expected – at least initially. I was so hungry I would practically lick the soup bowl and shake the last kale crumb from its bag, to tide me over to the next feeding time.

Note: it is no longer lunch or dinner. It is a feeding opportunity. It is certainly not a social occasion.

The diet
Day 1 (1,000-1,100 cals) Day 2 (500 cals) Day 3 (500 cals) Day 4 (500 cals) Day 5 (500 cals)
Morning snack Chamomile tea + bar Chamomile tea + bar Chamomile tea + bar Chamomile tea + bar Chamomile tea + bar
Lunch Carrot soup + dried kale Carrot soup + drink Beetroot soup + drink Carrot soup + drink Carrot soup + drink
Afternoon snack Tea + energy bar Tea Tea Tea Tea
Dinner Beetroot soup + dried kale Spinach soup + dried kale Spinach soup + dried kale Beetroot soup + dried kale Spinach soup + dried kale

Headaches, a typical side effect of fasting, started on Day 2 but they waned within 24 hours, leaving me in a state of heightened alertness. During the day – and especially in the morning – I was more alert and productive. Hunger pangs came and went – it was just a matter of sitting them out. But they did go.

Fasting feedback

Alex de la Cruz and Angelica Compos

Alex de la Cruz: I downright hated it. I actually detested it. The first day I had a splitting headache – it felt like someone had punched me in the head. And the weight loss was really dramatic – 4.5kg (10lbs) in the first five days. I was tempted to give up, but I didn’t. After that everything started getting better.

Angelica Campos: There were some positives in being able to be more clear-minded, especially in the morning. I tended to feel worse as the day progressed… I don’t want to do it again, but if someone were to tell me that yes, science proves that it has long-term benefits, I think I would. I need to see proof that it really is effective.

By the evening – especially on Day 5, I was exhausted. Tiredness set in early. But I made it through the five days – for three cycles – without deviating from the regime. I lost an average of 3kg (6.6lbs) during each cycle, but regained the weight afterwards.

All participants keep a diary, noting their body weight, daily temperature reading, meals and mood. The feedback – positive and negative – is vital to the integrity of the study, which is partly designed to establish whether the diet could work in the real world.

For me, and for all but about 5% of the volunteers who have completed all three cycles, the diet was do-able – although opinions vary about the taste of the food.

“It is not an experience for the faint of heart. It was extremely difficult because the little bit of food that you’re offered gets very tiresome as time wears on,” says Angelica Campos, aged 28.

“I had to isolate myself because my family were constantly offering me food. They thought I was crazy.”

She would not want to go through the experience again, but says she would if it were proven to have long-term benefits.

Her boyfriend, Alex de la Cruz, aged 29, says the fasting made him very tired, but when he woke up he was “as alert as could be”.

“My overriding memory of the experience is that the food was horrible, but the results were totally positive,” he says.

Energy bar

Lead investigator Dr Min Wei says that for some people the diet is a greater wrench than for others, depending on their lifestyle. The absence of carbohydrates and desserts, can hit some people hard, for example, and also the restriction to black coffee alone. “We are fairly strict,” he says. “We recommend people stick to the regimen. If people enjoy special coffee – lattes for example – they won’t be able to enjoy them.”

Data from the volunteers is still being collected and analysed. The early signs are that the diet is safe and could be adopted by most healthy people, providing they are suitably motivated to endure the periods of hunger.

But the full effect can only be measured over the long term. Initial changes in the body may not tell the full story.

“Having dietary factors influence your body sometimes takes years and years,” explains Dr Lawrence Piro, a cancer specialist at the Angeles Clinic and Research Institute.

This particular trial now moves into the laboratory. Based on blood tests, has anything changed inside my body to suggest extreme dieting improves my chances of avoiding the diseases of old age?

Karplus, Levitt, Warshel win Nobel chemistry prize.

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Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel won this year’s Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for laying the foundation for the computer models used to understand and predict chemical processes.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said their research in the 1970s has helped scientists develop programs that unveil chemical processes such as the purification of exhaust fumes or the photosynthesis in green leaves. “The work of Karplus, Levitt and Warshel is ground-breaking in that they managed to make Newton’s classical physics work side-by-side with the fundamentally different quantum physics,” the academy said. “Previously, chemists had to choose to use either/or.” Karplus, a U.S. and Austrian citizen, is affiliated with the University of Strasbourg, France, and Harvard University. The academy said Levitt is a British, U.S., and Israeli citizen and a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Warshel is a U.S. and Israeli citizen affiliated with the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Warshel told a news conference in Stockholm by telephone that he was “extremely happy” to be awakened in the middle of the night in Los Angeles to find out he had won the prize and looks forward to collecting the award in the Swedish capital in December. “In short what we developed is a way which requires computers to look, to take the structure of the protein and then to eventually understand how exactly it does what it does,” Warshel said. Earlier this week, three Americans won the Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries about how key substances are moved around within cells and the physics award went to British and Belgian scientists whose theories help explain how matter formed after the Big Bang. The Noble Committee Prize Announcement The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2013 to Martin Karplus (Université de Strasbourg, France and Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA), Michael Levitt (Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA), and Arieh Warshel (University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA) “for the development of multiscale models for complex chemical systems” The computer—your Virgil in the world of atoms Chemists used to create models of molecules using plastic balls and sticks. Today, the modelling is carried out in computers. In the 1970s, Martin Karplus, Michael Levitt and Arieh Warshel laid the foundation for the powerful programs that are used to understand and predict chemical processes. Computer models mirroring real life have become crucial for most advances made in chemistry today. Chemical reactions occur at lightning speed. In a fraction of a millisecond, electrons jump from one atomic nucleus to the other. Classical chemistry has a hard time keeping up; it is virtually impossible to experimentally map every little step in a chemical process. Aided by the methods now awarded with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, scientists let computers unveil chemical processes, such as a catalyst’s purification of exhaust fumes or the photosynthesis in green leaves. The work of Karplus, Levitt and Warshel is ground-breaking in that they managed to make Newton’s classical physics work side-by-side with the fundamentally different quantum physics. Previously, chemists had to choose to use either or. The strength of classical physics was that calculations were simple and could be used to model really large molecules. Its weakness, it offered no way to simulate chemical reactions. For that purpose, chemists instead had to use quantum physics. But such calculations required enormous computing power and could therefore only be carried out for small molecules. This year’s Nobel Laureates in chemistry took the best from both worlds and devised methods that use both classical and quantum physics. For instance, in simulations of how a drug couples to its target protein in the body, the computer performs quantum theoretical calculations on those atoms in the target protein that interact with the drug. The rest of the large protein is simulated using less demanding classical physics. Today the computer is just as important a tool for chemists as the test tube. Simulations are so realistic that they predict the outcome of traditional experiments.

 

“Corkscrew” Light Could Turbocharge the Internet

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Twisty beams of light could boost the traffic-carrying capacity of the Internet, effectively adding new levels to the information superhighway, suggests research published today in Science.

Internet traffic is growing exponentially and researchers have sought ways to squeeze ever more information into the fiber-optic cables that carry it. One successful method used over the last 20 years essentially added more traffic lanes, using different colors, or wavelengths, for different signals. But to compensate for the added lanes, each one had to be made narrower. So, just as in a real highway, the spacing could get only so tight before the streams of data began to jumble together.

In the last few years, different groups of researchers have tried to encode information in the shape of light beams to ease congestion, using a property of light called orbital angular momentum. Currently, a straight beam of light is used to transmit Internet signals, but certain filters can twist it so that it corkscrews around with varying degrees of curliness as it travels.

Previous experiments using this effect have found that differently shaped light beams tend to jumble together after less than a meter.

Now, a team of researchers from Boston University in Massachusetts and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles has found a way to keep the different light beam shapes separated for a record 1.1 kilometers.

The researchers designed and built a 1.1-kilometer-long glass cable, the cross section of which had a varying index of refraction — a measure that describes how fast light can travel in a particular medium. They then sent both twisty and straight beams of light down the cable.

The team found that the light output matched the input — light beams of each shape were not getting muddled together. The varying index of refraction apparently affected each light shape uniquely, so that different shapes moved at different speeds down the cable. “That meant that I could keep them separated,” says Siddharth Ramachandran, an electrical engineer and leader of the Boston University team.

Improving infrastructure
The work published today used clockwise and anticlockwise versions of twisted light with a specific curliness, but Ramachandran says that the team has since done other research that suggests that about ten different beam shapes can be used to convey information.

That is exciting because each shape could potentially act as an entirely new level of traffic on the information superhighway. On each level, streams of data could be further divided into narrow lanes of color, maximizing flow. “We showed a new degree of freedom in which we could transmit information,” says Ramachandran.

Translating the work from the lab to the real world will take time, however, in part because current Internet cables carry only straight beams of light. A more immediate goal, says Ramachandran, might be to install cables that are capable of carrying twisty light on the short distances between servers on giant ‘server farms’, used by large Web companies such as Facebook.

Miles Padgett, an optical physicist at the University of Glasgow, UK, is impressed with the work and is optimistic about its potential. “One day, more bandwidth will mean we can all Skype at the same time,” he says.

Source: http://www.scientificamerican.com

 

0pt;ba� on�&� X1� ertical-align:baseline’>I was irrationally attached to the thought of dying while diving! Perhaps a little melodramatic, but I had terrible childhood memories of badly run swimming lessons and almost drowning as a toddler from falling in a pool. This created an instinctive fight for survival whenever my head went under water. However, the deeper part of me knew that the “I might die” excuse was nonsense, because people dive every day around the world, and with an instructor by my side I would be very safe.

 

4. Do I believe I have the strength and courage to do it?

It was all too easy pretending that I wasn’t brave enough, that I wouldn’t be able to physically control myself and decisions in the water because of fear. The hilarious thing was that I was strutting around in every other area of my life with self-belief and incredible determination. Yet, here I was playing weak and meek regarding diving. I realised that “not being brave enough” was a lame excuse.

5. Do I think mastering this would help me in other areas of my life?

I had always convinced myself that you should stay away from what you fear, and stick to what you know and trust. However, when I got really honest with myself, I realised that my life was a safe little box that I was staying very comfortably within. Unless I started to do things differently, I wouldn’t grow as a person and I wouldn’t know what more I was capable of. I realised that when fear roars at you, it’s time to step up and face it, because that is the exact spot where life begins… at the end of your comfort zone.

Ditching Excuses to Start Living

Having challenged all of my own excuses and seeing how hollow they were, I finally did it! It took all my courage and will power to complete the diving certification and while it was the most fear striking experience of my entire life, it was also the most exhilarating and freeing. I believe there is nothing in this life now that I cannot achieve, having faced my biggest fear. I no longer allow excuses to cover up opportunities for growth. If I did it in the face of a fear this big, you can too.

Source: Purpose Fairy

 

People under stress stick to habits, good or bad.

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bio

It seems old habits really do die hard – whether they are good or bad.

The study in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, contradicts the idea that being under pressure leads to bad habits like over-eating or shopping sprees.

Instead, people are just as likely to maintain gym habits or eat healthily.

In short, they say stress does lead to relapses into bad behaviour – but that it can reinforce good habits too.

Doughnuts v oatmeal

The University of Southern California team looked at the behaviour of 65 students over a 10-week term.

They wanted to study how much willpower someone had in a time of stress – in this case, during exams.

They found that during testing periods, when students were stressed and sleep-deprived, they were even more likely to stick to old habits – as if they didn’t have the energy to do something new,

So those who ate pastries or doughnuts for breakfast during the term ate even more junk food during exams.

But the same was true of the healthy “oatmeal eaters” – they too were likely to stick to their routine and habits.

Those who read the editorial pages of the newspaper every day continued even when they were short of time.

And regular gym-goers were even more likely to go to the gym even more when stressed.

Willpower

Prof Wendy Wood, who led the study, said: “When we try to change our behaviour, we strategise about our motivation and self-control. But what we should be thinking about instead is how to set up new habits.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

What we know about habit formation is that you want to make the behaviour easy to perform, so that people repeat it often and it becomes part of their daily routine”

Prof Wendy WoodUniversity of Southern California

“Habits persist even when we’re tired and don’t have the energy to exert self-control.”

She added: “Everybody gets stressed. The whole focus on controlling your behaviour may not actually be the best way to get people to meet goals.

“If you are somebody who doesn’t have a lot of willpower, our study showed that habits are much more important.”

Prof Wood said the findings had implications for those seeking to affect people’s behaviour.

“The central question for behaviour-change efforts should be, how can you form healthy, productive habits?

“What we know about habit formation is that you want to make the behaviour easy to perform, so that people repeat it often and it becomes part of their daily routine.”

Source: BBC

Mobile phone radiation is a possible cancer risk, warns WHO.

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A review of published evidence suggests there may be some risk of cancer from using a mobile phone

 

Radiation from mobile phones has been classified as a possible cancer risk by the World Health Organisation after a major review of the effects of electromagnetic waves on human health.

The declaration was based on evidence in published studies that intensive use of mobile phones might lead to an increased risk of glioma, a malignant form of brain cancer.

The conclusion by the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) applies to radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation in general, though most research in the area has centred on wireless phones.

The findings are the culmination of an IARC meeting during which 31 scientists from 14 countries assessed hundreds of published studies into the potential cancer risks posed by electromagnetic fields. The UK was represented by Simon Mann from the Health Protection Agency’s Centre for Radiation, Chemicals and Environmental Hazards in Oxfordshire.

Jonathan Samet, a scientist at the University of Southern California, who chaired the group, said: “The conclusion means that there could be some risk, and therefore we need to keep a close watch for a link between cellphones and cancer.”

In designating radio-frequency fields as “possibly carcinogenic”, the WHO has put them on a par with around 240 other agents for which evidence of harm is uncertain, including low-level magnetic fields, talcum powder and working in a dry cleaners.

The report found no clear mechanism for the waves to cause brain tumours. Radiation from mobile phones is too weak to cause cancer by breaking DNA, leading scientists to suspect other, more indirect routes.

“We found some threads of evidence telling us how cancers might occur but there are acknowledged gaps and uncertainties,” Samet said.

Christopher Wild, director of the IARC, said that in view of the potential implications for public health, there should be more research on long-term, heavy use of mobile phones. “Pending the availability of such information, it is important to take pragmatic measures to reduce exposure such as hands-free devices or texting,” he said.

There are around 5bn mobile phone subscriptions globally, according to theInternational Telecommunication Union, a UN agency for information and communication technologies.

The IARC group reviewed research investigating potential health risks from electromagnetic fields associated with technologies such as radio, television, wireless communications and mobile phones.

The committee decided the fields were possibly carcinogenic to humans, a finding that will feed through to national health agencies in support of their efforts to minimise exposure to cancer-causing factors.

The IARC has evaluated nearly 950 chemicals, physical and biological agents, occupational exposures and lifestyle factors where there is either evidence or suspicion that they may cause cancer.

The report on radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation comes a year after the WHO published its much-delayed Interphone study, which found no solid evidence that mobile phones increase the risk of brain tumours, but pointed to a slightly higher risk among those who used mobile phones the most. The report was held up for several years because scientists failed to agree on its findings and whether to issue a warning about excessive use.

Exposure from a mobile phone base station is typically much lower than from a handset held to the ear, but concerns over the possible health effects of electromagnetic waves have extended to base stations and wireless computer networks, particularly in relation to schools.

According to the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, half of all primary schools and 82% of secondary schools make use of wireless computer networks.

Wi-fi equipment is restricted to a maximum output of 100 milliwatts in Europe at the most popular frequency of 2.4 gigahertz. At that level, exposure to radiowaves should not exceed guideline levels drawn up by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation and adopted in the UK.

A Health Protection Agency study led by Mann in 2009 found that exposure to radiowaves from wi-fi equipment was well within these guideline levels.

 

Source: The Guardian

 

Testosterone: Can it make you live longer?

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test

  • Bombarded with adverts promising a longer, healthier life, BBC News Los Angeles correspondent Peter Bowes goes in search of eternal youth.

Dr Jeffry Life, a Las Vegas-based age management doctor, is 74. He has the body of a man half his age. In fact he has a level of muscular definition that many men never achieve.

Genial, soft spoken, bald and lean, Life, who practised family medicine for much of his career, is a poster child for the longevity business.

He was in his late 50s when he realised that as a paunchy middle-aged man, he could drop dead at any time.

“I had really got out of shape, got a lot of body fat and was heading down a disastrous course of diabetes and heart disease,” he says.

Inspired by a muscle magazine that someone left in his examination room, Life decided to get in shape. He started an intensive regime of working out at the gym and within a year transformed his body.

In 1998 he entered a competition, the Body for Life contest, for people who have made dramatic changes to their physique. To his surprise he won first prize in the section for 55-year-olds and older.

“It changed my life and I felt great,” he says.

But as he got older he says he noticed that he was losing ground and finding it more difficult to maintain a lean body. While in his 60s, he visited Las Vegas for a medical conference and was introduced to Cenegenics, an age management company that aspired to make its patients “look and feel years younger”. He went on to become a senior partner.

Life believes that the right kind of exercise and nutrition are important – but correcting hormone deficiencies are the key to his success.

“I got my blood checked and I found that I was profoundly deficient in testosterone,” he says.

He now has weekly injections of the hormone.

“The problem is that when a man’s testosterone gets low they lose their incentive to go to the gym.

“Even if they want to, they dread going to the gym and exercising and it’s a losing battle. Especially abdominal fat around their belly. They spiral out of control.

“A lot of men come to me who are suffering from male-menopause, known as andropause, which creeps into their lives,” he adds.

Andropause, says Life, is characterised by a decline in a man’s sexual function, cognitive ability, an inability to get rid of body fat and fatigue.

He adds: “When I get their testosterone up to a healthy level, it changes everything. They get re-energised, they start seeing body fat disappear and muscle growing.”

Different laboratories vary in what they consider to be a normal testosterone level. According to the Facey Medical Group, a health provider California, the normal reference range is 250 to 1100ng/dl. The Mayo Clinic says testosterone levels drop, within this range, by about 1% a year after the age of 30.

Andropause is not universally accepted by the medical profession as a definable condition for middle-aged and older men, although there has been a huge increase in the number of prescriptions for testosterone in recent years. As well as injections, gels are available and are widely advertised. Last year the British Medical Journal published a studywhich concluded that “many men in the UK are receiving unnecessary testosterone replacement”.

It is an area of medicine that is subject to much debate and often focuses on the question of what is “normal” ageing.

Life argues that the medical profession is too conservative.

“Many doctors get the numbers and then they will tell their patient, ‘Joe, your levels are normal’, when in fact it is within the reference range, but it’s at the bottom of the range. They don’t tell you you’re a D-student,” he says.

Sex hormones – oestrogen in woman and testosterone in men – fulfil many roles in the body. Studies have shown that they are involved in age-related changes, such as the development of dementia.

Testosterone is fantastic,” says Dr Christian Pike, a neurobiologist at the University of Southern California, who specialises in the brain and Alzheimer’s disease.

 

“It increases aspects of cognition, it protects the brain from dying, it reduces Alzheimer’s disease, I mean, it’s wonderful,” he says.

But Dr Pike has reservations about the recent trend towards an increased use of sex hormones to reverse the effects of ageing. He says further long-term research is needed to fully understand the way testosterone affects the body.

“It makes me a tad nervous,” he says.

“We know that prostate tumours respond to testosterone with incredible growth.”

Pike says there is promising research focusing on what can be done to turn on the brain’s own testosterone-making system. He says relatively higher levels of testosterone are associated with greater longevity and that people who live longer have better levels of the hormone.

The challenge, he says, is balancing the benefits and the risks.

“So many of the factors that we are looking at are double-edged swords.”

Source:BBC