From: Technotranscendence (neptune@mars.superlink.net)
Date: Thu Mar 27 2003 - 15:37:46 MST
In reaction to Ramez's posts, I sent along the following message to
Dayna Dye of the Life Extension Foundation. Dayna's response follows.
Dan
http://uweb.superlink.net/neptune/
________
Dayna Dye:
I'm a member of the Extropians email (see
http://www.extropy.org/exi-lists/ ) list where life extension is a
regular topic of discussion. Another member of that list, Ramez Naam,
claims:
"The LEF is not, to my knowledge, funding or conducting any serious
anti-aging research. They seem to focus their efforts on selling
products of questionable value rather than attempting to develop truly
effective interventions against aging."
(I include the original post below under the title "first message."
[I'm not including Ramez's post to save space.])
In a follow up post, Ramez asserts:
"I mean it in the sense that there's little or no evidence that most of
the products they sell actually slow down the aging process or extend
life. In many cases (DHEA, anti-oxidant vitamins, etc..) there's
evidence showing that they in fact *don't* slow the aging process or
extend life in humans.
"The LEF chooses to sell these substances anyway. Their marketing
material has long lists of studies that support (however indirectly)
their claims that these products can lengthen your life. But they fail
to report on the important studies refuting these claims. To me, that
seems unethical. At the very least it's unscientific.
In any case, for most of the substances they sell, there's just not
enough evidence to know one way or another. There's also not enough
safety data to know how they'll affect humans in large doses or over the
long term. That's "questionable value" in my book."
(I include the original post below under the title "second message."
[I'm not including Ramez's post to save space.])
I'd like to know if you or someone from LEF could rebutt Ramez Naam's
claim. [snip]
If anyone wishes to respond to Ramez on the list, I can pass the message
along to the list or see http://www.extropy.org/exi-lists/ for
information on how to post to that list independently.
[snip]
Thank you for your time and attention.
I am most sincerely,
Daniel Ust
Here follow Dayna's response.
From: Dayna Dye DDye@lifeextension.com
To: Technotranscendence neptune@mars.superlink.net
Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2003 11:36 AM
Subject: RE: Rebuttal requested
Dear Mr Ust:
For information concerning research funded by the Life Extension
Foundation see:
http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/track.html
Concerning the products we sell in order to fund that research, some
have been shown to extend mean lifespan in animal studies. There have
been no studies showing that nutritional supplements extend or do not
extend maximum lifespan in humans. You would need to design a study
that was at least 120 years in length. Even a study showing that a
particular nutrient extends mean lifespan would need to last a century.
The only human study that comes to mind of this nature was published in
the March 3 2001 issue of the Lancet (2001; 357:657-63), concerning
vitamin C levels being associated with lower mortality over the four
year period of the study.
Based on animal studies and on the knowledge that reducing the risk of
certain diseases can extend mean lifespan (and there are plenty of
studies to show that various nutrients do reduce the risk of many
diseases) it is safe to say that supplementing one's diet may help to
extend one's life. Even the one therapy that has been proven to extend
maximum lifespan in every species of animal in which it was tried,
calorie restriction, has not been proven to extend human lifespan, but
we consider it a safe bet to say that it will. It is unfortunate that
most people don't have the self-discipline to attempt it.
When negative studies concerning supplements are published, we do take
the time to investigate and have published rebuttals
http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/may2000_vitamin_c_03.html
http://www.lef.org/featured-articles/may2000_canasads_01.html .
Sometimes there are flaws in the study revealed by other articles that
we have published on our website's front page Life Extension Daily News
feature (archived at http://www.lef.org/newsarchive/) . Frequently
there is a negative study on a subject for which there may be several
positive studies - hence the public's surprise when these findings are
released. When one negative study appears to contradict several
positive studies, one needs to look at study design to see if this could
be why different results have occurred. Additionally, there are
negative findings and unwanted effects associated with everything,
nutritional supplements included. Our website has 6,000 pages of
information but we have not posted every positive and negative abstract
on every nutritional supplement. Nevertheless, if there are warnings or
contraindications for any supplement, these are posted in the product
information pages of our website http://www.lef.org/prod_desc/index.html
For longer life,
Dayna Dye
Editor, Life Extension Weekly Update
ddye@lifeextension.com
954 766 8433 extension 7716
Sign up for Life Extension Weekly Update at www.lef.org
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