Anti-aging therapies and doctor assisted dying

These anti-aging therapies include bio-identical hormonal replacement, management of oxidative stress with anti- oxidants, reduction of chronic inflammation a forerunner of atherosclerosis and heart disease, genetic-restoring telomere length, stem cell therapy to replace senescent cells, etc.

In one of my keynote presentations, I discuss 7 ways to slow the aging process. Hopefully by slowing and/or reversing the aging process, these individuals can also change their biological clock to a period when they did not have these chronic diseases!

Should these breakthroughs materialize, we may even witness the time when people in nursing homes may actually be discharged and return to their homes, much like we now do with patients who are sent home from hospital after recovering from a medical illness or surgical treatment.

Maybe the health status of those individuals requesting “assisted dying” could be enhanced or their delayed if their biological life clock was reversed to an earlier period when they did not have those debilitating symptoms.

The late Dr.Roy Walford. in his book Maximum Life Span relates the history of the government’s approach to the polio epidemic of the 1940’s and 50’s His comment: “… if the government had invested in perfecting better iron lungs we would now have the best designed most comfortable iron lungs imaginable inhabited by thousands of polio victims…” Instead, by investing in basic research and developing a vaccine, epidemics like polio and smallpox have now theoretically been eradicated from our planet.

Regarding nursing homes, Walford comments “…the vast social support structures continuously accumulating to care for the helpless elderly are the iron lungs of Gerontology…”

It should be noted that in the 19th century when Dr. Edward Jenner developed his crude smallpox vaccine, he and the world did not know that smallpox was also caused by a virus. In my view the current knowledge of the causes of the aging process is probably at the same stage when Jenner was experimenting with a smallpox vaccine which he tested on his own son.

We do not really know what causes the aging process that leads to the development of the chronic symptoms and diseases of the elderly, what I like to call the 5 “D’s-disability, depression, discomfort, dementia, chronic diseases, and death. Why do the levels of hormones like DHEA begin to drop after age 30?

Nursing homes as research labs for dementia

The opening statement of the Report entitled “Nutritional Strategies to Combat Alzheimer’s” in the March 2013 issue of Life Extension Magazine, reads as follows:

“Someone in America develops Alzheimer’s every 68 seconds. This rate is projected to more than double by 2053, to one every 33 seconds.”

Since we in Canada have roughly 1/10th of the US population, the corresponding rate for Canada should be roughly one tenth that of USA.

In a recent radio and TV announcement, Canadian health officials outlined the costs of treating Alzheimer’s from the current 30 billion annually to over 300 billion within a couple of decades.

After reading this article, and with my recent attendance at a nursing home meeting where the CEO of that nursing home outlined plans for bed expansion, it occurred to me that nursing homes with their unique resident profile (compared to patients in hospitals or medical offices), might be excellent ‘labs’ to conduct clinical research on Alzheimer’s disease.

When I reviewed my blog, I found a post where I gave some statistics on incidence of dementia, and also my plans for to develop a podcast.

I have experience in the field of genetics and gerontology. I set up 3 private medical research Labs, including the Winnipeg Clinic Research Institute, the Kildonan Institute of Gerontology, and a private Cytogenetic diagnostic Lab. During my research career, I published over 40 scientific papers. Since the mid-1990’s as a medical educator, I have used the information gathered from various sources to develop various tools such as presentations, websites and blogs and videos to share to share my knowledge and interest in research and life extension. Sources I have leveraged include the Life Extension Foundation, Wellness magazine, A4M, etc., as well as my personal library of over 500 volumes, my clinical practice of over 30 years, and more than 20 years of experience treating elderly patients at the Holy Family Nursing Home in Winnipeg, Canada.

Realizing the importance of medical research in 2000, I set up the Semeon Hrushovetz Endowed Fund at the University of Manitoba which purchases books in the area of gerontology and complementary and/or alternative medicine for the Neil John Maclean Health Sciences Library.

Many current investigators, especially those engaged in life extension research, discovered the important role of nutrition in aging (e.g. Vitamin D and Alzheimer’s).

Another area is the field of searching for biological markers for aging and use them to test if anti-aging therapies are valid. Many of these studies, especially those related to biological markers of aging, could very easily be conducted at a nursing home.

I feel the Holy Family Nursing Home with its expansion program provides an excellent opportunity to establish such a unique research centre. I would be interested in an opportunity to discuss this idea with the nursing home’s board or building committee.

Let me begin by referring the reader to my published website specifically the podcasts. https://www.docsam.ca/sbh-website/Podcasts/Podcasts.html
Note: When I view the second podcast the one on Brainpower and click on more, the reader will see the plans I have for this podcast. Let me copy a portion of this podcast.
Your brain directly and indirectly controls the function of every system of your body. Aging of the brain is the number one cause of dementia,discomfort, disability, depression, and death in the elderly. In Canada alone, 8% of people age 65 and 35% of those over the age of 85 are affected by some type of dementia. By the middle of this century (2050), it is estimated that 50% of the elderly (group over age 65) will be older than 85. The medical costs of just treating dementia (estimated around 30 billion in 2014) in the elderly will skyrocket to over 300 billion by 2050 and likely to bankrupt the healthcare system. Prevention is our only savior.
Posted 13th December 2013 by Dr. Semeon B. Hrushovetz
Labels: docsam.ca/sbh-website medical cost of treating dementia podcasts on brain power

Why all the fuss about lowering carbon dioxide in the environment

I recall posting a blog several years ago on the photosynthesis reaction where CO2 in the presence of water and energy (photons) from sunlight is converted to oxygen and glucose- 2 products that the human body cannot make and are therefore classified as essential nutrients.
I still recall the experiment from my 3rd year Honours botany class- a class that I took from Dr. William Leach at the U OF MANITOBA in 1947. This course was one from the 5 year honours program from the university of Manitoba in both combined Botany and Zoology . In this experiment we followed the method outlined by Leach and Stiles in their small book on photosynthesis. At that time the U. of Manitoba had on staff internationally recognized professors. (Names like Buller,Wardle) In the experiment I recall observing bubbles of O2 into a beaker which had some green plants and a source of CO2!- a procedure nature produces with its algae blooms on our lakes.
If we remove CO2 from our atmosphere the trees would not produce glucose which when polymerized in plants becomes our lumbar,or in our garden plants the starchy potato tutors, tomatoes, wheat etc.
Where would we get out supply of oxygen if there was no CO2 in our atmosphere? Have I missed something in this argument?

Sex hormonal imbalance possible role in sexual orientation

According to the textbook by the Life Extension Foundation entitled “Disease Prevention and Treatment ” 5t Edition on page 608, pregnenolone -the “mother hormone”- is synthesized from cholesterol in the adrenal gland, and then through DHEA and the intermediate hormone androstenediol it cascades to produce both the male hormone testosterone and the female hormones collectively called the estrogens. According to the authors the estrogens are a mixture of 3 separate female sex hormones: Estrone,Estradiol, and Estriol in different proportions and with different functions
It occurred to me that maybe the difficulty for some individuals to determine their own gender and sexual behaviour may be the result of shifts in the concentrations of these different hormones.I recall in my own medical practice that I diagnosed a case of Kleinfelter’s syndrome based on the presence of an extra X (sex) chromosome-which incidentally was made in my own private Western Cytogenetic Laboratory.

Cholesterol controversy

With the knowledge of the role that cholesterol plays in the biosynthesis of the sex hormones precursors (pregnenolone and DHEA), the integrity of the myelin sheath of nerve fibres and possible role in multiple sclerosis, as well as a natural nutrient antioxidant and/or free radical scavenger it was gratifying to hear and to see on TV that the dietary restriction of cholesterol has been waved.
In my previous blogs I have for years advised against the use of cholesterol lowering drugs,not only for these functions but also for the studies which found a relationship of cardiomyopathy associated with certain statin drugs, especially in women.
I wonder how soon and if doctors will stop prescribing statin and other cholesterol lowering drugs-