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Panel Detail:
Monday, April 27, 2009
4:00 PM - 5:15 PM
Living Longer and Better Through Science, Nutrition and Lifestyle Choices
Speakers:
Scott Berns,
Co-Founder, Progeria Research Foundation Inc.; Senior Vice President of Chapter Programs, March of Dimes
Pinchas Cohen,
Pediatric Endocrinology Specialist, UCLA Children's Health Center
Luigi Fontana,
Research Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Director of the Longevity Research Program, Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine
Moderator:
Howard Soule, Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer, Prostate Cancer Foundation; Senior Fellow, Milken Institute
Scott Berns’ passion is finding a cure for progeria, a rare childhood genetic disease causing premature aging. Pinchas Cohen studies growth hormones and their role in increasing the human lifespan. And Luigi Fontana is using animals to discover how restricting calories improves long-term health and longevity.
To listen to them, it’s an exciting era for age-related research.
Cohen emphasized the distinction between health span – the length of disease-free living – and life span – the length of life. Life span is a result of genes and environmental factors, while health span is related to genes, environment and behavioral factors affecting preventable maladies, such as cardiovascular disease or cancer. Cohen said longevity studies demonstrate that size, i.e. height and gender, are important determinants of life expectancy and longevity. Moreover, high levels of growth hormones or testosterone correlate with higher risk of oxidative stress and prostate cancer.
Berns gave an overview of the Progeria Research Foundation, a 10-year-old organization that was funded to find a cure for progeria, a premature aging disease often leading to death by age 13. The foundation has supported research leading to the discovery of a single gene mutation associated with the disease. The foundation has sponsored a clinical trial to test the effectiveness of farnesyltransferase inhibitors to reverse the dramatic nuclear structure abnormalities that are the hallmark of cells from children with progeria. Finding a cure may create lead treatments for other aging-related diseases such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, Berns said.
A highlight of the panel was the research on calorie-restricted diets presented by Fontana. Fontana’s research has found that restricting rats’ diets leads to a 30 percent to 50 percent increase in life and health spans. Fontana’s research suggests that aging and chronic diseases are not linked, at least in small animals. A study is underway to test the effects of calorie restriction and find the optimal nutrition for human lifespan. Patients are fed low-fat dairy, whole grains, vegetables and other energy-intensive foods. Preliminary data have shown that the study diets improve all biomarkers for cardiovascular disease compared to a typical American diet. Fontana stressed that calorie-restricted diets must be carefully administered to assure that they are nutritious and meet daily requirements for vitamins and minerals.
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