The Science Behind the “Fountain of Youth”

This past weekend I attended this year’s meeting of the Personalized Life Extension Conference. I stayed near San Francisco Intl., and just down the street from the conference location. San Francisco has some beautiful sights to see…

Many of us leave our metaphorical hearts in San Francisco, but this conference is about saving our literal hearts, along with other non-optional body parts, from the ravages of aging. I heard from speakers describing the latest advances in life-extension technology.

This includes, of course, my friend and Sleuth contributor, Patrick Cox.

Life extension will create huge new markets. Life itself isn’t just another product like a computer or an automobile. Eventually, we’ll all buy enough gadgets and baubles. The human desire for healthy, quality life, however, appears inexhaustible.

From past Chinese emperors seeking the elixir of life to Spanish conquistadors in search of fabled fountains of youth, we’ve been searching. Modern science is finally answering the questions of why we age and die, and discovering the means to prevent it.

Patrick’s presentation was exciting. He talked about everything from rejuvenating stem cell therapies to a promising new plant-based nutraceutical for “inflammaging.” He also talked about a fruit-derived compound that promises to fulfill the life-extending promise resveratrol couldn’t.

I love telling you about how breakthrough drug discovery technology is helping researchers design new life-preserving molecules, as well as the money you can make from investing in it.

However, the truth is that “from scratch” drug molecules aren’t the only way we are going to improve treatment for age-related disease. We’ve barely seen what is available in the plant kingdom. There is a nearly bottomless reserve of potentially important compounds made by nature coming on tap.

The very same technologies used for designing drugs from scratch are also unlocking the potential of these existing phytochemicals. As you know, new extraction technology is making enormous reserves of oil and natural gas newly available. When it comes to potential drug reserves in the dizzying variety of plants in the world, new biotechnology will be the equivalent of fracking or deep-ocean drilling.

One of the new medicines Patrick talked about was actually discovered after an expedition to collect rare plants growing on remote mountaintops. I think that’s pretty sweet. It is a plant sugar that reverses liver scarring and drops the defensive shields cancer cells use to protect themselves from the immune system.

One of the nice things about plant compounds — from the perspective of an innovative company — is that they are often regulated differently by the FDA.