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When a serious medical disorder develops, most people have no one to turn to other than their doctor. The problem is that physicians are often too busy to keep up with the latest research findings. As a result, many patients suffer and die even though advanced therapies already exist that could cure them.
The Life Extension Foundation educates its members about the latest medical technologies. For the past 23 years, we have published life-saving information a decade or more ahead of conventional medicine.
A stark example of the failure of doctors to recognize the value of a life-saving drug is a cancer study showing that the drug cimetidine improved survival odds by almost fourfold in a group of colon cancer patients.[1] In this study, patients with an aggressive form of colon cancer were given cimetidine for one year after surgery. At ten years, 84% of the cimetidine-treated patients were still alive compared to only 24% in the group who did not receive the drug.*
As early as 1985, the Life Extension Foundation recommended cimetidine as an adjuvant cancer therapy. If you had been a Life Extension member and contracted colon cancer, your odds of dying could have been reduced dramatically. Scientific reports over the past two decades have shown that cimetidine is a highly effective cancer therapy, yet oncologists ignored these findings while their patients died needlessly. Members of the Life Extension Foundation, on the other hand, were informed that this drug interferes with cancer cell propagation and metastasis and were advised to take it for cancer.*
Life Extension’s Track Record
Since 1980, the non-profit Life Extension Foundation has been the world leader in presenting life-saving information about the latest medical breakthroughs. A case-in-point is Life Extension’s advice to take low-dose aspirin to prevent heart attacks. While mainstream hospitals like Johns Hopkins now advocate aspirin to prevent heart attacks, the Life Extension Foundation published hard-core evidence about aspirin’s benefits way back in 1983. The Life Extension Foundation then spent 15 years battling the FDA to force the agency to recognize the cardio-protective effects of low-dose aspirin.
Our members also learn about little-known side effects of prescription drugs and how to counteract them. For example, arthritis medications like Celebrex® and Vioxx® can provide relief from inflammation and pain by inhibiting the COX-2 enzyme, but there are imbalances created by these drugs that can accelerate joint cartilage destruction. The Life Extension Foundation has discovered ways to neutralize these toxic side effects so that arthritis patients can benefit from these drugs.*
Alternative medicine only recently recognized the dangers of supplemental iron, yet the Life Extension Foundation warned its members to avoid iron supplements in 1983 because of evidence that high levels of iron increase the risk of cancer and cardiovascular disease.*
Heart disease is the number one killer of Americans. As early as 1981, Life Extension identified correctable risk factors for heart attack (such as high homocysteine levels) that are still neglected by most cardiologists. Life Extension has published its comprehensive findings about preventing heart attack and stroke in our massive Disease Prevention and Treatment book.
For over two decades, the Life Extension Foundation has been analyzing the results of scientific studies, consulting with its Board of Medical and Scientific Advisors, and translating technical information into easy-to-understand treatment protocols for its members. By looking at back issues of our magazine, you can see just how far we’ve been ahead of conventional medicine in bringing out new life-saving therapies. The Life Extension Foundation combines the best of mainstream and alternative medicine.
Life Extension Invests in Your Future
At the heart of the Life Extension Foundation’s mission are its research programs to identify and develop therapies to slow and reverse human aging. Killers such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, and Alzheimer’s disease are caused, in large part, by the progressive decline in structure and function during aging. The control of human aging will reduce and, eventually, eliminate degenerative disease, which could enable us to remain alive, healthy, and vigorous for centuries.
On September 4, 2001, the world found out that it is possible to reverse some aspects of aging in mice, as measured by changes in gene expression. Articles about this breakthrough appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post. This news was also featured on all the major television networks. What gave the study credibility was its publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.[2] This pioneering aging reversal study was funded by the Life Extension Foundation.
The Life Extension Foundation is funding genetic aging research because it could lead to therapies to prevent or reverse aging within our bodies. The Life Extension Foundation’s mission is to conquer aging and death by the year 2020. We don’t want to be the last generation to be confronted with death based upon our genetic limitations. We aim to reprogram our genes to enable us to grow younger biologically, instead of suffering the devastating consequences of aging.
Ischemia (reduced blood flow) is an underlying cause of damage in patients who suffer from coronary artery disease, trauma, and aging-related neurological deterioration. Scientists at Life Extension’s research labs have prevented damage to the brain caused by ischemia. This type of research will lead to the ability to save the lives of millions of people who would otherwise die, and improve our quality of life as we grow older.
The Life Extension Foundation funds the only scientific program in the world to cryopreserve organs for transplant. Over the next 10 to 20 years, the use of cryopreserved tissues for aging and degenerative diseases will revolutionize the practice of medicine.
As soon as Life Extension research leads to the discovery of safe and effective therapies, they are incorporated into our medical protocols so that Foundation members can benefit as quickly as possible. As more people join the Life Extension Foundation, the pace of this research will be accelerated until total control over aging and the ability to extend the healthy human life span have been achieved.
As year 2003 comes to an end, Life Extension members should take comfort in the knowledge that new discoveries are providing a scientific basis to keep us biologically younger. Researchers are finding novel methods to regulate the genes involved in aging and disease. This paves the way for breakthroughs that may soon enable us to stop the genetic mutations that cause us to die.
In these days of institutional uncertainty, Life Extension members should feel secure in belonging to a 23-year old organization that has never deviated from its mission of overcoming nature’s lethal forces. In 1980, we promised to provide Foundation members with precise information to help them stay alive, while also supporting research aimed at achieving an indefinitely extended life span. Our track record (www.lef.org) documents that we have been far ahead of conventional medicine in supplying members with the best health advice, while our scientific findings have received international recognition.
The Life Extension Foundation is making an enormous effort to accelerate research aimed at slowing and reversing aging. The reason for our sense of urgency is that we may be the last generation to face a limited life span. Our non-profit organization remains confident that science will overcome the genetic limitations that cause humans to succumb to biological disorders.
We are pleased to announce the annual winter sale that enables members to purchase state-of-the-art dietary supplements at extra-discounted prices. Life Extension has been a long-time vocal critic of the FDA’s pro-death policies and receives no Federal funding. It is only through the support of Foundation members that we are able to support research aimed at extending the healthy human life span. |