Life extension involves learning how to make use of the knowledge that modern medicine has provided in order to live longer and healthier lives. We can use knowledge about DNA and personalized medicine, nutritional supplements, maintenance of hormone levels -- and other medical information -- in order to live a longer healthspan. By living longer, we can be alive long enough to take advantage of medical advances that are yet to be developed. Life extension is an aggressive form of preventive medicine.
The Life Extension Manual began as a handout for seminars on Life Extension I was doing once or twice a year during the early 1990s. As the "handout" grew in size to that of a small book, I began to convert it into a stand-alone document and to distribute it separately from the seminars.
I won't be doing any more of these seminars, but I have done a significant recent update of the online Life Extension Manual and I plan to do some more updates soon.
Just as soon as I can get enough additional subscription material online to form a good starting point, there will also be an expanded set of advanced information, including an anti-aging forum, that will be available on the web only by subscription.
This basic Life Extension Manual, however, will remain free. It will only be available online. There are no plans to make any printed copies available.
I'll be adding chapters on the subjects currently listed in the Table of Contents
The subscription web site will include advanced topics such as personal genomics.
I had my genome analyzed in May, 2008 by deCODEme.com, a division of Decode Genetics (which recently doubled their prices for a complete SNP scan) in Reykjavik, Iceland. In November, 2008, I had a further analysis done by 23andMe.com. These companies do not decode the entire genome, but they do decode the points of human DNA that are the most common variations among different individuals.
DeCODEme.com decodes 1,013,349 points on an individual's DNA, and 23andMe.com decodes 579,751 points. (At least, that is the number at the time that I had my DNA scans done.) These points are among the points known as single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs (pronounced "snips"). There is some overlap in the SNPs that are decoded by the two companies. To learn more about SNPs, see the SNPedia, which is a Wikipedia-like encyclopedia about single nucleotide polymorphisms.
One result of my DNA test was that I was able to identify a variant in a gene that codes for the aromatase enzyme that was causing me to lose bone density, especially spinal bone density. As a direct result of the discovery of that variant, I had further testing done, and I discovered that my estradiol level was far too low. Estradiol is an estrogen that is necessary for health in both males and females. After using supplementary estradiol for 10 months, the bone mineral density in my lumbar spine increased by more than 20 percent. You can read more details about my DNA tests, including medical references about the problem of estrogen deficiency in males, at:
I already knew that I had a genetic propensity for spinal osteoporosis, a disease which resulted in my father's death in 2005 after a long period of severe disability. Shortly after my father's death, I had a DEXA bone scan that revealed that my bone density was also abnormally low, primarily in the spine, but also to a certain extent at the hip.
By May of 2008, my spinal bone density had decreased to the point that it met the technical definition of osteoporosis. I was able to identify the most significant probable causes as variants in the IGF-1 and aromatase genes.
Results of a DEXA bone density scan on May 6, 2009 indicate an increase in lumbar spinal bone density of 20.1 percent during the previous year as the result of using supplemental transdermal estradiol and injectable growth hormone.
Progress in medicine is expanding so rapidly that the doubling time for medical knowledge is now about four years (although there no means of really measuring a moving target like expanding knowledge with any degree of accuracy). That means that during the next four years, we will learn as much about medicine as was discovered from the beginning of human existence until now.
The field of human genomics is currently advancing faster than any area of information that I have seen in my lifetime (and I have spent the last four decades imbedded deeply in the rapidly-moving electronics revolution). The 20th century was the century of electricity and electronics, but the 21st century promises to be the century of biology and medicine.
Figuring out how to manage and apply all of the information is an enormous challenge, a challenge made even more complex by biochemical individuality: the fact that each of us is unique. In both preventive medicine and traditional "curative" medicine, what works well for most people may have adverse effects on any given individual. Hopefully, the new science of human genomics will help us to sort this out, and this process of individualized medicine is beginning already.
My Promethease analysis, mentioned above, has a lot of information about how I am likely to react to various medicines. In the future, DNA analysis will also be able to give some valuable information about how any specific individual is likely to respond to various foods and nutritional supplements. Promethease is software for comparing a person's individual genetic data from a DNA scan with the known information about the effects of different variations in DNA. See a brief tutorial on reading the output of a Promethease scan at:
Traditional one-size-fits-all medicine is rapidly becoming obsolete, and it will soon come to be generally regarded as dangerous.
I usually began my Life Extension Seminars by passing around a printed copy of the Index Medicus, the index of most of the medical research reports published in the world for any particular month. During the 1990s, the typical Subject Index for one month was a 9-inch by 11.5-inch book that was more than 2 inches thick and weighed more than 6 pounds (nearly 3 kilograms). (The separate Author Index was only a little over one inch thick.) This book was only the index for a single month of medical research reports in scientifically-respected peer-reviewed publications. It is no longer feasible to publish a printed index of new medical reports due to the ever increasing volume of new information. After December, 2004, printed copies of the Index Medicus were no longer published. That information is now only available electronically.
The information in the Life Extension Manual is derived from information in those research reports that you don't usually hear much about. I personally do make use of most of the information that is contained in the Life Extension Manual; but I am not recommending that anyone else do the same. I am a medical experiment-in-progress, and so is anyone else who decides to make use of relatively new medical information.
The decision whether, and to what extent, to personally make use of information about life extension and anti-aging medicine is a difficult one. While there is an abundance of data pointing to the benefit of, for example, the regular use of melatonin or certain other particular hormones, but there are also a large amount of unanswered questions.
Science is the one successful method that has been developed for managing uncertainty. Knowledge and certainty are mutually exclusive. Certainty is a myth of unscientific worldviews.
Life Extension is a new form of applied science that is filled with uncertainties; but in the short history of this applied science, many of those who have learned to manage the uncertainties have already benefited greatly from it. Those of us who have been practicing state-of-the-art Life Extension for more than a decade have been pleased, and sometimes pleasantly surprised, at just how well these techniques work. (I've been at it to some extent for more than 40 years, beginning when I was about 20 years old.)
In many respects, though, the true science of anti-aging medicine is just now in its infancy. In the past, we have only been able to slow down some of the manifestations of aging. In the near future, we may finally begin to be able to do something about aging at a more fundamental level.
I had intended that the Life Extension Manual would be revised and updated frequently, but this has proven to be quite time-consuming and difficult. I realize that some sections are inadequately referenced to the primary medical literature. I hope to be able to remedy this over the coming months, although it is likely to be a slow process.
I am frequently asked about my personal life extension program and about to what extent it has worked. I've always been reluctant to publish my own experimental regimen since it would be inappropriate for anyone to use it without medical supervision. I once had it online at this site, but too many people foolishly tried to use it inappropriately for their own program -- so I have deleted it. I have put a page back up about the core nutritional supplements that I consider important. That page is not a complete summary of what I take, but contains information that I believe will be useful to others.
I have put the results of my latest personal blood chemistry tests, with comments online. That set of blood chemistry data shows the results of my blood tests for the last three years. I will have even more personal medical information available here later.
This online manual is heavily linked to many other interesting web sites, especially in the Recommended Reading and Resources section.
The Life Extension Foundation has also provided Futurescience with an article about natural means of increasing human growth hormone for those who do not wish to (or cannot afford to) use HGH injections.
Futurescience.com has an affiliate relationship with the Life Extension Foundation
. I have been a member of this organization since very shortly after it was founded. That organization provides a number of very valuable products and services, which you can purchase whether you become a member or not (although you get a significantly discounted price if you are a member.) One of those services is the ability to order your own blood tests of your choosing at a price that is lower than you will generally pay at a doctor's office. Both in this free Life Extension Manual and in the upcoming subscription site, one of the major goals is to enable individuals to take greater control of their own health.
LIFE EXTENSION MANUAL Table of Contents
The Life Extension Foundation offers discount pricing on a wide variety of blood testing by one of the largest testing laboratories in the United States. The samples are taken at any one of the more than 1600 Labcorp sites all across the United States. This is a great opportunity to choose your own medical testing.