News: Evolution in Health and Disease, Aging and Longevity

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Dear All:

I am pleased to announce that today the New England Journal of Medicine has published our invited review of this new book:

Evolution in Health and Disease
by Stephen C Stearns and Jacob C Koella
Oxford University Press, 2008
http://tinyurl.com/56n8q9


Here is the reference to our new published book review:

Gavrilov L.A., Gavrilova N.S.
Evolution in Health and Disease [Book Review].
The New England Journal of Medicine, 2008, 359(17): 1856-1857.

Also here is our initial original text of the book review, which is somewhat more detailed and informative when compared to the abridged final edited text published by the journal:

This book introduces evolutionary approach to medicine, and it provides almost encyclopedic coverage of all medical topics where the evolutionary principles are applied. The book consists of 23 chapters written by a large international team of 47 leading researchers from the United States, United Kingdom, France, Switzerland, and New Zealand. This latest second edition of the book has an extensive updated bibliography of over 1,500 references, and it is organized in 5 major parts:

(1) Introducing evolutionary thinking for medicine;
(2) The history and variation of human genes;
(3) Natural selection and evolutionary conflicts;
(4) Pathogens: resistance, virulence, variation, and emergence;
(5) Noninfectious and degenerative diseases (including aging).

The book is provided with a detailed Subject Index (10 pages), which really helps to navigate in a great diversity of covered topics.

The main content of this book is well summarized in its first, introductory chapter, which overviews evolutionary approach to complex medical issues in a reader-friendly way. The authors seem to be acutely aware of the current healthy skepticism among medical experts regarding practical usefulness of evolutionary theory. Therefore, they start to address these concerns from the very beginning of the book:

"Should doctors and medical researchers think about evolution? Does it bring useful insights? Would doctors and researchers who learned a substantial amount about evolution be more effective than a control group that learned only the usual rudiments? Would providing such education improve health enough to justify the costs?"

They acknowledge that evolutionary theory is not helpful to surgeons, but it may be useful to internists, pediatricians, epidemiologists and geneticists, when "prescribing antibiotics, managing virulent diseases, administrating vaccinations, advising couples who have difficulty conceiving and carrying offspring to term, treating diabetes and high blood pressure of pregnancy, treating cancer, understanding the origins of the current epidemics of obesity, diabetes, and autoimmune diseases, and answering patients' questions about aging."

This statement is further justified in the introductory chapter with several particular examples and evolutionary insights, which then concludes with 12 'commandments' on "What doctors need to know about evolution and why."

The first introductory chapter is so well written that it may be a sufficient reading for busy practicing doctors. The authors themselves "acknowledge that much medical practice proceeds just fine with little need for a theoretical foundation. Medicine is a profession that offers practical help. .... Evolution is not an alternative to existing medical training and research. It is a useful basic science that poses new medical questions, contributing to research while also improving practice." (page 3).

Therefore this book is of a particular interest to researchers involved in biomedical studies and developing new treatments.

The major evolutionary insight of this book is that many diseases in developed countries (obesity, diabetes, breast cancer, autoimmune and heart diseases, etc.) are promoted by mismatch of human bodies to modern environment, because the environment is changing far more rapidly than humans can evolve. This insight may have some useful practical implications, like convincing patients that physical inactivity, which is so common in developed countries, is a very serious health issue and has to be vigorously avoided, to the same extend as smoking.

The same reasoning justifies the urgent need for a radical revision of the modern diet to a healthier standard, which matches better the ancestral needs of human body, by providing foods with much lower glycemic index (load) and much higher proportion of omega-3 unsaturated fatty acids. These important topics are very well covered in the chapter 20 "Lifestyle, diet, and disease: comparative perspectives on the determinants of chronic health risks" by William R. Leonard from the Northwestern University Department of Anthropology.

Another notable chapter of the book is chapter 9 "Perspectives on human health and disease from evolutionary and behavioral ecology" by Beverly I. Strassmann (Institute for Social Research & Department of Anthropology, Ann Arbor, USA), and Ruth Mace (University College London Department of Anthropology, UK). It presents a thoughtful review of trade-offs between longevity and fertility, and refutes the highly publicized claims that human longevity comes with the cost of impaired fertility among long lived persons.

One minor weakness of this book may be related to some neglect of alternative, non-evolutionary explanations. For example, human aging is discussed mostly in narrow evolutionary terms, while ignoring a more general theory of systems failure (systems reliability theory), which is included now in the Handbook of the Biology of Aging (Academic Press, 2006), and other biomedical publications on aging.

This book will be useful to biomedical students, researchers and doctors, because it stimulates fresh thinking and new approaches to traditional medical problems.

Leonid Gavrilov, Ph.D.
Natalia Gavrilova, Ph.D.
Center on Aging, University of Chicago
Chicago, IL 60637
gavrilov@longevity-science.org

Key words:
New books, New England Journal of Medicine, Evolution in Health and Disease, Evolution, Health, Disease, Leonid Gavrilov, Natalia Gavrilova, Stephen Stearns, Jacob Koella, Oxford University Press, evolutionary medicine, evolutionary genetics, human behavioral ecology, evolutionary microbiology, evolution of aging and degenerative disease, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, asthma, allergies, autoimmune diseases, aging, evolutionary (Darwinian) medicine, evolutionary biology, anthropology, developmental biology, genetics

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New Initiative to Combat Human Aging

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Greetings,

I am pleased to inform you that the new issue of The New England Journal of Medicine reviews the idea of a dramatic acceleration of anti-aging research ("Apollo-type effort to control aging") through greatly increased research funding:

The New England Journal of Medicine, 2008, 358(20): 2187-2188
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/358/20/2187

Here are some excerpts from this published book review:

The Longevity Revolution:
The Benefits and Challenges of Living a Long Life
by Dr. Robert N. Butler

"This book about the ongoing revolution in human longevity and its implications for society was written by Robert Butler, a professor of geriatrics who is still working at the age of 80. The book is unique in that Butler not only describes the medical and social problems that can be anticipated in the United States when baby boomers reach retirement age but also suggests bold and radical solutions for these upcoming problems.

Butler was the founding director of the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health from 1976 to 1982, and given his impressive background, his extraordinary plan of action should be considered very seriously.

The main premise of the book is that the anticipated catastrophic increases in rates of disability and the cost of health care among older people could be avoided if the United States committed itself to a large-scale scientific project akin to NASA's Apollo program of flights to the moon.

Butler states that his proposed program "could be dubbed the Apollo Program for Aging and Longevity Science" and goes on to explain that "the present level of development of aging and longevity research justifies an Apollo-type effort to control aging. . . . Now we have both past work as a foundation and new scientific tools offering hope that we may soon have a more prolonged, vigorous and productive life and added longevity. During the twenty-first century, the century of the life sciences, longevity science should truly come of age."

Butler believes that "it may soon be possible to delay both aging and age-related disease in humans" but that "an orbital jump in financing of science is required to advance longevity and health as well as national wealth."

Today, less than 1% of the entire federal budget is spent on medical research. Butler proposes that to improve health and control costs, 3% of the federal government's annual spending on health care should be made available to the National Institutes of Health for medical research. He also proposes that of Medicare expenditures, 1% should be earmarked for the National Institute on Aging. This investment should increase in line with the Medicare budget, but according to Butler, scientific research could lower Medicare expenditures.

Butler concludes that "while the numbers I am suggesting may seem extraordinary, I believe the level of scientific progress in the field since the 1950s justifies such a program. . . ."

As a former director of the National Institute on Aging, Butler understands well where the main wasting of scientific potential currently takes place. As many as 80 to 85% of all research proposals that are peer reviewed and approved (scored) by the National Institutes of Health cannot be funded. This is a tremendous loss of intellectual potential and research opportunities.

With his suggested increase in funding, Butler believes that "at least 30 percent of approved grants (if not more) should be funded." In short, to meet the challenges of the aging population, we need a scientific revolution in the science and medicine of longevity. Butler writes, "Science will find new ways to extend life and its quality. Evidence suggests that morbidity can be further compressed, and society can adapt to the growing numbers of older persons." ...

This book has the potential to change the future of this country for the better if its ideas reach members of Congress and other representatives of the U.S. government."

...

----------- THE END --------------------------------

Source:
The New England Journal of Medicine, 2008, 358(20): 2187-2188
http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/short/358/20/2187

Disclaimer
The authors of this new publication are:

-- Leonid Gavrilov, Ph.D.
-- Natalia Gavrilova, Ph.D.
Center on Aging
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL 60637
gavrilov@longevity-science.org

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Quest for Human Longevity

Greetings,

Some time ago the New England Journal of Medicine has invited us to write a review of this new book:

The Quest for Human Longevity:
SCIENCE, BUSINESS, AND PUBLIC POLICY
By Lewis D. Solomon. 197 pp. New Brunswick, N.J., Translation Publishers, 2006. $34.95. ISBN 0-7658-0300-3.



This book review was eventually published:

Gavrilov L.A., Gavrilova N.S. The Quest for Human Longevity: Science, Business, and Public Policy [Book Review]. The New England Journal of Medicine, 2006, 354(19): 2663-2664.

Here is the initial original text of the book review, which is more detailed and informative when compared to the abridged final text published by the journal:

This is very unusual book written by a professor of business law from the George Washington University law school. Most other popular books on human longevity are focused almost exclusively on scientific ideas and breakthroughs in life-extension research, and they typically avoid any money talks as inappropriate subject. According to existing tradition, it is believed that scientists are driven mostly by academic curiosity and a noble desire to save a mankind from age-related degenerative diseases, rather than profiting from their research. This somewhat idealistic perspective is challenged in a new book, which describes in a great detail how important money is in modern entrepreneurial world of life-extension and anti-aging research business. The book provides an alternative, more realistic perspective that financial incentives are driving scientific innovations in anti-aging studies by stimulating researchers to take risks and to work really hard.

“The Quest for Human Longevity” goes beyond traditional curtains of financial secrecy when it describes the detailed history of eight corporations that were pursuing anti-aging and life-extension interventions recently -- Geron Corporation, Juvenon, Eukarion, BioMarker Pharmaceuticals, Elixir Pharmaceuticals, Helicon Therapeutics, Memory Pharmaceuticals, and Cortex Pharmaceuticals. Particularly interesting are the candid profiles of their scientific founders and top executives, which include Michael West, Bruce Ames, Stephen Spindler, Saul Kent, Cynthia Kenyon, Leonard Guarentee, David Sinclair, Eric Kandel and other prominent leaders and scientists.

According to this book, there is nothing wrong for researchers supported by taxpayers grant money to be also involved in for-profit businesses, and to benefit financially from their research findings. The book provides many examples of such activities conducted by reputable scientists involved both in life-extension and anti-aging research, as well as in related businesses. The opponents to this practice of commercialized science may disagree with the book author, but still may find this book interesting and useful because of provided particular examples when academic scientists form the link between research and commerce, which they may wish to investigate in more detail.

The book also examines intellectual property, and financing for each of the eight firms that were pursuing anti-aging and life-extension interventions. This helps readers to understand how some of these companies managed to survive without producing any product on the market. This survival was achieved by ‘marking the territory’ -- claiming the intellectual property through patents, and then benefiting from them through license agreements, etc. It would not be exaggeration to say that most profits now come not from the sale of legitimate anti-aging and life-extension drugs, but rather from the sale of future expectations for these drugs in the form of intellectual property. It is not surprising therefore that many of these companies are literally struggling to survive, and the book describes this dramatic struggle for survival for each company in a great detail.

The science behind anti-aging research in these companies is also discussed and it includes such topics as telomeres shortening with age and restoration of telomere length with telomerase enzyme, oxidative damage by free radicals and antioxidant protection, aging retardation through caloric restriction and its mimetics, aging retardation through modulating gene expression, and developing memory-enhancing drugs to cope with brain aging.

Public policy implications of the anticipated dramatic extension of healthy lifespan in the future are also discussed in the book, and a conclusion is made that, on balance, the benefits will outweigh the social problems associated with life extension.

“The Quest for Human Longevity” will be of interest to medical students, scientists involved in biomedical aging research, policymakers, biotech investors, as well as general readers interested in compelling issues of future life-extension and debates over commercialized science.

Leonid Gavrilov, Ph.D.
Center on Aging at the National Opinion Research Center and the University of Chicago Chicago, IL 60637
gavrilov (at) longevity-science.org

Natalia Gavrilova, Ph.D.
Center on Aging at the National Opinion Research Center and the University of Chicago Chicago, IL 60637
gavrilova (at) health-studies.org

------------------------------------------------

Key words:
Quest for Human Longevity, Lewis D. Solomon, New England Journal of Medicine,Geron Corporation, Juvenon, Eukarion, BioMarker Pharmaceuticals, Elixir Pharmaceuticals, Helicon Therapeutics, Memory Pharmaceuticals, Cortex Pharmaceuticals, Michael West, Bruce Ames, Stephen Spindler, Saul Kent, Cynthia Kenyon, Leonard Guarentee, David Sinclair, Eric Kandel, Anti-aging studies, Caloric restriction


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Longevity Science: Quest for Human Longevity