Posted on 02/18/2011 9:29:36 PM PST by neverdem
People living in remote villages in Ecuador have a mutation that some biologists say may throw light on human longevity and ways to increase it.
The villagers are very small, generally less than three and a half feet tall, and have a rare condition known as Laron syndrome or Laron-type dwarfism. They are probably the descendants of conversos, Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal who were forced to convert to Christianity in the 1490s but were nonetheless persecuted in the Inquisition. They are also almost completely free of two age-related diseases, cancer and diabetes.
A group of 99 villagers with Laron syndrome has been studied for 24 years by Dr. Jaime Guevara-Aguirre, an Ecuadorean physician and diabetes specialist. He discovered them when traveling on horseback to a roadless mountain village. Most such villages are inhabited by Indians, but these were Europeans, with Spanish surnames typical of conversos.
As Dr. Guevara-Aguirre accumulated health data on his patients, he noticed a remarkable pattern: though cancer was frequent among people who did not have the Laron mutation, those who did have it almost never got cancer. And they never developed diabetes, even though many were obese, which often brings on the condition.
“I discovered the population in 1987,” Dr. Guevara-Aguirre said in an interview from Ecuador...
--snip--
The Laron patients’ mutation means that their growth hormone receptor lacks the last eight units of its exterior region, so it cannot react to growth hormone. In normal children, growth hormone makes the cells of the liver churn out another hormone, called insulinlike growth factor, or IGF-1, and this hormone makes the children grow. If the Laron patients are given doses of IGF-1 before puberty, they can grow to fairly normal height...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
PS
We know someone, still living in NY, who is about 80 years old and is six feet nine inches.
In his late 20’s, he had his ski boots ordered from Italy because there was nothing in the U.S. for his huge foot, at that time!
Back in those days, he was always the tallest person around, stood out like the proverbial (must I say it?) - - sore thumb.
He was the best man at a wedding where the bride was probably five feet tall. What a sight! I was young, but I remember!
Same here. The colonial welsh ancestors all lived into their eighties when they lived on the farm in chester county. Philadelphia/ city dwelling colonials had half the life span. Must be the epidemics and alcoholism concurrent with higher population density.
-——Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal who were forced to convert to Christianity in the 1490s but were nonetheless persecuted in the Inquisition-———
Hmmm...... the inquisition of peace
Closer than you think. Spain had just evicted the muslim moors, cruel "justice" was all they had known for centuries. It took them a while to unlearn it.
One does wonder if the Homo floresiensis skeletons are the earthly remains of another colony of Laron-type dwarfs?
It is, thanks.
My grandmother lived to 106. Of normal stature, her longevity was attributed to the bowl of oatmeal she had for breakfast every morning. BTW, in her late 90s she flipped her walker at a home intruder and scared him off :) Oatmeal power!
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The villagers are very small, generally less than three and a half feet tall, and have a rare condition known as Laron syndrome or Laron-type dwarfism. They are probably the descendants of conversos, Sephardic Jews from Spain and Portugal who were forced to convert to Christianity in the 1490s but were nonetheless persecuted in the Inquisition. They are also almost completely free of two age-related diseases, cancer and diabetes.
Simple explanation: Not tainted by liberalism!
The Life Extension Foundation funded a study to search for common drugs that activated some of the same genes activated by calorie restriction. Bingo! Metformin, a common anti-diabetes drug induces some of the same gene activation.
Have been on low-dose metformin for seven years now. I noticed that my body temp seems to be 1-2F low at all times and my metabolism has noticeably slowed. The life extension effect could be due simply to slower chemical processes in the body. Roy Walford found similar life extension in animals with lower body temps.
Still experimenting!
BTW, you can buy metformin from a European pharmacy from Anti-Aging Systems. Have been buying from them for decades.
See Life Extension Foundation’s website, www.lef.org, for journal articles, etc.
Well...that’s bold...and gold! lol
I’m happy to “see” you! ;o)
So true.
There was NO cancer in previous generations in my very large extended family. Now it is beginning in my generation, with my sister, who was among the first to receive a polio vaccination in the 50s(Our Dad was affiliated with a medical school) developing an extremely rare sarcoma in her muscles. Coincidence?
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