Bombshell: Explosive Medical Secrets That Will Redefine Aging (29 page)

SS:
Does one take TA-65 for life?

NTP:
I will. But it’s not like the hormones that you write about so eloquently. As you know, with hormones, once you start taking them you have to take them for life or you go right back to where you started. That’s not the case with lengthening your telomeres. Here is a hypothetical example: If I take TA-65 for a year, and I lengthen my telomeres the equivalent of ten years and then I stop, my telomeres won’t immediately go back to where they were when I started. They will start to age again, but it should take ten years to get as short as they were when I started.

SS:
I see; it’s like rolling the clock back.

NTP:
Exactly. If you take TA-65 for one year or even six months, you’ll get a benefit and that benefit will last.

SS:
Will I notice a difference right away?

NTP:
Not necessarily. Some people do and some don’t. A major effect of TA-65 is rejuvenation of the immune system. But how do you know if your immune system is stronger? You don’t necessarily feel any different at all; you would need a series of blood tests to track changes.

Similarly, how do you feel if your telomeres are longer? You don’t feel that, either. It’s a long-term lengthening of the telomeres that’s going to have the effect. But a lot of people do notice things like sleeping better, having more energy, better sexual performance, and so on.

SS:
Who is taking it?

NTP:
I’m not at liberty to name names without specific authorization, but I can say this; we have Nobel laureates, famous actors
and actresses, professional athletes who are trying to prolong their careers, and a lot of people who are simply not willing to be packed off to the nursing home.

SS:
So you are making cells young again. It’s actually a fantastic dream. Can any doctor prescribe it?

NTP:
No, we only sell through doctors and health professionals who we have licensed. There are more than 250 in the United States and more are being added each week. To be licensed by us, health professionals have to pay a licensing fee, sign a legal document, study our fifty-page manual on telomerase activation, and, finally, pass a written test. Only then will we certify them. TA-65 is not just another supplement; it addresses the fundamental root cause of cellular aging. We don’t want it sold by anyone who doesn’t understand at least the basics of telomere biology.

SS:
Is there a resource list so people from all over the country can access one of these doctors?

NTP:
Yes, all our licensees are listed on our online website:
www.TASciences.com
.

SS:
And how much will this cost?

NTP:
For older people or those with short telomeres who take the full dose of four pills a day, it costs about $4,000 for a six-month supply. If you are younger and need a lower dose, it will be less. The low dose of one pill a day costs $200 a month. That’s not too bad; many women spend more than that for cosmetics.

SS:
Not everyone will see the same results. What complaints have you gotten?

NTP:
Well, the worst case that I can think of was not actually so bad. We had an eighty-year-old client who took TA-65 for two years and then we noticed he had stopped reordering. So I called and asked him why. He said, “Well, I’ve been taking it for two years and I don’t think it’s doing me any good. I feel exactly the same as I did before I started taking it.” I then said to him, “John, you’ve gone from eighty to almost eighty-three with no deterioration, feeling exactly as you did before; don’t you think that may be a benefit in itself?” He said he hadn’t thought of that, and then he said, “Actually, come to think of it, I haven’t been feeling as good as I was when I was taking TA-65 every day.” So I said to him, let’s retest you and objectively see what has happened. Luckily, he had done blood work to establish a baseline before he started taking our product so we could make a comparison. He took a follow-up blood test and we found that his
immune system had quite significantly improved so he went back on the supplement.

SS:
How does TA-65 affect stem cells?

NTP:
Stem cells are like every other human cell in that every time one divides, the telomeres get shorter. But they are different from most cells because they have some telomerase, which is why they can make enough new cells to keep us alive. Unfortunately, when stem cells get old, they can’t produce enough telomerase anymore, and their capacity to make new cells decreases. The result is obvious; we lose regenerative capacity and eventually succumb to old age. But TA-65 activates telomerase in all types of cells we have studied, and we expect it is active in stem cells as well, keeping them functioning longer.

We are talking to stem cell people who multiply stem cells in their labs with the idea of using TA-65 so that all that cell division does not end up severely shortening telomeres. Clearly it is not a good idea to put back stem cells that are older than they started with, and that’s what happens when cells divide if they don’t have telomerase activated at the same time. I would like to see stem cell therapy one day using adult cells that in addition to having been multiplied have been made younger.

Let me say a few words about telomere lengths over the course of a lifetime. Did you know your telomeres are the longest at conception, not at birth? Remember that every time a cell divides, your telomeres get shorter. When we start out as an embryo, we consist of only one cell. Then that single-cell embryo starts to divide. By the time a baby is born, the cell numbers have increased billions of times to get all those cells to make a fully formed baby. Telomeres in an embryo start out being about 15,000 base pairs of DNA long, and by the time the baby is born, telomere length is down to about 10,000 base pairs. We all lose about one-third of our telomere length by the time we are born. Over the next eighty or so years, we lose another 5,000 to 7,000 base pairs. Then when a telomere gets down to about 3,000 (it doesn’t have to get to zero), it’s too short to do its job of protecting the chromosome. You get double strand breaks and fusions of different chromosomes that cause various mutations. At this point, telomeres are so short that the cell can no longer divide; it becomes senescent and goes on to die.

Short telomeres are literally the “kiss of death.”

SS:
Thanks, Noel. This is intriguing and fascinating. It feels as if
we are at the brink of what Ray Kurzweil refers to as “a fantastic voyage.” No one wants to age unless we can do so in perfect health and remain vital and energetic. The benefit of aging and why we want to age is that with age comes wisdom, and the planet is in dire need of wisdom. So I see this as a possibility for longer life and more wisdom.

NTP:
Thank you, Suzanne. It’s been my pleasure to have this opportunity to talk about telomeres and TA-65.

Dr. Andy Jurow
is a strapping, good-looking gynecologist and obstetrician as well as an antiaging doctor who moonlights at night as a SWAT team cop. I attribute his fantastic health and energy (he’s a bit of an overachiever) to following the regimen he recommends to his patients in order to live life in optimal health. He was educated at Michigan State University Medical Center and did his residency at the University of Southern California Medical Center. He has obtained fellowships with the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and is presently enrolled at the University of South Florida College of Medicine studying metabolic and nutritional medicine. He is excited about the possibilities of living longer and makes sure he keeps up with all the most up-to-date information and studies. He is smart and compassionate, as well as passionate about reversing aging and longevity. He is located in Burlingame, California
.

SS:
Good morning, Dr. Jurow. You are one of those “combination doctors,” a gynecologist with an antiaging medicine practice who specializes in bioidentical hormone replacement, and now you have been certified as a specialist in testing and prescribing TA-65, the telomere-lengthening supplement. Do your patients understand the advantage they are getting from you relative to aging well?

AJ:
Thank you, Suzanne. My patients understand and that’s why they come to me, but I do experience resistance and criticism from my peers. Some doctors in this area have not branched out and do not agree with antiaging medicine, and my approach may threaten them.

SS:
Crazy, isn’t it? I would think they would seek you out for
instruction on the new ways to help people make their way through the toxic soup we live in and the longer lives we’ve obtained through technology.

AJ:
Yes, but most of the information they get is from big pharma, and that general literature and information turns them against these new ideas. It’s frustrating. Even though we do have the data on bioidenticals, they still fight it. They take their patients off the hormones I have prescribed to them. Even though those patients are feeling great, they take them off and then they become miserable again.

SS:
Are the women just afraid to go against their GP?

AJ:
Most of the women stay with me because their quality of life is so improved on bioidentical hormone replacement (BHRT). But I’m constantly fighting misinformation. Women will come to me and say, my doctor told me to stop taking estrogen because it will cause breast cancer. In my opinion, there is no data to support that BHRT properly administered will cause breast cancer. I know these doctors are not trying to harm their patients, but they respond to the misinformation of the media who interpret things negatively and incorrectly. There are studies that support what I am saying. For instance, the famous Fournier study; Agnes Fournier is a wonderful French investigator, and she reviewed data on some eighty thousand patients over an eight-year period. It showed there was no increased risk in breast cancer for women on bioidentical estrogen. There are many other studies that back up the positive nature of hormone replacement.

Also, as part of my regenerative protocol, I stress to my patients the other important components of aging well; they of course are nutrition, lifestyle, exercise and sleep, managing stress, and avoiding toxins. We also go after cleaning out the body to detoxify from all the pollutants that contaminate all of us; we give them appropriate nutrients and supplements, and then we balance their hormones.

Women and men educate themselves, mainly by reading your books. I often encourage my new patients to read your book
Breakthrough
to educate themselves. It makes my job easier, and when they are armed with current information, they are more responsive to complying with my protocol. It doesn’t take long before they start feeling fantastic. For me, after all these years as a general gynecologist and an OB and not having been able to do anything for the debilitating symptoms of menopause, hormonal loss, and aging, to now actually be able to naturally improve the quality of life for my patients is very rewarding work. Bioidentical hormone replacement is life changing for
these patients. Hormones enhance their immune system; estrogens improve neurotransmitters, allowing the brain to remain healthy to maintain their thinking and memory. Hormones also certainly help with vaginal health and, no small thing, by taking BHRT these people become sexually functioning again.

SS:
Sounds like a no-brainer to me. And we know a healthy person is a sexual person; an unhealthy person has no interest in sex. My sister is one of your happy patients by the way, and I appreciate that you take such good care of her. Do you consider yourself a gynecologist first and an antiaging doctor second?

AJ:
Good question. I started out as a gynecologist. Now I have an additional office for my regenerative patients. My passion is this new regenerative medicine. If you feel better emotionally, physically, and mentally, you are going to get more enjoyment out of life. For me, this new specialty is a matter of paying attention to what’s available and being on top of the research. It’s changing and updating all the time. I review the literature on a weekly basis if not more often, to see what’s out there that’s new. For example, a federal task force came out with a thousand-page study not favorable to vitamin D. Even though there are numerous studies showing the tremendous benefits of vitamin D, this report focused on a negative study from thirty years ago. It was a very small group and the participants were smokers. Yet there are many other studies showing the benefits of vitamin D, which has been proven to improve the immune system, improve diabetes, and reduce cancer risk. So if you are not out there keeping up with all the recent studies, you could be doing your patients a disservice. I had a patient who lost her hair; literally all of it. She went from doctor to doctor, and finally the third doctor she went to tested her vitamin D level and found it was one of the lowest the doctor had ever seen. The patient was put on a vitamin D regimen and her hair returned. So keeping updated is essential; it’s a matter of being aware, and watching what’s out there.

SS:
Yes, you are right. Doctors must keep up with the changing medicine or they will find themselves left in the dust. As people catch on that there is now another way, that it’s not all about pills and that their end point does not and should not be the nursing home, then regenerative medicine, or as I call it advanced medicine, will become the way it’s done.

AJ:
This is the new education. Regenerative medicine is difficult for some physicians to pick up on because it is a different concept of
complete care. In medical school, we are not taught a true model for health. We are not taught about nutrition and prescribing hormones. We are taught to treat diseases.