LONGECITY

RAADfest is happening this weekend. I will be in attendance. It would be great to meet with any other LongeCity members who might be there as well. Please let me know if you will be there! Just post in this thread and then we can coordinate a little get-together.

 

I will be posting some reports from the conference/festival and hopefully getting some interviews from speakers and attendees.

 

 

 

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Edited by Mind, 06 October 2018 - 04:00 PM.

Getting things set up on Wednesday evening

Cool, glad you're covering this for us.

Few notes/impressions thus far:

 

1. It is great to be at an event where EVERYONE you meet wants to live radically extended lives and reverse aging. Unlike in "ordinary life", you can talk about reversing aging without anyone looking at you weird, as if you were from another planet.

 

2. I have met and talked with a handful of people thus far, and most of them have been doctors/general practitioners. They seem to be here to find out about non-pharma options for treating age-related disease. In fact, I have not not heard many kind words about the current state of pharma and "medicine/healthcare".

Stopped by the vendor area "RAADcity" for a couple of hours today. I was surprised by the number of stem cell producers/vendors/clinics. Seems to be a growing field.

 

I also met up with some familiar faces. Kelsey, Aaron and some of the Ichor crew are here and they have a lot of good news to share. I got some audio.

 

Also got a picture with the Transcend representatives (rebranded from "Ray and Terry's"). I hope to interview Ray Kurzweil, Terry Grossman, or both at some point.

Edited by Mind, 20 September 2018 - 10:33 PM.

Uploaded a new podcast with Sandra Kaufmann. She is an MD who has developed her own anti-aging protocol and written a book about it. I haven't had time to look into the details, but it sounds like she has grounded the approach in biochemistry. Some of you might think it sounds similar to the SENS "7 deadly things". Listen here: https://www.longecity.org/podcast/

Edited by Mind, 22 September 2018 - 01:07 PM.

Good stuff, Mind, we're fortunate to have you there intelligently and casually reporting. You're right, Dr. Kaufmann's approach sounds SENS-ish, but my take is that ADG doesn't care if he inspires mimicks -- he seems pure and wants to prevent suffering and disease. Maybe I'm naive and idealistic, but I don't think anyone should have to suffer the indignities and cruelties that aging brings onto people, and I'd like to believe this is the primary mission of SENS. Stop aging; repair damages.

Keep up the great work, Mind! Hopefully more good news will come out of this year's RAAD Fest. I'm super curious about Bill Faloon's recent work, I guess he's presenting there?

RAADfest has the word "fest" in it because it is supposed to be a celebration of life and life extension efforts.

 

I had to remind myself of this while sitting through the first night of entertainment and presentations. The main theme of Thursday night's line-up was promoting life extension efforts - the social aspects of living longer. It was primarily a showcase of older people encouraging other older people to "grab life by the horns", beat back the diseases of aging, and ignore all the nay-sayers. It was inspirational and the crowd seemed to enjoy the repetitious message. For me, being more used to scientific conferences, it was certainly different, and I was left wanting for a little more on the progress in the field of "anti-aging". However, the attendees are from a wide cross-section of society, and the "fest" has grown each year, so the "feel" of the presentation must resonate. And it was only the first night, kind-of an introduction to RAADfest, so perhaps by design, a little light on details.

 

I was particularly impressed by the number of older people (over 70) in attendance. It is inspirational to interact with people in this age range and realize they are not going down the normal aging path and could be a great source for future advocacy.

 

 

Edited by Mind, 21 September 2018 - 02:25 PM.

The one semi-scientific presentation was from Neil Riordan of the Riodarn Clinic and Medistem Panama, INC. specializing in the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) to treat diseases.

 

Overall, I got the impression that they are using MSCs to attempt to treat or cure just about anything, just to see what works. It is a nascent field of inquiry, so I suppose that is how it goes in the beginning. Riordan referenced several new clinical trials that are ongoing that should help to quantify the effectiveness of the treatments (injecting MSCs into the body or diseased area).

 

Some improvements in patients with MS, age-related frailty, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes have been noted. He referenced a "Taiwan Rat Study" where spinal cords were severed and then recovered some function after treatment with MSCs. His clinic in Panama has treated over 3,000 patients so they should have a good database of effectiveness to draw upon going forward.

 

He mentioned that they have found that the factors secreted by the stem cells seem to be more important than the cells themselves (shades of the mechanisms behind parabiosis). 

 

A couple other items of note: He noted that high dosages of steroids kill off your native populations of MSCs. He was thankful for all of the people who helped to develop "Charlies Law" in Texas, which loosens the restriction on using stem cells in medical practice and research.

 

 

The panel discussion had a lot of "big names" and was again more focused on the social aspects of being advocates for life extension.

 

Highlights: Cryonics was promoted. Jose Luis Cordeiro announced that he is running for European Parliament.

Unlike more scientific conferences, RAADfest has a larger cross-section of people from all age groups and genders. I suspect the design of the "conference' was for this specific reason. I have met quite a few people who are not representatives of orgs/businesses, not scientists, not advocates, just "your next door neighbor", who heard about RAADfest from their personal trainer or doctor, or nutritionist.

 

The NAD treatment center is here and as you can see from the picture, it is a popular booth because they are actually giving treatments to people at the conference.

 

LEF also put together a current protocol for arresting and reversing some aspects of aging. Picture attached. It is based upon a lot of things that are discussed here in the forums.

 

The small stage was in action today to give some of the sponsors and vendors a chance to speak. They are all touting their products like usual, however, unlike the past, quite a few are touting biomarkers as proof of efficacy. It is not as good as large scale double blind clinical trials, but at least they realize the changing landscape of speculative treatments - basically - you had better have some data or no deal.

Edited by Mind, 21 September 2018 - 07:47 PM.

Check out the podcast page for a new interview with Kelsey Moody of Ichor Therapeutics, a LongeCity affiliate lab. https://www.longecit...podcast/?p=home

The second day of presentations (in the afternoon) were more heavy on details - the latest clinical studies. Because this is kind-of a motivational conference, it was common for presenters to encourage - and the audience to cheer - the progress being made in the field.

 

Terry Grossman presented about treating Alzheimer's. Judging by the buzz later in the afternoon, this was a very popular talk among a large segment of the attendees, even though it wasn't about any revolutionary new treatment. He highlighted the many ways in which diet and lifestyle modifications can improve cognitive function in Alzheimer's sufferers, such as a more ketogenic diet and more exercise. He brought up the fact that THC inhibits AChE more than any known pharmaceutical drug. He speculated that some blend of THC and CBD oil could be beneficial, with less of the normal "effects" of THC. In his clinic, he is using photo-biomodulation to improve some metrics of brain function. He said around 810 nm wavelength was the the best for penetrating beneath the skull.

 

On the podcast page is a short interview about his current practice and his views on how things have changed in the last 10 to 20 years. https://www.longecity.org/podcast/

Some of the other presenters who highlighted recent clinical studies (completed or ongoing) were Bill Falloon, Greg Fahy, Bill Andrews, Liz Parrish, and Dr. Andrew Petersen (who is investigating the use of umbilical cord blood serum in age-reversal: https://www.raadfest.com/petersen)

 

Highlights:

 

Bill Andrews says that his new gene therapy treatment to lengthen telomeres is very close to being ready. He told the story of how a new company to develop this treatment was conceived and launched at RAADfest 2017 (in collaboration with a wealthy individual(s) who was in attendance). The company is Libella: http://www.libellage...x.php/partners/

 

The treatment has been delayed because Bill wanted to make sure the treatment was safe with minimal side effects (such as cytotoxic T-cell response). According to his presentation, every known hurdle has been cleared and they have a couple of pilot studies in progress.

 

My main concern with Libella's pilot studies is that they are targeting Alzheimer's - a notoriously difficult disease to treat, much less reverse. There are many drugs available that can clear Amyloid beta from the brain, but that has not resulted in restoration of mental function in Alzheimer's patients (something as simple as photo-biomodulation might be better). Considering that Alzheimer's seems to be a disease driven by accumulated metabolic waste, I couldn't wrap my head around how lengthening telomeres would clear things up. I asked Dr. Andrews about it and he mentioned something about getting new cells to develop in the brain and getting rid of the old non-functional cells. He said they chose Alzheimer's because of positive results seen in mice with the same treatment.

 

There is a sizable fraction of "telomere advocates" in attendance, who while paying lip-service to other causes of aging, maintain that telomere depletion is the most significant by a LARGE margin.

 

Liz Parrish also spoke about her self-experimentation, but you already know about her recent business activities and results from a podcast earlier this year (it is in the podcast archive, scroll to the bottom of the podcast page and click on the "go to archive" link). While BioViva has been slow to "take-off", many acknowledged her effort as the main reason why most of the general population around the world now knows about the possibilities of genetic engineering

On the AI/tech side of things, Ben Goerztel and Ray Kurzweil presented.

 

Ben brought Hanson robotic's Sophia on stage for some conversation and music. Unfortunately there were some hiccups in the operation of the robot so it did not go too smoothly, perhaps due to the slow internet connection.

 

Kurzweil gave his regular speech about exponential progress. Kurzweil looked a lot different in person than in videos online, perhaps because he was dressed more casually. I was standing next to him at one point and didn't even know it. I missed out on a chance at an interview, lol.

Greg Fahy

Any progress from Fahy's thymus regeneration studies?

Any progress from Fahy's thymus regeneration studies?

 

Believe it or not, that was one of the presentations I missed (sorry). When I talked to Fahy later in the evening, we mainly discussed cryonics.

Bill Falloon was definitely the lead motivator at the conference, His main theme was - the first basic rejuvenation treatments are here, so let's do it, let's start getting younger and healthier.

 

Like Terry Grossman, he mentioned the history of supplements thus far, how nutrient-type products over the last 3 or 4 decades really only had limited effects, mainly maintaining health. Now Life Extension Foundation (and other suppliers) are starting to sell products/therapies that have the potential to produce some degree of rejuvenation.

 

Some highlights from Bill:

 

1. He mentioned a few surprising stats about U.S. mortality. Alzheimer's and cardiovascular disease rates in the U.S. have been in steady decline over the last few decades. Given the obesity epidemic in the U.S. one might think the trend would be in the other direction (I tend to think it will go in the other direction rather rapidly in the near future - in the absence of rejuvenation treatments). This trend is probably mainly due to lower rates of smoking, although Bill also partially credited increased use of supplements.

 

2. He mentioned how many new clinical studies are explicitly mentioning "anti-aging", when published in prestigious journals such as JAMA -  sign of progress that scientists and editors are no longer afraid of the term.

 

3. The FDA finally recently gave the MAYO clinic permission (sad that they had to wait so long) to produce and use stem cells for clinical studies.

 

4. Rescue Elders (The Society for Age Reversal) https://www.societyforagereversal.org/ is currently collecting data from the first cohort of people trying out the latest rejuvenation treatments, so we should have some preliminary results soon.

 

5. The best available potential rejuvenation treatment that is available and cheap with few side effects, is dasatinib+quercitin. LEF has a protocol for those who want to try it out. Note: dasatinib currently requires a prescription.

Considering that Alzheimer's seems to be a disease driven by accumulated metabolic waste, I couldn't wrap my head around how lengthening telomeres would clear things up.

 

Glial (brain immune) cells support neurons and amongst other things are responsible for clearing away waste. Like other immune cells they replicate quickly and can become exhausted and senescent as we grow old. Even if your neurons would otherwise be pristine, they can age because of immune senescence. Hence rescuing glial cells using telomere elongation (or perhaps clearing them with senolytics) has the potential to treat Alzheimer's.

 

The person to get an in-depth interview with on this subject is Michael Fossel, whose company Telocyte is trying to get a very similar study through the FDA process currently.

Edited by QuestforLife, 26 September 2018 - 08:15 AM.

Reason's impression of RAADfest is similar to mine: https://www.longecit...8-in-san-diego/

 

It has something for everyone, which is good overall. Aubrey DeGrey and Bill Andrews said it was their favorite conference to attend in recent years. Perhaps some of that has to do with the cheering and positive attitude, or maybe because the crowd/conversation is more diverse than other "academic" conferences.

If you are planning to live a long time, Rudi Hoffman is someone who specializes in financial planning, particularly for cryonicists. I ran into him at RAADfest and a short interview is now posted on the podcast page: https://www.longecity.org/podcast/

 

He touches upon financial planning, cryonics, and a recent health scare.

So good you was there Mind and reported here.

The one semi-scientific presentation was from Neil Riordan of the Riodarn Clinic and Medistem Panama, INC. specializing in the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) to treat diseases.

 

Overall, I got the impression that they are using MSCs to attempt to treat or cure just about anything, just to see what works. It is a nascent field of inquiry, so I suppose that is how it goes in the beginning. Riordan referenced several new clinical trials that are ongoing that should help to quantify the effectiveness of the treatments (injecting MSCs into the body or diseased area).

 

Some improvements in patients with MS, age-related frailty, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes have been noted. He referenced a "Taiwan Rat Study" where spinal cords were severed and then recovered some function after treatment with MSCs. His clinic in Panama has treated over 3,000 patients so they should have a good database of effectiveness to draw upon going forward.

 

He mentioned that they have found that the factors secreted by the stem cells seem to be more important than the cells themselves (shades of the mechanisms behind parabiosis). 

 

A couple other items of note: He noted that high dosages of steroids kill off your native populations of MSCs. He was thankful for all of the people who helped to develop "Charlies Law" in Texas, which loosens the restriction on using stem cells in medical practice and researcg

 

 

there are a couple different kind of steroids, could you be more specific??

 

The one semi-scientific presentation was from Neil Riordan of the Riodarn Clinic and Medistem Panama, INC. specializing in the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) to treat diseases.

 

Overall, I got the impression that they are using MSCs to attempt to treat or cure just about anything, just to see what works. It is a nascent field of inquiry, so I suppose that is how it goes in the beginning. Riordan referenced several new clinical trials that are ongoing that should help to quantify the effectiveness of the treatments (injecting MSCs into the body or diseased area).

 

Some improvements in patients with MS, age-related frailty, rheumatoid arthritis, and diabetes have been noted. He referenced a "Taiwan Rat Study" where spinal cords were severed and then recovered some function after treatment with MSCs. His clinic in Panama has treated over 3,000 patients so they should have a good database of effectiveness to draw upon going forward.

 

He mentioned that they have found that the factors secreted by the stem cells seem to be more important than the cells themselves (shades of the mechanisms behind parabiosis). 

 

A couple other items of note: He noted that high dosages of steroids kill off your native populations of MSCs. He was thankful for all of the people who helped to develop "Charlies Law" in Texas, which loosens the restriction on using stem cells in medical practice and research.

there are a couple different kind of steroids, could you be more specific??

 

Reproducing the post above for clarity. Also interested in this answer.

He was not specific, but if I have some time in the next couple of days, I will try to track down an answer, hopefully from Riordin himself.

Here is a selfie I got with Elliot Small - developer of the AgeMeter. I took the AgeMeter test at RAADfest. It is a much different measure of aging which I think is very important. If we want a comprehensive picture of biological AND functional age then we need more than just cellular and DNA measurements. We need to see if we are functioning like a younger person (reaction time, memory, skin elasticity, etc...)

Edited by Mind, 06 October 2018 - 04:20 PM.

Here is a selfie I got with Elliot Small - developer of the AgeMeter. I took the AgeMeter test at RAADfest. It is a much different measure of aging which I think is very important. If we want a comprehensive picture of biological AND functional age then we need more than just cellular and DNA measurements. We need to see if we are functioning like a younger person (reaction time, memory, skin elasticity, etc...)

 

In case you missed it, here is an interview which Mind had last year with Elliot Small. For some reason the file seems broken today though:

https://www.longecit...ndpost&p=823970
 

Yes, sorry. The old links are broken. I need to transfer the old podcasts to our new server. On my to do list.

You might be interested to also look at the interesting perspective of Dr. Aubrey de Grey who participated to this and previous RAAD Fest events here:

De grey ADNJ. Anti-aging passion and pragmatism: effective bedfellows at last. Rejuvenation Res. 2018

The one semi-scientific presentation was from Neil Riordan of the Riodarn Clinic and Medistem Panama, INC. specializing in the use of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) to treat diseases.

 

Overall, I got the impression that they are using MSCs to attempt to treat or cure just about anything, just to see what works. It is a nascent field of inquiry, so I suppose that is how it goes in the beginning. Riordan referenced several new clinical trials that are ongoing that should help to quantify the effectiveness of the treatments (injecting MSCs into the body or diseased area).

 

Joe Rogan does a good interview of Mel Gibson and Dr. Neil Riordan about the experience that Mel Gibson's father had at the Panama clinic.  It's about an hour long and is on YouTube.  The URL is

Sorry, I had no idea that putting a URL in a reply would result in a giant picture showing up in the reply.  Live and learn I guess.

Edited by JamesPaul, 10 October 2018 - 03:32 AM.