Rat Study Suggests Supplements Can Extend Life
Jan. 22 -- Tory Hagen is amazed every time he looks at the old rats in his laboratory at the Linus Pauling Institute on the campus of Oregon State University in Corvallis. They don't act like old rats. They think they're still young.
For several years now Hagen and his illustrious colleague, biochemist Bruce Ames of the University of California, Berkeley, have been feeding their old rats a mixture of two common nutritional supplements to see if they could turn back the paws of time. Working on the theory that aging is caused at least partly by dysfunction within the cellular structure itself, they think what works for rats may also work for humans.
If they are right, it should be possible to reduce the many disheartening effects of aging by simply popping a pill. But like so many so-called breakthroughs in the ageless search for an end to aging, there's no proof that Hagen and Ames are right. But that could soon change.
A new program under the auspices of the National Institutes of Health is designed to evaluate alternative forms of medicine, like the efficacy of dietary supplements, and it has established the first two "Centers of Excellence for Research." One will study acupuncture. The other will look at the old rats, and the claims that have been made in their behalf.
The second award totals $5.8 million, enough to begin clinical trials with humans, and the center is located on the Oregon State campus, conveniently near Hagen's old rats.
Works on Rats...
Hagen is pretty optimistic that it will work for humans, but he says he isn't sure.
"Humans aren't rats," he says.
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