First hint that body’s biological age can be reversed

[John Clark]

I'm forwarding this article to the list even though it seems incredible because it came from Nature, and there is no science journal more respected than Nature. The study was conducted by cryobiologist Dr. Gregory Fahy and involved Human Growth Hormone and two common diabetes drugs, dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) and metformin. The results are interesting because it didn't just slow down the biological clock it reversed it, but it may not be rock solid because the clinical study was small (just 9 white men between 51 and 65) and it did not contain a control group.

The discovery was an accident, the drug trial was set up to see if growth hormone could be safely used to restore the thymus gland and anti-diabetic drugs were only included because growth hormone can cause diabetes. After the trial was over they found that in 7 of the 9 men the thymus was restored, and then as an afterthought Fahy checked on their epigenetic clock and got a surprise. It seems odd that it didn't have a control but I suppose it was a early safety trial that was not primarily designed to test if the drug cocktail helped the thymus gland but just to see if anybody suddenly dropped dead.  Fortunately nobody did.

It seems to me the next step should be to try this drug cocktail in old mice and see if they live longer, perhaps substituting Mouse Growth Hormone for the human variety.    

Drugs seemed to rejuvenate the body’s ‘epigenetic clock

John K Clark