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  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: "homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org" <homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [Homestead] Living long is the best revenge
  • Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2006 08:45:56 -0600

In 1986, being exceptionally happy with life, I bought and read The 120-Year Diet, by Roy Walford, MD. Walford relied primarily on rat research to make his case that caloric restriction increases longevity. He advised to find your "set point," the weight level your body set after you were fully mature but still with youthful vigor, late twenties or early thirties, and then very gradually lose weight over the remainder of your life. Ingesting fewer calories requires being sure to get enough vital nutrients. I remember an objection I had to his system was that his suggested menus included exotic ingredients likely available only in big cities. And all his research was on rats. Well! Rats are to humans as quack grass is to tomatoes, right?

Now comes new work on the same subject but this time with primates. Some of you don't do the required New York Times registration, so here are excerpts from this morning's article. The article is titled:

One for the Ages: A Prescription That May Extend Life.

"In a laboratory at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, Matthias is learning about time's caprice the hard way. At 28, getting on for a rhesus monkey, Matthias is losing his hair, lugging a paunch and getting a face full of wrinkles.
"Yet in the cage next to his, gleefully hooting at strangers, one of Matthias's lab mates, Rudy, is the picture of monkey vitality, although he is slightly older. Thin and feisty, Rudy stops grooming his smooth coat just long enough to pirouette toward a proffered piece of fruit.
"Tempted with the same treat, Matthias rises wearily and extends a frail hand.
"This approach, called calorie restriction, involves eating about 30 percent fewer calories than normal while still getting adequate amounts of <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/vitamins/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>vitamins, minerals and other nutrients. Aside from direct genetic manipulation, calorie restriction is the only strategy known to extend life consistently in a variety of animal species.
"How this drastic <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/diet/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>diet affects the body has been the subject of intense research. Recently, the effort has begun to bear fruit, producing a steady stream of studies indicating that the rate of aging is plastic, not fixed, and that it can be manipulated.
"In the last year, calorie-restricted diets have been shown in various animals to affect molecular pathways likely to be involved in the progression of Alzheimer's disease, <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/diabetes/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>diabetes, <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/heartdisease/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>heart disease, Parkinson's disease and <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/cancer/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier>cancer. Earlier this year, researchers studying dietary effects on humans went so far as to claim that calorie restriction may be more effective than exercise at preventing age-related diseases.
"The calorie-restricted organism is stronger, according to this hypothesis, because individual cells are more efficiently repairing mutations, using energy, defending themselves and mopping up harmful byproducts like free radicals."

By the way, Roy Walford died of Lou Gehrig's disease in 2004 at age 79.

And, yes, the original saying was, "living well is the best revenge."

Take your pick. Or go for both. It's a choice.

The article may be found at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/31/health/nutrition/31agin.html?8dpc
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Subject: [Homestead] Wastewater costs 340 times Colorado River water
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Believe it or don't, water out West has now become so valuable that Prescott Valley, Arizona is auctioning rights to its wastewater, the water that ostensibly recharges aquifers in the area. For those not familiar, new development proposals in Arizona must prove where their 100-year water supply will come from.

The wastewater auction bidders will be subdivision developers. Tell me again about that real estate bubble.

Wastewater auction is the next step in state growth

Shaun McKinnon
The Arizona Republic
Oct. 31, 2006 12:00 AM

Prescott Valley will stretch water supplies to new lengths this week when it auctions the rights to some of its treated wastewater to buyers who could use it to build subdivisions.

The auction, the first of its kind in this country, will create a new source of water for growth in a part of Arizona that has nearly used up its existing reserves.

Bidding starts Wednesday and ends Thursday. On the block is enough water to support nearly 6,000 homes and more, if apartments or condominiums are built.

The treated wastewater won't flow directly into homes but will percolate into aquifers, recharging them as wells supply the new homes.

Bidders will determine the final price, but the town has set a minimum bid of $28,000 per acre-foot, or roughly 340 times the cost of Colorado River water in the Phoenix area. An acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons.

Selling the rights to effluent marks a major advance in the use of recycled water, which until now has been limited to irrigating golf courses or parks.

If the auction succeeds, it could also help speed the transformation of water from a public resource to a commodity that is traded, bought and sold on the open market.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/1031water-auction1031.html



  • [Homestead] Living long is the best revenge, Gene GeRue, 10/31/2006

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