Bombshell: Explosive Medical Secrets That Will Redefine Aging (30 page)

Regenerative physicians do an extensive panel of blood tests, a complete analysis from head to toe, from the thyroid to the gonads, bowel function, gut function … it’s all essential. We test for malabsorption, dysbiosis, and yeast overgrowth because all these things affect the bowel, and the bowel is one of the entranceways and the primary resource we have to maintain our immune system and get nutrients into our bodies. Regenerative medicine is a complete approach to true health, and it also requires that you listen to the patient.

The void in traditional medicine is that doctors don’t have time to spend with their patients. Ten to fifteen minutes per patient is simply not enough. My first interview with a new patient lasts at least an hour to listen to them and see their symptoms; this directs me as to whether the patient’s problem is thyroid, hormonal, or a combination of many different things, including food allergies or toxicity. I do the easiest, simplest, most cost-effective protocol possible for each patient. I do not want to overwhelm them.

SS:
Are your patients receptive to supplementation regimens?

AJ:
I explain to them, when you are twenty years old, you haven’t spent much time in our toxic environment so you don’t need supplementation as much, plus the younger body is better able to absorb things than when the body is older. Some of my patients require only, maybe, ten pills a day, others need forty a day, which is a lot, but it’s always determined by blood tests showing the patient’s unique deficiencies. They all need vitamin D, and I cannot emphasize fish oil enough; it’s good for cholesterol levels and aches and pains, and it helps with neurotransmission and depression. With a few simple changes in the way my patients live their lives and by taking hormones and supplements, I can get them smiling and happy. The rest is fine-tuning.

SS:
The goal being optimal health?

AJ:
Yes, that’s the goal; but it has to be done in baby steps. Otherwise, it overwhelms the patient. In the beginning I’d send new patients home with forty or fifty supplements, they’d take them, they’d throw up—and they wouldn’t be very happy with me. Now, I start slowly. I work together with my patients. If a patient comes in who is heavy and asks, “Can you help me?” I say, “Yes, I can help but if you don’t change your diet and lifestyle I can’t do much.” I stress eating
organic food if they can afford it. I teach the value of nutrition: that you don’t diet to get skinny, that you change your diet to promote optimal health, and that prime health and thinness go together. In today’s world, we know that toxins are hurting us. Pesticides allow for bigger, more beautiful-looking fruits and vegetables, and pesticides allow for more yield per acre, but at what cost to us?

SS:
When we were kids, there was no organic food because it never entered our minds to spray poison on our
food
!

AJ:
Yes, the food didn’t look as good back then when we went to the market; the apples and oranges looked a little grungier, but they were natural. Now when you go to the nonorganic section of the supermarket, everything is so pretty. And the meat is so red with all its dyes and preservatives, but again, at what cost to us?

SS:
Let’s talk about TA-65. For anyone interested in antiaging, this could be the biggest breakthrough of all time.

AJ:
Yes, this is a tremendous advancement in medicine. TA-65 was based on the Nobel Prize winners’ discovery of the enzyme telomerase that actually lengthens telomeres. The length of the telomere on each and every cell in our trillions of cells determines our health and aging. With each replication of each cell the telomere gets shorter. Once it reaches critical mass and the telomere no longer works, then that cell dies. Along the way with shortened telomeres, the body gets older and less healthy. This new supplement actually lengthens short telomeres through the use of telomerase, and the effect is to enhance wellness.

SS:
Is the advantage of the TA-65 supplement that it is the only telomere-stimulating substance on the market? And is this going to allow us to live till we are two hundred? [Laughs.]

AJ:
Well, it’s a start. We are seeing very few side effects with it, and there are so many advantages. Although more research is needed, telomerase certainly has the potential to extend life and in many ways reverse aging. If we increase the life span and if, in fact, telomere length determines the state of your health, people will no longer retire at sixty or sixty-five. They will be healthy people, and healthy people are productive people.

SS:
So that answers the question of what will they do with themselves? You think as a result, we will have all these healthy productive people running around with good brains and the wisdom that only comes with age? Currently, our planet is sadly devoid of wisdom, so this would be a good thing.

AJ:
It would be a good thing … I’m not going to retire at sixty-five. I’m not going to retire; I don’t want to. I want to be healthy and contribute. TA-65 is multifactorial, a combination of advantages. Your mental clarity is sharper, your skin changes are slowed down, and you don’t have the same degeneration of your joints and muscles, so you can be ambulatory. You can be cognitive, you can be intelligent, and you can be sharp. Also, we like the way we look with this supplement plus a complete individualized supplementation program. With TA-65 you can glance in the mirror and see that you are looking better and your muscle mass is more cut and defined. It could be the end to walkers, and drooling, and the present template of what we think of as aging.

SS:
Yes, and the present paradigm of aging is something so unappealing. Is TA-65 something you can take if you have active cancer?

AJ:
So far there has been no downside to TA-65, but we do not have any information on its effect on active cancer. But if you think through what telomerase does, I can see where it could actually prevent cancer by lengthening the telomeres. When you think about it, cancer already has telomerase. That’s why cancer cells are immortal. So there is no way to make these cells any worse. TA-65 lengthens telomeres and that boosts the immune system so you have positive factors at work. The best way to prevent cancer is to have a strong immune system. Any organism with an optimal, balanced immune system tends to be stronger. We produce cancer cells in our bodies almost from the time we’re born, yet we don’t get that many cancers because our system destroys the cells. So an immunologically enhanced individual is just not going to have as high a cancer risk.

SS:
The concept makes sense to me … We need something new, and to now have a supplement to possibly boost the immune system, we may be at the dawning of a new day. What are the advantages and the disadvantages?

AJ:
The advantages: a small study showed that it significantly boosted the immune system, lengthened short telomeres, showed an increase in sexual function, skin got better, eyesight improved, and hair growth was significant. These are some very, very substantial advantages. The disadvantage: It’s expensive, starts at about $2,000 a year depending on your age.

SS:
Frankly, for all it does, considering what women in particular spend on beauty products and treatments—expensive visits for Botox and other injections, plastic surgery going into the thousands,
facials, peels, liposuction—it all adds up. The beauty business is red-hot even in this bad economy. A supplement touted to make you healthier, possibly protect you from cancer and build up your immune system is pretty spectacular, but then add in the other benefits of fewer wrinkles, shinier hair, better eyesight, better sexual function, better working brain and it becomes a very appealing supplement to take. The supplement, however, is expensive to make as Noel Patton explained in his interview. Obtaining the ingredients is difficult and the process of making TA-65 is complex, so for now, it keeps the price high.

Some people are just not going to be able to afford it, but if it is the miracle it seems to be, wouldn’t it make sense that our health care system would provide this to prevent all the expense down the road for diseases from our toxic environment and debilitated immune systems?

AJ:
I couldn’t agree more. Perhaps when Geron pharmaceuticalizes it, then there’s a possibility that insurance would pay for it. But then it will be a drug. To obtain a patent they would have to alter the molecular structure. What I like about TA-65 is that it is a pure nutraceutical that isn’t chemicalized in any way. TA-65 does not put environmental or toxic stress on the body as do some drugs.

SS:
I hear that you and your wife, who is also a doctor, are taking the supplement. My sister Maureen said she saw the two of you on Burlingame Avenue and she couldn’t believe the difference she saw in both of you. In fact, she thought you both had face-lifts, but then she said that the skin on your hands and arms was also young and different. Younger! She said you both look phenomenal. How long have you been taking it?

AJ:
We’ve been using it for about six months and have noticed a significant improvement, and that’s saying a lot because my wife and I are very balanced. We walk our talk and use what we encourage our patients to take. My wife says that her skin feels like it has been plumped. In fact, she was scheduled to have a face-lift in September and she canceled that because the effects of this supplement have been so dramatic.

By the way, your sister Maureen looks great.

SS:
I know, because she is doing all of this. She’s in her early seventies and looks, and better yet feels, fifty!

AJ:
She is a great patient. In my experience, people who are on antiaging regimens are just brighter and sharper, and they feel better.

SS:
Well, your results with this supplement are very exciting. A natural way to boost health and beauty potentially.

AJ:
Well, who doesn’t want to look and feel better? With telomerase, instead of cells dying, we can maintain them. I tell my patients, you can start a healthy program including TA-65 now and jump-start your regenerative health, but it’s expensive. Or you can wait ten or more years for the pharmaceutical version so that insurance might pay for it.

SS:
I guess you have to look at this as a luxury. Maybe instead of a trip you wanted to take or remodeling your kitchen or whatever, you decide between that or what you would get the most enjoyment out of. Not being sick, run-down, looking better, having better hair and eyesight, plus being sexually functional … all pretty exciting.

AJ:
I tell my patients that I can get them back to balance, and if they stay with me, they can expect improved overall health and mental health. I can restore their quality of life without growth hormones or TA-65. But if someone can afford those things, then I certainly recommend it if indicated. Not everybody needs growth hormone and not everyone needs TA-65, but you are right—if you can afford it, it’s a true luxury and benefit.

SS:
What about the argument that you are messing with nature—that a sixty-five-year-old is supposed to feel like a sixty-five-year-old—and you should stop interfering with the natural course of life?

AJ:
If that were the case, then we should stop all technology. We should stop MRIs and sophisticated blood testing and get rid of all the modern technology that has allowed us to live longer than ever before. Does it make sense that we are supposed to live longer but in total deterioration? One of the articles I read concerning TA-65 is a philosophical discussion of what we will do if this really works.

SS:
What
will
we do?

AJ:
Society will adjust. We’ll work longer, harder, we won’t use Social Security, and the economic system will adjust to it. But certainly ethically, morally, and even religiously, no one has ever said that we shouldn’t make optimal use of our life span.

SS:
What about the environment? The chemicals, the pesticides, the fluoride, the assault that every living human on the planet cannot help but be exposed to? Is TA-65 a protector, because it strengthens the immune system to put up a resistance to the invisible and in many cases visible enemy?

AJ:
It helps with strengthening the immune system, and a strong
immune system is the best line of defense. We have to keep educating. People have to get involved and realize that the body was never meant to handle so many toxins and that the liver is not able to clear the body of them when under such a bombardment. Every time I educate somebody, they go out and tell their family members who then tell their friends. Hopefully that groundswell will help us.

SS:
And that’s our journey … how well can we be in a sick world? As a healthy sixty-five-year-old I realize I am valuable to society. Older people who have taken care of themselves provide value and do not drain society by their sicknesses and ill health.

AJ:
You may not remember, but I’ve also been in law enforcement for years, and I recently left my department to apply for another one. When I fill out my form, it’s going to ask my age and I will say sixty-two and they are going to say, wait, a cop? SWAT? Sixty-two years old? But I know that I compete in all the physical agility tests with all the twenty-five- and thirty-year-olds and I not only keep up, but I’m often ahead of them.

SS:
Do you think it’s the payoff because you practice antiaging medicine?

AJ:
Yes. It has paid off. I don’t feel any older than I was when I was considered young. I think this direction of medicine has given me a new sense of enjoyment about my craft. I was getting to the point where traditional medicine wasn’t satisfying to me anymore. I was putting Band-Aids on patients; I’d be able to help them a little bit, but no one got really well. No one was able to slow the course of nature. This new arena is so much fun. The reward I get is listening to my patients talk about how great they feel. My lot in life is to make my patients feel the best that they can. It’s not a big moneymaker. Fifty percent of antiaging doctors go out of business in the first year. You do it because it’s rewarding and fulfilling.