According to The Los Angeles Times they’ve known it about animals for some time: less growth hormone promotes longevity.
Now a study, published Wednesday in Science Translational Medicine, shows that a similar process may apply in humans.
Endocrinologist Dr. Jaime Guevara-Aguirre of the Institute of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Reproduction in Quito, Ecuador, and USC professor Valter Longo led a team that studied a group of extended relatives living in the Andes in Ecuador, many of whom share a genetic mutation that shuts off receptors to human growth hormone, which helps regulate metabolism throughout the body, as well as the way that cells change as they age.
Having the mutation stunted the subjects’ growth. But it may also be one reason they don’t develop cancer or diabetes, the researchers said.
This connection suggests that people promoting human growth hormone as an anti-aging elixir may be dispensing a cure that promotes diseases of old age rather than preventing them.
Antiaging has become a very large part of our society. In Southern California, youth seems to rule everything. It can consume our thoughts. Dr. O’Toole is careful to explain to patients that plastic surgery is a method to help patients look their best at every age. Patients must be realistic and understand that nothing turns back the aging process. Patients who elect for procedures such as a facelift, blepharoplasty, or brow lift must understand that the aging process continues even after surgery. Patients who have had these procedures typically continued to look about 10 years younger than there stated age; however, they will continue to age.
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