Anti-ageing products don't do anything for you; amazed at how much money they make: Dr Bill Andrews

Dr Bill Andrews
Dr Bill Andrews

For the second session on Day 2 of the India Today Conclave, Group Editorial Director Raj Chengappa introduced Dr Bill Andrews as the man who has a cure for ageing; the scientist who promises to make us all young again. Dr Andrews has over 45 patents on telomeres, a component in our DNA, directly linked to ageing.

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In what turned out to be an enlightening session with a rapt audience, Dr Andrews explained the process of ageing and talked about how we can reverse it. He believes ageing is a disease that we all suffer from but wanting to be young forever is more than just about what we look and what we feel. "We all have a big problem especially in India, of the 'silver tsunami'. Because of the baby boomers and a lot of developments in the world we're creating a lot of old people and they're all getting sick from old age. Right now the number of people over 65 is just 5 per cent, and by end of century it's going to be around 25 per cent. Where is India going to get the caregivers for these people? How is India going to cover all the medical costs? I believe the solution is don't let them get old, let them stay healthy and take care of themselves," he said.

Talking about all the theories and anti-ageing products in the market, Dr Andrews said "they don't do anything in terms of ageing and very little for your health, and I'm amazed how much money they make on the market."

He further explained the process: "Think of ageing as a stick of dynamite burning inside yourself. Think of multiple sticks of dynamites and each being a different cause of ageing. What matters is which stick of dynamite has the shortest fuse because the others won't matter anymore once the first one goes off."

The real front-runner that's been showing up in thousands of publications and journals is telomeres. So, what are telomeres? "A human is made up of a hundred trillion cells; we age because our cells age. Every cell contains a nucleus and inside these are the chromosomes. The chromosomes further contain DNA, which is like a long string of beads. Think of it as shoelaces. At the end are caps that prevent laces from falling off. Similarly, at the end of the strings of DNA are telomeres," he said. When these telomeres get shorter, we age. The key, then is to increase the telomeres.

"When we are conceived, telomeres are about 15,000 bases in length. Every single time a human cell divides, the telomeres reduce. When you are born, they're down to 10,000 bases. So you still have a lot more cell division as you get older. When telomeres get to 5,000 bases, your cells don't function and you die of old age. This is happening in all humans. No matter how well you eat, how much you exercise, do everything your doctor tells you to do, there's nothing you can do to stop this."

Dr Andrews further said he has discovered an enzyme called telomerase than lengthens the telomeres. "In collaboration with a laboratory at Harvard, we lengthened telomeres in mice and they actually got younger. They were old mice but after this enzyme, they could breathe again, their memories came back, and they could reproduce again. But the method we used, genetic engineering, on mice can't be used on humans yet."

So what can we do to reverse ageing?
"First, you should measure your telomeres. There are many ways but the one I've found. A company in Spain is doing it, which is not in India yet, but will eventually come to Bangalore. This is the best marker of your age."

Then, there are ways to reduce oxidative stress. Some of them, as listed by Dr Andrews, are:

  1. Endurance exercise: India is a big part of all this. The premiere endurance event in the whole world is here in India, La Ultra, in the Himalayas. It's 333km in length, and I've done it. It's non-stop , slow, long-distance endurance running. It keeps your telomeres long and really healthy. Also, walking is as good as running. The point is, get out and move.
  2. Meditation and yoga. People who do this have longer telomeres than those who don't.
  3. Don't smoke.
  4. Don't be obese.
  5. Reduce depression.
  6. Take antioxidants; Omega 3 is important.
  7. Vitamin D is equally important; take 10,000 units a day.
  8. Reduce gluten, dairy, trans- and saturated fats.
  9. Most exciting, we've found several natural products that will lengthen telomeres. TA 65 and Product B are two that I use. The royalties from the sales of these go towards our research.
  10. Gene therapy: A company in Fiji Islands has licensed this from us and is going to make it available, but at USD 2 million a treatment, only the super wealthy will be able to do it.
  11. I promise, in less than a year we will have a small molecule that we can all have to help lengthen telomeres.

"For more, you can read my book, Curing Aging. A movie was also made on my research called The Immortalists."


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