The Revolution Against Aging And Death (RAAD) is growing! Over 1100 revolutionaries attended the 4th annul RAADfest in Las Vegas this past weekend. There were flag waving revolutionaries, but even more exciting were the results reported by the revolutionaries. The battle is well engaged and there is significant progress towards victory!
I was part of the movement meeting at the Westgate Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. There are very interesting developments occurring in reversing aging by bio-regeneration. In some cases it will take years for these developments to go through the regulatory steps in the United States and Europe. However, some are available now, through delivery in other countries (this is particularly true for stem cell therapies that are proving effective). In other cases costs at present are very high and it will take a few years for scaling factors to reduce these costs to more accessible levels.
There were about 1100 full time attendees registered for the three day conference with additional numbers attending on day passes. The conference consisted of a series of presentations on progress against aging, an exhibition hall called “RAADcity” where vendors could display/sell their products, communal meals at lunch on the Friday and Saturday as well as supper on Saturday, and a party on Saturday evening. For those paying a premium fee for VIP status there was a “Speakers” party on Friday evening in the penthouse (where Elvis stayed when he played at the hotel).
The RAADFest 2019 website was prepared before the show and the information on it contains some information for the 2019 event but also information from the 2018 event.
Presentations
The conference started with a welcoming statement by James Strole and Bernadeane. They looked forward to reaching the tipping point on aging when most people and governments would regard aging as a disease.
After introductory remarks by James Strole and Bernadeane, there were three days of presentations. I comment on some of the presentations in the first two days and unfortunately was not present for the last day.
- Bill Faloon, CEO of Life Extension, announced the launch of the “Vitality in Aging” longitudinal study of aging, combined with an intervention program in which some participants will receive treatment(s)to try to slow or reverse aging. The slides of his presentation are on Slideshare. A particular offering of the presentation was the option to join the study for $595 (details of this are in the slides). The Life Extension booth that was offering this was swamped throughout the show. The major problem with joining was the amount of time it took to get through the enlistment process (generally a few hours, including completing a 10 page health questionnaire, medical exam and blood samples)
- Ray Kurzwell gave a video presentation, from his office at Google, on the impact of AI on Medicine. It was a fascinating talk which included coverage of the exponential growth of computing power in AI and forecasts of having our brains directly connected to the cloud by 2040.
- Dr. Orn Adalsteinsson, founder of the International Strategic Cancer Alliance, presented on developments in cancer treatments. Of particular interest to me was a tumor targeted approach in breast cancer where a needle tipped with a laser is inserted into the tumor and the light is used to destroy the tumor cells which are then removed by the normal immune system reaction. Some of this work is not yet approved in the US but is available in Nassau in the Bahamas.
- Dr. Nichola Conlon, CEO and founder of Nuchido, gave a presentation on the TIME+ product they have developed to enhance NAD+. She reported that their treatment was four times as effective as using NR supplementation. They had a pallet of their product in their booth. It was sold out in a few hours. The product (made and warehoused in the US) is available through their site.
- Dr. Valerio di Nicola of the West Sussex Hospital NHS foundation Trust gave a fascinating presentation on the use of minimally invasive surgical techniques to provide stem cell support to joint repair. The procedure involves developing a scaffold embedded with the stem cells and then inserting it through a small incision at the joint. A short video demonstrated the procedure. Images of the resultant repair showed regeneration of missing tissues as well re-alignment of bone structures. The treatment is presently available in Italy.
- Dr. Dmitro Klokol of Stellar Biomolecular Research and European Wellness presented on recent advances in stem cell research. He indicated that they were being successful in treating Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s in this way. The research was largely being done in Germany and with treatment delivery at some of their hospitals around the world.
- Dr. Bill Andrews, founder of Sierra Sciences, and one of the pioneers in telomere research, gave a presentation on the current state of telomerase inducement. He reviewed the science of telomeres a field in which he has been working for many years. In his conclusion he indicated that a clinical study for tolomerase gene therapy in a patient, should start in November 2019. More details can be seen on the website of Libella.
- Dr. Ward Dean, Medical Director of International Anti-Aging Systems, presented on cognitive enhancement. He covered the development of treatment for Parkinsons’s leading to a detailed discussion of the drug deprenyl which he believes everyone should be taking.
- Dr. Greg Fahy, CEO Intervene Immune, presented the results of the work they have done on thymus regeneration using a mix of FDA approved drugs (Metformin, DHEA and rhGH). He explained, as widely reported in the press, that the participants of the study reduced their biological age (as measured by four separate epigenetic “clocks”) by an average 2.5 years in a one year period. The work has been published. Intervene Immune is now seeking to raise $1+ M for a larger study of their intervention technique.
- Liz Parrish, founder and CEO of BioViva reported on the work being done by her company in the area of gene therapy. They hope, by scaling delivery and delivering multiple gene therapies in one delivery vector, to significantly reduce costs of treatment (which currently can amount to $300,000 per patient). She was the first person to receive telomerase gene and myostatin inhibition therapy in this manner. BioViva is looking for investors
RAADCity
A great feature of RAADCity was the portion of the event devoted to booths for organizations selling anti-aging and rejuvenation products, raising funding, etc. I did not have enough time to do a thorough review of all that was there and can only provide a few broad overview comments:
- By far the busiest booths were those of the new VIA (Vitality in Aging) booth, The Life Extension Booth and the LAbcorp all associated with the in initiative announced by Bill Faloon (see above). The number of people interested in joining the study overwhelmed the facilities at times, blocking the aisles in front of other booths
- There were many booths selling infrared red light treatments of various sorts
- There were several booths with offerings to enhance NAD+. Of these the busiest was Nichido’s, especially after Dr. Nicola Conlon gave her talk. A small booth, there was always a line up of people buying or registering to buy the product and to talk with Nicola.
- There were a number of booths offering skin treatments, massage therapy, muscle treatments and similar products/services, often with demonstrations
- There were several booths looking for investors including Intervene Immune, BioViva, and Zhittya
RAADCity hours were not the most convenient which added to the difficulty of determining what was available.
