Marketed drug is a youth serum

Adapted extracts from items in the National Enquirer (USA), by Jay Gourley, and the Examiner (USA) by Don Vaughan, monitored for the Institute by Roger Knights. Similar reports are emerging of scientific experiments demonstrating the longevity-enhancing value of certain herb essences, particularly Thyme.

Human trials are now under way with Deprenyl, a prescription drug used in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, to test claims that it enhances longevity. It has side effects if taken in large doses, cautions Dr William Tatton, a molecular and cell biologist at the University of Toronto (where the drug has been studied), but, he adds, 'after adequate testing, in ten to fifteen years, this drug might be taken by everyone, starting at age 40.'

'Rats lived to the human equivalent of 120 to 150 years'

Deprenyl's potential as a life extender came to light when Dr Joseph Knoll conducted a rat study at the pharmacology department of the Semmelweis University of Medicine in Budapest, Hungary. When Deprenyl was given to rats at an age equivalent to people 65 years old, all of them outlived rats the same age who did not get the drug. They lived to the human equivalent of 120 to 150 years, and they regained a youthful appearance, activity and virility for much of their lives.

Deprenyl blocks an enzyme that neutralises the dopamine brain chemicals. The dopamines help transmit nerve signals throughout the brain, and some scientists believe that as long as the brain is supplied with them, it will not degenerate.

Dr Knoll is very much an outsider in recommending that people 45 years and older take two 5 milligram tablets of Deprenyl every week (as he himself does).

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