Introductory commentary by Jeffrey Bland, PhD announcing his interview with Dr. David Sinclair (recorded for the February 2011 Functional Medicine Update). Bland frames Sinclair as a leading researcher (Harvard Med, Dept. of Pathology) and pioneer in resveratrol research and the xenohormesis hypothesis. The excerpt previews discussion topics: how phytochemicals modulate aging pathways, molecular gerontology’s shift toward viewing life expectancy as plastic and modifiable, strategies to extend functionality and healthspan, and related researchers shaping the field.
Chapters
Wow. Did I just have some fun? I just had the opportunity to interview Dr. David Sinclair for our February issue 2011 of Functional Medicine Update. You know David, I'm sure by name he is the father of this whole resveratrol revolution. Department of Pathology at Harvard Med, associate professor there. But he's really also one of the co founders of this concept of xenohormesis and how phytochemicals modulate function to produce resistance to senescence and resist age related diseases. And it's a really fascinating discussion I had with him about the whole landscape of molecular gerontology and how it's changing the whole concept of healthy aging. Rectangularizing the survival curve, maximizing life expectancy, extending functionality. What are we learning? What threshold are we on? What's the nature of this shifting paradigm? What a talk we had. What an extraordinary discovery process. Shifting of our whole belief system about the rigidity of life expectancy to this plastic model, this extraordinarily modifiable model that has to do with the role that stress and environment and and nutrition and exercise and respiration and even the psychological nature of our life plays in regulating these master genes that control outcome of our function and how to harness this in a healthy aging program and get rid of reducible illness and extend life expectancy. This is one of those issues that just is going to stand up to be a landmark. And it plays off the extraordinary pioneering issues with Randy Jertel and Michael Skinner and Moshe Sev and Edward Calabrese and others that really have set the tone over the last two years in Functional Medicine Update for us, really seeing where this new medicine of the 21st century is taking us, I think you're really going to enjoy the February issue of Functional Medicine Update.
