13 replies to this topic

[Kimer Med]

As you look and shop around for longevity related products and services, have you noticed any gaps? Are there things you're having a hard time finding or buying? Are there product formulations you would want to buy that don't exist yet (using existing substances and knowledge)?

 

Within existing legal bounds, what's missing? What should the future look like in this area?

 

Are there areas that the entrepreneurs among us might tackle?

 

[male_1978]

I would like to have a much better feedback system on medical interventions and supplements.

 

For example there is as company which sells thiocyanate for hair growth in germany. 

If you order their stuff from their website, you will automatically recieve an email requesting you participate in a survey about how the product worked for you: Did one experience hair regrowth, improvement or worsening of skin irritations, etc... Of course this is no double-blind study, but it still gives a good amount of data. 

 

Same with holiday booking websites like booking.com. You dont just give a rewiew there, but points on a scale to certain questions which are important to others.

 

I wished that it could be somehow organized to collect subjective data from all users of supplements. That could be an incredible source of information about what could work, and what not.

 

I would also like to have a website for cooking, but one which directly connects the ingredients to the medical benefits, e.g. telling you how much protein and fat you will eat, but also that you will get 20 mg of Fisetin or quercetin from that dish containing a certain amount of apples and onions. 

 

[Mind]

Kind-of boring, but it would be nice to have something that can reverse grey hair growth, and regrow hair (end male pattern baldness).

[Daniel Cooper]

There are plenty of compounds that either aren't naturally occurring and therefore will never be available as supplements but are also unavailable as drugs because of our glacially slow drug approval process.

 

Of the naturally occurring compounds that could be sold as supplements, the most interesting ones are not.  I'm thinking of urolithin, trodusquemine, liposomal trehalose, etc. etc.  They are not well known and the supplement industry is content to sell more well known compounds that don't have nearly the potential for life extension.  

 

What I would like to see is anti-aging clinics open up that are out of reach of the unnecessarily slow drug approval process of the western countries.  They might be only initially available to the very wealthy - but the moment one of them starts to offer therapies that actually are even somewhat effective I think you'd see the plebs start clamoring to get access to these therapies and eventually you'd see a long overdue streamlining and modernization of our drug approval processes.  I think Eastern Europe and certain offshore island nations would be prime candidates for these sorts of things.

 

 

[Kimer Med]

Kind-of boring, but it would be nice to have something that can reverse grey hair growth, and regrow hair (end male pattern baldness).

 

Have those problems been reliably solved yet? I'm not aware of workable / repeatable solutions.

[Kimer Med]

There are plenty of compounds that either aren't naturally occurring and therefore will never be available as supplements but are also unavailable as drugs because of our glacially slow drug approval process.

 

Of the naturally occurring compounds that could be sold as supplements, the most interesting ones are not.  I'm thinking of urolithin, trodusquemine, liposomal trehalose, etc. etc.  They are not well known and the supplement industry is content to sell more well known compounds that don't have nearly the potential for life extension.  

 

What I would like to see is anti-aging clinics open up that are out of reach of the unnecessarily slow drug approval process of the western countries.  They might be only initially available to the very wealthy - but the moment one of them starts to offer therapies that actually are even somewhat effective I think you'd see the plebs start clamoring to get access to these therapies and eventually you'd see a long overdue streamlining and modernization of our drug approval processes.  I think Eastern Europe and certain offshore island nations would be prime candidates for these sorts of things.

 

Yeah, there's a long list of longevity-oriented compounds: Epitalon, C60oo, Rapamycin and Spermidine are a few more that come to mind -- not to mention the old standbys, such as Gerovital GH3 and the like.

 

As a resident of a "certain offshore island nation," I would be interested in discussing this further. Are there existing treatments / regimens / protocols / programs that are effective enough to attract appropriately motivated individuals?

[William Sterog]

I would love to be able to purchase potent reliable extracts of Uncaria Rhynchophylla and Ziziphus Jujuba.

[Daniel Cooper]

Well, the trick is that almost none of the Western nations, including yours I sadly expect, are going to be conducive.  The UK, the EU, the US, Australia, NZ, etc. etc. all have a great tendency towards slow bureaucratic drug approval agencies that tend to favor the drug companies rather than the patient.  I'm not familiar with the drug approval process in NZ but I'd be shocked if that were not the case there (but I'd love to be wrong).

 

So, you're basically not going to set something like that up in "The West".

 

What does that leave us?  Parts of Asia, parts of Eastern Europe that haven't joined the EU, and in the Western Hemisphere perhaps Central and South America and some Caribbean Islands.  Of those, I think Cuba would be an interesting prospect if it manages to move out from under it's communist past the way China has.  If you're going to set up a medical clinic to peddle medical tourism to well heeled Westerners it behooves you to have some really nice beaches and Cuba has some excellent ones.  Also, it's proximity to the US (a mere 90 miles away) means that you  would have ready access  to competent well trained doctors and physicians (they could commute back and forth by plane if they so desired).  If the political leadership of that country were a little far thinking I suspect that they could see some benefits for their people not to mention their own personal bank accounts.  

 

It's a shame that the West has adopted such sclerotic drug approval processes that more or less pretend that it's still 1965 and that medical technology hasn't progressed quite a bit in the last 50 years (though not as far as it could have given a better environment).

 

 

[Kimer Med]

The "drug approval process" and associated law in New Zealand has some interesting and useful loopholes. They distinguish between domestic use and export, for example, and between animal and human use, and between use in clinical trials and use elsewhere. Stem cell therapy is legal here. Drugs obtained overseas with a doctor's prescription can be legally imported, even when they aren't legal in NZ -- and so on.

 

It's not perfect, by any stretch. However, there may be enough to be able to carve out an interesting and useful niche.

 

I also understand Germany and Japan have some favorable "right to try" type drug laws that might be useful here, although I don't know the details. Thailand has some good beaches, too, and there is already a significant medical tourism industry there.

 

What would be interesting to me is to start with a complete, idealized vision of what such a clinic could be and should be, and then see how much of it can actually be accomplished today, and where the gaps are.

 

[Kimer Med]

I would love to be able to purchase potent reliable extracts of Uncaria Rhynchophylla and Ziziphus Jujuba.

 

Are reliable extracts of traditional Chinese medicine herbs generally difficult to find? Do you have any sense of whether there's much demand? Or is it a pretty specialized area?

[William Sterog]

Are reliable extracts of traditional Chinese medicine herbs generally difficult to find? Do you have any sense of whether there's much demand? Or is it a pretty specialized area?

Almost impossible to find, only Nootropics Depot offers a couple. I think that there is an enormous demand.

[Mind]

"The UK, the EU, the US, Australia, NZ, etc. etc. all have a great tendency towards slow bureaucratic drug approval agencies that tend to favor the drug companies AND THE BUREAUCRACIES rather than the patient."

 

I had to add a little to that statement.

 

I wonder how the bureaucracies are going to handle all of the off-label use that is being discovered (like antibiotics for possible senolytic action)? 

[Daniel Cooper]

"The UK, the EU, the US, Australia, NZ, etc. etc. all have a great tendency towards slow bureaucratic drug approval agencies that tend to favor the drug companies AND THE BUREAUCRACIES rather than the patient."

 

I had to add a little to that statement.

 

I wonder how the bureaucracies are going to handle all of the off-label use that is being discovered (like antibiotics for possible senolytic action)?

 

Oh, I agree with that entirely.  It's pretty much an iron clad rule that no matter what the original purpose of a bureaucracy is when it is created, eventually its purpose becomes the perpetuation and expansion of the bureaucracy.  

 

This is a law that is about as reliable as the law of gravity.

 

 

 

[Benko]

Are reliable extracts of traditional Chinese medicine herbs generally difficult to find? Do you have any sense of whether there's much demand? Or is it a pretty specialized area?

A lot of the demand is for acupuncturists/Chinese herbalists and their patients. There are a number of well established herbal companies and newer mostly smaller internet herbal companies that sell to this market.

 

On the other hand, sometimes e.g. single herbs get mentioned by e.g life extension foundation, or bodybuilding websites/forums, or forums such as this one, or even mainstream news sources and then demand peaks for whatever formula/herb is mentioned.  This kind of demand may not last however.

Edited by Benko, 17 February 2019 - 11:46 PM.