Life Extension Foundation has worked since 1980 in the field of Anti aging research. The foundation has worked to explore and validate the benefits of natural health products, supplements and therapies across hundreds of health concerns and conditions. During the last 30 years, Life Extension has uncovered pioneering approaches for preventing and treating the diseases of aging. These ground breaking medical advances were meticulously chronicled in Life Extension’s publications many years before conventional doctors began to recognize and acknowledge them.

In order to tell the world about these life saving natural therapies, the Life Extension Foundation® compiled a 1,500 page medical reference book in 2003 titled Disease Prevention and Treatment. Updates to this reference book have been undertaken as new research emerges and are available online.

To promote the Life Extension approach to these innovative medical concepts, Foundation co-founder Bill Faloon has made hundreds of media appearances, including guest spots on The Phil Donahue Show, The Joan Rivers Show, Tony Brown’s Journal, and ABC News Day One, and an interview in Newsweek magazine.

Life Extension Foundation® has played a huge role in the development of and marketing of hundreds of high quality supplements, many of which have literally enabled people to improve and extend their lives.

 

Here is a detailed account of Life Extension Foundation accomplishments in the field of natural therapeutics since 1980:

In the 1980s: DHEA, B-complex vitamins, CoQ10

• In 1980, Life Extension Foundation recommended that healthy people consume high doses of antioxidant vitamins to maintain their health. Since then, hundreds of studies have been published documenting the role of antioxidants in protecting against disease. Interestingly, some studies show that modest doses of antioxidants are relatively ineffective, whereas the more potent antioxidant plant extracts that Life Extension introduced a long time ago have demonstrated profound results in human clinical studies in both the prevention and reversal of common disorders and diseases of aging.

• In 1981, the Foundation recommended the hormone DHEA as a way of slowing the effects of aging. There are now hundreds of published papers substantiating the anti aging properties of DHEA, including helping to maintain youthful immune function, neurological competence, skin appearance, and a greater sense of well-being. DHEA is currently one of the most popular anti aging supplements sold in the United States of America.

• In 1981, Life Extension Foundation recommended B-complex vitamins to lower homocysteine blood levels. Homocysteine is now widely recognized as a major risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Foundation members have been keeping their homocysteine levels low by taking folic acid, Vitamin B12, trimethylglycine (TMG), and vitamin B6 for decades.

• In 1983, the Foundation recommended the use of low-dose aspirin on a daily basis to prevent vascular disease. The majority of cardiologists in the United States now prescribe low-dose aspirin to protect against a heart attack in cardiac patients.

• In 1983, the Foundation warned its members against the intake of supplemental iron because of studies showing that excessive iron causes cancer. In 1988, the New England Journal of Medicine published an article advising that men with high levels of iron had a 40% increase in their overall risk of developing cancer.

• In 1983, Life Extension Foundation was the first organization in the world to recommend the Japanese cardiac drug coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) as an anti aging nutrient. This nutrient significantly boosts cardiac energy output and the use of high-dose CoQ10 in the United States is enabling people with congestive heart failure to resume normal lives. High-dose CoQ10 also has been shown to significantly slow the progression of Parkinson’s disease — something that conventional drugs have not yet been able to do. A breakthrough in the field of anti aging medicine occurred in 2006 with the publication of a study showing that CoQ10 (ubiquinol) slowed aging in middle-aged, senescent-accelerated mice by 40%. This ubiquinol form of CoQ10 is what most Life Extension members now supplement with.

• In 1985, the Foundation published an article suggesting that vitamin supplementation could be used to slow the progression of AIDS. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raided Life Extension’s premises in 1987 because the agency at that time did not believe that nutrition had anything to do with HIV progression. In the April 1995 issue of FDA Consumer, the FDA also recommended vitamin supplements to slow the progression of AIDS — and a federal judge eventually forced the FDA to return everything it had seized from Life Extension in 1987. Since the publication of the 1985 article, hundreds of published studies have shown that proper nutrient supplementation can dramatically slow the progression of the immune system decline that leads to AIDS.

• In 1985, the Foundation introduced a carotenoid, called lycopene, as a dietary supplement for the purpose of preventing some forms of cancer. Lycopene is now widely accepted as one of the plant compounds that has cancer prevention properties.

• In 1985, Life Extension recommended the drug cimetidine (Tagamet®) as an adjuvant cancer therapy. Since then, published studies reveal that this drug (most commonly associated with heartburn relief) can reduce the recurrence of certain cancers by as much as 79%.

• In 1986, Life Extension Foundation recommended low doses of a European drug, called deprenyl, as a potential anti aging therapy. The FDA eventually approved deprenyl in higher doses to treat Parkinson’s disease but has yet to recognize the antiaging effects that low doses of this drug produce in healthy people.

• In 1986, the Foundation recommended the drug ribavirin to treat lethal viral infections. After twelve years the FDA approved ribavirin as a treatment for Hepatitis C.

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