ResearchSafe

87-year-old spending £300k on a banned "rejuvenation" cocktail in Panama

Posted by greg208 in Research & News - 3 points, 4 comments.

https://www.thetimes.com/life-style/health-fitness/article/biohacker-immortality-therapy-dnrbnx07z

Saw this Times piece about an 87 year old woman flying to Panama for some kind of protein and enzyme cocktail thats not allowed here. Apparently shes spent around £300k on these treatments chasing longevity. Not gonna lie, the chemist in me finds the whole thing a bit much. If its banned theres usually a reason, and paying that kind of money to be a guinea pig abroad would sit wrong with me.

I get the desperation though, id probably try a lot of things if i was 87 and felt it. I just wish the conversation wasnt always about the flashy expensive stuff. The unsexy basics like sleep, lifting heavy things, decent protein and keeping your blood markers in order still do most of the heavy lifting imo.

Anyone actually looked into what these clinics in Panama are actually giving people? Genuinely curious what the cocktail contains and whether theres any proper data behind it or its just expensive hope.

Comments

  • quiet_ironman: Yeah this one bugs me a bit too, the whole "fountain of youth abroad" thing has a real Used Car salesman energy to it 🔬 I haven't dug into the Panama clinics specifically, but I do read a lot of the longevity research news and what usually happens is they stack a bunch of things together, growth hormone secretagogues, various peptides, sometimes metformin or rapamycin, and then when people feel different nobody knows what actually did the work. The basics thing is so true though, it kinda dri
  • experiment510: Yeah the stacking problem is real, you cant tell what did anything if you throw ten things in at once. And honestly the basics thing, my 78 year old neighbor walks every morning and gardens, hes sharper than half my clients in their 40s. Not gonna lie the fancy clinics arent selling that because you cant bill 5k a month for "go for a walk".
  • greg208: Haha fair point about the walk, my old man was the same, sharp as anything right up to 90 and he never once took a supplement. And yeah thats exactly the issue with these stacks, no way to isolate what worked. Im curious though do you reckon places like that even publish whats in the cocktail or is it all NDA and mystique?
  • greg208: Cheers for that, the stacking point is a good one, thats basically the whole problem with these clinics isnt it, you get 6 things in a drip and if something happens nobody can isolate the cause. Not gonna lie the secretagogue + metformin combo is exactly what id expect to see, its the usual longevity shopping list. Your mate at 78 walking and lifting is basically proving the boring stuff works, bet his bloods look better than half the people flying to Panama for jabs.

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