Can Elixir of Life be found?

Subir Kumar Bhattacharyya

The search for an elixir of life, which can provide fountain of youth for a very long period of
time, or even immortality, had been attempted by almost all old civilizations, and it has still been
continuing for the last three or four millennia. In Hindu mythology, legend has it that in the very
olden times, the gods and the goddesses, being impelled by the Trinity (in one Godhead)
Brahman, Vishnu and Maheswar, had joined hands with rakshasas (demons) to churn the seas
with Mountain Mainak using Basuki, the legendary serpent, as a rope to skim off ‘amrita’ or
elixir of life that would give the former immortality and eternal youthfulness. After some frantic
attempts, Goddess Lakshmi rose to the surface with a container full of ‘amrita’. At the same
time, Basuki, having been severely bruised due to heavy churning, spewed venom. Venom
threatened to poison amrita and water of seas, rivers and lakes. The gods and the goddesses were
frightened and feared that they would miss amrita and so the chance of their gaining immortality.
They pleaded with the Trinity to save them as well as amrita from the effects of venom.
Maheswar or Shiva then swallowed the whole quantity of venom and lodged it in his throat.
Thus, Shiva’s throat turned blue due to the effects of venom and thus Shiva is known as
Nilkantha. Thereafter, the gods and the goddesses deceived the rakshasas and drank amrita
themselves and became immortal. Besides the gods and the goddesses, four non-divine devotees
Parashurama, Hanumana, Bibhishana and Ashwathyama became immortal by the boons of gods
and goddesses for their rigorous penance and worship. Other religions are known to have similar
mythological tales.
The search for ‘amrita’ or elixir of life was also the mission of the alchemists or the lettered who
practised alchemy. Alchemy was the branch of human knowledge or endeavour that branched off
into two parallel scientific investigations. One dealt with philosophy for achieving ultimate
wisdom and a branch of science for finding chemical substances with unusual properties that
evolved into chemistry and pharmacology. The ultimate objective of finding one group of
substances was to convert all metals into gold and the other to give humans immortality.
Alchemists later realized that conversion of any metal into gold was beyond their technological
prowess. Presently, man-made artificial diamonds are available in the market, but artificial gold
is not available as the cost of creating gold from other metals is prohibitive.
All previous attempts at finding elixir of life finally reached dead ends. Can we downright say
the quest for an elixir of life is as elusive now as it was ever before? The answer cannot be given
by saying simply yes or no. Life and human body are too complicated to warrant a simple
answer. The people or even the scientists in olden times had very little knowledge about genesis
of life, intricacies of human body and limitations of their knowledge, and as such their search
was limited in scope, insufficiently planned and minimally focused in attaining goals. Medical
science is so much advanced today that scientists are aware of the limitations of their search, but
at the same time are hopeful that many ongoing research will improve quality of life, prolong
lifespan to a great extent by preventing and combating diseases and providing better nutrition
and finally challenging the inevitability of death. The founder of cryogenic science once said,
“Death is the worst disease, but not incurable.” Many of us may doubt the wisdom of his making
such an audacious and outrageous statement. However, we all know that life expectancy at birth
now has increased many folds in all countries in the world, and it can be rightly asserted that
medical science has been keeping death at bay longer everyday as science progresses.
Let me revert to the subject of health, which the elixir of life is intended to improve and prolong.
Now the whole discussion comes down to the simple question how we can improve quality of
life and live longer. Many nutrition scientists, notably Dean Ornish, except Atkins whose low-
carb dietary regime to shed weight is out of favour now, are doing research in this field and have
found that restricting calorie-intake can improve and prolong life. Their research restricting
calorie-intake below 1500 calories a day has demonstrated that low calorie lowers level of a
hormone called IGF-1, which activates a gene called Foxo, responsible for lowering blood sugar
and C- reactive protein, the latter being the marker for inflammation in the arteries. However,
there is a downside to this diet regime. Low calorie induces the feeling of cold, pangs of hunger
and low libido. Who is going to try out this method to live longer? Not many, I believe. What are
the alternatives then that the scientists have come up with? They have a few up their sleeves, and
are researching on a few others. The first is one plant chemical out of many beneficial varieties
(also collectively known as phytochemicals) named ‘resveratrol’ found in red wine. Basically, it
comes from skin and seed of red grapes. Pomegranate juice also contains resveratrol. But we
need to ingest lot of red wine or red grapes or pomegranate juice to get beneficial effect. It will
be harmful to drink more than two glasses of red wine and eat few kgs of red grapes or two/three
litres of pomegranate juice every day. Good news is that resveratrol is now available in capsule
or tablet form as food supplement. Resveratrol is proven to have lowered bad cholesterol LDL,
elevated good one HDL, lowered blood sugar and C - reactive protein and prevented damage to
cells by free radicals. Resveratrol seems to increase rate of metabolism and as such mimics the
beneficial effects of calorie restriction. Further research recently conducted leads to some new
startling findings. Resveratrol, calorie restriction, which the former mimics, and exercise activate
SIRT1, a gene that encodes sirtuin family of proteins having wide range of health benefits,
particularly in controlling metabolism-related diseases and enhance production of tumour
necrosis factor (TNF), which kills both malignant and non-malignant tumour cells. A new class
of medicines known as SIRT1 activator has been synthetically developed and is likely to be
available in the market soon. Meanwhile, it may be prudent to try resveratrol supplement.
Another line of research is focusing on telomere. It is necessary to briefly explain what telomere
is before I delve into the new research to find telomere activator. Every cell has, inter alia,
mitochondria and a nucleus, consisting of 23 pair of chromosomes, which is the storage for
DNA, our genetic materials. A chromosome is a long strand of DNA. At the end of a
chromosome is a telomere, which acts like a bookend. Telomeres keep chromosomes protected
and prevent them from fusing into rings or binding with other DNA. When a cell divides and
copies DNA, the strands of DNA get snipped to enable the copying process. The places that are
snipped are the telomeres. Since the telomeres do not contain any important information, more
important parts of the DNA are thus protected. The telomeres get shorter each time a cell divides,
like a pencil eraser gets shorter each time it is used. When the telomere becomes too short,
essential parts of the DNA can be damaged in the replication process. Scientists have noticed that
cells stop replicating when telomeres are shorter. In humans, a cell replicates about 50 times
before the telomeres become too short. This limit is called the Hayflick limit named after the
scientist who discovered it. A biotech company has manufactured a telomere boosting
supplement named TA- 65, which seems to work in preventing cell damage and thus preventing
onset of many diseases like cancer. The supplement is said to cost $ 25,000.00 per person a year.
However, some scientists caution against rushing into popping TA- 65 pills, as long term safety
has yet to be established. When telomere stops shortening altogether, cells may start dividing
uncontrollably leading to growth of tumours.
It is an interesting time to watch developments in all scientific fields. However, self testing of
experimental drugs for efficacy is not a good idea. Diet containing in most part fruits and
vegetables can have almost the same effect if it is combined with exercise, enough sleep and
stress-free healthy life style. To insure further against harmful effects of aging, the following
general outline of dietary regime can be tried successfully without any side effects.
1) Low fat, high-fibre and rich in vitamins and minerals and plant chemicals rich in anti-
oxidants
2) All seasonal fruits and vegetables
3) Food basket should contain fruits and vegetables of all colours forming a rainbow
4) Particular attention may be paid to:
i) Soy products that contain flavones or flavonoids group of phytochemicals
ii) Herbal tea, particularly green tea and popular black tea
iii) Steamed tomato, not raw that releases lycopene
iv) Garlic and onion sufficiently crushed to release allyl sulphide
v) Anti-inflammatory spices like black cumin, turmeric, cinnamon, cardamom etc.
vi) Essential fatty acids ‘omega 3s’ (linolenic acid, eicosapentaenoic acid or EPA and
docosahexaenoic acid or DHA) found in some fish oil, flax seed, wall nut and
avocado
vii) In case, food cannot provide all these chemicals sufficiently or there is dietary
restriction, supplement may be tried
viii) Avoid fried food as extreme heat destroys good chemicals in food items and
converts many ingredients into toxic substances
This outline is for people who have no dietary restriction due to diseases. To make sure that the
above food items will not cause any harmful side effects, advice of doctors or trained
nutritionists may be obtained.