Watch Online

				Doctor Empathy This doctor wants you to lose weight sensibly. How long should you stick with his diet? Forever.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: In recent years he's lost 20 pounds and he'd like to lose another ten. Doctors need empathy, he says. So this is our... this is going to be our empathy test here. That's correct. ALDA: These empathy suits are made to simulate about 40 pounds of fat. I was too tall for mine but George Blackburn showed me what he wants doctors to learn. Now, what we want to do, we can... Well, you look really good. Don't I? It's a good fit. So now, you would ask a doctor to wear this, right? That's right. And the doctor would see how hard it is to put on a pair of pants and a jacket when you have this much bulk. That's right. You have to be careful you don't topple over there. This is a comedy suit. It's not... I know it's a serious subject but it's very hard to get into this without laughing. You would need suspenders-- why? Because the belt would slide down. I see. See, you're hipless. But crossing your legs is essentially out of the question. Yeah. And getting your shoes on... Yeah, yeah. How much do you think an average person should look forward to taking off in how long a time? Well, we talk about two to four pounds a month is a healthy weight loss-- one that you're likely to be able to keep off. And whatever you did to do that-- eat less and be more active-- you could do for the rest of your life. ALDA: Laura has been working with Heather McCormick a nutritionist at Blackburn's center, for four months and she's losing a modest two pounds a month. Above all, Blackburn wants goals that are moderate and realistic. Okay, good, you can let it out. Okay, you can step down. ALDA: Looking at Laura when she was young-- a little girl of normal weight-- you might imagine that she now has some kind of mysterious problem with metabolism. Okay, says Blackburn, let's be realistic here, too. So everyone gets what's called their resting metabolism measured-- that's the energy our bodies use up just existing. If it's normal, you can't blame your weight on glands or something. At 2,000 calories a day, Laura's metabolism is absolutely normal. In Blackburn's program, everyone has to become more active. They check your condition at every visit, about once a month. Activity has a double benefit. It burns calories directly, and as muscles develop more calories are needed just to run them. McCORMICK: Things like fried foods the Chinese fried rice we want to try to stay away from. ALDA: Food diaries are another part of the monthly visit. Heather's looking to make helpful, small changes-- nothing extreme, nothing too scary. One day you had, you know, two ham- and-cheese sandwiches and instead, you know, maybe having one sandwich. Okay. And then the potato chips-- you want to try to stay away from them and have something, you know, if you need the crunch carrots or pretzels or something like crackers instead of the potato chips. LAURA: One of the things that I was kind of nervous about was changing the way that I eat and just cutting down all the portions that I eat and going completely to salad all the time or something like that. These are fears that you get from watching different fad diets and things like that. What I really liked about Heather was she said, 'Listen, let's just take this one step at a time. ' Get up here? Get on the scale for me. Okay, and you're not holding on anywhere? No, I'm not holding on. ( laughing ) Well, we just... But I'm exhaling. I'd like patch pockets with a belt in the back. ( laughing ) NURSE: And you're not holding your breath? No, I'm not holding my breath. It's instinctive. NURSE: The other item I need from you-- this is based on your age, your sex, your weight and your height. So... You want the frequency of sex? No, no, no. Oh, I'm sorry. ( laughs ): I'd like to know your, uh, age. My age is 64. Same as my waist. All right. Well, no, your waist is much, much improved. ALDA: I had a little fun with the center's terrific staff but there's a serious point here. Paying detailed attention to weight like this is very unusual. Most doctors never raise the subject even with obviously obese patients and that's something that Blackburn says has to change. My resting metabolism, by the way, was normal. This is Diane Scott, a graduate of Blackburn's program. SCOTT: I was extremely overweight. I was over 200 pounds. I was a heavy smoker. Ck I rarely exercised. I watched a lot of TV. I was constantly getting colds and upper respiratory infections. It was a struggle if the escalator was broken at the T-- and I work in Boston-- to get to the top of the stairs. And I realized I wasn't even 40 and I was just really compromising my health. ALDA: Working with the nutritionists, Diane, who's an avid chef learned how to greatly reduce the fat in her cooking while maintaining its appeal. So, for example, cornstarch with chicken broth is a nonfat way of giving the same smooth texture in the mouth that we get from high-calorie fat or oil. We're going to compare a George Blackburn style of menu to a couple of popular extreme diets. What are you folks up to? WOMAN: Oh, I'm starting the sauce for the high-fat diet. And what I have in here is some... a little bit of butter and then I'm going to add a lot of heavy cream-- two cups of heavy cream-- because we're in high fat. We've come into the enemy's camp here. ( all laugh ) How long are you cooking the fish? Uh, the fish will probably take five minutes to cook. And what we're going to do is basically get a sear. This one I put in first. ALDA: Here's the first menu-- very low fat, vegetarian. Grilled portobello, pepper and onion burgers... cucumber salad with horseradish and dill... pumpkin tofu cheesecake. Looks pretty good to me. In your opinion, what's wrong with this diet? That sounds like a good diet. I mean, if you can stick to it, it sounds great. BLACKBURN: And that would be exactly our point-- that we have to have a diet that you can live with for the rest of your life. And this is the challenge. This is such a departure from the normal food that people would see to adhere to this really requires a lot of motivation a lot of belief and a lot of training. ALDA: Menu two-- high protein, high fat, low carbohydrate. Avocado cream soup with bacon... beef tenderloin with parsley cream sauce... fried Brussels sprout crisps... and strawberries with heavy cream. Wow! This is no fat. No fat. This is... All fat. ( laughing ): All fat. What's good about this diet? All that fat delays gastric emptying and therefore you fill up very fast. And, therefore, it turns out that all the calories one consumes when it's all protein and fat is about 1,200 calories a day. And you're so satisfied you don't want to eat one more thing. Right-- but if you keep this up for 15 or 20 years, what do you do to your body? Our greatest concern is that the delicate lining of your arteries will be injured by that saturated fat. ALDA: Okay, here we're making Blackburn's menu. He allows some fat, and he wants a lot of different ingredients so flavors are complex and fun. He wants you to like this food. BLACKBURN: It's moderate in its calorie intake per bite and it's nutrient... very dense. Variations of this diet people could tolerate, you know every day of their life and enjoy it. ALDA: Because calories are moderate you can eat enough volume of food to fill up. You know what Miss Piggy says? Never eat anything larger than your head. ( laughs ) That's... I think that's a good idea. Well, she's got the serving sizes. If we could just get it to her hand or her paw, we'd be okay. This is really good. Mmm-mmm. Well, just enjoy yourselves. Now, what's this? ALDA: You find some unexpected treats on a Blackburn menu but in carefully modified versions. Basically a type of a trifle. ALDA: Trifle I happen to love. And this is a safe trifle or this is an ordinary trifle? Listen, this is an antioxidant power trifle. ALDA: It's low fat so a generous portion's only about 200 calories. That's not too bad. CHEF: This is a trifle without cream. No cream in this trifle? Right. But just, you know wait till you taste the ambrosia of this and realize you don't need cream in it you know, that it's... Why does that taste so good? What's in this? It's a simple sugar syrup with fruit. We want people to be chefs. We want them to have elegant recipes because by taking the time to have all these ingredients you get all the taste that a shortcut would require you put a lot of cream on it. ALDA: Moderate dishes like these that you can eat essentially forever are a key part of the Blackburn strategy because if you try to lose weight too fast hunger signals become very hard to resist. We don't fully understand the mechanism but our bodies naturally try to maintain a particular weight. Depriving your body of no more than about 500 calories a day is the only way to avoid triggering those signals, says Blackburn. Otherwise you'll just become a yo-yo dieter. SCOTT: I've been a yo-yo dieter most of my life. I mean, I've tried the extreme diets of, you know... grapefruit juice diets and boiled egg diets and cabbage soup diets. I've tried... I tried Fen-Phen. I've tried the Atkins diet. And a lot of them I was very successful at. I mean, I lost a lot of weight. Some of them I lost more weight than I have up till now but I never kept it off. As soon as the diet ended, then the whole... all the changes that I had made in my lifestyle to lose that weight stopped and I went right back to my old ways of eating. ALDA: Diane's no longer a yo-yo dieter because she's staying within Blackburn's maximum weight loss limit of four pounds a month equivalent to 480 fewer calories a day-- not enough to trigger hunger signals. And because she doesn't feel deprived she knows her new way of life is permanent. Laura's got that message, too. It really is a lifetime commitment. It's not... you can't just not have potato chips now because you're on a diet. You know, you really need to make sure that, you know... Instead of me picking potato chips going forward that I have a carrot stick or I have a piece of fruit instead. It's wanting to be healthier and putting better things in my body because this is what I'm going to be walking around in for the next, hopefully, 50 more years at least, so... ALDA: Our next two stories are about kids. Fifty years ago, fat kids were virtually unknown. Now one in four American children is obese

				Obesity Begins at Home Were you told to stay away from sweets? This parental ploy may be backfiring.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: and it's getting worse. They're heading for adult lives of heart disease, stroke or diabetes. Somehow, our kids have become too inactive or they're eating too much, or both. Hey, guys, welcome back. Now, do you guys know why you're here today? GIRL: To eat. Right, to eat lunch. Now, do you have to eat everything on your plate? No, right, you can eat whatever you want. Anything you don't want you can leave it on your plate, okay? ALDA: This classic experiment explores our most basic relationship with food: the judgment we have of the right amount to eat. There are five children, between three and five years old. Their lunches are the right size for this age group: about 400 calories. They're told to just eat what they want and as the meal ends, three trays still have food. But a couple are almost empty and they belong to the older kids. That's because young kids listen to their bodies telling them when to stop, whereas older kids and adults are controlled by outside influences. As kids get older, because we try to socialize them into eating when it's time to eat and finishing what's on their plate they begin to really learn that there are other things in the world that can control their eating. WOMAN: day these slices are going to be about twice the size that they were in yestition. ALDA: The next day, the same five kids come for lunch. This time, their portions are doubled-- much more food than they need. And now the split between younger and older is obvious. The two five-year-olds have cleaned their plates just like you're supposed to. BIRCH: What children may be learning when we serve them larger portion sizes and encourage them to finish those portion sizes is that that's the amount that's appropriate for them to eat. ALDA: There's nothing wrong with finishing your food so long as what was on your plate was the right amount. BIRCH: I would like a Happy Meal with cheeseburger a Quarter-Pounder with Cheese a medium fries and a medium Coke. Thank you. ALDA: Leann Birch, who has been studying children and eating for 25 years believes that our view of appropriate portion sizes has been steadily going up. What you see here is a Happy Meal which has about 630 calories in it. This is, for a young child, probably nearly half the energy that the child should have for a whole day. ALDA: Large portions are regarded as appropriate for adults as well, with the trend to 'super-sizing. ' The super-size meal, which has about 1,830 calories would just about do it for me for the entire day with my 2,000 calories. And yet, these are the kinds of portion sizes that are out there that are supposed to be consumed in a single meal. ALDA: We're back in the lab for another experiment on kids' attitudes to food. We're going to turn one of these foods into forbidden fruit. WOMAN: In the beginning of this study we basically are offering children a wheat cracker and a Goldfish cracker and we're offering them in equal amounts because we want children to have the ability to have equal sort of access to both of these foods. ALDA: First they want to make sure the kids will at least eat Goldfish. In fact, they all eat a bit of both but not a lot of anything. But now, the status of Goldfish is about to be transformed. FISHER: In the second part we're actually going to change the rules so that they can still have as many wheat crackers as they want but the Goldfish crackers are going to become off limits. FISHER: When I ring the bell you guys are going to be able to eat the Goldfish crackers, okay? So there are no Goldfish crackers until we ring the bell. ALDA: For an agonizing five minutes those delicious, desirable, fantastic Goldfish are absolutely unobtainable. FISHER: In one more minute, I'm going to ring the bell. Do you know what that means, when we ring the bell? FISHER: Okay. CHILDREN: Yay! ALDA: At last, it's Goldfish time and you don't have to be a psychologist to figure out what happens. The kids pig out. It's a 'forbidden fruit' effect. She got a lot. ALDA: Clearly, this isn't the way to change kids' eating habits. FISHER: Paradoxically, restriction not only is not an effective way of promoting moderation but it seems to promote the behaviors that parents intend to avoid by using that practice. WOMAN: Do you know what tummy that is? GIRL: Empty. That's an empty tummy, right. What kind of tummy is this? Um... You'd be full, right? How do you feel right now? ALDA: In our next experiment we're working with kids who've just had a meal. They shouldn't feel hungry. Full. It's full... okay. We've got pretzels... peanuts... ALDA: Now Elizabeth is shown a large tray of snacks: chips, ice cream, cookies... and popcorn, which she likes. And chocolate chip cookies, all right? Now, I need to go next door for about ten minutes to do some work, all right? I'm just going to leave this. This is extra food that we have. If you don't want it, you don't have to eat it but if you want to, you can eat anything you want. And we also have this box of toys here This pen here... it's a gel pen, so you can write on that. So, I'm going to leave this box with you and I'm also going to leave the tray with you. ALDA: Elizabeth, once left alone behaves in a way that might surprise you. She ignores the food. BIRCH: So far, at least Elizabeth is not terribly interested in eating. ALDA: It takes a while before, bored with the toys she finally gets around to trying just some popcorn-- her favorite food. Now take a look at Morgan. When he's left alone, he digs in. Here's the important point. Morgan comes from a home where access to these attractive sweet or salty snack foods is strictly controlled, whereas Elizabeth is unrestricted. BIRCH: Parents who tended to use a fair amount of restrictive feeding practices-- namely, parents who are concerned about their kids consuming too many of these kinds of palatable foods and who restricted their kids' opportunities to eat those things-- actually had the children who ate the most. If you came home and you had any one of those snack foods without asking your parents first would they be upset? And when you have ice cream can you have as much as you want or does your mom dish out a certain amount for you? She dishes out a certain amount for me. And if you want more, does she let you have more? No? Just one. Restriction actually tends to foster consumption in the absence of hunger in children and increased interest in the very foods that parents think children shouldn't be eating. And, conversely pressuring children to eat, uh, healthy foods tends to turn them off with respect to those foods. So what do you do instead? I mean, I think, as a parent, that's really the tough part. I think there are a couple of things. One is, we need to help parents to understand what are reasonable portion sizes for children so that parents have reasonable expectations about how much foods kids need to eat. The other thing is, we need to help parents to appreciate how children learn to like foods that aren't sweet and that aren't salty. And the way that you do that is you have to, I think, be pretty patient as a parent. We know that kids initially reject a lot of new foods unless they're sweet or salty and it's only with repeated presentations-- noncoercive presentations-- that kids learn to eat a lot of those foods. ALDA: Without that kind of perceptive parenting our kids are caught in two terrible traps. First we say, 'Finish your food. ' Then we put too much food on the plate. Then we say that high-fat, high-calorie snack foods are forbidden so kids want to binge on them. But it gets worse. Take a look at our next story.

				Couch Potato Kids Television is making kids less active. It's a pattern that could last a lifetime.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: Come on, guys, time for lunch. ALDA: This is the Watson family, in Buffalo, New York. It's summer, school's out and the kids are free to do what they want. Nine-year-old Taylor is, of course, interested in seeing if she can annoy her younger brother. TAYLOR: Dwight, how come you look like a monkey when you eat? ALDA: But apart from that Taylor's going to have a lot to do this summer. She's part of a University of Buffalo study looking at the relationship between physical activity in kids and eating. WOMAN: Hi, Taylor, hi, Deborah. Hi, come on in. It's good to see you again. WOMAN: Okay, Taylor, this is the activity monitor and I'm going to show... it's just this little box here. Take it out of this pouch. Okay, it's just going to kind of be like a belt. You might put it on your belt loops, through your pants or you can just put it right around your waist. ALDA: Taylor's going to wear the activity monitor for the next nine weeks. At the same time th? e TVs and computers in the house are going to have their activity monitored. Every time one's switched on or off, that will be recorded. And there's no cheating allowed. ALDA: So now there's a minute- by-minute record developing of how active Taylor is and how much TV and computer time she puts in. How'd the families do this week? SCHOLL: The families did great... ALDA: The study was conceived by psychologist Len Epstein. All the 24-hour recalls were conducted. EPSTEIN: Now one-quarter of kids are obese. That's doubling in the last 20 years. And part of the reason for that, most people think is the increase in sedentary behaviors: the amount of TV kids watch the amount of computer games kids watch. If you look at prospective data, you can identify which kids are likely to become obese over the next five years as a function of how much TV. ALDA: Ten-year-old Brian MacDiarmid is another of the 13 kids in the study. You can see what he likes to do. Brian, how did you do on the spelling bee? ALDA: While the kids had to wear their activity monitors the mothers were asked to keep careful track of everything their children ate. The information was called in regularly. Hi, Sue, this is Tammy from the University of Buffalo. I'm just calling to conduct the 24-hour recall. ( on phone ): And what was the first thing that Brian had to eat or drink after he woke up? Okay, about 9:00 in the morning he had four mini waffles... and about two teaspoons of syrup. SCHOLL: And was he watching TV or on the computer or playing video games? He was watching TV. DEBORAH: Okay, Taylor you need to fill out your booklet. ALDA: There were activity logs as well. The show ended at 8:00. ALDA: Taylor's mother was surprised at how things were looking. We had always thought that they really weren't avid TV viewers that... maybe an hour here, two hours here an unusual day where there'd be more than that. But when you looked at the numbers over the course of a seven-day period we were somewhat astounded by that-- that our children could be spending 12, 15 upwards of 20 hours or more a week in front of a television or at a computer not doing anything else and that's almost an entire day out of a seven-day period. So that was kind of shocking for us. ALDA: After three weeks all the activity monitors, TV and computer records and activity logs were compiled. It turned out that the average time spent in front of the TV or computer was 24 hours a week-- 3½ hours a day. So now that they knew the normal behaviors of their wired-up families, the researchers set about changing the kids' activity levels. EPSTEIN: It could be that, as kids become more sedentary that eats into their physical activity time and they're not as physically active. Or it could be that a lot of kids when they're sedentary, are also eating. ALDA: For the next three weeks, the kids were asked to increase their TV and computer time by half: for Taylor, nine more hours a week and for Brian, 20 more hours. They got a few dollars' reward if they succeeded and, amazingly, they all managed it. One result was that eating in front of the TV went up a whopping 45% on average; total calories consumed increased ten percent and physical activity decreased by more than two hours a week. So it seems TV and computers have a double effect-- kids are less active, and they eat more. For the final three weeks, the researchers reversed things. Now the kids had to decrease their original TV and computer time by half. DEBORAH: I think in many ways it was sort of a culture shock for our family because all of a sudden this ubiquitous presence in the house-- the TV that's always on, or on quite a bit-- was gone. And initially, it was a little bit awkward and yet it was a very good experience for us because Taylor, for instance-- she rode her bike more, she read books more she did more athletic activities be it swimming, whatever... playing basketball. And we started to realize we really didn't miss it that much. Can you just clean the house for me? ALDA: In fact, Taylor and all the other kids found plenty to do. Not all of it was physically active, of course but a lot was. The average increase in activity was more than 3½ hours a week and they ate a few percent less, too. EPSTEIN: In our study, we found that about one-third of the time that they reduced from being sedentary they reallocated to physical activity. So if they... if they reduced 20 hours a week sedentary time seven hours were dedicated now to being physically active. So you don't have to have a one-to-one change. You don't have to take every single minute you were watching television in being physically active. But reallocation of one-third of their time really produces most of the activity anybody would need. MAN: Right, turn. ALDA: So the study revealed another trap our kids are falling into. They could be more active and eat less but instead, they're becoming less active and eating more. It's a trap that will last for life. Kids who are sedentary when they are young become sedentary adolescents, become sedentary adults. Really active kids become active adolescents and become active adults. So kids now who are very sedentary are establishing a lifelong pattern that will be very hard to break later. I mean, now is the time, when they're kids to try to change their lifestyle and get them to be more physically active and... and less sedentary. Hello, hi. You're Dr. Walford? Alan Alda-- glad to meet you. Pleasure.

				Eat Less - Live Longer Can a very low calorie diet extend life, and if so how? Animal studies seem to say yes, and one scientist is trying it out on himself.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: I BROUGHT MY LUNCH. OH, YOU DID, GREAT. Alda: I'VE COME TO SEE ROY WALFORD IN VENICE, CALIFORNIA. FOR 30 YEARS, DR. WALFORD HAS BEEN STUDYING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOOD AND LONG LIFE. I THINK IT WOULD BE BETTER IF IT WERE, LIKE, WHOLE WHEAT BREAD. WHOLE WHEAT BREAD. I WOULD SAY THAT'S TWO SLICES OF WHITE BREAD. WELL, LET'S SEE WHAT ELSE I HAVE. YOU PROBABLY DON'T LIKE THIS. SOMETIMES I LIKE SOMETHING CRUNCHY WHILE I HAVE A SANDWICH. WELL, PRETZELS ARE EMPTY CALORIES SO I DON'T LIKE THAT. HOW ABOUT PICKLES? OKAY, THAT'S ALL RIGHT. WELL, THIS IS ALL JUST FOR TASTE. SO HOW DO YOU FEEL ABOUT MUSTARD? IT DOESN'T ADD MUCH IN THE WAY OF CALORIES UNLESS YOU USE A HUGE AMOUNT. ( laughs ) Alda: FOR WALFORD, WATCHING CALORIES IS ONLY ONE OF THE KEYS. HE BELIEVES IF YOU EAT LESS, YOU'LL LIVE LONGER SO LONG AS YOU MAKE SURE THAT WHAT YOU DO EAT HAS HIGH NUTRITIONAL VALUE. I'M AIMING TO MAKE A PRETTY LO-CAL LUNCH NO MORE THAN 500 CALORIES. YOU USE A LOT OF CALORIES GETTING THE PICKLE JAR OPEN, YOU KNOW. OH, YES, THAT'S THE WHOLE POINT. THIS IS ABOUT IT. THIS IS WHAT I COULD... NOW, LET'S SEE, THAT WOULDN'T BE ENOUGH, THOUGH. I MEAN, I'D STILL BE INTERESTED IN MORE. I'D PROBABLY EAT FIVE OR SIX OF THESE PRETZELS. YEAH. AND I WOULD TAKE THE SALT OFF THE PRETZELS BECAUSE I DON'T LIKE TO EAT A LOT OF SALT. THEN I WOULD HAVE PROBABLY, TO MAKE MYSELF FEEL BETTER I'D EITHER HAVE ABOUT FOUR OUNCES OF FROZEN YOGURT OR... IF I WAS FEELING REALLY HEALTHY, HEALTH-MINDED I'D HAVE AN APPLE. LET'S SAY AN APPLE. OKAY. I'LL GIVE MYSELF THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT. OKAY. Alda: NOW, LET'S SEE WHAT KIND OF NUTRITION MY LO-CAL LUNCH DELIVERS. LET'S SEE... TURKEY BREAST, NO SKIN, ROASTED IS ABOUT AS CLOSE AND YOU DIDN'T HAVE HALF A BREAST BUT MAYBE A QUARTER OF A BREAST. YOU ADDED A PIECE OF TOMATO IN THAT. YEAH, TWO LITTLE SLICES OF TOMATO. OKAY. Alda: WHEN YOU ADD IT ALL UP I DID FINE ON THE CALORIES, BUT THAT'S ABOUT ALL. WHAT YOU HAD IS DEFICIENT IN "A," B12, "C," "E" FOLIC ACID AND PANTOTHENIC ACID. AMONG MINERALS IT'S DEFICIENT IN CALCIUM, COPPER, MAGNESIUM MANGANESE AND ZINC. Alda: AND WHAT'S THAT BIG TALL YELLOW ONE? I SEEMED TO BE DOING OKAY... WELL, THAT MEANS IT HAS A GREAT DEAL OF SODIUM. OH, I'M DOING FINE WITH THE SODIUM, YEAH, OKAY. AND YOU HAVE TOO MUCH CHOLESTEROL BECAUSE... WHERE'D I GET THAT FROM, THE TURKEY? FROM THE TURKEY PROBABLY, YEAH. Alda: BUT HERE'S WHAT GOES INTO WALFORD'S LUNCH. EVERY ONE OF HIS 500 CALORIES PACKS A HIGH NUTRITIONAL PUNCH. Alda: HOW'D YOU FIRST GET INTERESTED IN THIS? I GOT INTERESTED IN THIS KIND OF NUTRITION BECAUSE IT'S BEEN KNOWN SINCE 1935 THAT IF YOU KEEP ANIMALS ON A VERY LOW CALORIE DIET BUT ONE THAT IS NOT DEFICIENT IN VITAMINS AND SO FORTH YOU EXTEND THEIR MAXIMUM LIFE-SPAN AND THEIR AVERAGE LIFE-SPAN. Alda: IN THE 1960s WALFORD, WHO'S A RESEARCHER AT U. C.L.A. MEDICAL SCHOOL SET OUT TO REFINE THE LOW-CALORIE STUDIES. HE CONFIRMED THAT LABORATORY MICE LIVE UP TO TWICE THE NORMAL AGE IF CALORIE INTAKE IS REDUCED BY UP TO HALF. AT THE SAME TIME HE DETECTED INTRIGUING SIGNS OF IMPROVED HEALTH: LOWER BLOOD PRESSURE, LOWER INSULIN AND CHOLESTEROL AND STRONGER IMMUNE SYSTEMS. THEN IN 1991, WALFORD JOINED BIOSPHERE 2 AS THE PROJECT DOCTOR. HE WAS PART OF THE TEAM THAT SEALED ITSELF INSIDE A THREE-ACRE GREENHOUSE. THE AIM WAS TO BE SELF-SUPPORTING-- TO SUBSIST ENTIRELY ON THE MINIATURE ECOSYSTEMS GROWING INSIDE. THINGS DIDN'T TURN OUT AS EXPECTED. FOOD PRODUCTION WAS ABOUT 40% SHORT BUT FOR WALFORD IT WAS A LUCKY ACCIDENT. LIKE IT OR NOT THE TEAM FOUND ITSELF ON A LOW- CALORIE, HIGH-NUTRITION DIET. THE TEAM MEMBERS WENT HUNGRY. BUT IN REGULAR MEDICAL EXAMS, WALFORD DISCOVERED THEY WERE DEVELOPING THE SAME GOOD HEALTH PATTERNS AS THE LAB ANIMALS. BIOSPHERE 2 CONFIRMED FOR WALFORD THAT A LOW-CALORIE, HIGH-NUTRITION DIET IS LIKELY TO BENEFIT HUMANS AND HE'S BEEN FOLLOWING IT EVER SINCE. IT SOUNDED PRETTY GOOD TO ME. HOW DO YOU GET STARTED? Walford: WHAT YOU WANT TO DO IS LOWER THE CALORIE CONTENT SO THAT YOU LOSE WEIGHT GRADUALLY UNTIL YOU'RE 10% TO 20% BELOW YOUR SET POINT WHERE YOUR SET POINT IS DEFINED AS WHAT YOU WOULD WEIGH NORMALLY IF YOU ATE JUST KIND OF A NORMAL DIET. THAT SOUNDS LIKE... A LOT OF... WEIGHT LOSS. I MEAN, I'D BE A BEAN POLE WITHOUT THE BEANS, I THINK. I MEAN, THAT'S VERY... THAT SOUNDS SEVERE TO ME. Alda: THESE LIVELY RHESUS MONKEYS ARE ON JUST SUCH A SEVERE REGIMEN. I'M VISITING RICK WEINDRUCH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. IS THIS FOR MY PROTECTION OR FOR THE MONKEYS'? I THINK IT'S MUTUAL FOR BOTH, YES. OKAY. Alda: WEINDRUCH HAS ABOUT 80 MONKEYS-- HALF ON RESTRICTED CALORIES, HALF NORMAL. THE STUDY HAS BEEN RUNNING FOR A DECADE AND THE ANIMALS ARE NOW 20 YEARS OLD-- MIDDLE AGE FOR RHESUS MONKEYS-- SO THERE WON'T BE ANY RESULTS ON LIFE-SPAN FOR A WHILE. NOW, WHICH KIND... WHAT'S HE GET? Man: THIS GUY UP ABOVE... Alda: THE RESTRICTED DIET IS EXACTLY LIKE WALFORD'S. IN FACT, RICK WEINDRUCH WAS HIS STUDENT AT U. C.L.A. HERE YOU GO, PAL. Alda: THE MONKEYS' CALORIES ARE REDUCED BUT THEIR NUTRITION IS EXCELLENT. IT'S NOT IN ANY WAY A STARVATION DIET. SO WITHIN THE NEXT FEW YEARS, AS OLD AGE SHOULD BE APPROACHING THE EXPECTATION IS THAT THE NORMALLY FED GROUP WILL BEGIN TO LOSE ITS HEALTH WHILE THE CALORIE-RESTRICTED GROUP WILL STAY HEALTHY. Weindruch: WE'RE STARTING TO SEE SIGNS OF BETTER HEALTH IN OUR RESTRICTED ANIMALS. IT'S GOING TO REALLY BE SHALL WE SAY, SHOW TIME FOR THESE DIETS OVER THE NEXT FIVE YEARS. Alda: JUST LIKE WALFORD'S BIOSPHERE TEAM THE MONKEYS GET REGULAR CHECKUPS ALTHOUGH THEY'RE SEDATED FOR SOME PROCEDURES. THIS IS A SCAN FOR BONE MASS WHICH TENDS TO BECOME REDUCED WITH AGE. THEY ALSO EXAMINE TINY SAMPLES OF MUSCLE FROM THE MONKEYS LOOKING FOR SIGNS OF CELLULAR DAMAGE WHICH NORMALLY DEVELOPS WITH AGE. Alda: IS THIS A PART OF A CELL? Weindruch: THIS IS A COMPONENT OF A CELL AND THIS IS THE STUFF THAT MAKES YOUR MUSCLES CONTRACT BASICALLY. UH-HUH. Alda: THIS BLACK DOT IN THE MUSCLE OF A FOUR-YEAR-OLD MONKEY IS DAMAGE CAUSED BY THINGS CALLED FREE RADICALS. FREE RADICALS COULD EXPLAIN WHY EATING LESS HELPS YOU STAY HEALTHIER AND LIVE LONGER. NUTRIENTS FROM THE FOOD WE EAT GET ABSORBED BY EVERY CELL OF OUR BODY. THESE NUTRIENTS NORMALLY COMBINE WITH OXYGEN TO MAKE ESSENTIAL ENERGY-STORING CHEMICALS BUT AN UNAVOIDABLE BY-PRODUCT IS THE PRODUCTION OF FREE RADICALS: REACTIVE OXYGEN COMPOUNDS THAT DAMAGE WHATEVER THEY HIT. THE BODY MAKES CHEMICALS CALLED ANTI-OXIDANTS WHICH DEFEND AGAINST FREE RADICALS BUT DAMAGE STILL ACCUMULATES OVER THE YEARS LEADING TO ALL KINDS OF OLD-AGE DISEASES. THE EXCITING THING ABOUT WEINDRUCH'S STUDY IS THAT WHILE 20-YEAR-OLD MONKEYS ON NORMAL DIETS SHOW EXTENSIVE FREE RADICAL DAMAGE CALORIE-RESTRICTED MONKEYS WHO ARE THE SAME AGE LOOK LIKE YOUNG KIDS. SO THIS IS A 17-YEAR-OLD MONKEY WITH ABOUT THE SAME AMOUNT OF FREE-RADICAL DAMAGE AS HOW OLD A MONKEY? A FOUR-YEAR-OLD. A 17-YEAR-OLD AS HEALTHY AS A FOUR-YEAR-OLD. Alda: WEINDRUCH IS ALSO PURSUING THE FREE RADICAL THEORY WITH A LARGE-SCALE MOUSE STUDY. SO ONE BUNCH IS ON A RESTRICTED DIET AND ONE... I'LL TELL YOU SOMETHING THAT I SEE RIGHT AWAY. THESE ARE REALLY ACTIVE AND THESE ARE JUST SITTING AROUND. Alda: THESE ARE SENIOR-CITIZEN MICE-- ABOUT TWO YEARS OLD-- AND THEY'RE ON A NORMAL DIET. AND THESE ARE ON CALORIE RESTRICTION. BUT WEINDRUCH ALSO HAS FOUR OTHER GROUPS BEING FED NORMAL DIETS PLUS SOME SPECIAL EXTRA INGREDIENTS. HE'S ADDING COMBINATIONS OF THE ANTI-OXIDANT SUPPLEMENTS LIKE VITAMINS "C," "E," AND BETA-CAROTENE THAT SO MANY OF US ARE TAKING NOW. THE RESULT SO FAR-- NOT VERY ENCOURAGING. ANTI-OXIDANT DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS ARE NO SUBSTITUTE FOR CALORIE RESTRICTION. THEY DON'T SEEM TO AFFECT LIFE-SPAN ONE WAY OR THE OTHER. Weindruch: THE BEST SURVIVAL AT THIS POINT IN TIME IS GROUP FIVE-- OUR CALORICALLY RESTRICTED ANIMALS. WHO AREN'T TAKING ANY SUPPLEMENTS. NO-- NO, THEY'RE NOT. SO, SO FAR, TAKING SUPPLEMENTS IF YOU HAVE A NORMAL DIET, OR ANY KIND OF DIET IT DOESN'T MAKE YOU LIVE LONGER, SO FAR-- AND YOU HAVE A LOT OF TIME TO GO YET ON THIS-- BUT SO FAR YOU'RE LIVING THE LONGEST... JUST PLAIN OLD CALORIC RESTRICTION. WITH HIGH NUTRITION. RIGHT, BUT AGAIN, IT'S EARLY SO COME BACK IN A YEAR, PLEASE. YEAH, YEAH. WELL, MEANWHILE I'M TAKING THE PILLS. ME, TOO. Walford: SO, ALAN, I MADE FOUR SERVINGS IN THE WOODEN BOWL. THIS IS ONE SERVING AND IT'S ABOUT 500, 550 CALORIES. THIS IS ONE SERVING? THIS IS A LOT OF FOOD. THAT WOULD BE ONE SERVING, YES. AND THIS IS EQUAL TO THAT SANDWICH I MADE? MORE OR LESS, IT'S ABOUT EQUAL IN CALORIE CONTENT TO YOUR TURKEY SANDWICH. IT'S VERY GOOD. HOW OLD DO YOU THINK YOU'RE GOING TO BE... EVENTUALLY? WELL, OLDER THAN I WOULD BE. I'VE JUST BEEN ON THIS DIET FOR ABOUT TEN YEARS OR SO MAYBE A LITTLE MORE SO I CERTAINLY DIDN'T START WHEN I WAS YOUNG. IF MY DESTINY ON A NORMAL DIET HAD BEEN TO LIVE TO BE 90 THEN ON THE DIET I SHOULD ADD ANOTHER 15 OR 20 YEARS. SO THAT WOULD PUT ME OUT TO BE 110, STARTING AT 60. THAT'S WHERE IT WOULD PUT ME IF I STARTED AROUND NOW. A HUNDRED AND TEN. SEE, I ALWAYS THOUGHT IT'D BE NICE TO LIVE TO 106. 110 IS EVEN BETTER. THIS DOESN'T LOOK SO APPETIZING ANYMORE. I GOT PLENTY OF CRUNCH. I DIDN'T NEED THE PRETZELS. AND THIS WOULDN'T BE BAD FOR DESSERT OR AM I DENIED DESSERT NOW? NO, THAT WOULD BE FINE. SURE-- AN APPLE IS GOOD DESSERT. YEAH. YOU WOULD... YOUR HEART WOULD SINK IF I TOOK OUT THE FROZEN YOGURT PROBABLY. WELL, NO, YOURS WOULD. ( laughing ) Alda: FROM INFANCY TO OBLIVION-- IT'S THE NATURAL AND MYSTERIOUS TRAJECTORY OF OUR LIVES.

				The Desert's Perfect Foods Desert-dwelling Native Americans turn to their culinary roots to battle diabetes.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: We're on the Tohono O'odham Tribal Reservation in Arizona. It's rainy and cold today but most of the time it's baking hot and bone dry. The plants here have evolved to thrive in such extremes and the Tohono O'odham people in turn based their way of life on the plants. It was a rich bounty-- and I do mean 'was'-- because by the 1940s widespread use of traditional foods was dying out. Today, only a few of the elders, like Francis Manuel are familiar with the old foods. This is Francis's daughter, Dolores. This is wild spinach. We've been eating it since I was... we were little. ALDA: Tortillas were once made with desert ingredients. Now the elders are saying it's time to revive the old ways. ALDA: Is this an attempt to go back totally to the food that used to be eaten? Or... or to just introduce some of it into the diet? It is an attempt to try and create an awareness for people that they have to change-- something has to be done. ALDA: This is what something has to be done about. Caroline Jackson, who lives on the nearby Pima reservation, has diabetes. So do half of all adult Pima and Tohono O'odham-- 15 times the national average. The two tribes also have exceptionally high rates of obesity even though their diets are average. Extensive study has suggested that in one special way these people are not average. They have what's called the 'thrifty gene' which allowed them to put on weight very efficiently during the desert's times of plenty so they could get through the bad times. The problem is it's good times all the time now. Nowadays, like all Americans they get their food from a supermarket shelf. They spend a lot of time in front of the TV. MAN ON TV: But some of these rides are pretty darn exciting! ALDA: And they drive practically everywhere. Only 50 years ago, the two tribes were tough and active farmers, hunters and gatherers with no obesity and no diabetes. Things began to break down when the region's water was pumped away to growing cities. And even though they still had the skills to gather wild food or divert flash floods to their fields it became impossible to resist adopting a typical American lifestyle. ALDA: So you make a brush out of this and you rub the fruit with it? And that gets the needles off? Yeah, see, the fruit's always sitting up here you know, like that, and you brush them off... brush them off pretty good. ALDA: A brush made from the creosote bush gets off the almost invisible coating of tiny, sharp spines. Prickly pear fruit and pads were important foods-- although you had to avoid the poisonous seeds, Danny said. That's a mesquite tree right here. See, here's some of the dried beans. And they'll be hanging hanging on the trees, and the kids will walk by and pull them off and eat them. ALDA: Mesquite pods could be ground up to make a sweet and nutritious flour. They were good to just chew on, as well. Taste it? I... yeah, can I? I'll just take off a little bit. I don't want to spoil it for somebody. DOLORES: Don't swallow the seeds, too. Don't swallow the seeds... ( cackling ) What'll happen to me if I... Same thing that happens when you eat the prickly pear with the seeds. I have to go to the hospital. Yeah, give you an enema. ( chuckling ) Boy, I'll tell you, this program is really dangerous. ( laughing ) It's all seeds. What do you mean, 'Don't swallow the seeds? ' Chew it and suck it. Mmm... I got to get rid of the seed, wait a minute. DOLORES: Yeah, yeah. LOPEZ: There you go. Throw that away. It's... sweet. DOLORES: Uh-huh. Sweet and chewy. And it tastes like something that I know. It tastes like... you know what it tastes like? Like a box of Cracker Jacks. ( laughing ) You know, it's sweet and... and crunchy. It's a snack bush. Nice. ( laughing ) Francis, how did you learn about all this? My grandmother taught me. Your grandmother? When we were kids, uh-huh, yeah. On this plant, the cholla buds grow. ALDA: In spring, when the rains came everyone had to gather cholla cactus buds. ALDA: Okay, so that's where they grow. And then if you don't pick it it grows into this. Yes, uh-huh. ALDA: Like mesquite pods cholla buds were gathered, dried and stored in large quantities. ALDA: What is it that you eat off of this? Um... the saguaro fruit. It grows on the end of the... of the arms of the cactus. Yeah. Usually it'll grow in bunches, you know on each arm, all the way up into the top. ALDA: Saguaro fruit was gathered in late June. Every family had its own long poles for reaching the fruit-- poles made with the skeleton of the saguaro cactus itself. The desert for most of us looks to be a barren and inhospitable place but for the Pima and Tohono O'odham it was the source of life. LOPEZ: Our food came from the desert. We had to work for it, you know. It's a lot of work to go out and gather. When we planted, there was a lot of time in the field. Back then, we were people who were in good shape. Prior to 1960 there was no diabetes. And then... but after that it just kind of... came upon us. ( man singing a cappella in Tohono O'odham ) ( other voices join in singing ) ALDA: The blessing speaks of the pleasure given by plants growing and covering the earth. It's appropriate because we're going to have a meal made entirely of crops which grow in the desert around us. That's good. ALDA: We're joined by Gary Nabhan, a botanist who specializes in the desert plants of the Southwest. These are beans? Red tepary, yeah. ALDA: Tepary beans were grown in the flood plains. They resist desert heat and they're digested slowly-- good for diabetics who need to avoid spikes in blood sugar. It turns out, all the foods have some special quality. It's like a spinach. It's a wild spinach, yeah. Wild spinach? And it comes up in the summer and it's really the best-tasting spinach in the world. ALDA: These are sliced prickly pear pads. We'll talk more about them in a minute. And here's the wild spinach-- amaranth greens, with high-protein seeds and high-calcium leaves. What is this? Mesquite beans. Oh, mesquite. Okay, so just, like, one teaspoonful? Two. Two, okay. One... Two. MANUEL: That's enough. ( laughing ) ALDA: The mesquite drink is full of sugar but it's a kind of sugar that you don't need insulin to digest. MANUEL: You know, if you don't like it... It's good-- what do you mean, if I don't like it? Okay, that's enough. That's enough? ALDA: Next-- cholla cactus buds. Francis gathered and dried these herself last spring-- six months ago. And, finally, my personal favorite: really powerful little wild chilies gathered up in the mountains on the reservation. At last it was time to dig in. This is a fantastic meal. What are the ways in which this food reconnects you to the culture? Well... ( chuckles ) I just thought of how they used to tell kids. You know, I guess the way... You know, when you try to get kids to eat things like the spinach or the cholla buds. They used to say, like, 'If you don't eat it 'I'itoi'-- that's the creator that they believed in years ago-- 'will cause a flood,' you know? So you better eat your spinach or your cholla buds. Or there will be a flood. ( chuckling ) Or we'll all drown. Like maybe right now. ( all laughing ) ALDA: Because these foods are adapted to the desert they all share one attribute: the ability to retain scarce water. How they do it was demonstrated by Gary Nabhan with a bowl of chia seeds from a type of desert mint. Over the course of a few minutes, the dry seeds swell up absorbing about 15 times their volume of water. It's how they'd react to a sudden rainstorm in the desert. Desert plants have to be able to absorb water and then hold on to it for as long as possible. They do it with a kind of natural glue. It's all called soluble fiber. But, uh, prickly pear cacti and their relatives, the cholla cactus are among the richest sources of that. And so when we look at a prickly pear pad like this-- and I'm going to get the spines in my fingers but I don't mind that because I'm a botanist... ( laughing ) When you look at this stuff all this stuff is extra cellular mucilage. There's a goo in between the cells here that holds water in the pad so that even during times of drought that water is only slowly lost from the plant. That's why a prickly pear can survive years without rain. In the cactus, that goo gets in between the cells. What does it do when it goes into my body? It doesn't go in between my cells, does it? NABHAN: Well, that's a great thing. When we put it in our stomachs it keeps any sugars or carbohydrates from being rapidly released into our bloodstream. So that instead of our blood sugar level spiking-- peaking very rapidly-- and then our pancreas trying to make insulin to keep up... I see, so you don't get a jolt of it. No jolts. You get it on a... more on a... It's doled out more evenly. Go ahead. ALDA: This slow release is the secret to the desert foods because it provides natural protection against diabetes. So as the desert people were yo-yoing up and down in weight tracking the feast or famine of their crops their metabolisms were always maintained on an even keel by these perfect foods. I was learning some interesting stuff on this visit. Then I got really excited when it looked like Francis was ready to reveal to me an ancient precious piece of tribal wisdom. Why were the Indians here first? The question is, 'Why did the Indians live here first? ' Well, they lived here first because... Because...? Because, uh... they didn't live anyplace else yet. ( laughing ) ALDA: I haven't finished yet. They... I think I'm stuck. I think I'll... I'd actually most like to hear your answer. ( chuckling ): My answer is easy. Because they have a reservation. ( Alda laughing ) ( all laughing ) ALDA: That's terrible! ( laughing ): That's... us at PBS Online. Scie on the World Wide Webers at pbs.

Take a look at these related stories from the Frontiers Archive:

				Iceland Genes Their small homogenous population and excellent medical records makes Icelanders the ideal subjects of genetic studies.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: THE MOST FAMOUS VOYAGE BY A NORSEMAN IN THE VIKING AGE WAS THAT OF LEIF ERIKSON, ALSO KNOWN AS LUCKY WHO DISCOVERED VINLAND, THE LAND WE NOW CALL AMERICA AROUND THE YEAR 1000. BUT THIS SCULPTURE CELEBRATES ANOTHER, EVEN EARLIER VOYAGE BY THE NORSEMAN INGOLFUR ARNARSON IN 874. NEVER HEARD OF HIM? WELL, THAT MEANS YOU'VE NEVER BEEN HERE TO REYKJAVIK THE CITY HE FOUNDED AS THE OFFICIAL FIRST SETTLER OF ICELAND. FOLLOWING INGOLFUR WHO MUST HAVE BEEN ONE TERRIFIC REAL ESTATE SALESMAN ABOUT 25,000 OF HIS FELLOW NORSEMEN AND NORSEWOMEN SETTLED HERE IN THE NEXT 50 YEARS OR SO. MOST OF TODAY'S ICELANDERS WHO NUMBER ABOUT A QUARTER OF A MILLION ARE DIRECT DESCENDANTS OF THOSE EARLY SETTLERS AND THEY LOOK IT, TOO. BUT IT'S NOT JUST THE FIRST SETTLERS AND THEIR MOST RECENT DESCENDANTS WHO CAN BE COUNTED. Alda: IS IT ACTUALLY TRUE THAT YOU KNOW ABOUT HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE EVER LIVED IN ICELAND? Man: YES. HOW DO YOU KNOW? BECAUSE WE KNOW THE GENEALOGY. WE KNOW THE NAMES. YOU KNOW THE NAMES OF ALL THE PEOPLE WHO EVER LIVED? YEAH, WE KNOW THE NAMES. WE KNOW WHO WERE THEIR FATHERS AND MOTHERS AND DAUGHTERS AND SONS. WE KNOW WHERE THEY LIVED. THAT'S REMARKABLE. HOW MANY PEOPLE EVER LIVED HERE? THREE-QUARTERS OF A MILLION OR SO. BUT THREE-QUARTERS OF A MILLION-- THAT'S, LIKE, HOW MANY PEOPLE IN THE WORLD ARE BORN EVERY FEW DAYS, PROBABLY. YEAH, BUT THEY ARE NOT ICELANDERS. ( both laugh ) THE MANUSCRIPTS IN THIS BUILDING WERE COLLECTED FROM WHERE? THEY WERE COLLECTED FROM... Alda: KARI STEFANSSON HAS BROUGHT ME TO SEE FIRSTHAND HOW THE ICELANDERS' OBSESSION WITH GENEALOGY BEGAN WHICH TURNED OUT TO BE IN ANOTHER ICELANDIC TRADITION-- THE WRITING DOWN OF HEROIC TALES, SAGAS IN BOOKS DATING BACK TO THE SETTLEMENT OF THE COUNTRY. Alda: WHAT IS THIS BOOK? THIS IS A MANUSCRIPT OF... ONE OF THE OLDEST MANUSCRIPTS OF THE ICELANDIC SAGAS. NOW, WHAT'S IN THE SAGAS? THE SAGAS ARE... ACCORDING TO THE OLD MYTHS ARE STORIES OF THE SETTLEMENT OF ICELAND OR THE STORY OF THE SETTLERS. THE BOOKS TELL FROM VERY COMPLEX FEUDS AND IT'S VERY IMPORTANT TO KNOW WHO IS RELATED TO WHOM TO BE ABLE TO UNDERSTAND THE STORY. ALMOST ALL OF THEM BEGIN WITH PAGE AFTER PAGE OF GENEALOGY WHICH IS SORT OF, IN MY MIND, AT LEAST THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT INTEREST IN GENEALOGY THAT HAS PREVAILED IN ICELAND EVER SINCE THEN. Alda: THIS BOOK, FOR INSTANCE, IS A COPY OF THE BOOK OF SETTLEMENT WHICH LISTS THE NAMES OF THE ORIGINAL SETTLERS AND THEIR IMMEDIATE DESCENDANTS. AND THIS YOUNG MAN, WHOSE NAME IS HREINN STEFANSSON IS ONE OF THE MANY PRESENT-DAY ICELANDERS WHO CAN, ASTONISHINGLY, TRACE THEIR ANCESTRY ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE BOOK OF SETTLEMENT. HREINN STEFANSSON'S LINEAGE IN FACT GOES BACK 31 GENERATIONS TO THE YEAR 860 A. D. AND ONE THORDUR VIKINGSSON THE SON OF A VIKING KING. BOTH HREINN AND THE COMPUTER PROGRAM THAT TRACKED HIS ANCESTRY ARE EMPLOYED IN A NEW COMPANY FOUNDED TO CAPITALIZE ON ICELAND'S UNIQUELY INTIMATE GENETIC HERITAGE. CALLED DECODE GENETICS AND EMPLOYING MOST OF ICELAND'S YOUNG GENETICS RESEARCHERS THE COMPANY IS IN THE THICK OF THE WORLDWIDE HUNT FOR GENES THAT CAUSE HUMAN DISEASE. ACCORDING TO KARI STEFANSSON, DECODE'S FOUNDER IT'S ALREADY HOT ON THE HEELS OF SEVERAL SUCH GENES INCLUDING ONE INVOLVED IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS. Alda: WHAT ARE THESE PEOPLE DOING HERE? I SEE PEOPLE WORKING WITH VIALS. HOW ARE THEY FINDING OUT ABOUT MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS? THEY HAVE FOUND GENES AND NOW THEY ARE USING SPECIFIC METHODS TO LOOK FOR MUTATIONS IN THESE GENES THAT ARE ONLY FOUND IN PATIENTS WITH THE DISEASE AND ARE NOT FOUND IN INDIVIDUALS WHO DO NOT HAVE THE DISEASE. WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE? THEY ARE ISOLATING DNA. NOW, THIS IS BLOOD FROM ONE PERSON? YES. AND YOU... DO YOU KNOW THAT PERSON'S MEDICAL HISTORY? UM... Woman: I DO, YES. SHE KNOWS THIS PERSON'S MEDICAL HISTORY. Alda: AND THIS IS WHERE ICELAND'S GENETIC ISOLATION AND DETAILED GENEALOGIES BECOME INVALUABLE. A MUTATION CAUSING MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS IN ONE ICELANDER IS MOST LIKELY THE SAME MUTATION THAT CAUSES THE DISEASE IN ANOTHER BECAUSE EACH INHERITED IT FROM THE SAME ANCESTOR. THIS MAKES TRACKING AND FINDING SUCH A DAMAGED GENE MUCH EASIER THAN IT IS IN LARGER, MORE DIVERSE POPULATIONS. WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU FIND THIS GENE, THEN WHAT? THEN WE KNOW WHAT CAUSES THE DISEASE, AND OUR ASSUMPTION IS THAT KNOWLEDGE OF THE CAUSE OF THE DISEASE IS ALWAYS GOING TO HELP US BOTH TO FIND THE CURE FOR THE DISEASE AND FIND WAYS OF ACCURATELY DIAGNOSING IT. HOW WILL THIS COMPANY PROFIT FROM YOUR WORK? I LOOK AT THIS FIRST AND FOREMOST AS A COMPANY OF ICELANDERS FOR ICELANDERS AND THE COMPANY BENEFITS BY HAVING AN OPPORTUNITY TO DO EXTREMELY GOOD SCIENCE AND CONTRIBUTING TO CURING DISEASES. ECONOMICALLY WE WILL BENEFIT BY CONTRACTING WITH LARGE PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES THAT EVENTUALLY WILL DEVELOP THE MEDICATIONS FOR THE TREATMENT THAT WILL BE DERIVED FROM THE DISCOVERY OF THESE GENES. Alda: DURING MY BRIEF VISIT I FOUND ICELANDERS TO BE A HIGHLY EDUCATED, CARING PEOPLE WHO, BECAUSE THERE ARE SO FEW OF THEM ALL SEEM TO KNOW ONE OTHER. AND NOW THESE FEW THOUSAND DESCENDANTS OF THE VIKINGS MAY BE GIVING THE REST OF US ON THE PLANET SOMETHING UNIQUE-- INSIGHT INTO DISEASES THAT PLAGUE MILLIONS. Alda: IT SEEMS THAT YOUR ABILITY TO FIND THE SOURCES OF THESE DISEASES IS CONNECTED TO THE... THE KIND OF LONELINESS OF THIS ISLAND THE PEOPLE ON THIS ISLAND. IT'S INTERESTING YOU THINK ABOUT THIS IN A SOCIAL CONTEXT; THAT THIS ISOLATION THAT KEPT THE NATION GENETICALLY HOMOGENEOUS WAS ONE OF THE MAJOR REASONS AS TO WHY THE NATION WAS DESPERATELY POOR FOR ALL OF THE CENTURIES. AND NOW THERE'S THE CONSEQUENCE OF THIS: THE SAME ISOLATION HAS BECOME A NATURAL RESOURCE THAT WE CAN MINE. YOU COULD ARGUE THAT OUR WORK ON GENETICS IS A SEARCH FOR POETIC JUSTICE WHEN IT COMES TO THIS ISOLATION. ICELAND IS A VERY YOUNG COUNTRY AND NOT ONLY BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN HERE

				Medical Decade 10 years of Frontiers medical highlights -- progress against heart disease, new cancer therapies, high-tech surgery, traditional medicine, and more.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: OUR NEXT SEGMENT IS ABOUT MEDICINE. I LOVE DISCUSSING MEDICAL PROBLEMS AT DINNER. DURING OUR DECADE TWO IMPORTANT AND CONTRASTING TRENDS BECAME CLEAR. IN THE FIRST, WE'VE SEEN COMPUTERS AND HIGH-TECH METHODS REALLY TAKE HOLD IN ALMOST EVERY BRANCH OF MEDICINE. WE NOW ROUTINELY IMAGE AND MAP THE BODY WITH UNPRECEDENTED ACCURACY, FOR EXAMPLE AND I DON'T THINK THERE'S A LAB I'VE VISITED THAT HASN'T MADE SOME KIND OF COMPUTER ANALYSIS A CRUCIAL PART OF ITS WORK. THE SECOND TREND IS OMINOUS. DISEASE ORGANISMS ARE FIGHTING BACK DEVELOPING RESISTANCE TO ONCE-RELIABLE THERAPIES. AS WE SAW IN STORIES ON TB AND MALARIA THIS IS AN EXTREMELY SERIOUS WORLDWIDE THREAT. SO THERE WAS A LOT OF ACTION IN MEDICINE. LET'S TAKE A LOOK. Alda: IN A RECENT STORY ON HIGH-TECH MEDICINE I WAS IN THE OPERATING ROOM AS LINDA TOLVE HAD A LARGE TUMOR REMOVED FROM HER BRAIN-- A TUMOR THAT SOME DOCTORS HAD JUDGED TO BE INACCESSIBLE. A 3-D COMPUTER GRAPHIC IMAGE WAS SUPERIMPOSED ON LINDA'S BRAIN TO GUIDE THE SURGERY. Man: I THINK WE'RE PRETTY HAPPY WITH THAT IN TERM OF THE RESECTION. I THINK NOW IT'S JUST A MATTER OF MAKING SURE EVERYTHING'S NICE AND, UH, DRY. BUT WE'RE ESSENTIALLY DONE. Alda: CONGRATULATIONS. Alda: SOPHISTICATED IMAGE PROCESSING WAS ALSO BEHIND THIS PROTOTYPE AID FOR THE PARTIALLY SIGHTED THAT LEONARD PERRA TESTED, WITH HIS GRANDSON HELPING OUT. Perra: ALL I'VE EVER SEEN WAS SHAPES, NOT FACES. NO FEATURES. AND NOW I CAN SEE THEIR FACES AGAIN. Man: AND DOWN A LITTLE BIT. Alda: THE PROGRAM'S LONG-TERM GOAL WAS TO CONTINUOUSLY TRACK AN EYE'S DEFECT AND THEN HAVE A WEARABLE COMPUTER LITERALLY FILL IN THE BLANK. WE SAW THE SAME IDEA-- USING HIGH-TECH TO COMPENSATE FOR PROBLEMS-- AS WE CONTINUED TO FOLLOW THE STORY OF KARA A VIBRANT YOUNG VICTIM OF CEREBRAL PALSY. HERE, INFRARED LASERS SURREPTITIOUSLY TRACK KARA'S EYE IN THIS EXTRAORDINARY RESEARCH PROGRAM COMPUTER CONTROL OF MUSCLES THROUGH IMPLANTED ELECTRODES BROUGHT PARALYZED LIMBS BACK TO LIFE. RIGHT NOW IT'S A CRUDE SIMULATION OF NATURAL NERVES BUT IT ENABLED DAN TO STAND ON HIS OWN FOR THE FIRST TIME. ALL RIGHT. WHOO. HOW'S IT FEEL DAN? WHOO, IT FEELS VERTICAL. ( laughs ) IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE I'VE SEEN HIM THAT TALL. Doctor: THERE'S ABOUT AN INCH-LONG HOLE... Alda: IN ONE HIGH-TECH OPERATING ROOM, THE PATIENT WAS A DUMMY WITH PIG'S INTESTINES DYED BRIGHT RED. BEING DEVELOPED AS A WAY TO RAPIDLY APPLY THE BEST CARE ON THE BATTLEFIELD IT'S A PROTOTYPE FOR REMOTE SURGERY IN WHICH DOCTOR AND PATIENT ARE IN DIFFERENT PLACES LINKED ONLY ELECTRONICALLY. Alda: DO I HAVE TOO LITTLE OF IT? Alda: IN RUSSIA, SURGEONS DISPLAYED A SPECIAL ALLOY FOR THE WIRE SUPPORTS CALLED STENTS COMMONLY USED TO KEEP CLOGGED ARTERIES OPEN. THE COLLAPSED STENT IS EASY TO INSERT WITH A CATHETER INTO A LEG ARTERY IN THIS CASE. THEN THE ALLOY SPRINGS INTO SHAPE AS IT WARMS UP OPENING THE ARTERY AND ALLOWING BLOOD TO FLOW. OUR CAMERAS FILMED AN IMPORTANT MILESTONE IN THE TREATMENT OF HEART DISEASE WHEN AN IMPLANTABLE PUMP WAS PLACED ALONGSIDE A FAILING HEART. ( monitor beeping faintly ) JUST DROP THEM INTO THE POUCH LIKE THIS AND PULL THE FLAP DOWN. Alda: MIKE DORSEY DEMONSTRATED HOW HE CARRIED THE PUMP'S BATTERIES. NOW I'M READY FOR TRAVELING. Alda: AFTER SEVEN MONTHS, MIKE GOT A HEART TRANSPLANT AND THE PROGRAM HAS BEEN A KEY STEP TOWARDS THE EVENTUAL GOAL OF PERMANENT ARTIFICIAL HEARTS. HI, MICHAEL. Alda: WAIT, WHAT IS THIS? THIS IS CARTILAGE. IT'S A SCAFFOLD OF... YOU SEE THE NOSTRILS? OH, YUCK! WAIT A MINUTE! Alda: WELL, IT MAY HAVE LOOKED GROSS TO ME BUT THAT THE NOSE REPRESENTS A BIG PART OF MEDICINE'S FUTURE: SPARE PARTS GROWN TO ORDER IN THE LAB LIKE THESE HEART MUSCLE CELLS, ALIVE AND BEATING. THIS IS THE NEXT REVOLUTION IN MEDICINE IN THE MAKING. THIS STORY WAS ABOUT ANOTHER POTENTIAL REVOLUTION GENE THERAPY. LILLIAN COOPER TOOK PART IN A TRIAL WHICH INSERTED INTO HER LEG THE GENES FOR BLOOD VESSELS TO SEE IF SHE COULD ACTUALLY GROW NEW ONES BYPASSING A BLOCKED ARTERY. THIS TRIAL WAS AN UNPRECEDENTED SUCCESS BUT OTHER GENE THERAPY TRIALS HAVE SINCE GONE BADLY WRONG SO THE FUTURE OF GENE THERAPY IS RIGHT NOW UNCERTAIN. BUT ALONGSIDE THE PROMISE OF NEW IDEAS OLD DISEASES WE THOUGHT WE'D DEFEATED-- LIKE TB OR SIMPLE INFECTIONS-- MADE A COMEBACK. BUENOS TARDES. Alda: THE PROBLEM IS RESISTANCE TO ANTIBIOTICS. IT DEVELOPS WHEN DRUGS ARE MISUSED OR OVER-PRESCRIBED OR NOT TAKEN CORRECTLY. ... WHEN HE TAKES THE RED PILLS WHEN HE TAKES THE WHITE ONES... Alda: SOME RESISTANCE IS ALMOST INEVITABLE AS WE FOUND OUT IN AFRICA WHERE THE MALARIA PARASITE IS NOW RESISTANT TO SOME DRUGS AND MALARIA-CARRYING MOSQUITOES HAVE DEVELOPED RESISTANCE TO INSECTICIDES. THE DECADE SAW, IN THE WEST AN INCREASE IN INTEREST IN TRADITIONAL MEDICINE. ON OUR TRIP TO CHINA WE SHOWED HOW ANCIENT HERBAL REMEDIES ARE PRESCRIBED ON A LARGE SCALE. WESTERN DRUG COMPANIES ARE NOW SYSTEMATICALLY SCREENING THOSE REMEDIES FOR USEFUL COMPOUNDS. TRADITIONAL MEDICINE IS USED BY MOST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD AND WILD RAW MATERIALS ARE GETTING SCARCE. IN A SOUTH AFRICAN TOWNSHIP, I VISITED A TRADITIONAL HEALER WHO HAS HAD TO START GROWING HIS OWN, RATHER MYSTERIOUS, SUPPLIES. Alan: WHAT IS THIS? DO YOU EAT THIS? IN ENGLISH, I DON'T KNOW HOW TO CALL IT. I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE THIS. BUT IT'S POISONOUS. IT'S POISONOUS? THANK YOU-- I'M SORRY I PICKED IT UP. I HAD TO PUT MY HAND ON IT NOW. I'LL NEVER... WHEN YOU EAT IT. NOT THE SKIN, HUH? YOU SURE ABOUT THAT? SURE. OTHERWISE YOU MAY HAVE TO GIVE ME ANOTHER PLANT TO GET RID OF THAT. TO GET RID OF IT, YES. WHAT DOES THIS DO? WHY WOULD YOU SELL A POISON PLANT? WELL, IT'S FOR THOSE WHO KNOW HOW TO CONTROL IT. ( laughter ) WHAT DOES IT DO FOR YOU... IT'S FOR ENEMA. IF YOU TAKE JUST THE RIGHT AMOUNT. AN ENEMA-- OH, GREAT, I'M GLAD, GOOD. Alda: IN THE FORESTS OF THE PACIFIC NORTHWEST, TAXOL WAS DISCOVERED. WE SHOWED SOME OF THE FIRST TRIALS OF THIS PROMISING NEW CANCER DRUG. TAXOL WAS FOUND IN THE BARK OF SCARCE YEW TREES SO THE AIM WAS TO SYNTHESIZE THE DRUG, STARTING WITH YEW NEEDLES. THE TRIALS AND THE SYNTHESIS WERE SUCCESSFUL AND NOW TAXOL IS AN IMPORTANT WEAPON AGAINST MANY DIFFERENT CANCERS. WE SHOWED CHINESE MEDICINE'S DIRECT INFLUENCE ON THE WEST IN A STORY ON THERAPEUTIC TOUCH IN WHICH PRACTITIONERS CLAIM TO MANIPULATE THE PATIENT'S SO-CALLED ENERGY FIELD. THEN IN AN EXCLUSIVE REPORT WE SHOWED HOW 11-YEAR-OLD EMILY ROSA PROVED THAT THE PRACTITIONERS COULD NOT DETECT THE ENERGY FIELD THEY CLAIMED EXISTED. EMILY USED A RIGOROUS EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN. Emily: I GOT 4.1 FOR AN AVERAGE OF CORRECT GUESSES. FIVE IS CHANCE AND THEY GOT BELOW CHANCE. Alda: EMILY'S PAPER ON THE EXPERIMENT ENDED UP IN A PEER-REVIEWED MEDICAL JOURNAL. EATING MUCH LESS WAS ONE STORY IN AN EPISODE ABOUT LIVING LONGER THAT ENDED OUR MEDICAL DECADE. LOW-CALORIE, HIGH NUTRITION DIETS SEEM TO BE ONE WAY TO EXTEND LIFE. RESULTS OF MONKEY STUDIES, STILL IN PROGRESS ARE POINTING IN THAT DIRECTION. THEN WE SAW MICE WITH CELLS GENETICALLY ENGINEERED TO AGE MORE RAPIDLY THAN NORMAL OPENING UP WAYS TO POSSIBLY SLOW THE PROCESS IN HUMANS. AND WE SAW TINY NEMATODE WORMS WITH GENETIC MUTATIONS INDUCED IN THE LAB WHICH MULTIPLY THE WORMS' LIFE SPAN UP TO FOUR TIMES. OH, MY GOD THAT REALLY IS... Woman: THIS IS A MUTANT WORM. THIS IS THE EXACT SAME AGE. THIS IS THE SAME AGE! I'M NOT KIDDING YOU. ISN'T THAT AMAZING? I MEAN IT'S JUST UNBELIEVABLE-- YOU CHANGE ONE GENE AND ESSENTIALLY YOU CURE THIS DISEASE OF AGING. Alda: EXTENDED HUMAN LIFESPANS REALLY ARE AROUND THE CORNER AND THAT SEEMED A PRETTY GOOD IDEA TO ME... IT'S VERY GOOD. Alda: ALTHOUGH VERY LOW-CAL DIETS DIDN'T LOOK SO EASY. THIS WOULDN'T BE BAD FOR A DESSERT OR AM I DENIED DESSERT NOW? NO, THAT WOULD BE FINE, SURE. AN APPLE IS A GOOD DESSERT. YEAH, YOU WOULD... YOUR HEART WOULD SINK IF I TOOK OUT THE FROZEN YOGURT, PROBABLY. WELL, NO, YOURS WOULD. ( laughing ) SOME OF OUR MOST FASCINATING STORIES ON FRONTIERS

				The Clock of Life The internal mechanism, telomeres, that makes cells age and die has been discovered. Soon we may be able to keep our bodies’ cells young forever.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: AND IT'S BEEN THAT WAY FOR THE SEVERAL HUNDRED THOUSAND YEARS WE'VE BEEN ON THIS EARTH. NOW SUDDENLY WE'VE BEGUN TO GLIMPSE NATURE'S MACHINERY OF AGING INSIDE OUR CELLS. THROUGHOUT LIFE CELLS CONSTANTLY REJUVENATE THROUGH DIVISION TO KEEP OUR BODIES HEALTHY. IN THE '60s, IT WAS DISCOVERED THERE'S A LIFETIME LIMIT OF ABOUT 50 DIVISIONS AND THEN CELLS DIE OR START CAUSING TROUBLE. BUT WHAT IF WE COULD AVOID THIS LIMIT AND LET CELLS DIVIDE FOREVER? THAT'S THE EXTRAORDINARY IDEA WE'LL EXPLORE IN THIS STORY. WE START WITH A HIGHLY MAGNIFIED PICTURE OF HUMAN CHROMOSOMES-- THE STRUCTURES INSIDE CELLS MADE OF DNA. ON THE ENDS OF EACH CHROMOSOME ARE THINGS CALLED TELOMERES-- HIGHLIGHTED HERE WITH A SPECIAL DYE. IN THE 1980s, IT WAS DISCOVERED THAT TELOMERES GET SHORTER EVERY TIME A CELL DIVIDES UNTIL THE TELOMERES DISAPPEAR ALMOST ENTIRELY. I'M VISITING THE GERON CORPORATION A SMALL BIOTECH COMPANY IN MENLO PARK, CALIFORNIA. THEIR CHIEF SCIENTIST, CAL HARLEY IS THE MAN WHO MADE THIS DISCOVERY ABOUT TELOMERES. Harley: THE LITTLE PLASTIC TIP AT THE END OF A SHOELACE IS LIKE THE TELOMERE. IT FUNCTIONS TO SORT OF PROTECT THE END OF THE CHROMOSOME-- OR IN THIS CASE THE END OF THE SHOELACE-- FROM FRAYING AND NOT BEING ABLE TO FUNCTION. Alda: IT SEEMS TO ME THAT THIS THING THAT'S ACTING LIKE A TELOMERE WOULD BE USEFUL FOR ELIMINATING OR HOLDING OFF FRAYING... FOR A LONG TIME. IT CAN GET VERY, VERY, VERY, VERY SHORT... RIGHT. AND IT'LL STILL DO THE JOB. IS THE TELOMERE LIKE THAT? THERE'S ACTUALLY A CRITICAL POINT WHEN THE TELOMERE GETS DOWN TO MAYBE LESS THAN FIVE PERCENT OF ITS LENGTH AT BIRTH WHERE, AT THAT POINT, THERE IS A VERY STRONG SIGNAL THAT THIS CELL IS IN DANGER BECAUSE THERE IS SOME DAMAGED DNA NOW BEING EXPOSED. Alda: CAL FOUND THAT CELLS STOP DIVIDING WHEN TELOMERES RUN OUT. THEY'RE LIKE THE CLOCK OF LIFE. ANOTHER BREAKTHROUGH CAME WHEN GERON LOCATED THE EXACT SECTION OF DNA-- OR THE GENE-- THAT GOVERNS THE MANUFACTURE OF TELOMERES IN CELLS. IT'S CALLED THE TELOMERASE GENE. AT A BOSTON HOSPITAL RONALD DEPINHO IS WORKING WITH THIS GENE TO EXPLORE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN TELOMERES FINALLY RUN OUT. LET'S TAKE A LOOK. Alda: THEY'VE BRED A SPECIAL STRAIN OF MOUSE WHICH HAS NO TELOMERASE GENE. BECAUSE MICE NORMALLY HAVE MUCH LONGER TELOMERES THAN PEOPLE IT'S TAKEN A FEW GENERATIONS OF THE LAB MICE TO GET DOWN TO SHORT TELOMERES. NOW IT'S GETTING INTERESTING. WHAT WE SEE ARE SOME OBVIOUS EXTERNAL MANIFESTATIONS OF SHORT TELOMERES. WE HAVE A NORMAL MOUSE HERE WITH A QUITE NORMAL-LOOKING COAT COLOR THAT HAS A NICE BLACK SHEEN TO IT. AND THIS IS A MOUSE OF EQUIVALENT AGE THAT HAS SHORT TELOMERES AND WHAT WE SEE ARE SOME OBVIOUS HAIR GRAYING COMPARED TO THE NORMAL COAT COLOR OF THIS MOUSE HERE-- SHORT TELOMERES, NORMAL TELOMERES. AND STILL OTHERS HAVE THE ADDITIONAL PROBLEM WHERE THEY HAVE ACCELERATED HAIR LOSS. Alda: SINCE HAIR NEVER STOPS GROWING HAIR CELLS WOULD BE AMONG THE FIRST WHOSE TELOMERE CLOCK RUNS OUT. THIS IS SOME OF THE FIRST SOLID EVIDENCE THAT TELOMERES CAN AFFECT AT LEAST THE SYMPTOMS OF AGING. FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE CAN SHED SOME LIGHT ON THE TRAGIC DISEASE OF PROGERIA-- PREMATURE AGING. THESE ARE CHILDREN, ALL UNDER 12 YEARS OLD ATTENDING AN ANNUAL GET-TOGETHER OF THE 40 OR SO PROGERIA KIDS IN THE WORLD. BONJOUR. CA VA? Alda: PEDIATRICIAN MICHAEL FOSSEL STUDIES THE DISEASE. Fossel: THESE KIDS ARE BORN OLD. THEY HAVE NORMAL CHILDHOOD MINDS. THEY'RE BRIGHT, THEY'RE FUNNY. THEY'RE TYPICAL OF ANY OTHER CHILD BUT THEY ALSO GET ANGINA AND THEY ALSO GET HEART ATTACKS IN THE PLAYGROUND AND THEY GET ARTHRITIS. THEY HAVE OLD SKIN. THEY DON'T MOVE WELL. THEY'RE SHRIMPY, YOU KNOW BUT OTHERWISE, THEY'RE NORMAL KIDS. Alda: PROGERIA KIDS HAVE THE DISEASES OF OLD AGE AND WE NOW KNOW THEY HAVE SOMETHING ELSE-- SHORT TELOMERES. SHORT TELOMERES MEAN CELLS CAN'T DIVIDE AND REPAIR DAMAGE SO DISEASE STARTS. NOW AT LEAST THE DOOR IS OPEN TO A GENETIC CURE FOR THESE KIDS. YOU CAN GET AN IDEA HOW SUCH A CURE MIGHT WORK BACK AT GERON. CAL HARLEY SHOWED ME UNDER THE MICROSCOPE WHAT HUMAN EYE CELLS LOOK LIKE WHEN THEY'RE YOUNG, HEALTHY AND STILL ABLE TO DIVIDE. SO ALAN, HERE'S AN EXAMPLE OF A YOUNG CELL WITHIN THAT POPULATION THAT IS GOING THROUGH THE PROCESS OF DIVISION. Alda: THESE ARE THE CELLS DIVIDING, USING UP THEIR TELOMERES. NOW TAKE A LOOK AT OLD CELLS WITH NO TELOMERES LEFT. THEY'RE LITERALLY BLOATED-- THEY'VE LOST THEIR YOUTHFUL LINES. ABNORMAL CELLS LIKE THESE CAUSE THE SYMPTOMS OF OLD AGE: CATARACTS, GRAY HAIR, WRINKLED SKIN, ARTHRITIS, EVEN CANCER. Alda: NOW, WHAT IF YOU TOOK TELOMERASE AND GOT IT IN THERE? COULD YOU BUILD UP THE ENDS-- THE TIPS OF THE SHOELACES? THAT'S THE MILLION- DOLLAR QUESTION IS CAN WE PREVENT THIS PROCESS FROM HAPPENING OR, IN PART, REVERSE IT? Alda: CAL INVITED ME TO ANSWER THE MILLION-DOLLAR QUESTION FOR MYSELF. USING THE NORMAL PROCEDURES OF THE GENETIC ENGINEERING LAB I SET ABOUT INSERTING THE TELOMERASE GENE INTO OLD HUMAN EYE CELLS. AND I JUST PRESS IT ALL THE WAY DOWN... Alda: THIS IS AN EXPERIMENT FIRST DONE AT GERON JUST 18 MONTHS EARLIER. THIS IS WHY WE USE PLASTIC. I'LL JUST TAKE THAT ONE FOR YOU. ALL RIGHT, THANK YOU. SEE, WHEN I HAD CHEMISTRY I DIDN'T HAVE A PERSONAL COACH LIKE THIS. I WOULD HAVE DONE MUCH BETTER. Alda: THE FINAL STEP IS TO FORCE THE NEW GENES INTO THE OLD CELLS WITH A FRANKENSTEIN-LIKE ELECTRIC SHOCK. THERE, AND I PUSH THIS IN. ( machine humming ) Alda: AND BINGO! IT WORKS. YOU GET NEW, YOUTHFUL CELLS. Alda: I'M KIND OF SURPRISED AT HOW VIVID THIS IS. YEAH. THE FIRST TIME WE SAW IT WE WERE VERY MUCH SURPRISED. EVEN THOUGH THIS IS WHAT WE WERE PREDICTING AND HOPING FOR THE IMPACT OF THIS IS DRAMATIC. SOME OF THESE CELLS HAVE BEEN GOING NOW FOR 300 DOUBLINGS WHERE THE NORMAL CELLS AGE AT 50. THEY'RE STILL READY FOR MORE. YEAH. THAT'S WHY WE SOMETIMES CALL THEM IMMORTAL BUT A MORE ACCURATE TERM WOULD BE "INDEFINITE DIVISION CAPACITY. " SO IF THIS WERE HAPPENING, LET'S SAY IN THE SKIN ON MY FACE... ( both laughing ) WHAT DO YOU MEAN? YOU HAVE TO UNDERSTAND, I'M AN ACTOR, YOU KNOW DURING MOST OF THE WEEK. SO IF THIS WERE HAPPENING IN THE SKIN ON MY FACE THE, UH... BAGS UNDER MY EYES WOULD TEND TO GO AWAY BY THEMSELVES APPARENTLY. Alda: RIGHT NOW WE DON'T KNOW THE ANSWER TO MY QUESTION. WE CAN REJUVENATE CELLS IN A DISH BUT THAT'S NOT THE SAME AS REPAIRING TISSUE DAMAGE ON A LARGE SCALE. HERE AT U. C.L.A. RITA EFFROS IS WORKING ON ONE OF THE FIRST APPLICATIONS OF LARGE-SCALE CELL REPAIR. THE GOAL IS TO REJUVENATE THE CELLS OF THE BODY'S IMMUNE SYSTEM IN THE SAME WAY I DID AT GERON WITH EYE CELLS BY ADDING THE TELOMERASE GENE. IF OLD FOLKS HAD YOUNG AND VIGOROUS IMMUNE SYSTEMS THEY'D OBVIOUSLY BE ABLE TO FIGHT OFF DISEASES MORE EFFECTIVELY. Effros: WHAT WE'RE HOPING TO DO IS EXTEND THE LIFE OF ELDERLY PEOPLE TO THE MAXIMUM LIMIT THAT WE NOW KNOW IS THE HUMAN LIMIT WHICH IS APPROXIMATELY 120 YEARS. SO WE'RE HOPING THAT A PERSON WHO'S 100 OR 105 WOULD RESPOND BETTER TO AN INFECTION AND THEREFORE NOT DIE FROM THAT INFECTION AND CONTINUE LIVING. Alda: THIS WORK IS NOW LOOKING VERY PROMISING. FOR EXAMPLE, THIS IS THE RESPONSE OF A REJUVENATED IMMUNE SYSTEM TO A VIRUS. THE DARK PATCHES ARE DENSE SWARMS OF IMMUNE CELLS ATTACKING THE INTRUDER. COMPARE THAT TO THE WEAK RESPONSE OF A NORMAL 80-YEAR-OLD'S IMMUNE SYSTEM. SOMETIME IN THE NEXT FEW YEARS GETTING AN IMMUNE SYSTEM BOOST COULD BECOME ROUTINE FOR PEOPLE OVER, SAY, 60. MANY MORE PEOPLE MIGHT CONQUER DISEASE AND REACH THE 120-YEAR LIMIT. BUT CAN WE GO FURTHER? WILL WE BE ABLE TO LIVE 150 OR 200 YEARS? IS THAT POSSIBLE? THERE'S NO REASON WHY GENETICALLY WE CAN'T HAVE A LIFE-SPAN THAT COULD BE 100, 200, 300 YEARS. THERE'S JUST NO THEORETICAL REASON THAT THAT IS IMPOSSIBLE. Alda: TO DOUBLE OR TRIPLE HUMAN LIFE-SPAN IS AN ASTONISHING IDEA BUT DON'T DISMISS IT BEFORE YOU SEE OUR NEXT STORY.

				Use It or Lose It Senility is not inevitable. Studies show staying physically and mentally active is the key to a long and satisfying old age.
		Select text to jump ahead in the clip: LIKE THIS EVERY DAY? Alda: OUR FINAL SEGMENT IS ABOUT HOW TO BE SUCCESSFUL AT BEING OLD. BEFORE LONG, MANY OF US REALLY COULD FIND OURSELVES LIVING TO 150, 200, WHO KNOWS? BUT CAN WE GET THERE WITHOUT LOSING OUR MENTAL ABILITIES SO THAT WE CAN ENJOY OUR LONGER LIVES? TOMMY RAWSON, HARVARD'S BOXING COACH, IS NOT QUITE THERE YET. HE'S 92... BUT WHAT A 92! AND THIS IS WHAT THEY HAVE TO DO: ONE, TWO. ONE, TWO, BOOM. Alda: THROUGHOUT HIS LIFE, BOXING HAS ALWAYS KEPT TOMMY ON HIS TOES. Rawson: YOU GET SOMETHING IN YOUR MIND. YOU WANT TO TAKE AND TRY TO HIT A MAN WITH A LEFT HOOK AND IF HE'S GOT A GOOD GUARD KEEPS HIS HANDS UP, THEN YOU DON'T USE THAT. THEN YOU GOT TO TAKE AND TRY THE RIGHT HAND. THE COMBINATION OF YOUR MIND WORKING QUICKLY AND YOUR HANDS AND FEET WORKING QUICKLY-- THAT'S... MOST PEOPLE DON'T DO THAT. THEY DON'T COORDINATE THOSE THINGS THE WAY YOU DO. THAT'S WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO TO BE SUCCESSFUL, I'D SAY. THE FEET HAVE TO BE WORKING WITH... THE HANDS. Alda: AS WE'LL SEE, KEEPING ACTIVE IS THE KEY TO KEEPING THE MIND GOING STRONG. ONE, TWO, THREE. JUST LOOK AND TRY TO REMEMBER. Alda: MASS GENERAL PSYCHOLOGIST MARILYN ALBERT HAS BEEN INVESTIGATING WHAT HAPPENS TO PEOPLE'S THINKING ABILITIES AS THEY GET OLDER. GET UP ON HERE? Alda: ONE OF THE MOST COMMON PROBLEMS IN THE ELDERLY IS MEMORY LOSS AND LATELY MARILYN'S GROUP HAS BEEN LOOKING FOR CHANGES IN THE BRAIN WHICH MIGHT ACCOUNT FOR THIS LOSS. THEY'RE TESTING PEOPLE OF DIFFERENT AGES AND TODAY IT'S MY TURN. A SLIDE PROJECTOR WILL BEAM PHOTOGRAPHS ONTO A SCREEN THAT I HAVE TO WATCH WHILE I'M INSIDE AN M. R.I. MACHINE. AS I STARE AT THE PICTURES AND TRY TO FORM A MEMORY OF THEM THE MACHINE WILL DETECT WHICH AREAS OF THE BRAIN I'M USING. WHILE I'M PRESENTED WITH THESE PICTURES CROSS-SECTION IMAGES OF MY BRAIN INSTANTLY SHOW UP IN THE CONTROL ROOM. THE LIGHT AREAS CORRESPOND TO BRAIN TISSUE THE DARK AREAS TO FLUID SURROUNDING THE BRAIN. HOW IS MY BRAIN? ACTUALLY IT LOOKS VERY YOUNG. YES? YES. WHAT COULD YOU SEE? WE WERE ADMIRING IT. YEAH, WHAT COULD YOU SEE? WE COULD SEE THAT THERE ISN'T TOO MUCH FLUID. AS YOU GET OLDER, THE BRAIN TENDS TO SHRINK A LITTLE BIT AND GETS A LITTLE BIT MORE FLUID AND YOURS LOOKS VERY TIGHTLY PACKED. Alda: NOW WE'LL COMPARE MY BRAIN TO THOSE OF OTHER SUBJECTS. ARE THESE ALL ONE BRAIN, OR...? Alda: ON AVERAGE, MARILYN FINDS THAT PEOPLE IN THEIR 20s AND 30s SHOW INTENSE ACTIVITY RIGHT HERE WHILE THEY'RE FORMING A MEMORY OF A PICTURE. IN CONTRAST, PEOPLE IN THEIR 80s TEND NOT TO HAVE THAT ACTIVITY. I WAS HAPPY TO SEE THAT MY BRAIN ACTIVITY STILL LOOKS PRETTY YOUNG. WHAT IS THAT ACTIVITY, WHAT'S THAT ASSOCIATED WITH? WE THINK THE NEURONS ARE FIRING. WE'RE MEASURING THE ACTIVITY OF NERVE CELLS IN THE BRAIN. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? DOES THAT MEAN THAT OLDER PEOPLE HAVE A HARDER TIME ACTUALLY REGISTERING WHAT THEY'RE TYING TO REMEMBER? IT'S NOT JUST THAT THEY DON'T RECALL SOMETHING. THEY HAVEN'T GOT IT IN THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE? THAT'S RIGHT. WE THINK WHAT HAPPENS AS YOU GET OLDER IS THAT IT TAKES YOU LONGER TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW. IF YOU WORK HARD AND YOU REMEMBER IT AND YOU LEARN IT REALLY WELL, YOU REMEMBER IT AS WELL AS SOMEBODY MUCH, MUCH YOUNGER THAN YOURSELF. Alda: HARD WORK SEEMS TO BE THE KEY TO ALL KINDS OF MENTAL ACTIVITY IN OLD AGE, NOT JUST MEMORY AS MARILYN FOUND OUT IN A LARGE STUDY SHE HELPED ORGANIZE. HI, MRS. RYAN, HOW ARE YOU? GOOD, DEAR. I'M JENNIFER. Alda: THE TEN-YEAR STUDY FOLLOWED 1,200 PEOPLE AS THEY MADE THE TRANSITION FROM MIDDLE TO OLD AGE. EVERY TWO YEARS, PARTICIPANTS GOT A BATTERY OF TESTS LIKE THIS MEMORY CHALLENGE, WHERE THE OBJECT IS TO PICK OUT THE CHIP THAT HAS JUST BEEN PLACED ON THE BOARD. THE STUDY TRIED TO IDENTIFY FACTORS WHICH MIGHT EXPLAIN WHY PEOPLE LIKE MRS. RYAN REMAIN SHARP EVEN IN THEIR 80s WHILE OTHERS DECLINE. Jennifer: OKAY... GREAT. HOW OFTEN DO YOU READ BOOKS, MAGAZINES OR NEWSPAPERS? DO YOU DO THAT THREE OR MORE TIMES A WEEK? ONCE TO TWICE A WEEK? THREE OR MORE. THREE OR MORE TIMES. DO YOU DO ARTS, CRAFTS OR OTHER HOBBIES? KNITTING. Alda: THEY LOOKED AT THINKING ACTIVITY AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY. THREE OR MORE TIMES. AND HOW MANY CITY BLOCKS OR THEIR EQUIVALENT DO YOU WALK EACH DAY? OH, ABOUT... ABOUT 30, I GUESS. BECAUSE I WALK THREE HOURS EVERY DAY. READY, STAND. Alda: THE RESULTS WERE UNEQUIVOCAL. IF YOU MAINTAIN GOOD PHYSICAL HEALTH, GET MODERATE EXERCISE AND KEEP YOUR BRAIN REASONABLY STIMULATED YOU CAN STAY MENTALLY SHARP. IF YOU DON'T DO THOSE THINGS, YOU GO DOWNHILL. FIVE... GREAT. Alda: BILL GREENOUGH AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS HAS DONE A LANDMARK EXPERIMENT WITH RATS WHICH REVEALS WHAT MENTAL AND PHYSICAL STIMULATION ACTUALLY DOES FOR THE BRAIN. AGING ANIMALS WERE LET LOOSE FOR ONE HOUR A DAY IN A RAT WONDERLAND. THE TOYS WERE CHANGED DAILY SO EVERY DAY WHEN THE RATS EXPLORED THEY GOT NOT JUST A PHYSICAL WORKOUT BUT AN OPPORTUNITY TO LEARN SOMETHING NEW AS WELL. WHEN COMPARED TO THE BRAINS OF ELDERLY, UNSTIMULATED RATS THE STIMULATED ONES HAD MUCH DENSER NEURON FIBERS WITHOUT THE DYING OFF USUALLY SEEN IN OLDER ANIMALS. AND ALL THESE LIGHT SHAPES SHOWED THAT THE STIMULATED RATS ALSO HAD MANY MORE BLOOD VESSELS NOURISHING THEIR BRAINS. IN EFFECT, THE STIMULATED ELDERLY RATS HAD BRAINS THAT LOOKED YOUNG. Greenough: WE USED TO BELIEVE THAT THE BRAIN DEVELOPED, THEN IT GOT DONE DEVELOPING AND THE BRAIN WAS STABLE AND THEN EVENTUALLY THE BRAIN BEGAN TO GET OLD AND DECLINED AND WOULD DETERIORATE. WE'VE FOUND REALLY THAT BOTH THOSE THINGS ARE WRONG. IF THE BRAIN IS CONSTANTLY CHALLENGED BOTH MENTALLY IN TERMS OF DEMANDING PROBLEM-SOLVING TASKS AND PHYSICALLY IN TERMS OF PHYSICAL EXERCISE THEN THAT BRAIN SEEMS TO REMAIN REMARKABLY STABLE NOT TO SHOW VERY MUCH IN THE WAY OF THE KIND OF DECLINES THAT WE OFTEN THOUGHT OF AS INEVITABLE. ( playing "Lara's Theme" ) Alda: THE LIVES OF REAL PEOPLE BACK UP THIS IDEA. TAKE CATHERINE McCAIG. THROUGHOUT HER 103 YEARS, SHE'S BEEN READING, DANCING LEARNING LANGUAGES AND MAKING JOKES. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN PLAYING PIANO? I'VE NEVER PLAYED THE PIANO. I DON'T KNOW HOW TO PLAY. HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN SITTING AT ONE OF THESE AND WORKING ON IT? OH, A HUNDRED YEARS. A HUNDRED YEARS? YOU STARTED WHEN YOU WERE... AND I STILL CAN'T PLAY. ( playing "Lara's Theme" ) DID YOU DRIVE A CAR? I DID. WHEN DID YOU START DRIVING A CAR? SEVENTY-NINE. THE AGE OF 79. AND HOW LONG DID YOU DRIVE? TEN YEARS. TEN YEARS. YEAH... AND WHEN I FINISHED DRIVING AS I SAY, AFTER GOING THROUGH THE PLATE GLASS WINDOW... TELL ME ABOUT THAT. HAVE I GOT TO? YEAH... IF YOU DON'T MIND. WHAT KIND OF A BUILDING WAS THIS? PARDON? WHAT KIND OF A BUILDING WAS IT THAT YOU WENT INTO? THE BANK. THE BANK? YES, AND THEY THOUGHT IT WAS AN EXPLOSION. I CAN IMAGINE. THEY RAN FOR THEIR LIVES. SO YOU INVENTED THE DRIVE-THROUGH WINDOW. ( playing "Lara's Theme" ) Albert: SO NOW WE KNOW THAT THE OLD SAYING "USE IT OR LOSE IT" REALLY IS TRUE. AND IT'S, LIKE, LITERALLY TRUE. YOUR BRAIN STARTS TO GO AWAY IF YOU DON'T USE IT EVERY DAY. AND EVERY DAY IS IMPORTANT. I THINK SO. YOU CAN'T GO AWAY FOR A RENAISSANCE WEEKEND ONCE A YEAR. IT'S GOT TO BE EVERY DAY. YEAH, AND IT'S THE THINGS YOU DO DAY TO DAY-- NOT COMPLICATED, YOU KNOW, UNUSUAL THINGS BUT TO MAKE IT PART OF YOUR LIFE. ( jazz playing ) Alda: NOBODY KNOWS WHAT WOULD ACTUALLY HAPPEN TO THE BRAINS OF PEOPLE WHO LIVED UNTIL 150 OR 200 BECAUSE NOBODY HAS YET LIVED THAT LONG... ( band playing "Anything Goes" ) BUT SO FAR, THERE DOESN'T SEEM TO BE ANY LIMIT. AS LONG AS WE KEEP STIMULATING OUR BRAINS WITH CHALLENGING HOBBIES AND JOBS AND REMAIN PHYSICALLY ACTIVE WE CAN PROBABLY RETAIN OUR MENTAL CAPABILITIES NO MATTER HOW OLD WE GET. WE'VE SEEN IN THIS PROGRAM THAT SCIENCE IS CLOSING IN ON THE SECRETS OF AGING. FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HUMAN HISTORY WE MAY BE ABLE TO DELIBERATELY EXTEND OUR LIFE-SPANS. MAYBE WE'LL DO IT BY RESTRICTING OUR CALORIE INTAKE... OR BY RENEWING THE TELOMERES THAT LIMIT HOW MANY TIMES OUR CELLS CAN DIVIDE... BY MANIPULATING THE GENES WHICH GOVERN LIFE-SPAN OR BY GROWING SPARE PARTS FOR OUR BODIES. HOWEVER WE DO IT, IT LOOKS LIKE IT'S REALLY GOING TO HAPPEN AND SOON, TOO. COME VISIT US AT PBS ONLINE. SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN FRONTIERS CAN BE FOUND ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB AT pbs.