H3 Book Index:: Chapters 1-29
One year after Nascher had coined the word "geriatrics," and while Hans Selye was still a schoolboy, a
young Rumanian physician named Constantin I. Parhon took the position that old age is a treatable disease. The first Rumanian medical figure to achieve international renown, Parhon began his career as a neurologist but soon became attracted to the functions of the endocrine glands. On the basis of experimental and clinical research he began administering an extract of the pineal gland (a small gland attached to the posterior of the brain) to old people. While his method was much simpler than that of Steinach, his successes were by no means more definitive. However, continuing his endocrinological studies, he found that animals would develop signs of old age if certain glands or tissues-such as the thyroid, the spleen or the mammary glands-were removed surgically. His
treatise on the importance of the endocrine glands, published almost 70 years ago, is considered the first large scale endocrinological work in medical literature.
For 40 years Parhon continued his investigations into the causes of aging. His aim was to determine the true biological age of human beings. During 22 of those years, Parhon was a Professor of neurology, and it was not until 1934 that a chair of endocrinology was created for him at the University of Bucharest. Six years later the Rumanian Fascist government fired him, but he returned to his former position in 1945. I was soon thereafter that he founded the Institute of Endocrinology.
Professor Parhon's views can best be summarized in his own words from one of his more than 1,200 publications:
"From a theoretical point of view, I am of the opinion that aging begins simultaneously with growth and development, and that the mechanism of aging can be understood only in terms of research concerned with the changes which the entire organism undergoes throughout its lifetime. The phenomena that determine and accompany the aging process are so numerous and involved and their mode of origin so deserving of study that they cannot but fascinate all biologists. . .
"I am of the view that the process of aging occurs only to the extent that the conditions giving rise to it have occurred. If one were able to interfere with the mechanisms of aging, the direction of this process would be subject to change. In this way it is conceivable that the aging organism, whether the aging is due to premature, pathological, or so-called normal factors, could be returned to an earlier biological state. My experiences . . . have shown that the rhythm of life can be either speeded up or slowed down at all stages. . . . Biological and chronological age are not necessarily identical. Differences in aging rates can also be observed in clinical situations, e.g., endocrine conditions, and I believe that the rate of aging, 'the film of life' as it were, can be controlled in either of two directions, Le., toward faster aging or, to some extent, toward rejuvenation.
"If one were to view the aging process as irreversible, steps to
control it would involve merely sanitation and the usual treatment. But if the aging process is regarded from a functional viewpoint, as a deviation from the normal functional optimum of the individual, Le., as an abnormal phenomenon, then treatment no longer seems impossible. In our view the aging process is a pathological condition, or, to state it better, a more or less extensive dystrophy. . . which develops slowly as the organism grows and differentiates. It is our obligation to treat these disturbances of function, and to prevent them whenever possible."
Parhon's interest in the problems of aging (in 1926 he coined the word "ilikibiology" from the Greek "iliki" meaning old age, but this never gained wide acceptance) led, in 1951, to the founding of the Institute of
Geriatrics in Bucharest. Parhon, who had been elected the first President of the Rumanian Republic after the fall of the monarchy in 1948, returned to his scientific work when the Communists took over the country in 1950. He then had at his disposal facilities which made it possible for him to pursue vigorously his important
work. The nucleus of the Institute was an existing old age home with almost two hundred inmates. These were the people through whom Parhon wanted to
prove definitely that old age could be treated. All of
the inmates suffered from serious degenerative diseases; he proceeded to give them either tissue extracts (of the spleen or placenta), gland extracts (adrenal and pineal glands, thyroid), vitamins (Vitamin E, liquid beer yeast), or baths of bicarbonate of soda (a treatment developed by the Russian physiologist Olga Lepechinskaya, which had received wide publicity in the Soviet Union in the post-war years). All of these treatments had been tried previously at other institutions, and the results in Bucharest were about the same: a few of the old people seemed to benefit, but no really important changes took place.
In 1949, a woman doctor who for more than 20 years had been a specialist in cardiovascular diseases
joined the staff of Dr. Parhon's Institute of Endrocrinology. Prof. Ana Aslan had long been interested in the pharmacodynamical properties of novocain* and jts action in the human body, and she continued her experimentation under Dr. Parhon's direction-and under the encouragement of his conviction that old age and its manifestations are treatable and preventable.
It would seem that Dr. Parhon was impressed with the capabilities of his new staff member, and with the direction and progress of her research, for in 1952 Parhon turned over the directorship of his Institute to Prof. Ana Aslan.
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H3 Book Index:: Chapters 1-29
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