H3 Book Index:: Chapters 1-29
The most dramatic aspect of the procaine therapy is the possibiltity of its use as a prophylactic measure, to ward off the symptoms of old age, or at least to postpone them. On the surface it would seem that this could be the case, but the complete lack of old age criteria will make it difficult to prove or disprove the prophylactic effectiveness of procaine in human beings.
We have no way of determining the physiologically "normal" state of a 65-year-old man: we do not know how much sickness to consider "normal" in a man of
that age. At best we may arrive at certain statistical data by examining a large number of 65-year-old people and striking a chronological average, but we are still in the dark as to the true picture each man or woman should present biologically at a certain age.
With this in mind, we can readily see how difficult it will be to gauge any prophylactic effect of procaine in an objective manner. Suppose we start a group of 45year-old people on a modified procaine therapy, as has been done in Bucharest and elsewhere, and treat another group of the same age with another substance or with a placebo. Can we really set up standards of
what to expect in these people, provided even that their physiological conditions at the beginning of this experiment are approximately the same? The subjective story might be different-an absence of vague complaints, a less frequent occurrence of nervous and joint diseases in the procaine-treated group, or, as the tests started in Bucharest in 1972, the lower incidence
of cardiovascular diseases, would make the value of such prophylactic treatment clear.
The prophylactic use of procaine is not completely in the realm of speculation, as may be inferred from the fact that premature aging has been successfully reversed. We have heard of the particularly striking case of the 42-year-old man; similar but not quite so dramatic cases are to be seen almost daily at the Institute of Geriatrics. One Bucharest patient was observed in whom further aging seemed to have been arrested for a period of seven years.
We have mentioned that the Geriatrics Institute has under its care a surprisingly large number of children with either unusual diseases (osteoporosis, ichthyosis, etc.) or with more common ailments, such as asthma and rheumatism, which respond readily to procaine. Cases of the latter type are explained by Prof. AsIan as instances of precocious aging of the organism. She feels that neither bronchial asthma nor rheumatism will normally occur in children, and that we are dealing in such cases with relatively rare symptoms of old age in the young. (In girls, procaine therapy must be administered very judiciously, since procaine stimulates the ovaries. The potential benefits must outweigh the possible danger of hormonal overstimulation.)
While procaine has proved itself in the simpler cases, it is recommended that the treated children continue periodical procaine therapy in order to prevent any recurrence of these untimely signs of old age. The state of health in these children in the later years will be of great interest to medical science.
It should also be interesting to observe whether h3 procaine can be of any value in a very rare condition called "progeria," a form of senility which is apparent
by the end of the first year of life. Very few cases of progeria have been described, and all of them have led to death before the 26th year of the affected individuals. These children show atrophic skin, baldness, calcification of the vessels, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, sexual retardation, tremors of the limbs-in other words, all the signs of senescence with the exception of cataracts. Death is usually due to coronary insufficiency. The cause of progeria is still unknown, but since procaine favorably affects most of its symptoms, it would seem logical to institute this therapy in cases of such accelerated aging.
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H3 Book Index:: Chapters 1-29
