H3 Book Index:: Chapters 1-29
The story of Prof. Ana Aslan and the therapy for the diseases, discomforts, and agonies of old age developed by her and her co-workers at the newly founded Parhon Institute of Geriatrics is an exciting one, it has also been frequently misrepresented.
When we are children, we can hardly wait to be grown up. At some point, we reach that very satisfyinG period of life when the privileges and pleasures of
maturity are combined with an eager zest for life and with the vigor of youth. This delightful stage-usually the late teens to the late twenties or early thirtiesgoes by most of us unnoticed and unappreciated (how often do the middle aged and older quote the phrase "youth is wasted on the young"). Then some little sign-a hair line thinner at the temple, some wrinkles around the eyes-reminds each of us that, like all living things, we too are subject to the aging process. And one day, for the first time, the thought flashes through our mind "If I were young again. . ."
This thought is father to the wish. But if we no longer believe in the curses of witches, neither can we hope for the magic wand of a fairy to touch us and restore youth and beauty. There is no way to turn the clock backward. So most of us go on about our living, the wish to be again young (or at least middle-aged) buried in our subconscious.
The word rejuvenation, expressing this buried wish, is perhaps charged with more wishful thinking than any other word in our language.
For this reason it was unfortunate that Prof. Aslan originally used the words 'true rejuvenation' in describing occasional effec.ts of the therapy she had developed. For her words have been picked up by headline writers and newscasters, and shortened into such deplorable catch-phrases as "Youth shots," "Youth serum," "Long-life drug," "miracle drug," and even "Live-forever juice." .
Webster's unabridged dictionary defines rejuvenate as follows:
-To render young or youthful again; to impart renewed vital
ity. To restore to a more youthful condition; specifically., to restore sexual vigor, as by an operation.
Professor Aslan has used the term rejuvenate in the restricted sense of "to impart renewed vitality, to restore to a more youthful condition." In this limited, more symbolic sense, rejuvenation is a phenomenon familiar to us all. Our vitality is renewed when we convalesce from a serious illness, or vacation
after a long period of strain or overwork. Surely we .
are restored to a more youthful condition as we recover from the shock and grief of the loss of a dear one, or have some great worry lifted from our shoulders. In fact, nature imparts renewed vitality to us and restores us to a more youthful condition each time we enjoy a good night's sleep.
Nowhere in any of her published reports or public statements have Prof. Aslan or any other serious scientists who followed in her wake ever claimed to be making old men and women young again. Any restoration of sexual vigor which has occurred in any of the
treated patients has been incidental to the renewing of vitality in that particular patient.
The media, however, loved the word "rejuvenation," using it in the widest possible sense, thus perhaps unintentionally but no less severely damaging the cause of this promising drug.
Once this semantic problem is well understood, we can more easily examine the basis of the claim that the procaine treatment will Ģimpart renewed vitality to old men and women," and "restore them to a more youthful condition.
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H3 Book Index:: Chapters 1-29
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