Barriers In Heart Regeneration Research

William Faloon

You’re very welcome. I look forward to entertaining your group.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

You are always. You entertain because you’re so energetic, you’re so passionate, and you’re so out of the box thinking it has to be entertaining in terms of you can’t possibly get distracted, so nobody looks at their phone; they just take notes. Let’s go here and let me just ask you a few softball questions, but they’re so important. Again, if anybody isn’t familiar, go over to lifeextension.com.

William Faloon

That’s okay.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Because that’s you’re a commercial site. How long has the Life Extension group identified novel ways to prevent and treat age-related diseases? How long has it been going on?

William Faloon

Well, we started in 1977 as a nonprofit organization, and then we moved into the publishing business of anti-aging news. We’ve been talking about preventing and even reversing cardiovascular diseases since the early 1980s with coenzyme Q10 to treat heart failure and low-dose aspirin as a primary or secondary way to prevent stroke and heart attack. The thrombotic diseases of people suffering from cardiovascular disorders are where we focus because they remain the number one problem.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Wow. 1977. That is so ahead of your time. I don’t know how much we’re going to hear about CoQ10 and the rest of the summit. Tell us a little about 30 or 35 years ago, what got you excited about CoQ10, and why it’s still such an important pillar of cardiovascular health.

William Faloon

Back in the late 1970s, there was a significant amount of published research emanating from Japan, where CoQ10 was added to standard medical treatment, and they were seeing heart failure rates that were reversible. But people live a little longer than they were supposed to, and they weren’t even dosing them that high back in those days. We moved that technology to the United States. We convinced a lot of cardiologists to start recommending it to their patients, and we were able to see reversals of chronic heart failure in a way that some of the cardiologists would sometimes call, some jokingly saying, What are you doing to my patients? I was thinking, Did something happen? Terrible. I would say, No, they’re living much longer than I projected they would, and the families are wondering how they are still alive. I said we see that if people take magnesium, taurine, and carnitine, a high dose of CoQ10 is what you need to reverse failure. You see some added years. For the people who are given a very short extension as it relates to their remaining lifespan, we can make that go at least a couple more years in better health.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

And it’s still crazy in 2024: what percentage of patients with congestive heart failure on a proper dose of CoQ10 are on any CoQ10? I’d submit less than 25% for my clinical practice for prostate.

William Faloon

That came out probably not five or six years ago, saying that 79% of cardiologists were recommending CoQ10. to their heart failure patients. I don’t know how accurate that data set was, but it was widely disseminated. It makes sense because the patients are coming in and saying, I’m reading all these things from different companies. The doctors were essentially being educated by their patients and seeing the clinical results.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

It must have been a Life Extension magazine reader cardiologist, because.

William Faloon

We don’t have any kind of crucial COQ10. Lots of companies were promoting it. It wasn’t just us. You’re a practicing cardiologist, and you have a couple of patients every day coming in with a new study on CoQ10 or a brochure, and then you see some clinical benefit. It just makes sense to say this is not a prescription drug; buy it on your own and then take it with the other medications and live longer.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

I couldn’t agree more with one of the safest supplements on the market, without a doubt, even at high doses. But it’s 2024. What are you investigating now? As it relates to heart failure? What’s new?

William Faloon

What’s exciting? It’s only being done offshore right now. Stem cell therapies have been talked about for 25 years. This procedure, though, goes in through the brachial artery and then uses the catheter to go directly into the heart, just like you would insert a stent. Instead, they insert stem cells directly into portions of the heart muscle that are not functioning as well as they should be. They’re seeing remarkable reversals, which are being done in two places in Colombia. We’ve got our investigators going down there within the next three weeks to see the patients, look at baseline records, and follow-up records, and call patients up because the anecdotal reports are tremendous. Just for common sense, if we realize you just can’t put stem cells in systemically and expect it to have a significant impact on heart health, but you put them directly into the heart muscle just like you would a stent, we’re seeing at least some reports of favorable outcomes now.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

That is very exciting. I have to pack our bags for Medellin, and that’s where a lot of them are, and Bogota. But I hope you bring back a positive report, and we can convince the FDA to continue the trials in the United States.

William Faloon

Well, my goal is to get enough patient data to send it to the FDA, indicating that we’ve already overseen people going down there and coming back. This is not that unusual. They’re doing catheterization all the time to look at coronary blood flow to determine whether a stent or bypass is needed. Well, it’s not that big of a deal to insert some stem cells through that catheter and see some regeneration of the heart muscle. Within the next six months, I’m hoping we can present the FDA with enough evidence to at least allow some studies to be initiated in the United States.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

The next question I want to ask you is whether it’s so important that everybody listens to us. I’ve kept a poster and framed a picture in my cardiology office for years, and it shows an artery and about 20 different daggers, each with a name and the dagger handle. that came from your magazine easily more than a decade ago. It’s a beautiful colored picture I just ripped right out of your Life Extension magazine. But that leads to the question: because that was over a decade ago, when I hung around my wall, how many independent risk factors for coronary artery disease? Number one: killer men and women in the world. How many do you think there are?

William Faloon

I can show that to your group. By the way, before our conversation ends, I have it right in front of me. There are 17 independent risk factors that we identified that we could fit into that nice-looking coronary artery. That was what we identified about eight or nine years ago. Of course, there were more and more emerging, some of them more serious than what they were originally anticipated as being risky for, such as apolipoprotein B. I mean, if people don’t look at that, they only look at LDL and triglycerides. They’re missing out on a lot of high-risk patients who could benefit dramatically by lowering ApoB down to a safe range.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

You’ve been teaching that there’s 17 that were on that picture eight or nine years ago. Of course, cardiologists learned about hypertension, high blood sugar, high blood pressure, smoking, and family history. Heart disease—that’s five. You’ve just added 12 more. As you said, just to put a little smile on your face, if you came to my office, you’ll see that I took out his Sharpie pen and I’ve added about five or six, and on each side of the pictures, I’m up to about 25, easily like TMAO and lipoprotein, a new five GC, and some of the others that are being discussed. You have to draw a lot of blood from your patients. If you want the complete profile of why you have coronary disease or why you’re at risk for cancer, thank you for introducing that concept. But like in CoQ10, it’s just moving so slowly. You often say, How many years from the introduction of a new concept does it take for it to enter clinical practice?

William Faloon

The American Medical Association, published in April of this year, found a 17-year average delay from the time a discovery is made before it makes it into your doctor’s office. That’s a lot of needless suffering and death that’s occurring right now, and some of this data is good, solid data. It doesn’t require a lot to optimize. Some of these markers, especially those that people can afford, are not that expensive. Sometimes, Medicare will not cover it anymore. A blood test. You can look at LDL particle size, small, dense LDL particles, and all kinds of lipid markers that are available. If you have high levels, you will do something about it. Don’t wait for a heart attack before initiating these therapies.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

It’s one of the reasons we do this reversal of heart disease naturally. It isn’t 17 years old. Somebody listening to this conversation can say, I’m not on CoQ10, I’m over 50, I’m on a statin, and I probably should be. Don’t wait 17 years. Go get CoQ10. Buy from Life Extension. They’re an amazing company, and I use their products proudly in my office. Without a doubt, why do you think people are so vulnerable to atherosclerosis? Why do we have this problem? What’s your thought?

William Faloon

It’s a national phenomenon. There’s a debate about that, but there was a study published two years ago that found that people in Sweden are asymptomatic individuals with no sign of vascular disease whatsoever. 42% of them used computed tomography or angiography. 42% had significant coronary atherosclerosis. They didn’t know it, and Sweden is a healthy country and the United States from a cardiovascular standpoint, and that means well over 42% of older Americans, middle-aged old Americans, have significant atherosclerosis right now. The reason is that you go back to the time of the ancient mummies. They’re doing autopsies now on mummies and finding they have lots of atherosclerosis caused by inflammation caused by, a myriad of what is in our blood. It’s not very nice to our endothelial lining. That inner arterial wall suffers decades of damage, and we wonder why, at 40 or 50, we already have a lot of vascular disease. Well, it’s been exposed to a lot of aster toxins over that time.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Amazing. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Ötzi the Iceman.

William Faloon

No.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Otzi the Iceman is a Neanderthal. I don’t know if I’m getting it at the right period. 5000 years ago Europe fell into an ice crack and was uncovered about 20 years ago with an intact body that was 5000 years old, which is even older than most of the mummies. What did they find in his? It was a male coronary artery. They found atherosclerosis. Interesting—a well-preserved corpse frozen in ice for 5000 years.

William Faloon

Thank you for that, because my data goes back 4000 years. You can get one for 5,000 years. What this helps your listeners understand is that atherosclerosis is a natural process associated with aging. It just happens to almost everybody. Lots of blood tests are the most effective way of identifying your risk factors, correcting those risk factors, and then getting your blood adjusted again. I’m just amazed that people have been taking it for two or three years. I said, How did you get your LDL? I don’t know. I never test my blood. In many cases, they may not have taken the right dose or the right stat.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

As you said, eight, nine years ago in your magazine, there were 17 daggers affecting arteries. Now we have 25. You were one of the first companies to offer direct-to-consumer lab panels, as you do so regularly.

William Faloon

Just like in 1996, we were recommending our supporters get their blood tested for homocysteine, C-reactive protein, and LDL particles. All other doctors say, No, you don’t need that. We’re saying, wait a minute, that it’s the leading cause of disability and death in the United States. We can identify it early with a blood test, and your doctor won’t do it. We just started doing it right. People nowadays can either go to your doctor, you can just prescribe it, or they can use their insurance. They want to pay out-of-pocket. They got a Life Extension. We get them a requisition. You get their blood results back in about five days, and then they can take some action.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

That’s been a great thing. People come to me all the time. My clinic in Detroit has a Life Extension lab that they pay for themselves at a very reasonable price, and there’s no barrier. You just have to get your blood drawn. Let’s just heat it with this last main question for you. This may confuse some of the viewers, but just know that there are different opinions on this topic. But a recent Life Extension magazine had an article, The LDL Cholesterol Debate. Tell us a little bit about your views on the debate. This constant kind of tennis game back and forth matters. It doesn’t matter how important it is. What’s your view?

William Faloon

I’ll tell you, my view today is a little bit different than it was in prior years. I go to medical conferences and talk to people. I’ve known him for many, many decades. Some of them have severe coronary artery issues or severe occlusions. I get stinted and resentful, and what they’re doing for the most part is using aggressive drug therapy. One of the PCR nine inhibitors, like repatha, they are taking these drugs and starting to move LDL down below 30 milligrams per deciliter. They’re pushing it down as low as they can. This is on the advice of their doctors. They’re doing this, and they’re seeing the progression of their problem stop, and they’re seeing a little bit of reversal occurring. This is something that we didn’t think would occur. But under the drug being available, they can push LDL down to super low levels. It turns out, if you look at all the data, that any LDL level over 38 milligrams per deciliter, 38, incrementally increases one’s risk of coronary artery disease. The higher the LDL, the higher the risk. We now have evidence to do what I’m doing right now, which is pushing my LDL down to around 32 or lower. It doesn’t bother me to keep it that low. I’m seeing what I hope will result in preventing me from having a heart attack or stroke caused by an anthropogenic event.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

I have to say that it is not the answer. I expected that because patients get confused because there’s a book out there about the great cholesterol myth and such things. I have to remind them that 99.9% of the scientific depositary says what you just said, that since 2019 we’ve been talking about LDL cholesterol under 55. But if you look at a healthy young person before they start eating McDonald’s and cheeseburgers, they have an LDL of 25 or 30 while they’re growing, developing, and expanding their brain. It works just fine for them. I am on board with you and believe you are doing the right thing for your health. A lot of the listeners at that summit are very healthy eaters, and I am a very healthy eater, and I’m sure you are too. But to get to LDL cholesterol through diet alone is very, very unusual. It is going to take some combination of diet plus nutraceutical supplements or diet plus prescription drugs. You probably agree with that.

William Faloon

I do. We have to be the ones who sometimes persuade them to get on a low-dose diet that they want to try. You’re still working at a low dose. Then the good news about drugs like Repatha is that you just need a minimal amount of a statin drug to push your LDL down to that 30 or below range. For people who are averse to statins, just a very low dose can help them get to where they need to be without the side effects of muscle aches and other issues they may be concerned with.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Excellent. This has just been one kernel of knowledge after another, a pearl of knowledge after another diamond of knowledge. That’s what you’re going to get when you get a chance to talk to the very busy and world-famous Bill Faloon. So if you are a regular, wonderful, and loved listener to the summit, you’ve got a lot out of Life Extensions founder Bill Faloon. Please check out their website, lifeextension.com, and read the magazine regularly. If you purchase the package, we’re going to stick with Mr. Faloon for a few more minutes. We’re going to say goodbye to some of that crowd, and we’re going to go deep a little bit on aging and anti-aging approaches from a world expert. We’ll see in a minute. Thank you for sticking around for a few more minutes. that you give a yearly presentation that’s renowned around the world at a conference called RAAD, and it’s become a premier anti-aging conference. I’ve seen you present in person when I’ve been down in Southeast Florida, and you do that regularly. Your slides are the most up-to-date and well-referenced. You pulled from scientific literature in the media and lay literature. It’s exciting—maybe a few kernels. I want to ask you about taurine. We have a lot of vegetarians and vegans who are part of this summit, and not all of them have heard the new data about taurine and its potential anti-aging impact. Maybe there is a particular need for taurine in the plant-based community. I’m going to let you run with that one.

William Faloon

They should be shocked if they’re vegan or vegetarian. They are probably only taking in 1750 milligrams of that. You need several thousand milligrams a day as you grow older. The reason this came out on June 8, 2023, this year in the journal Science is that people grow older. Their internal synthesis of taurine from sustained consumption diminishes to the point where, when they’re over 60, they have virtually no more to drink. The only way to get it is through dietary sources. That could mean eating a lot of meat and even seafood and storing it, but even then, you’re only getting about 200 milligrams a day. You need about 3000 milligrams a day of Touraine just to keep what would be a healthy young person’s level. For some people, they’re going up to five or 6,000 milligrams a day. The great news is that taurine is sold by many, many companies. It is inexpensive; less than $10 a month enables you to take 3000 milligrams a day. I hate to bring up something new that most people can’t afford. This one is widely available. It’s something that people can add to their supplement program and potentially extend their lives, strengthen their hearts, do all kinds of metabolic favors to the body, and not break the bank in doing it. We love the idea of that being available.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

and I couldn’t agree more. Taurine, in case people aren’t familiar with you, is an amino acid but has many other functions. It’s also an excellent natural blood pressure-lowering agent and probably supports heart function. A lot of people who are treating heart failure naturally will add it to the program. exciting stuff.   We had some new mouse data, but more primary data came out recently.

William Faloon

That the primate does. They confirmed what occurs in humans, mice, and worms: taurine levels decline across the board. It doesn’t matter what you are; as you age, an enzyme in your body to convert cysteine to taurine diminishes. As a result, primates and monkeys have 85% less taurine when they’re older compared to when they were younger, and humans have 80% less to agree or compare when they’re younger. The same goes for worms and mice. When they supplement mice with taurine, they live 10 to 13% longer and are in better health. They were able to absorb low taurine levels in people correlated with abdominal obesity, hypertension, inflammation, diabetes, and all the problems that we suffer as underlying causes of cardiovascular disease. They relate to a taurine deficit easily correctable for under $10 a month, and hundreds of companies sell it. It’s nothing proprietary to us, and that’s good news. We don’t like people having to overpay for what they need to stay alive.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Well, everybody listening knows the word senile. We think of old age and infirmity as a kind of downward slide. I say that because there’s a family of drugs and vitamins called Senolytic Activator, or Senolytics. Give us a few comments on your current perspective. Again, I don’t mind you giving a plug; your company sells a once-a-week supplement called Senolytic Activator. Tell us a little bit about quercetin, fisetin, green tea, and all the rest.

William Faloon

The good news is that, as we grow older unfortunately it’s not good. A lot of our cells become senescent. You wish they were just disappearing rather than hanging around being nonfunctional because they emit protein-degrading enzymes and secrete pro-inflammatory signals. They have it in your body. It may be impossible to reverse heart failure in many patients without getting rid of the senescent cells in their heart muscle. There are a couple of ways to do it. You can use a prescription drug called Dasatinib, which is a chemo drug. It scares people, but you only use it maybe once a month. Dasatinib or quercetin or Fisetin or a supplement called Senolytic Activator. Instead of the Dasatinib, we used theaflavins, the black tea extract works by the same mechanism as the Dasatinib. You can get it as a nutritional supplement or add a prescription drug to it. Some people choose the drug, and some people want a nutrient. But the good news is that we can at least make some attempt to reduce the senescent cell burden that we carry as we grow older. Again, these are cells that at one point were healthy, and instead of just dying off, they’re lingering. You want them to disappear. They won’t do it unless you do something to turn them into a self-destructive mode. That’s what some of the activators, the Dasatinib, and other different nutrient combinations do.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

In the Senolytic activator, you’ve got Fisetin, you can get that from strawberries, but I have no idea how many strawberries you’d have to eat to get that concentration. Quercetin is, of course, eaten. You can get it from onions, garlic, and apples, but the same thing. It’s not practical to eat a bag of apples to get a dose of quercetin that probably has both an immune-boosting as well as potentially an aging support function. We don’t like to just tell people to take pills. We’re a lifestyle-oriented summit and a lifestyle-oriented group, but when you want to reach these doses, you have to do it. That’s two things. We’re talking about taurine. We talked about senescent cells. Let’s get into one more topic at RAAD. What was the other kind of spectrum at the most recent RAAD conference that you presented at or heard other people talk about?

William Faloon

What I presented was an overview of the prior year’s research findings, and there were two additional studies in live mice where they reversed the aging process systemically. In the third study, they not only reversed aging but extended their remaining lifespan by 109%, and that’s what we want to hear. By the way, as a result of these studies, how much remaining lifespan occurred as it related to more of it when in response to a certain intervention in these interventions they’re doing, these are gene therapy interventions that are going to be available very soon. Relatively speaking, these gene therapies were able to turn on the production of genes, enabling these mice to grow younger. The third time, they let the mice live as long as they could, and they lived 109% longer. If we were a person and let’s say we were 77 years old, we’re supposed to die at 87. If we’re pretty healthy, if we get to a 109% increase, we get to make it around age 98. I can tell you right now that if you get 20 years of extra life, you’re going to benefit from all kinds of revolutionary technology that will emerge at some point soon. It’s good. It’s not soon enough, but when it does emerge, you won’t be allowed to do it. That was the most exciting topic that I was able to show. Three Independent Studies Reversing Aging on a Systemic Basis in Live Mice.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Is that using Yamanaka factors?

William Faloon

Exactly yes. The transcription factors essentially tell all cells how to behave younger, and then they flip back on their gene expression of youth and start behaving and functioning as a younger type of cell.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Right now, you can’t go out of Russia because of Yamanaka factors, which were the topic of a Nobel Prize in medicine in the last few years. But it is being increasingly tested in animal models and undoubtedly will have relevance in human biology.

William Faloon

No one should try those. You can buy them from research laboratories by looking at the transcription factor, but they have to be put into something that’s going to release them gradually into your body. We have to have control mechanisms for when to turn them on and when to turn them off. I beg people: do not buy Yamanaka factors yet. Wait for some research that’s going to happen very soon. I’m supporting a lot of it, and we’ll figure out how to make them work on people the same way they did in the mouse model.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Okay, this has been unbelievably exciting, and I don’t want to overstay our welcome because I want you back every year. Thank you very much. This is Bill Faloon, lifeextension.com. Where you have, and I apologize, there’s a URL if people want to learn it was an age reversal network that just tells you to go look for more information.

William Faloon

People want to go beyond just life extension anti-aging age-reversal.net. That’s the upper echelon group because there’s absolutely nothing to join. There are about 5,500 of these individuals who are aggressively utilizing experimental therapies to control their aging process. So far, we’ve had no casualties. People are sometimes getting some benefits, significant benefits, or no benefits. But no one’s dying with these experimental therapies yet.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

Isn’t there even a research project that people can join and participate in? If they go to that site.

William Faloon

They can join the perpetual project, which is a way for us to meticulously measure what’s going on in the bodies of thousands of people who are using, let’s say, metformin, rapamycin, dasatinib and all these potential compounds to delay or reverse aging. We want to see how well they’re working in a large group that’s going to be ready in about six to eight months, and people can pre-register for it. Again, there is no charge for any of that. This is a public benefit group. We’re here to save people’s lives. I’m talking about age-reversal.net, for those people who want to get some very interesting emails about what some of our members are doing.

Joel Kahn, MD, FACC

I get them and I enjoy them, and everybody can go to age-reversal.net. All right. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Our audience is just scribbling down notes like crazy. Be well.

William Faloon

Thank you, Dr. Kahn. Great interview.