Mercola/Rosedale Part 5, Insulin

More from this jewell:
(Part 1 is here:  http://fireofthegodsfitness.blogspot.com/2010/11/mercolarosedale-home-run.html)"Humans tend to have an average life span of 76 years, and the maximum lifespan was this French lady at 122 years. In humans we feel this length of time is relatively fixed, but in lower forms of life it is very plastic. Lifespan is strictly a variable depending on the environment. Other species can live two weeks, two years or sometimes 20 years depending on what they want themselves to do, which depends very much on the environment.

"If there is a lot of food around they are going to reproduce quickly and die quickly, if not they will just bide their time until conditions are better. We know now that the variability in lifespan is regulated by insulin.

"Often it is thought that insulin’s role is strictly to lower blood sugar. I once had a patient list off about eight drugs she was on and not even mention insulin. Insulin is not treated as a drug. In fact, in some places you don‘t even need a prescription, you can just get it over the counter, it‘s treated like candy.

"Insulin is found in even single-celled organisms and has been around for several billion years. Its purpose, in some organisms, is to regulate lifespan. The way genetics works is that genes are not replaced, they are built upon. We have the same genes as everything that came before us--we just have more of them.

"We have added books to our genetic library, but our base is the same. What we are finding is that we can use insulin to regulate lifespan too."