Scientists fight old age

At the Institute of Gerontology in Kiev scientists are waging an offensive against old age.

We begin to age far earlier than we think. The process of "descending development" begins in the early thirties.

As a biological species, man ought to live 100-120 years, but for various reasons we lose the last 30 or 40.

We can now, however, to some extent, lengthen life. In experiments on animals, we have learned to prolong it by a third or more.

One aspect of the institute's work is the discovery and testing of substances which will produce a physiological effect - combinations of vitamins which the aging body needs and preparations with microelements and amino-acids. Some of these are giving promising results.

Old age is a contradictory process. On the one hand, the body adapts itself in some ways, while, on the other, certain faculties atrophy and die.

It appears that our brains and muscles tend to stay young the more actively and regularly we use them.

A correctly chosen profession, doing as much work as we are fit for, sensible meals and purposeful, not passive, leisure are all things that help the body adapt.

It has long been remarked that there are in the world some places where people live longer, are less frequently ill, and are able to work almost to the end of their days.

The Kiev Institute of Gerontology has examined some 40,000 people aged 80 and over.

They questioned centenarians (that is, people over 100 years old) about themselves, and also about their forebears and the way they lived, what they ate, what work they did, and so on.

The laboratory of social gerontology has summed up the work done by over a thousand doctors.

They found, for instance, that as a rule centenarians live in rural areas, and that more than half of them are engaged in farming. Only one in twelve of them are vegetarians, but half never smoke or drink anything alcoholic. It is interesting that very few of them have been divorced.

The Kiev institute is engaged in joint undertakings with doctors in other countries.

The more joint study there is, the more exchange of information, and the more exchange of personnel, the sooner will problems that affect so many millions be solved.

Month in the country?

Two lorry drivers working on a new road being cut through the Siberian forests were found recently after being lost in the taiga for nearly a month. The two, Anatoly Laptev and Vladislav Inshin, had gone hunting with no more than 20 cartridges between them.

After firing off all their cartridges, they met two bears. Fortunately these local residents appeared to have dined well and did not attack them.

Another encounter proved lucky. It was the half-buried carcass of a huge elk, recently killed by a bear and stored for future meals.

Meanwhile their comrades were looking for them. A helicopter and an AN-2 plane circled over the forest from morning to night.

The two men saw the helicopter, but had no way of signalling it. Their matches had run out as well, and rubbing two sticks together only blistered their fingers.

At the beginning of the fourth week, they found a hunter's winter hut, with stores of dry bread, matches and salt.

After bringing in wood, Laptev left his comrade, who had sprained an ankle, and went on, looking for help. He finally emerged near the Educhanka, a river falling into the Angara some 60 miles below the village from which their hunting expedition had started.

Even them it took another two days to find the hut, which could not be seen from the air.