Fantastic Voyage : Live Long Enough to Live Forever

by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman

Rodale Books; (October 27, 2004) ISBN: 1579549543

One of the most respected scientists and futurists in America teams up with an expert on human longevity, to show how we can tap today's revolution in biotechnology and nanotechnology to virtually live forever.

Startling discoveries in the areas of genomics, biotechnology, and nanotechnology are occurring every day. The rewards of this research, some of it as spectacular as what was once thought of as science fiction, are practically in our grasp. Already it is possible to analyze our individual genetic makeups and evaluate our predisposition for breast cancer or other deadly diseases on a case-by-case basis. And once we've isolated these genes, the ability to repress or enhance them through biotechnology is just around the corner. Soon, for example, it will be feasible for 10% of our red blood cells to be replaced by artificial cells, radically extending our life expectancy and enhancing our physical and even mental abilities beyond what is humanly possible today. In Fantastic Voyage, Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman will show us how amazingly advanced we are in our medical technology, and how incredibly far each of us can go toward living as long as we dare imagine.

With today's mind-bending array of scientific knowledge, it is possible to prevent nearly 90% of the maladies that kill us, including heart disease, cancer, diabetes, kidney disease, and liver disease. Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman start the reader on a fantastic journey to undreamed-of vitality with a comprehensive investigation into the cutting-edge science on diet, metabolism, genetics, toxins and detoxification, the hormones involved with aging and youth, exercise, stress reduction, and more. By following their program, which includes such simple recommendations as drinking alkaline water and taking specific nutritional supplements to enhance your immune system and slow the aging process on a cellular level, anyone will be able to immediately add years of healthy, active living to his life.

Ray Kurzweil is one of the world's leading inventors, thinkers and futurists. He is a recipient of the National Medal of Technology and has been inducted into the Inventers Hall of Fame. He is the author of three previous books on technology.

Terry Grossman M.D. is the founder and director of the Frontier Medical Institute in Denver, Colorado. Certified in anti-aging medicine, he lectures internationally on longevity and anti-aging strategy.

Excerpt

The following is an excerpt from the book Fantastic Voyage: The Science Behind Radical Life Extension

by Ray Kurzweil, Ph.D., and Terry Grossman, M.D.

Published by Rodale; November 2004; $24.95US/$35.95CAN; 1-57954-954-3

Copyright © 2004 Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, M.D.

The Importance of Being Alkaline

To understand why the alkalinity or acidity of the water-based liquids is important to health, we need to understand how the body controls the ionization levels of its fluids. Different pH levels support different types of chemistry, so it's essential that body fluids be maintained within very narrow acid/alkaline limits. Your health is extremely sensitive to the slightest change in the pH level of your body's vital fluids. Stomach fluid, for example, is extremely acidic, with a pH of 1.5 (pH less than 7 is acid, more than 7 is alkaline). Pancreatic fluid, on the other hand, is quite alkaline, with a pH of 8.8. The pH inside of our cells ranges from 6.8 to 7.1. The most important balance of all is maintained in our blood, where the pH is very tightly controlled between 7.35 and 7.45.

Your body will act to neutralize acidic drinks such as colas and coffee with alkaline blood buffers, which are then unavailable to neutralize other acidic waste products continually produced by the body, including organic by-products of digestion such as acetic acid, lactic acid, carbonic acid, uric acid, and fatty acids. There are also inorganic by-products created or found in food, such as sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid. When the body's limited supply of alkaline buffers is defeated, these toxic acidic waste products accumulate in the body, causing significant health damage.

The body uses calcium to convert the poisonous liquid phosphoric acid in colas into the more stable solid phosphates, for example. But these phosphates may form into calcified kidney stones, or calcium deposits (which can also result from a urinary infection, inherited metabolic disorders, and other causes). Many people erroneously think kidney stones are caused by excessive calcium. But the real culprit may be the high level of phosphoric acid, which happens to be a primary ingredient of colas. Anyone with a concern about kidney stones should avoid colas.

Consuming acidic foods such as soft drinks may also create an ideal environment for cancer to form. Animal cells survive best in an alkaline environment with a blood pH of 7.35 to 7.45. Plant cells are the opposite; they prefer an acidic environment. As our bodies become increasingly acidic, some cells adapt through an internal evolutionary process and become more like plant cells. These abnormal plantlike cells have a high tendency to become cancer cells, which thrive in an acidic environment. So an important strategy for preventing or treating cancer is to maintain an alkaline environment in the body.

Routine consumption of soft drinks containing phosphoric acid (that is, colas) is a risk factor for bone loss. Consumption of alkalinizing mineral water helps retain bone health and improve digestive functions. A comprehensive review comparing alkalinizing diets to acidic diets reported in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition concluded that alkalinizing diets improve bone density, nitrogen balance, and serum growth hormone concentrations, whereas the low-grade acidosis resulting from acidic diets contributes to bone loss, osteoporosis, and loss of muscle.

Not all acidic foods increase the acidity inside our bodies. Orange juice, for example, has an extremely acidic pH of 3.5 because of its citric acid content, but the citric acid is burned away during digestion. Orange juice also contains potassium and magnesium, which interact with water to create alkaline ions. Thus, the overall effect of drinking orange juice is to increase alkalinity, despite its acidic content. The inability of your body to fully detoxify underlies many disease processes, including heart disease and cancer. Oxygen free radicals (molecules unpaired with electrons) are highly reactive substances that are deficient in electrons and can cause enormous damage to the body if not quickly neutralized. Adequate alkaline reserves offer a first line of defense against these oxygen free radicals by providing free electrons, which neutralize the radicals and prevent them from damaging healthy cells.

Other Health Issues with Water

Tap water can contain impurities, including inorganic poisons and pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, and fungi. The water alkalinizing devices we recommend also include filters that remove such impurities, along with an ultraviolet light system to destroy pathogens. If alkalinized water is not available, we recommend filtered water and bottled water from a reliable source as better choices than most municipal tap water. (We'll discuss the issue of removing toxins from water and other environmental sources in chapter 14 on detoxification.)

Another issue concerns the infrastructure of water. Magnetic resonance imaging reveals that most tap water is organized into microclusters of about 12 water molecules each. In alkalinized water, the microclusters are reduced in size to only six molecules per cluster. This enhances the permeability, solubility, and absorption of the water, thereby boosting its detoxification effects. Nutrients, including water-soluble vitamins such as vitamins B and C, will be absorbed more fully, and medications taken with alkaline water may be more effective.

Finally, most of us don't consume enough water to help dispose of all the waste products our metabolic and digestive processes create. Simply drinking more water can boost detoxification. We recommend drinking one-half fluid ounce of water per pound of body weight daily; that would be 70 fluid ounces for a 140-pound person, or about nine 8-ounce glasses of water each day. Of course, soft drinks and coffee don't count. It takes 32 glasses of pH 10 alkaline water to neutralize one glass of pH 2.5 cola. We recommend avoiding these acidic drinks and consuming alkaline water with a pH between 9.5 and 10.

Dartmouth researcher Heinz Valtin, M.D., has criticized this liquid quota as an urban legend. Valtin's opinion, however, is based on avoiding dehydration, whereas our recommendation for drinking alkaline water is to assist detoxification.

*endnotes have been omitted

Reprinted from: Fantastic Voyage: The Science Behind Radical Life Extension by Ray Kurzweil, Ph.D., and Terry Grossman, M.D.© 2004 by Ray Kurzweil and Terry Grossman, M.D. Permission granted by Rodale, Inc., Emmaus, PA 18098. Available wherever books are sold or directly from the publisher by calling (800) 848-4735 or visit their website at www.rodalestore.com.

For more information, please visit www.fantastic-voyage.net or www.writtenvoices.com.