Opposite of progeria?
gherron at bellatlanticNOSPAM!.net
Wed Nov 21 18:10:05 EST 2001
Sometimes kidney failure can cause delays of maturity. I worked in a
dialysis clinic that had a kid who was fourteen but looked like he was ten
years old. He weighed about eighty pounds, had a high pitched voice, no
facial or body hair, a lot of "baby fat" but was fourteen. The doctor said
part of it was that his protein turnover was so low it delayed maturity.
Apparently in older times people matured later, probably in part due to
diet. JS Bach, for example, had a "sweet soprano" voice until his late
teens. He was born in the late sixteen hundreds in Germany. He later
fathered twenty one kids so it wasn't an endocrinological defect (there were
castrati back then too).
If some sadistic person ever raises a child on a Caloric Restricted Diet it
is possible we'll see such things again. They'll stand four feet tall and
probably live to be 180 years... maybe. We also know that kids today mature
earlier as time goes on. Some feel it's because we eat more today. We are
also seeing a higher incidence of testicle cancer in young men. However
these changes could also be caused by environmental factors, such a
pollutants which mimic hormones.
In fully fed adults, you ask? There are cases of people living to 120 years
of age (or close to it) who have no special diets, drugs or other help.
"Sagittaria" <sagittaria at softhome.net> wrote in message
news:Xns9154E830DE60Fsagittaria at 127.0.0.1...
> I've heard of the disease progeria, which causes premature aging. Is
> there an opposite disease which causes slow aging, so that an adult
> might look like a 10 year old child? What is this disease called?
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