(Chapter 10 from “Nutrients to Age Without Senility”
by Abram Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D. and Morton Walker, D.P.M.)
On being asked if he was tired after a performance, the ninety- three-year-old cellist, Pablo Casals, said, “Why should I be? I’m the same man I was fifty years ago.” — The New York Times, January 3, 1971
The promise of prolonged youth and the testimonials of thousands of patients have carried word of a seemingly miraculous treatment far beyond the borders of the People’s Republic of Rumania. Rumania is the nation of origin of Ana Aslan, M.D., director of the National Institute of Gerontology and Geriatrics. Under her supervision, a staff of 1,000 in over 200 Rumanian clinics give treatment to reverse aging using the drug she has developed called Gerovital H3 (GH3).
Pilgrimages by notables including French President Charles De Gaulle, U.S. President John F. Kennedy, West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, Chinese Chairman Mao Tse Tung and Vietnamese Chairman Ho Chi Minh, were taken to acquire injections of this youth drug. Actresses Marlene Dietrich, Lillian Gish, the Gabor sisters, and actors Charlie Chaplin and Kirk Douglas and artist Salvador Dali have made the journey. They traveled to the Otopeni Clinic just outside the ancient city of Bucharest, where Dr. Aslan does her research with GH3.
Once discovered by these celebrities, GH3 itself has become famous and is now used in over twenty countries around the world. It is available over the counter without prescription in England, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. In the United States, the Rom-Amer Pharmaceuticals Ltd. of Las Vegas, Nevada, distributes Gerovital H3. In 1977, Nevada legalized its manufacture and sale.
GH3 is simply the local anesthetic procaine hydrochloride–used by dentists and podiatrists – to which has been added buffering agents and other chemicals to create a hybrid drug (Gerovital H3). The additives have transformed this local anesthetic into a new medicine that possibly reverses the aging process. How this came about makes for an interesting story and reveals a lot more about procaine and its youth restoring properties.
- PARHON DISCOVERS PROFESSOR ASLAN
Intensely interested in the problems of aging, Dr. Constantine I. Parhon founded the Institute of Endocrinology in Bucharest, Rumania, to carry on his experiments on the functions of the endocrine glands. He published the first large scale endocrinological work in medical annals fifty years ago. For forty years, Dr. Parhon continued his experiments searching constantly for the causes of aging. This drive of Dr. Parhon’s to find the reasons behind aging and perhaps arrive at a solution to slow down or retard the aging process led him to establish the Institute of Geriatrics. This Institute was founded at the request of the Rumanian government in 1951. It had become the center for the study in the advanced methods for both the treatment of the aged and retarding the signs of age.
One of Dr. Parhon’s staff members at the Institute of Endocrinology was Ana Aslan, M.D. For over twenty years, this doctor had been a specialist in cardiovascular diseases. She had been interested in the pharmacodynamical properties of procaine and the reactions of this drug on the human body. Before coming to the Institute, Dr. Aslan was a researcher in pharmacology (the science of drugs) at an experimental clinic in Timisoara, Rumania. It was here that she first began using procaine in the treatment of asthma and for circulation disorders.
During her tenure at Timisoara, she uncovered the works of Dr. Gustav Spiess. He was the first to discover that procaine had many other values besides its known anesthetic qualities. He wrote reports about his experiments about the curative powers of this drug which Prof. Aslan read. After checking this literature, she extended her treatment to include patients with arthritis and limb embolisms. Another pioneer in this work was Rene Leriche whose work went further than Dr. Spiess’s.
Dr. Aslan, encouraged by these reports, adjusted their methods in her practice. She also used Leriche’s method, who advocated the infiltration of 10 to 25 cc and was able to restore the affected joint or limb of her patients. These patients, often after two treatments, were able to return to work and were free of pain. This increased the uses in her practice from asthmatic patients; she used it as an anti-inflammatory agent for those suffering from bone and joint diseases.
It took a dramatic incident to convince Dr. Aslan that she should continue to concentrate her efforts on developing procaine H3 for the use of the aged. She was satisfied that it had many unknown benefits. When injecting procaine H3 into arthritic joints and other areas of pain, she noticed her patients’ response was most satisfactory. Joints heretofore immobile or frozen were now mobile and flexible, almost normal. Under Dr. Parhon’s guidance, she continued to experiment at the fine laboratory facilities at his Institute, working to find the drug’s effectiveness on the aged. Dr. Parhon is convinced that the old age process is treatable exactly as any other disease. Dr. Aslan, with her research background, advanced his theory that old age was not only treatable but could also be retarded.
SERIOUS MEDICAL RESEARCH WITH PROCAINE
Gerontologists concur that as the body grows older, definite physiological changes occur. Many patients exhibit the following group of symptoms:
- Premature aging with its complex group of symptoms
- Diseases of the aged–loss of memory, energy and vitality
- Diseases of the nervous system — diminished hearing abilities, visual acuity and dulled mental functions
- Diseases of muscles and joints–rheumatism and arthritis
- Diseases of skin and allergies–baldness, psoriasis, and the old appearance of the skin, face and body.
- Diseases of the cardiovascular system–angina pectoris and varicose veins
- Diseases of the gastrointestinal system–ulcers and stomach disorders.
Prof. Aslan believes that the body’s inherent natural ability to replace cells lost through disease and age diminishes through the years. Procaine supplements the body’s ability to regenerate the cells. She is convinced that cell regeneration is responsible for a return of youthfulness to older people.
Her experiments with mice, for the next few years, substantiated her theory that besides removing the effects of a disease, it had no side reactions. In mice that developed arthritis, the beneficial effects and their return to complete mobility was most encouraging. These successes led her to treat almost 200 patients at the Institute who exhibited a wide range of dysfunctions. Some patients were suffering from old age ailments, others from arthritis and degenerative diseases.
Initially, she used procaine in a series of injections to treat twenty-five elderly patients, whose range of ailments was from arthritis to senility; she had apparent successes. None was happier than this initial group–the blessing to obtain dramatic relief from diseases that plagued them for years was heartfelt. With the signs and symptoms of premature aging diminished, Prof. Aslan was still unsure of which factors worked for her patients. The name of her treatment–GH3–intrigued her. Could it be that the component parts of GH3 were needed and used by the body? The fact is that GH3 hydrolizes in the body releasing these factors.
After working with procaine Since 1947 on an experimental basis, using it for years in the treatment of specific diseases, and making a great many clinical observations, Dr. Aslan made claims for procaine: when administered properly and in certain prescribed doses, it would not only retard the aging process but would relieve chronic ailments, diseases of old age and premature aging. This remarkable claim for a drug, known throughout the world as an anesthetic was based on treating 20,000 patients for a period of over fifteen years. Some individual patients have been treated for as long as ten years.
This backlog of patients provided her with many questions to be resolved. When it was injected into the body, why were the actions of GH3 so different from another product? Did the body have the ability to extract the good from the ingredients found in the product?
THE CLAIMS FOR PROCAINE INJECTIONS
Speaking for the first time before an audience composed of Western scientists and doctors in 1956, Dr. Ana Aslan, astounded the medical profession with her disclosures that could revolutionize the treatment of the aged. Dr. Aslan stated that procaine can benefit victims of arthritis, arteritis (inflammation of the arteries), cerebral arterioscleros (hardening of the brain arteries), trophic ulcers (ulcers due to improper nutrition in a particular portion of the body), alopecia (baldness), senile Parkinsonism, loss of hearing, ringing in the ears, noises in the ears, those who do not benefit from hearing aids, loss of eyesight due to aging with blurred vision, scant vision, poor eyesight, high blood pressure, defective heart conditions, those suffering from schizophrenia, ichthyosis, senile keratosis, dermatosclerosis, psoriasis, rashes and leucoderma. The therapy, stated Dr. Aslan, repigmented existing hair, improved muscle tone, improved failing memory, improved the central activity of the nervous system, improved cardiovascular reaction to stress and increased oxygen consumption. It can restore the use of limbs to those suffering from a stroke.
Dr. Aslan found from her treatments and experiments that procaine directly affects the cerebral cortex and its dynamics, and acts on the whole nervous system. The dicephalon centers, the spinal cord, peripheral nerves and metabolic processes undergo trophic changes from the procaine treatment.
Procaine is noted to be a slow-acting drug when it is not used as an anesthetic. The first few months show little or no effect. Perhaps one of the most favorable, significant observations was that the cholesterol level of almost every patient receiving treatment was brought down to normal. Many doctors believe that cholesterol found in the arteries of people approaching old age is a prime factor in the degenerative diseases of arteriosclerosis.
Procaine activity on cholesterol and its reduction from the arterial walls may be due to its hydrotrophic action, characteristic of the chloride of paraaminobenzoic acid. Doctors are also treating this condition with higher dietary intake of magnesium, pyridoxine HCL, and increasing the levels of organic potassium and calcium. The dietary plan for retarding age symptoms simple does not produce the same results for everyone. Now with GH3 Dr. Aslan, as well as other gerontologists, was seeing new appearance, mental well-being and reduced blood pressure. In some instances, oral preparations were used with similar achievements. How pleasant and simple and wonderful to provide for those wanting this help.
Dr. Aslan summed up her talk before the Academy by saying that procaine minimizes the feeling of sickness and leads to a heightened desire and capacity for physical and mental activity.
She further stated that procaine therapy has restored the original color to grey hair. After the treatments, in some people, the roots grow in according to the natural color of their hair. People with blond heads of hair once again possess heads of natural colored hair. In certain kinds of baldness, the therapy has sometimes restored hair growth. Hearing losses have been reduced in time except in those cases where there is severe nerve cell damage. Results of European experiments show that procaine was observed to have some bearing on the course of multiple sclerosis. These experiments show it to be a potent drug in treating certain blood clots affecting blood circulation.
Dr. Aslan has tested the effects of procaine on the human body for a longer period of time than have most other medical doctors. Consequently, she has had the opportunity to observe the many results of the drug. This Rumanian physician has stated that the procaine therapy appears to have a stimulating effect on the endocrine glands; she believes this is the fundamental physiological effect of Gerovital H3 on the patients. This observation is further substantiated when procaine is injected into the blood stream; it has a direct action on the body’s nervous system.
She says procaine has a strong biocatalytic action affecting not only the cells in the nervous system but on the higher centers of the brain. This action aids a patient to recover partial losses of vision and improvement in hearing. Many times after undergoing a treatment or series of injections, a patient’s eyes become brighter and hearing shows marked improvement. Some authorities believe the breakdown of GH3 is responsible for many reactions unknown at this time. The rapture of having one’s senses return almost to normal can be understood by all of us. The energetic person wants to retain the knowledge of his years and refuses to accept the limitation of lessened mental and physical functions.
OTHER USES FOR THE YOUTH DRUG
The success of Dr. Aslan’s procaine therapy has led her to experiment in other areas of the human body and to treat a variety of ailments. The procaine treatment has been tried, as stated above, on the nervous system, in retarding multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, postapoplectic conditions, osteoporosis, vitiligo, scleroderma, psoriasis, ichthyosis, on diseases of the cardiovascular system such as angina pectoris, varicose veins and on the endocrine glands. All of the above mentioned treatments have shown a measure of success.
Dr. Aslan’s claims and theories have been supported by many doctors of many countries as well as by Rumanian doctors and scientists. The noted West Berlin surgeon Erwin Gohrbandt reported dramatic improvement of multiple sclerosis with procaine injections into the sympathetic trunk, particularly into the stellate ganglion and the solar plexus. Dr. P. Braunsteiner, of Rheine, Westphalia, Germany, injected several series of this injectable in a group of elderly patients who were hard of hearing. He observed that every one of the thirty-five patients selected had increased their hearing powers. In 1950, before the Congress of Internal Medicine in Paris, Dr. M.G. Good of the Charterhouse Rheumatism Clinic in London, described his successes in treating muscular rheumatism and arthritis with intramuscular injections of procaine.
Doctor H. Warren Crow, chief of the Charterhouse Clinic, has called procaine therapy “the most valuable weapon in the treatment of the individual rheumatic patient.” Professor Eichholtz of Heidelberg has conducted pharmacological research on certain diseases formerly treated with calcium. His experiments showed that diseases such as bronchial asthma, urticaria and various skin edemas respond to procaine injections. The Soviet researcher, N.K. Gorbadei, reported rapid relief from ulcer pain, normalization of the secretory and motor activity of the gastro-intestinal tract, and the disappearance of the dyspepsia following procaine therapy.
Since Dr. Aslan’s revelation of the discovery of procaine for retarding the aging process, there have been over one hundred papers published on the subject. There have been at least four studies made on its use in retarding premature aging. Some doctors agree that another method must be found to simplify the giving of GH3, as many times this treatment is hindered by the numerous office visits required. While the primary method is now prevailing throughout the world, oral substitutes must be found. Doctors interested in prolonging the life span and reducing the symptoms of old age are in accord for the need of another modus operandi.
Doctors in the United States showed their interest in Gerovital H3 by conducting experiments with procaine and other combinations, developed solely for hospitals, clinics, and laboratories.
A study was conducted by Luigi Bucci, senior psychiatrist at New York’s Rockland State Hospital and by Dr. John C. Saunders, principal research scientist and assistant in neurology at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. The two doctors found that patients suffering from schizophrenia recovered faster when given Gerovital H3 treatments. Dr. Bucci stated that GH3 is definitely a useful medication for the treatment of aged and psychotic patients.
Another study by Dr. Joseph Smigel, director of the Pinehaven Sanitarium in Pinewald, New Jersey, reported excellent results in seventy patients out of eighty-five. Many patients who were in the younger age group have been able to leave the institution; some are back at their jobs.
Procaine may also have some value in treating hypertension, irregular heart rhythm, angina pectoris, cardiospasm, skin inflammation, hives, and as a narcotic substitute for severe pain, including the treating of addiction.
In recent experiments by Dr. Bruno A. Marangoni, chief of medicine at Flower Hospital in New York, it was found that procaine therapy is particularly effective treating paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, arterial fibrillation and complete heart block. Dr. Marangoni’s experiments have shown that heart diseases resound dramatically to the injections.
Many drugs are used in the practice of geriatrics to reduce hypertension. Some are highly toxic and must be given under the direct supervision or constant observation of the physician. Doctors have found that procaine, having little or no toxic reactions, simplifies their treatments. Procaine’s effect on a patient’s high blood pressure may show a steady decline as the treatments progress; and a normal reading of some patients has been recorded by the end of the treatment series.
The claim of Rumanian doctors that procaine injections have cut the death rate for all kinds of diseases to about one-fifth was emphatically brought home at Pinehaven Sanitarium, which was involved in a respiratory epidemic that swept Orange County, New Jersey. Many patients developed a fulmination type pneumonia, causing death within twenty-four hours. In some cases, death occurred ten or twelve days after apparent recovery due to either a cerebral or a coronary embolus. However, of the patients that had received the procaine treatment, the death rate occurred from only 3 percent to 12 percent.
ENZYMATIC AND BIOCATALYTIC ACTIONS
Procaine’s effect on the body’s nervous system has a direct effect on the enzymes in the body. Many noted scientists feel that the degeneration of enzymes is part of the aging process. Dr. Albert White of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine wrote a paper on the aging process in the Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He stated this opinion on enzymes:
The whole gamut of enzyme chemistry seems to be involved. A gradual shift of rate and directions seems to occur in the huge complex of enzyme regulation of the internal steady state in the cells, tissues, and the organism as a whole. This alteration in enzyme activity may be the real beginning of senescence.
Another authority on enzymes and the nervous system, Dr. Ivan P. Pavlov, felt that aging was caused by damage to the nervous system, particularly the cerebral cortex. Dr. Pavlov has shown that should it be possible to influence the nervous system, a change of metabolism and enzymatic processes may be achieved.
Dr. Aslan’s GH3 therapy acting on the nervous system contributes to healthful action of the cells to produce proper enzyme action, which in turn is regulated by the nervous system.
No claim has ever been made by Prof. Aslan in any of her published papers that she has made a new drug discovery. However, by using GH3 over an extended period of time and in certain prescribed doses, perhaps she has found new uses for the drug’s ability to retard the aging process.
The chemical formula for procaine HCL is C13H2002N2HCL. Its generic or chemical name is para-aminobenzoic diethylaminoethanol hydrochloride or procaine HCL. It is composed of small colorless crystals soluble in water.
Biochemists have long known that the human liver produces a specific enzyme called procainesterase, which breaks down the para-aminobenzoic diethylaminoethanol releasing para-aminobenzoic acid to the body. This may well be a clue to the possible important role played by GH3 in basic biochemical processes.
Procaine HCL is one of the few drugs that completely alters its chemical composition when injected into the body. It will be recalled that procaine is rapidly hydrolyzed in the body with the formation of p-aminobenzoic acid and diethylaminoethanol.
P-aminobenzoic acid (PABA) has strong biocatalytic action. It was first regarded as a vitamin-like substance because of its biocatalytic action on such living organisms as yeast. It will, as well as procaine, inhibit sulfanilamide activity. It is not necessarily contraindicated if cognizance is taken of this effect. PABA has been used successfully in treating rheumatism, arthritis, and senile changes of the skin and hair.
Procaine HCL’s aggregate of actions is that it can exert simultaneously: analgesic, sympatholytic and vasodilating; secondarily, parasympathetic and anti contracting.
THE PRESENT TREATMENT METHODS
It is entirely feasible that men of science may successfully construct the component part of Gerovital H3 in a tablet. Biochemists call p-aminobenzoic acid vitamin H-1. The far reaching and well known biochemical action and effects of both p-aminobenzoic acid and diethylaminoethanol have been used in oral form.
In treating the diseases and ailments that accompany the aging process, quick results cannot be expected. Procaine is a slow acting drug; it is not until the third or fourth month that beneficial effects begin to appear.
There are three treatment methods. Gerovital H3 can be taken into the human body: intramuscularly, intravenously or intra-arterially, and orally, in tablet form. Some of the methods have greater absorption than others. Intramuscular injections were received by a large majority of the Parhon Institute patients. However, it is the slower of the methods, taking a much longer time to achieve the desired results. The intravenous or intra-arterial injections will react on the patient quicker. In the case of either method, a competent doctor must perform the treatments. An oral tablet would be well received by all the people of the world as an economical substitute.
Although GH3 is non-toxic, non-habit forming, and produces no side effects, the patients at the Institute still were tested for any reaction to the drug prior to undergoing the full treatment. This should be a standard practice with any patient prior to GH3 therapy.
The patient is given a small quantity of GH3 in a subcutaneous (under the skin) injection. Should the patient’s reaction to the
small injection be negative, another injection of 2 ml is given intramuscularly (deep into the muscle tissue). If again the patient shows a negative reaction to the injection, the full GH3 treatment may be given in complete safety. It must be remembered that the ingredient of GH3, PABA and diethylaminoethanol, is well tolerated in the body. Many doctors use oral preparations containing either ingredient for treatment and obtain gratifying results.
The course of treatment, whether intramuscular, intravenous, or oral, as modified and perfected by Dr. Aslan, consists of one injection of 5 ml of GH3 three times a week for four weeks. As stated above, GH3 has a very slow reaction in the ailment or disease, as the inroads into the affliction are slow in developing. A second course of twelve to sixteen injections is given following a mandatory ten-day rest period. Since GH3 is non-toxic and non habit forming, as many courses as a doctor deems necessary can be administered. However, the ten-day recuperative period must be observed. The Rumanian doctors subscribe to this schedule of injections of GH3 therapy for elderly people.
A preventive course of GH3 therapy injections given middle-aged persons for retarding the aging process is slightly different. The Rumanian method of twelve to sixteen injections is followed by one to two months’ resting period; then another series of twelve to sixteen injections is given. This treatment could, and usually does, go on indefinitely to forestall the aging process.
The oral method should follow the same sequence of treatment as described above for the injection method.
The inconvenience of taking GH3 injections over a long period emphasizes the necessity of perfecting another method to provide this important and valuable treatment for more people. It would be interesting if through this other method the cost could be reduced, so that economics would not prevent people from enjoying the benefits of GH3.
THE GH3 FORMULA REVEALED
Dr. Aslan’s precise formula for the GH3 injections has been clouded in an aura of mystery. When she spoke before the conference on Geriatrics in San Francisco, there were confusing reports concerning her formula. One report stated her handwriting was so illegible and her command of the English language so limited, the physicians and scientists in attendance did not understand her. The other report stated she simply refused to make her formula public. Dr. Bucci, conversing with Dr. Aslan in French, was told the formula consisted of the following ingredients: 0.3 percent potassium salt, 0.3 percent sodium salt, and 0.3 percent benzoic acid as a preservative. Dr. Aslan stated that the procaine action is greatly enhanced by the addition of these ingredients.
The GH3 injections used by Dr. Aslan in treating thousands of patients over the past ten years is a 2 percent solution of procaine available from most pharmaceutical supply houses, with a pH factor between 3.5 and 4.0. The original GH3 substance had a pH factor of between 4.2 and 5; however, this has been reduced by modification to 3.7. A substance with a pH of 7 is neutral (neither acid nor alkaline). Below the factor of 7, the substance takes on an acid activity while above the 7 factor, it has alkaline characteristics.
Experiments have proven that if procaine’s pH factor is reduced, it loses some of its anesthetic value; however, procaine’s effect on the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system is more effective. The lower pH factor of the GH3 compound is believed to be one of the reasons there are no side effects of allergic sensitivity to most patients. Dr. Aslan has suggested that any competent doctor can administer the GH3 therapy following the procedure set forth by her in any one of the papers published on the subject. She, however, warns not to use special solutions of Gerovital H3 containing other drugs than procaine, such as adrenalin, in the GH3 treatment.
There have been many procaine preparations developed in other countries with slightly different composition. In West Germany, a combination of procaine, rutin, and vitamin B-12 is called Prokopin-G or Ruticain. In Switzerland, the solution has been called Procaine Vifor. Greece’s procaine injection has been labeled Procaine Minerva. Spanish pharmaceutical houses have called the solution Trophomorina-H3. Compensol and Gericain are the trade names in Argentina. In Brazil, it is called Gerontex-H3. Equador doctors know the procaine solution by the name of Juventocain. The Rumanian chemical export company calls its procaine solution by the name of Gerovital-H3. There is a solution composed of dimethylaminoethanol and para-aminobenzoic acid, folic acid, several vitamins, unsaturated fatty acids and other substances called Gerioptil. Its oral counterpart is called Gerioptil plus H3.
GOOD NUTRITION IS NEEDED WITH GH3
Further research and study into GH3 therapy as a counteraction against the aging process has given rise to the fact that proper nutrition and mineral supplements to the GH3 injections could be beneficial. The results of extensive tests among the aged population have shown that growing old is more than a decrease in certain functions; it is also a result of biochemical imbalance. Correct nutrition and minerals, which are enzymes needed for healthy cells, help bring about a biochemical balance. This theory is supported by Cecelia Rosenfeld,. M.D.
In a lecture before the Humanist Council of Southern California, Dr. Rosenfeld stated that by combining GH3 therapy with nutritional guidance, excellent results were achieved; and in many instances, patients recovered with fewer series of treatments and in less time.
Although GH3 therapy can alleviate or retard diseases of the aged, such as arthritis, arteritis, cerebral arteriosclerosis, stomach ulcers, scant or blurred eyesight, ringing in the ears, noises in the ears, hard-of-hearing, certain heart conditions, alopecia, and many other conditions, Rumanian doctors and Dr. Aslan state that GH3 treatments are not the panacea or cure-all for the aged. American doctors also have pointed out that there are failures as well as successes with GH3 therapy. The Rumanian scientists and doctors do not claim 100 percent favorable results. There are many years of research ahead to perfect the treatment; perhaps, this means cutting down not only the length of time of the treatments but the expense factor too.
Dr. Aslan’s GH3 therapy may eliminate the fear of senility and the unproductive existence of people attaining advanced age. Everyone has the right to live longer, enjoy life, view life with happiness, be free of senility, and free themselves of the tensions of aging. The aging people can overcome the fears of advancing age, dependence on their children, charity or sanitariums. The ever-increasing aged population and those nearing middle age would take a more active and happier role in society. Cell regeneration and the regeneration of damaged tissues would retard the negative aspects’ of the aging process.
This could very well be the breakthrough long sought by medical science in its continuous fight against aging, and the ailments and diseases associated with advanced age that afflict the human body.