Anti-Aging Drug

Over the last ten years selegiline Hydrochloride has become the dominant cognition-enhancing, sex potentiating, anti-aging compound in Europe.(1) There it is freely available under the brand names Deprenyl or Jumex. Selegiline is fast gaining the same

status in America, though it was not approved by the FDA until June 1989. Even then, approval was restricted to a minor adjunctive treatment to L-dopa therapy for Parkinson's disease.(2)

Seligiline is yet another derivative of phenethylamine, the base structure of many man-made stimulants and anti-depressants. Phenethylamine is a natural psychoactive molecule widely distributed in humans, animals, and plants. It is the reputed chemical in chocolate that makes it an addictive substance for sex and affection. "Treated with the proper respect, selegline will improve sexual and steroid hormone release areas in the brain in people over 30, and it will likely maintain them lifelong."

Your body makes many essential biochemicals out of phenethylamine every day. Millions of derivatives are possible, each with unique biochemical activity. Selegiline may will be one that your body makes less and less efficiently with usual aging.

Declining levels of the neurotransmitter dopamine with usual aging, causes loss of muscle and loss of sexual potency in both men and women. Selegiline works by blocking the re-uptake of dopamine into nerves, therefore increasing dopamine levels. It does this partly by blocking the enzyme called monoamine oxidase (MAO) that chews up dopamine. So it belongs to the well-known class of anti-depressants called MAO inhibiters. But selegiline has a unique distinction, the reason behind it is safety and efficacy, and the reason we are writing about.

MAO enzymes come in two types, MAO-A, mostly in your digestive system, and MAO-B, mostly in your brain. They both have essential functions. Many foods contain toxic levels of tyramine and MOA-A has the important task of preventing toxic levels of tyramine, thus preventing hypertensive crisis. So, using MAO-A blockers can be dangerous. But selegiline is unique in mostly inhibiting MAO-B enzymes in the brain, and leaving alone the MAO-A enzymes to do their vital work.(3) At dosed of 1-10 mgs per day, used for maintaining the brain's dopamine system, selegiline is non-toxic.(2) Nevertheless, dosage is critical. Seligiline is not innocuous. It's an extremely powerful compound. Hyper-tension can occur with 20 mgs per day.(3) Obviously, it should not be used at all by hypertensive folk, or folk taking other MAO inhibiters, or anti-depressants such as fluoxetine (Prozac) that interact with MAO inhibiters.

Dr. Joseph Knoll advocates using only 1 or 2mg per day to inhibit ageing of the striatal dopamine system, rising to 5 mg per say, 3 days a week after age 60.(4) Treated with proper respect, selegiline will improve sexual and steroid hormone release areas in the brain in most people over 30, and it will likely maintain them lifelong. But, if you have allowed yourself to become fat, hypertensive, overstressed, or dozens of other preventable degenerative conditions, it will do you little good. Seligiline is icing on the cake of a healthy lifestyle. If you are interested in taking this drug, check out the references and see your physician.

References:
1. Dow A. Deprenyl: The Anti-Aging Drug. Clearwater FL: Hallberg Publishing, 1993
2. Physicians Desk Reference, 49th Edition. Montvale NJ: Medical Economics, 1995.
3. Knoll J. Deprenyl medication: A strategy to modulate the age-related decline of the striatal dopaminergic system. J Amer Geriat Soc,1992:40:8390847
4. Schatzberg AF, Cole JO. Manual of Clinical Pharmacology, 2nd edition. Washington DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1990.

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