The history of my life is fairly unique among the landscape of humanity. I was one of the first to be put on artificial growth hormones (IGF-2) at the age of 2 1/2 in 1983, ten years before they put the same stuff in cows. Due to recent medical diagnoses, it has been discovered that I am aging by an advanced factor of nearly 1.5 times that of normal humans, thus giving scientists nearly unprecedented opportunities to discover why we age, and how to slow or even stop the process. A lot more follows...

OK -- This got a lot longer than I initially suspected, but I don't think any of you know all/most of this, and several know none of it :-/ Skip to last "part" for a concise summary, if you want. They completed the most extensive of the tests today (the 2hr MRI was nothing compared to 2hrs of injections every 15 min after having 1/2 a gallon of enzymes pumped into my veins :/). There were no less than 5 endocrinologists who stopped by during this time to chat with me about my particular condition. Two doctors simply could not believe I was diagnosed at 2 1/2 years old, one exclaiming, "Your situation must have been very acute." For those that do not know, I was pegged in the 0.3 percentile when I was 3 years old. That means that 99.7% of all humans ever born would be taller than me. Even when you factor in aboriginal tribes who have average heights of 4ft. Until I was about 8 they estimated that I would be no taller than 4ft 5, and the initial estimates were somewhere around 2 1/2 to 3 feet. I was one of the very first people to ever take genetically-engineered products, that being Insulin Growth Factor-2 hormones grown from bacteria. You know...the stuff they started injecting into cows TEN YEARS after injecting that stuff into me? Did I mention I was the youngest person, ever, to start growth hormones? Additionally, besides extremely unehtical tests conducted by the Communists under Stalin's tenure in the 50s -- producing 7ft tall, disproportioned monstrousities that died of heart failure in their teens -- no one person had ever had -- by far -- as much supplemental growth hormone as myself. I received somewhat on the order of 20 *times* the amount of most patients, and started on it a full 5 to 10 years sooner than most others as well (usually hypopituitarism isn't detected until the person reaches the age of puberty, and nothing happens). ----- Part 2 ----- Apparently, my 14 years of supplemental growth hormones is *still* a world record, and I even landed on CNN one time (and ABC News 2x) growing up because of this. Side note: in order to fulfill the heavy regimine they had me on -- not when they up'd it drammatically at age 12 -- before the days of artificial hormones (e.g. before 1983, or less than 3 months prior to me being diagnosed), it would have taken the pituitary glands of 150 dead corpses -- daily. When they increased it from shots every other day to twice a day, the insurance company even investigated whether or not we weren't illegally selling the stuff to athletes, lol (as my monthly allotment would have sufficed a team of 20). Now, here's where it gets even more interesting. I stopped growing and maturing when I was just under 18 months old, for a totally unknown reason. A true medical mystery. One day I was developing normally like any premature 18 month old, then I just stopped. Like the Girl Frozen In Time. By the time I was diagnosed as hypopituitism (a condition where my body does not create a wide range of life-essential hormones) at age 2 1/2, I had -- get this -- the body of a 1 1/2 year old. I further more could not sit, get up from a lying position, stand, walk, or even crawl effectively on my own. Additionally, while I was always a vocal infant, shortly after my growth problems started, I shut up and *never* cried/made a sound again; thus I never learned to talk either. I remember years 3 - 8 in constant (i think daily) phys-ed classes learning *all* the basics...crawling, walking, sitting, crying, laughing, talking, climbing stairs, etc). I didn't finish speech therapy until 4th grade... That I talk so fluently today is really a testament to my -- apparently -- phenomenal mental acuity, further evinced by the reading of my first full book at age 2 1/2, while in that damn hospital none-the-less. I have largely the same problems picking up non-English vocalizations as well, which is why I can learn to read/write a language in roughly 6 months but am not vocally fluent in any. ----- Part 3 ----- I physically stayed 2 years behind my chronistic age for roughly 1/2 of my current lifespan until I hit puberty at age 12. Then, in a period of less than 6 months (inbetween examinations), I went from the body of a 10 year old to a body of a 14 year old. My voice changed overnight (that is *not* an overstatement) around Dec 10, 1992; so much so that every one thought I had a soar throat. I had incredibly bad acne appear two months later, and I had to shave 2 months after that. The doctors were floored -- again. As a living tribute to inherent flaws of reductionism, I fool scientists again and again, especially with my muscle dev. lvl 3 (that's the lowest possible) and the chronic "bone pains" I experienced through much of my growing life -- at one point forcing me into a wheel chair (spring of 93). Now, they were all saying that the momentary *huge* surge in aging, 5x that of normal, was a one-time event brought about by puberty...that I would stop aging for a bit and catch up; it certainly wouldn't keep accerlating. Well...Come my 16th birthday they were dismayed when I stopped growing, having the body of a 19 yr-old. Then when I turned 21, they said, "for all intents and purposes you have the body of a 24-25 year old" and now, well, read on. When I queried the "main" endocrinologist in the "Southern United States" -- or so he said -- regarding how such an age could be even hypothetically accurate, he gave the following explaination: There are several key indicators for aging, taht when taken together, can give a fairly accurate description of where a person is developmentally. By far the easiest to detect and most accurate to measure are the size of growth platelets of people who are not yet fully grown. The body hardly ever gets out of sync with the growth platelets, and by measuring their size in proportion to total height, you can come out with a quite accurate age. In fully-grown adults such as myself, they can measure bone marrow and neuron density via MRIs (done to me 2 weeks ago), the recession of muscles (which starts around age 25), reduction of testerone, and the nearly-symmetrical decrease in IGF-2 and increase of IGF-1. All of mine correlate almost exactly to the point that they can say that I have a body of a 26 to 29 year-old, which basically means an "unhealthy 26" or "superbly healthy 29", so I'm probably 27. ----- Part 4 ----- Part 4: My Contribution to Your Longevity The IGF-1 of an toddler is normally around 40. The IGF-1 of an 80 yr-old is generally around 400 - 450. The average IGF-1 of a 22 year-old is generally 175. Mine is at 3. That means that I am deficient in growth hormone by a factor of 58, which greatly surprised -- surprise, surprise -- the endo's once again. See, Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 is a hormone that your body secretes as a supplement to IGF-2 once you have stopped growing. It is one of those things that increases with age, and has recently become the primary research area for scientists trying to unlock the secrets of aging. There is no reason why we should "age"...The matter our cells are composed of is indefinately immortal, many billions years old already, and our life-based molecules are many generations older still. Single bacterium may live for thousands of years, so what, really, sends us to the grave? One reason could be that all parts of the body store trace amounts of IGF-1. See, it is proven that castrated men live routinely 10 to 20 years longer than non-casterated men; additionally, when the body never hits puberty, IGF-1 dominance over IGF-2 is delayed an additional 10 - 20 years after the body has stopped growing (something that happens immediately in every one else). This is most vividly illustrated in cats: Castrated males routinely live 15 - 20 years of age, while non-casterated typically have lifespans under 10 years -- even when kept indoors. But wait just a minute! Ted, you just claimed that castrated cats live longer because IGF-1-dominance is significantly delayed. Yet, your IGF-1 was also significantly delayed and yet you have prematurely aged 5% of your chronistic age, and your aging rate is infact increases. Don't you see the illogical nature of this paradox?! Well, this is where the thanks part should come in. Because of my truly unique physique -- heh -- if these tests pan out, they will -- literally -- flip on the head some of the leading theories of why we age ... especially since the "shortening polemers (sp?)" theory was proven false two years ago. Besides the lack of growth hormone IGF-1 (which is why I'm "chronically depressed"), depressed testosterone (which is why I'm so tired all the time), and scant traces of sexual pheremones (which is why *zero* women have ever been sexually attracted to me), apparently all of my other hormones are fully functional. Thus, really, the only remaining even-plausible scientific reason why I would be aging prematurely is if my body is not getting enough of the IGF-1 it NEEDS to be sufficiently self-sustaining. In the words of [my doctor], my body is possibly cannabalizing itself at an advanced rate in order to provide enough IGF-1 for me to be functional, and this could be causing the advanced aging. Indeed, the aging first accelerated when I was weened off IGF-2 hormones at age 16. If *I* stop *advanced* aging due to an artificial supplement of missing IGF-1 hormones, this means that in the *near* future (we're talking less than 10 years) every one could be taking IGF-1 supplements in order to -- optimistically -- slow down the aging process as much as mine has accelerated... In other words, in the next ten years, people may age a factor of 1.3 - 1.5 times slower than chronistically...therefore, an infant started on this regimen would theoretically be of bodily age 30 on their 40th birthday, or bodily aged 92 at their 120th. ----- Part 5 ----- Part 5: Summary Now, here's a major synchronicity... Artificial HGH for human adults first became legal to use in America on -- get this -- [29] October 2004; just shy of 2 weeks before my first tests with the endocrinologists began. This mirrors HGH for minors being made available (shortly after being invented) a full 3 months prior to my diagnosis in mid-1983. That's the good news. The doctors still have to analyze all the tests, and get together about it...and so the first (of two) discussions on their findings will be at 2PM on 24 January 2005 at Herman Hospital. I've been told at best-case scenario, the extra IGF-1 will stop my advanced aging until I have caught up chronistically, or even better, just stop me aging (lol). If the status quo is maintained, my aging process will probably keep increasing, meaning that i'll age up to 2 times the normal rate by the time I'm 40 with a body of a 64 yr-old, and will thus have a revised life-expectancy of 60 to 65 (with the body of a 100-120 yr-old). In the worst case, the introduction of IGF-1 into my body could have the same effect as more IGF-1 in a non-neutered cat has, and it could drammatically increase my aging to a level not seen in me since few weeks that I zoomed through puberty...or roughly 5x the aging rate. Either way, I'm quite unique in the anals of human history already -- regardless of what contributions I will make in the near future. The other good news is that if worse comes to worse, I could change my birthdate and run for presidency when I'm 28 instead of having to wait till I'm 35 :p And i'd look like a 45 yr-old, lol. Regardless, scientists around the world are -- or soon will -- undoubtedly pouring over my charts because the age anomalies I manifest are fairly unique among the human landscape, and never before have they been as treatable -- even reversible -- as they are today -- or will be tomorrow. Thus, when you have you're 150th birthday and have the body of a 75 yr-old, you'll know who to thank :p Ted PS If you support the ban on stem cells, think long and think hard because your flagrantly close-minded, unethically self-righteous simple-mindedness may very well cost me a good portion of a possible life. Thank Fate that Europe has already removed most bans on this in late 2004 :-)