Laron Syndrome - emordnyS noraL - Reflection - noitcelfeR

The article about the Ecuadorians who have have Laron syndrome is extremely interesting. What is particularly intriguing is the potential that this knowledge has to extend life and put off cancer and diabetes. Studies done in these people with Laron syndrome revealed that they have low levels of IGF1 and experiments done on worms and mice showed that the low levels of this growth factor inhibit cancer and diabetes. This notion is very interesting. If scientists learned how to manipulate this gene in a certain way, they theoretically might be able to make it less abundant in people with high cancer risks and prevent cancer. However, if manipulation of IGF1 was doable, some people could choose to use it to gain increased growth by increasing the levels. However, using the manipulation of IGF1 as an artificial growth hormone would be very risky, similar to how HGH and steroids are dangerous to the body in some ways. People who have an over abundance of IGF1 have been shown to be very tall, they also are at a high risk for diseases such as cancer. According to http://www.buzzle.com/articles/human-growth-hormone-hgh-side-effects.html, a side effect of HGH is acromegaly, the converse of Ladron syndorme which was talked about in the original article. This study could also further prove the dangers of steroids. Also, it will be interesting to see if it can be found out if it would be beneficial if IGF1 was reduced in all humans. IT obviously stunts growth, but would it be worth it if it lowers cancer risk significantly. Also, I wonder what a decrease in IGF1 would do to a person who is already finished growing. For somebody like this, would it be win/win situation? All in all, this find is really interesting and could lead to breakthrough discoveries in the science of cancer.