Here is Patrick Cox LAST STOCK YOU'LL EVER NEED article
We’ve never experienced anything like it in human history. The closest parallel to this coming reduction in mortality is the inverse— the ending of a war.
In fact, the last time a global-scale war ended, in 1945, mortality rates plummeted, as they will when this drug is widely adopted.
Then, hundreds of millions of soldiers made up for lost time by creating the demographic bulge known as the baby boom. This population cohort is still having unexpected effects on politics and markets today. The only other comparable demographic event in modern times was the entry of women into the work force.
No one understands the real impact of this drug. That includes me, though I’m working on it. A rapid increase in health spans will change the shape of the demographic pyramid dramatically. The percentage of the population that is aged will increase fast.
On the surface, it’s easy to reach a few conclusions. Insurance companies are going to do well as people pay into their programs longer before taking out benefits. The reverse mortgage industry will collapse, however, if major adjustments to actuarial tables are not made quickly.
Not only are the implications of this discovery going to change the world as we know it, but they could produce large returns for early investors. In the following pages, you will see the advantage of having this small company in your portfolio… it could be the last stock you’ll ever need.
Live Long and Prosper — Nutraceutically
As I’ve said many times, the best way to get rich is simply to live longer and let the mathematics of exponential portfolio growth do its work. I have a company for you that has a synthesized form of a natural alkaloid that I believe will allow you to do just that. I also believe that equity in this company will yield truly transformational returns.
However, and I admit this is a big “however,” this technology is in the very early stages. This company is so disruptive, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of the industries it will disrupt will try to discredit or stop the product. Moreover, we don’t yet have long-term double-blind human studies on the use of this substance.
On the other hand, we don’t yet have blinded human data for quite a few of our companies’ drug candidates. This isn’t unique. There is, however, something about this product which inspired in me a particular degree of skepticism and caution. I assume, therefore, that it may provoke the same skepticism in you. Specifically, this company’s product is a “nutraceutical.”
Nutraceuticals vs. Drugs
Nutraceuticals, as you know, are foods or food-derived products that are meant to provide health benefits. They may function exactly like substances that are considered drugs legally, but they are not categorized as drugs.
For example, you may take or sell the extract of willow bark for use as an anti-inflammatory, anti-clotting agent or pain killer without getting government permission. You can’t make medical claims about willow bark extract, or the active ingredient salicylic acid, however. Current government policy in the U.S. and some other countries reserve that right for products that have passed extremely lengthy and expensive procedures.
If you synthesize a very similar compound, acetylsalicylic acid or aspirin, you have a drug. With regulatory approval, you can therefore make certain kinds of claims regarding its efficacy in the prevention of heart attacks or strokes. There is very little difference in the actual function of the two product, though.
One other difference is in the realm of patent law. Drugs can be patented, period. Nutraceuticals can be patented for specific uses, only.
Because nutraceuticals are not subject to testing requirements and regulations, they are much easier to bring to market. In some instances, impure and even dangerous nutraceuticals have been widely sold. The FDA can force a product off the market if it is found to be harmful, but the agency does not have legal authority to require clinical testing.
As a result, there have been some major problems in this area. You undoubtedly recall when beta-carotene, derived from plants such as tomatoes, was widely heralded a panacea. Books were written claiming it would cure cancer and extend life spans. Despite the lack of blinded studies, untold millions were spent on beta-carotene supplements. Finally, when beta-carotene supplementation was tested clinically, the claims were discredited. Some clinical results showed that the nutraceutical actually increased cancer risk.
So supplement makers went back to the drawing board. We know there are clear benefits from eating lots of tomato products, particularly in the area of cancer prevention. Some reasoned that another nutrient, which is always found in conjunction with beta-carotene, was responsible for the solanaceous fruit’s health benefits. They settled on lycopene. In effect, they decided that beta-carotene is a marker for lycopene and they had mistaken the marker for the active ingredient. Thus far, there’s little evidence that lycopene lowers cancer risks either.
Another nutraceutical that has proven disappointing is resveratrol, the anti-fungal phenol found in red grapes and other plants. You may have noticed that I’ve never waved the resveratrol flag. There has never, in fact, been any real evidence that it conveys beneficial effects to mammals.
At the height of the resveratrol craze, I tried the product for a while to see if I could detect benefits others swore they were experiencing. I noticed nothing and stopped. Recently, a concentrated drug form of resveratrol actually produced harmful effects in humans.
Millions of words, though, have been written by people who claim incredible benefits from resveratrol supplementation. Lacking any real evidence, I have to conclude this may be a sort of group placebo effect. Supplement fads arrive and legions of seekers arise to praise some fresh nutraceutical’s wondrous effects.
We’ve seen this cycle play out so many times. Fans of a product swear it is improving their health but eventually stop taking it… often just as another supplement fad arrives. The people who claim medical benefits are absolutely sincere, however. This makes it very difficult to judge anecdotal testimonials regarding nutraceuticals.
On the other hand, there are incredibly important and effective nutraceuticals. Omega-3 fatty acids, in both the fish oil extract and the purified synthesized form, are linked by real data to improved health. The nutraceutical form of vitamin D is also an important supplement with clinically verified health benefits. If your circulating levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D are below 45 ng/ml, I would strongly recommend that you speak with a doctor who keeps up with the scientific literature.
I’m telling you all this for a reason. I’m recommending a company that has nutraceutical products, so I want you to go in with your eyes open. I also want you to know why I was so skeptical and why I’ve gone to extra lengths to verify the story and the people involved.
I’m convinced that this is one of the most important breakthrough technologies of our time. I won’t pretend however that we’re not in the Wild Wild West of investing when we venture into nutraceutical territory.
That isn’t necessarily a bad thing though.
The same dynamics that make this area volatile and unpredictable can also lead to enormous profits. Incidentally, the Wild Wild West was never as dangerous as the urban East, past and present. My friends Dr. Terry Anderson and Dr. P. J. Hill of Montana State University demonstrate this in a wonderfully entertaining academic journal article that you can read at this link.
Given all these caveats, I’m nevertheless convinced that the company we’re adding to the portfolio this month has a product that actually does what other supplements only wished they could do. As I said earlier, I believe that most people who take the anatabine citrate supplement made by Star Scientific Inc. (NASDAQ: CIGX) will see significantly improved quality and length of life as a result.
Yes, I realize how radical that statement really is. If I heard this from someone else, I would almost certainly dismiss the claim as ignorant or dishonest. In fact, I did. For that reason, I’ve wrestled with the best way to present the science behind this product.
Having spent more than a month researching this biochemical technology, I’ve come to the conclusion that there is no way to completely convey the scientific and financial story behind this company in one monthly issue. It took me weeks to overcome my initial skepticism regarding this technology. I’ve spoken at length to extremely important, respected scientists and have hours of taped interviews. I’ve read tens of thousands of words on the science behind this breakthrough. I’ve visited one of the world’s top biotech research laboratories and have met researchers whom I’ve known about for over a decade but never expected to meet.
I’ve never wanted you my readers to blindly take my opinion about anything. I’m paid to give you disruptive technology companies… but, obviously, they cannot all be equal. This is why I lay out the evidence and science with source materials included. I do this so you can come to your conclusions and make decisions based on your own situation.
Given my own initial rejection of this biotechnology, I have to believe that intelligent readers will be as skeptical as I was when it first came to me. You should be, in fact. I doubted even though I was already familiar with much of the science and many of the researchers whom I’ve encountered in the past month. Nevertheless, it was difficult for me to accept the importance and magnitude of this discovery. For many of you who do not follow medical research obsessively, as I do, this story will sound more like science fiction than science.
This technology is going to have a far bigger impact on a wide variety of companies than you might initially think.
I believe that Star Scientific’s anatabine supplement will not only make you healthier and wealthier, it will have an impact on the U.S. and world economies. I don’t know how soon the biggest impacts will arrive, but it’s going to happen unless something completely unexpected prevents it.
There is no one among all my readers, by the way, who has not already taken anatabine in some form. It is, after all, basically food. You were not, however, taking it at the currently achievable level of purity or in optimal quantities. It is, in fact, found in members of the Solanaceae family of plants. This includes tomatoes, red peppers and, most important from the perspective of this story, tobacco.
The Star Scientific Story
You may know that I have been extremely fortunate to have had a number of articles about biotechnologies published by John Mauldin. With his 1.5 million readers, including many extremely influential thinkers, Mauldin’s network is formidable.
Through Mauldin, I have gained access to biotech scientists whom I might not have encountered until they achieved a much higher level of visibility. Word of Breakthrough Technology Alert, because of his generous help, has penetrated much further into the world of emerging biotechnologies. These days, I’m regularly approached by people who believe they have important technologies. This is an enviable position to be in.
Some of these companies don’t measure up. Usually, it is because they’re unaware of progress in related fields that will make their platforms prematurely obsolete. Generally, however, people don’t approach me unless they believe their science is solid and their potential is transformational.
One such person is now a reader of this newsletter. He sent me, though Mauldin, information about a company that claims to have a nutraceutical that significantly reduces chronic low-level inflammation.
This is such a big damn claim. I assumed I was seeing the same old beta-carotene resveratrol health food fad cycle playing out once again. Such a compound would be a world-changing breakthrough, even if it were a regulated drug. A safe nutraceutical that controls chronic low-level inflammation, outside the bureaucrats’ regulatory reach, is just “too good to be true.” I didn’t believe it for a second. I didn’t even consider it. Let me explain why.
The Inflammaging Story
The name of the neural circuit that regulates the immune response to injury and invasion is the “inflammatory reflex.” Inflammation is an extremely complex mechanism that involves the destruction through apoptosis of damaged cells, the healing of salvageable cells and the growth of entirely new cells.
In the last decade or so, it has become increasingly clear that inflammation plays a major complicating role in almost all diseases. When we are young, the primary role of this important biological response is to heal injury or infection. In the last century or so, the inflammatory reflex has begun to play a role that it almost never did in the past.
For the vast majority of human history, life was hard and lifespans were short. For Greeks during the Classical period of the 5th and 4th centuries BC, the average person lived only about 28 years. It was nearly the same for ancient Romans. Life spans rose to about 30 years in Medieval Britain and reached, in the developed world, about 45 in the early 20th century.
I think people tend to underestimate just how rough life was until very recently. Before it was possible to mass produce penicillin, during the second world war, a broken bone that protruded through the skin resulted in death at least 50% of the time. Being thrown from a horse, kicked by a cow or bitten by any kind of animal was a serious potentially life-ending matter. Early automobile accidents were far more dangerous because of the risk of secondary infection. Lacking safer modern technologies, industrial and household accidents were more common and far more lethal.
In the “olden days,” the only way to survive a nearly inevitable sequence of injuries was a strong inflammatory immune response. If individuals didn’t have the ability to mount a powerful inflammatory response, they were unlikely to live long enough pass on their DNA.
Today, however, life expectancies are pushing 80 years in North America. Despite the inane fantasies of green fantasists, modern life is altogether safer and better. Medical technologies allow us to survive injuries and infections that would have quickly killed our grandparents.
Herein lies the rub, however. We still have an inflammatory reflex that was tuned in ancient Greece and medieval Europe.
It is now understood that inflammation plays a role in virtually all diseases. In fact, inflammation increases the rate of aging itself and leads to various pathologies. This is why your dentist lectures you about flossing. Inflammation from unhealthy gums increases the odds of getting heart disease and even Alzheimer’s.
Even with perfect gums, however, chronic inflammation increases as you age. Eventually, it creates a problem serious enough to trigger a cascade effect. Uncontrolled inflammation causes the simultaneous healing and destruction of cells. This can lead to cancers, heart attacks, lupus, IBS, macular degeneration, stroke, obesity, ED, allergies, psoriasis, Crohn’s disease, endometriosis, rheumatoid arthritis, hair loss, diseases of the organs such as the thyroid and liver as well as … well, you name it.
The general public learned about this for the first time in a 2004 Time magazine cover story titled The Fire Within.
Today, scientists have advanced the science much further. Many are now using the term “inflammaging,” coined by Claudio Franceschi, professor of immunology at the University of Bologna.
It appears, in fact, that our immune systems react to the normal effects of aging as if they were injuries. This initiates inflammation, an immune response. This inflammation causes cellular stress, which increases the degree of chronic inflammation — which causes even more damage. It is, by definition, an auto-immune disorder. Some scientists call it auto[innate]immunity subclinical syndrome.
It is a vicious circle, a chronic cycle that spins faster and faster until the organism itself eventually fails. Aging, we now know, is not linear. Like so many other things, it is an exponential process that accelerates over time.
If there were a way to stop chronic low-level inflammation, however, we could put the breaks on the auto-immune inflammation cycle. If we could stop chronic low-level inflammation, our bodies could heal naturally, just as they did before inflammaging kicked in. We would even see cells damaged by past inflammation-related diseases heal normally.
We’re not talking about regenerative medicine, of course. Our cells eventually reach their Hayflick limit even if we halt the inflammaging cycle. We will eventually run out of the telomeres used every time a cell replaces itself through chromosome replication.
Cells that are running out of telomeres stop functioning properly and eventually fail. Regenerative medicine promises to replace aged cells and tissue with young telomere-restored cells and tissue. An alternative route is the activation of the telomerase gene, which we know can restore telomeres to youthful lengths.
In the meantime, however, we need to slow the process of telomere loss. For some time scientists have known that inflammation is the primary accelerator of telomere loss. This is why so few of us reach our theoretical maximum life spans, which could be 120 years or more.
We would be much, much more likely to reach that theoretical upper limit if we aged as we did when we were young. It’s often said that time speeds up as get older. Now we know there is a great deal of truth to that adage, though not in the sense it is usually intended. A drug that actually controlled inflammaging would restore the aging process to a more linear progression, as it was when we were young.
For this reason, many scientists are looking for the means to reduce or stop inflammaging. Not infrequently, this hypothetical drug has been referred to as the “holy grail” of drug discovery.
The Market Potential for a Safe Anti-Inflammaging Compound
The market for such a compound would be so big it is nearly incomprehensible. It is instructive, though, to consider one relatively weak anti-inflammation drug. Lipitor, technically atorvastatin, does lower indicators of inflammation. The most well-known, because doctors can test for it easily, is C-reactive protein (CRP). CRP levels rise with inflammation and their reduction demonstrates lowered inflammation. As a result, Lipitor is known to reduce the danger of cardiovascular and other diseases for many people.
Measured by sales, Lipitor is the most successful drug in history. Last year, Pfizer sold over $5 billion of Lipitor. This is despite a broad range of adverse effects and competing anti-inflammatory statins. At its peak in 2006, Pfizer was earning almost $13 billion annually from Lipitor. The patents expire this year, by the way, and Lipitor represents about 15% of Pfizer’s total revenues.
The reason I didn’t take Star Scientific seriously was that the company was saying, essentially, that it had found a compound that is far more effective than Lipitor or the other statins while being safer and cheaper. That, my friends, is the holy grail of modern medicine so many scientists are seeking.
More unbelievable still, they’re saying it isn’t even a drug in the legal sense. The holy grail is an extremely safe nutraceutical — a food that all of us consume in small quantities regularly. This, I believed, was simply way too good to be true. I never read past the first few paragraphs of their materials. I didn’t like the name of the company, Star Scientific. I didn’t like its ticker (NASDAQ: CIGX).
Nothing more would have come of it if I had not accepted an invitation from John Mauldin to a dinner in Palm Beach. My associate Ray Blanco and I drove across the state and found ourselves in a bar with John. Shortly thereafter, the Breakthrough Technology Alert reader who had originally sent me the information about Star Scientific joined us. With him was the CEO of Star Scientific, Jonnie Williams.
The Jonnie Williams Story
I didn’t initially recognize the name but as soon as he began talking about himself, it all came together. I remember when Jonnie Williams invented the tobacco curing technology that dramatically reduces carcinogenic toxins. He financed that research, by the way, with a small part of the fortune he had made as a major investor or co-founder in several successful biotechs, including VISX.
Williams’ improved tobacco technology is universally used today. This technology has extended millions of lives around the world. I remember also when Williams entered into America’s largest patent lawsuit, by size of damages requested, with R J Reynolds Tobacco Company.
An associate of Williams’, a world-renowned scientist, has since described him to me as “a force of nature.” It’s a good description. Without his drive and particular combination of curiosity, optimism, skills and character, this discovery might never have been made.
Williams has absolutely no doubt about the nutraceutical he has discovered. If you’re accustomed to speaking with extremely careful scientists, as I am, he’s nothing like that. Nothing.
That evening in Palm Beach, he repeated to me the basic claims his friend had sent me. He said, though not in these words, that he had discovered a safe nutraceutical that controls the vicious cycle of inflammaging. At that point, I was smiling politely and listening. I still didn’t believe him but he convinced me he was sincere. He wasn’t lying, I figured. He was just wrong.
I was curious enough, however, to take Williams up on his offer to meet with scientists working with his technology in Sarasota, Florida, where he’s based. I had asked him questions that he didn’t have answers to so he encouraged me to “come up and see the lab, and talk to the scientists.”
Road Trip to Sarasota
Ray Blanco and I programmed the GPS locator and drove to Sarasota with the windows open. Florida is beautiful this time of year and we have similar tastes in music. I was prepared to waste a day.
We arrived at Williams’ office at the airstrip where he keeps his plane. On the way to the lab, he gave us the back story to the discovery of anatabine. I’m going to give you a very abbreviated version because the whole saga could and ought to fill a book. It’s a truly fascinating scientific and entrepreneurial detective story.
Williams’ Virginia family had been associated with the tobacco industry for generations and he had seen cigarettes prematurely kill many friends and family. Wealthy from his biotech investments, he retired. Nearly by accident, however, he found himself the owner of a tobacco processing plant.
With the raw materials at hand and an insatiable curiosity, he started wondering if he might be able to make tobacco less dangerous. This was based on the fact that the tobacco plant itself contains no carcinogens. Only when it’s cured do the toxins form.
Eventually, he invented a superior processing technology using microwaves to speed the drying process, reducing carcinogenic toxin creation significantly. It wasn’t enough for him, though. He then set out to find a way to help people quit smoking entirely.
The standard smoking-cessation aid at the time, and today, is nicotine chewing gum. Unfortunately, the success rate for nicotine gums is barely higher than normal chewing gum. You would probably be better off using a xylitol gum, a clinically validated nutraceutical.
Williams reasoned that there must be something in tobacco other than nicotine that draws people back to the whole tobacco plant product. He was not the only person to reach this conclusion, though he was the first person to methodically and earnestly look for the answer.
The Crow Connection
On a personal note, I’ve been fascinated with the medical properties of tobacco my whole life. Because my great-grandfather was honored by the Crow, or Apsáalooke, tribe for some technology-related things he did for them following the Battle of the Little Big Horn, I’ve always had family among the Crow. As a child, I lived in Crow Agency, Montana, and saw traditional Crow rituals and dances. Many dealt with the medicinal properties of tobacco.
The tobacco “medicine pipe” is common to many tribes in North America. For the Crow, however, the sacred tobacco bundle is the central religious icon. The legend of the creation of the Crow tribe begins, in fact, with the gift of tobacco to the Apsáalooke patriarch by his star-faring father. The medicine pipe is on the tribe’s modern emblem and the sacred tobacco bundle is at its center.
The Mesolithic Crow, however, were not chain smoking cigarettes. Tobacco cultivation was rigidly ritualized and forbidden to all but a few. The medicine pipe’s use was limited to certain important occasions and locations, such as the sweat lodge. Used with that sort of moderation, tobacco seems to have very few ill effects. Beyond it’s pleasant anti-depressant monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibiting effect, there are well-documented medical benefits.
For example, it’s long been known that smokers are much less likely to get Parkinson’s disease. This applies even to very moderate smokers, such as people who only occasionally “sneak” a cigarette. I suspect that the Mesolithic Crow smoked about as much tobacco as was needed to get the benefits of tobacco without most of the ill effects. Personally, when I smoked, I was never able to achieve that level of moderation. It would require, I think, a strict social and religious structure such as the Crow had.
Secondhand Smoke Signals
Ironically, there are even some benefits from second-hand smoke. I remember when the flight attendants organization funded a study to determine just how bad cabin smoke is on thyroid health. The study was performed by prominent Johns Hopkins endocrinologist Dr. Paul Ladenson and others. When the study was completed, the data actually showed a reduction in Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, commonly called thyroid disease, among those exposed to second-hand smoke and smokers. Subsequently, other studies have verified those results.
Today, incidentally, Dr. Ladenson advises Star Scientific. He is the Howard Professor of Endocrinology and Metabolism at Johns Hopkins as well as the Director of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism Medicine. I was given access to him for purposes of clarifying and verifying my conclusions. I’ll have more on that when I’ve got the time for him to approve quotes.
We can see other benefits of tobacco by looking at population studies of smokeless tobacco (ST) users. Decades of data have been collected on the Scandinavian form of the ST, called snus. No evidence has been found of any increase in cancer rates, including mouth and stomach.
ST users exhibit a number of health benefits, including an approximate ten-year delay in the onset of Alzheimer’s disease. This benefit is not found in smokers. Apparently, inhaling large quantities of smoke is so damaging to the brain, it counteracts tobacco’s AD-delaying benefits.
No health benefits accrue to users of nicotine gum, however. So there’s plenty of evidence to conclude that people are drawn to something else in tobacco than nicotine, apparently as a form of “self medication.” If the active ingredients that satisfied those urges could be included in a chewing gum, Williams believed that he would have a smoking-cessation aid that could put big tobacco out of business.
The company started with hard dissolvable ST lozenges made from Virginia tobaccos. Star Scientific believes it has the lowest level of the tobacco-specific nitrosamines (TSNAs) of any tobacco product in the world. TSNAs are the source of cured tobacco’s toxicity.
The Anatabine Discovery
Jonnie Williams also gave top scientists the resources they needed to find out what’s in tobacco that people actually crave. Eventually, he discovered the active ingredient he was seeking. It is an alkaloid called anatabine found in many other solanaceous plants, including tomatoes.
He then had to learn to synthesize this food-derived nutraceutical so that it was safe for human consumption. A non-food form of anatabine, available through chemical suppliers, is highly toxic.
When he had accomplished this, the nutraceutical was subjected to extensive toxicity tests by a team of world-class scientists. Williams has attracted truly extraordinary people to his cause, including Dr. Curtis Wright, his current medical director and senior vice president of the wholly owned subsidiary that will develop a drug form of anatabine, Rock Creek Pharmaceuticals. Formerly the acting director of the FDA’s division that covered analgesics, anesthetics and addictive substances, Wright is a leading expert on toxicity and regulatory issues.
Even at massive doses, anatabine proved remarkably safe in multiple animals tests. So Star Scientific then created CIGRX, pronounced “cigarex.” CIGRX contains anatabine and yerba mate, another nutraceutical MAO inhibitor. It is widely available in supplement sections of stores today as a natural smoking-cessation aid. People began to use the product, which looks and tastes like mint tic tacs.
Soon, users began reporting more than successful efforts to quit smoking. People began talking about unexpected improvements in a range of inflammation-related conditions. Though anecdotal, evidence began to mount.
A different sort of turning point took place when Williams’ wife developed severe Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, commonly called thyroid disease. Famously devoted to her, Williams arranged for his wife to be treated by one of the top thyroid specialists in the world, Dr. Patrizio Caturegli. Caturegli studied with internationally known Italian endocrinologist Prof. Aldo Pinchera of the University of Pisa. Today, Caturegli is associate professor of pathology, endocrinology and immunology at Johns Hopkins.
William’s wife had already developed thyroid nodules. At that point, surgery was necessary and scheduled 30 days out. Williams told Caturegli about the anatabine supplement. Caturegli suggested that there would be no harm in her trying the product. She did. The fibrosis reversed and the surgery was canceled. Her condition has continued to improve and Williams reports that she is completely free of the symptoms of thyroid disease.
Dr. Caturegli told me he is currently arranging human clinic trials of anatabine for thyroid disease with Prof. Aldo Pinchera and the University of Pisa. Italy’s regulations are less onerous than America’s, so FDA-compliant results will be produced rapidly.
Regardless, when I went Roskamp, I got even more anecdotal evidence regarding anatabine’s disease-fighting properties. Normally, I wouldn’t even refer to anecdotal evidence as part of a company’s analysis. This case is unique, though.
The anecdotal reports I’m hearing are not your normal hearsay. I’m not talking about the typical stories from people who purport to feel better because they’re taking some new supplement. Most of the people who are using the stronger form of anatabine are part of the scientific research community. Medical scientists are telling Star Scientific executives and Roskamp researchers about friends and relatives who have experienced remissions of serious diseases. Moreover, because of their profession, they have verified their perceptions with MRIs, X-rays, blood tests and the like.
I wish I could tell you some of these results, but I can’t. I’m not even comfortable telling you about my experience with the nutraceutical. A sample size of one is statistically meaningless, or damn close. Nevertheless, I will share one data point.
I was wrong when I wrote in the past about what I thought was a rotator cuff injury. It was, I think, wishful thinking, because a rotator cuff injury is a young man’s injury. In fact, I have cervical arthritis, an old man’s disease. Inflammation at the joint impinged a nerve that kept me in pain for over a year. Two months ago, it had gotten so bad, I could no longer sleep on my right side or hug my daughter with my right arm. Analgesics and anti-inflammatories were almost no help, but were causing side effects.
After two weeks of anatabine use, the pain largely went away. Now, two months in, I can’t even provoke pain by moving my arm around looking for the point of nerve impingement. I’m lifting weights again, though more cautiously than I did in the past. Yes, it could be a coincidence, but it’s only one of several inflammation-related conditions that have responded dramatically to anatabine.
I think, in fact, that the early adopters of anatabine will be the boomers. My wife is not part of that cohort. She’s younger than I. She practices intense martial arts religiously, and her general health is simply better than mine. She is taking anatabine as a preventative, but she hasn’t experienced the same palpable benefits that I have. I think that’s going to be the case with most younger users.
My wife takes anatabine because she has confidence in the core science, which she has examined. Her graduate degree is in biology, by the way.
People are bombarded on a daily basis by junk science from the same industry that has sold them hundreds of millions of dollars worth of worthless supplements. Many will find it difficult to differentiate anatabine from beta-carotene, even when clinical studies are available.
Older users, however, will be much more likely to experience rapid improvements in inflammation-related disorders. I think word will spread quickly once boomers begin to try anatabine. The cost, by the way, will be about the same as for multivitamins. Currently, the weaker form, CiGRX, is packaged for smokers to carry around and use instead of cigarettes. Most of the cost of the product is packaging. When sold in bottles like vitamins this summer, it will be easily affordable to everyone.
I went back to the Roskamp Institute’s laboratories in late March to talk to Dr. Michael Mullan and Dr. Fiona Crawford about their tests of the effects of anatabine on telomerase. This is only the first phase of this research, and the data so far deal only with cancer cells. Nevertheless, it is more than intriguing. It’s too early to draw any conclusions now, but I’ll keep you in the loop as more is learned.
Incidentally, Star Scientific just got word that the FDA considers the company’s dissolvable tobacco lozenges outside of their regulatory jurisdiction. This opens the way for the marketing of this product, which I think will replace smokeless tobacco among those who are trying to quit smoking. This applies in particular to female smokers, who have never been comfortable with smokeless tobacco. This is a pretty big deal.
Roskamp Institute
When Williams suggested that I “see the lab,” I had no idea. In fact, we went to the Roskamp Institute, founded by philanthropist Robert Roskamp. Roskamp’s life itself is inspiring, as is the work of his institute.
When Robert Roskamp’s emotionally troubled brother’s life ended prematurely, he quit his teaching post and set out to design and provide better facilities for emotionally disabled adults. His efforts were extremely successful, resulting in many facilities across America. In the process, he became very familiar with the tragedy of Alzheimer’s disease.
Upon retiring, he sold his holdings and found himself very wealthy. He and his wife founded the Roskamp Foundation. In 2003, they opened the Roskamp Institute to tackle the problems of Alzheimer’s and other disorders of the brain. Based in Sarasota, this world-class research facility has laboratories equipped for biochemistry, genomics, proteomics, mass spectrometry, in silico simulations with their own supercomputer and more.
Running the Institute with a staff of more than 50 researchers are two of the world’s leading Alzheimer’s scientists, Dr. Michael Mullen and Dr. Fiona Crawford. They are renowned for discovering an amyloid link to AD as well as the so-called Swedish mutation. That breakthrough led to the creation of genetically engineered mice that are critical to the entire field of Alzheimer’s research.
I personally find the synchronicity involved in the Williams/Roskamp alliance startling. I assumed that Williams had located in Sarasota because of the Roskamp Institute. In fact, he’s there because his son and daughter are at the Bollettieri tennis school in Bradenton, near Sarasota. Williams’ wife heard about Roskamp Institute through a local magazine article and suggested to him that he talk to the scientists there about anatabine.
Today, anatabine is a major research focus at Roskamp. Given what I told you earlier about smokeless tobacco’s ability to delay onset of AD, you shouldn’t be surprised to learn that animal studies are extremely promising.
Moreover, Mullen and Crawford have learned a great deal about anatabine’s mechanism of action. I always feel somewhat guilty for taking time from scientists as important as Crawford and Mullen, but they have been extremely generous in helping me understand what they’ve learned about anatabine. So, finally, we’re getting to the really good part. Fasten, as they say, your safety belt.
NF-?B (Nuclear Factor Kappa-Light-Chain-Enhancer of Activated B Cells)
In recent months, I’ve written to you often about gene transcription factors. Transcription factors are the biological command codes that activate the incredibly complex genetic program that is our DNA. Transcription is the process by which DNA is “read.” This reading of DNA sequences happens faster than the rotation speed of a jet engine and results in a kind of mirror image protein called RNA. RNA is the language that DNA uses to communicate with the rest of the body. This animation of transcription is helpful.
At the molecular level, transcription is so complex, nothing else compares. The sophistication of our genome is simply indescribable and the most advanced electronics are laughably primitive in comparison. Transcription factors trigger additional transcription factors. Sequences of DNA are turned on or off depending on the sequence of the program, leading to precise changes in the cell. The result can be simple response to a change in temperature or it can result in one cell changing into an entirely different type of cell.
One transcription factor has particularly interested scientists. It is NF-?B. Pronounced N F kappa B, it is shorthand for nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells. You don’t have to know that. What you should know, however, is that NF-?B is a sort of primary master transcription factor for the immune response system.
Unlike most gene transcription factors, it doesn’t have to be synthesized. NF-?B exists in almost all human and animal cell types. It acts as a first responder, always on call and ready to mount an immune response if needed. Unfortunately, it can also mount that response when it’s not needed.
Remember, almost none of those who contributed to your genetic makeup, your ancestors, lived past the age of 30. Survival past that age was not selected for genetically. It’s possible to live a lot longer now, but this new longevity has existed for only the last few hundred years or so. That’s a blip on the clock of human existence. Being old is an aberration, historically and biologically. As a result, we’re not very good at it.
It’s now clear that inflammaging is an auto-immune disorder caused when the immune regulatory system interprets the effects of aging as injury. Therefore, the very condition of being “old” provokes NF-?B activation, initiating an immune response to injury.
Injuries and disease require immediate response and that’s what NF-?B facilitates. If you don’t have an actual injury or disease, however, the NF-?B creates all manner of havoc on the cellular level. For more on this, you might read the Finnish study, titled, “Activation of innate immunity system during aging: NF-?B signaling is the molecular culprit of inflammaging.” The abstract and outline are here.
So, when inflammaging occurs due to wrongly deployed NF-?B, we see important indicators of inflammation. This includes CRPs, tumor necrosis factors and Interleukin-1 betas (IL-1ßs).
Now we know, thanks to Roskamp labs, that anatabine moderates these excess NF-?Bs. This is near miraculous. This is as far “upstream” in the inflammation regulatory system as you can go. Scientists have been going after things downstream like CRPs, IL-1ßs and MAOs but this is always hazardous. It creates unexpected problems and can throw the entire regulatory axis out of balance. Anatabine doesn’t work like that, it simply calms NF-?B activity so the inflammation doesn’t lead to increased CRP, IL-1ß and other inflammatory actors.
Look closely at the following chart published by Roskamp. It shows the impact of anatabine and Lipitor on mice given an inflammation inducing substance, LPS-1. This is a lipopolysaccharide, which is found in bacterial cell walls and provokes a strong inflammatory immune response in animals.
The chart shows IL-1ß levels, which are a more important indicator of inflammation than CRPs. This chart clearly shows that anatabine, labeled by its laboratory designation RCP, is far more effective than Lipitor at the concentration that is typical of the current dosing recommendation. At the right dose, anatabine appears to shut down inflammation completely.
Because this is a nutraceutical, many people are already taking it. Both Ray Blanco and I are using it, as is everybody I know who has anything to do with Star Scientific. Anecdotal evidence is not double-blind science but the sheer volume and consistency of personal reports is overwhelming. The fact that so much is coming from scientists is also significant. I’m not going to give you specifics at this time, but I will say that I cannot imagine doing without this nutraceutical after having taken it for only six weeks.
Moreover, I spoke with Dr. Dale Wilson of the McLaren Regional Medical Center, who is organizing a major blinded study to take place in Flint, Michigan. CRP data from this study will be available in a few months. Roskamp is also in the process of organizing an Alzheimer’s test.
Dr. Wilson also pointed out to me that NF-?Bs are involved in apoptosis, programmed cell death. This means that, theoretically, anatabine may increase the life of healthy cells and prevent the cell immortality that occurs in cancer cells.
One of the most exciting things about anatabine is its potential role as a telomere protector. Studies are underway right now and I’ll go back to Roskamp to view the results soon.
I am struck, incidentally, by the timing of this technology’s emergence — only months after BioTime’s launch of a subsidiary to provide truly rejuvenative therapy for the cardiovascular and immune systems. For many who might not have lived to acquire those upgrades, I believe this simple, inexpensive “nutraceutical” could buy you the time you need. I also believe stock in this company could provide the funds to pay for the procedure.
Incidentally, the U.S. Patent Office has just confirmed Williams’ safer tobacco curing patents, now owned by Star Scientific. His application has been confirmed at a year earlier than Reynolds’. This clears the way for the company to go after billions in past royalties from the many tobacco companies that currently use Williams’ technology. I so wish I was allowed to buy the stocks I recommend.
Williams’ legal victory in the patent arena highlights another important point about Star Scientific. Having taken on big tobacco, he may be the most “lawyered up” man in America. His legal team is as good as they get and he’s patented every conceivable nutraceutical use of anatabine. One of the most interesting is use in conjunction with spinal cord injuries. It’s been known for some time that suppressing NF-?B activity after an injury promotes neural healing. Moreover, there are significant trade secrets and patents regarding the process of making the food grade that belong to Star Scientific.
It’s not yet clear to me how disruptive this technology will be to the existing pharmaceutical industry. Reducing inflammation will certainly delay onset of many serious illnesses. It’s not obvious, though, that it will actually prevent those illnesses from re-emerging when we’re much, much older and closer to our Hayflick limits. This is one of the many questions I’m going to try to answer in the months to come.
Recommendation: Buy Star Scientific Inc. (NASDAQ: CIGX).
Editors Note:
Stay Tuned for Updates on The Last Stock You’ll Ever Need
There has been one primary response from readers regarding this story. Many have asked if you can get access to the anatabine anti-inflammaging nutraceutical immediately.
I double-checked with CEO Jonnie R. Williams about the launch date. The full-strength version won’t be available until summer. You can, though, get the anatabine smoking-cessation aid CiGRX now.
Each lozenge of the full-strength version will contain as much anatabine as is found in 10 cigarettes. The currently available CiGRX lozenges contain the anatabine equivalent of three cigarettes. I believe the recommended number of lozenges of the unreleased stronger version will be five or six per day. That means you can get the equivalent now with 15 or more lozenges of CiGRX. On the CiGRX website, I see that you can buy 30 packets of 20 lozenges for $80. I understand that the stronger product will cost the same as CiGRX, so the cost per unit of anatabine will go down by more than a third soon.
Star Scientific and other small biotechnology companies are on the verge of breakthroughs that will surely change the world of medicine as we know it. Now is your chance to get in on the ground floor…
This may be your best opportunity toward your start to transformational profits.
Over the next few weeks and months, I will be closely monitoring Star Scientific and any breakthroughs they make. You can plan on seeing updates each week as new information comes forward on this company and others in the Breakthrough Technology Alert portfolio.
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