Letter to the Editor Pineal Effect on Longevity

نویسنده

  • Steven Lehrer
چکیده

A RECENT study of survivorship among the blind in Massachusetts [1] reveals that blind persons under 65 suffering from retrolental fibroplasia had a significantly better survivorship than other blind individuals . This may be the result of a pineal effect upon longevity . Ten year survival rates for major affections in the Massachusetts study (see Table 1) reveal that blind males under 65 with retrolental fibroplasia had a 96% observed survival . The expected survival of the general population in the same age group, calculated from State Life Tables and weighted according to age distribution within the blind group, was 98% [2] . The blind category with the next closest observed to expected survivorship, affections of the cornea, had 76% observed survival as opposed to 86% expected survival . The difference between the survival of the retrolental fibroplasia group and the corneal affections group was highly significant (p < 0 .005) ; the former had a survivorship not significantly different from the general population, while the survivorship of the latter was much worse than that of the general population . The ten year survival picture for females under 65 was similar. Blind women with retrolental fibroplasia had a 99% observed survival and a 98% expected survival . The female group with the next closest observed to expected survivorship, myopia, had an 87% observed and 91% expected survival. The difference between the survival of the retrolental fibroplasia group and the myopia group was significant (p < 0 .025) . The blind have long been known to have substantially poorer survival rates than sighted groups at all ages up to 75 [1, 3, 4] . For besides suffering the complications of systemic diseases, such as diabetes, which often lead to loss of vision, the blind are especially prone to accidents . This accounts for the very poor survivorship seen in most of the blind groups . However, in retrolental fibroplasia, affections of the cornea, and myopia, there is no significant association of life-shortening systemic diseases . And although all three

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تاریخ انتشار 2004