BJORKSTEN PhD, JOHAN

In 1941, Dr. Johan Bjorksten proposed the Cross-Linking Theory of Aging, which implied that an alteration occurred in structural proteins that causes them to develop inter-and intramolecular cross-links with other proteins. The presence of cross-linking agents in living organisms was equated by Bjorksten with factory-workers being handcuffed a few at a time. If the "mad-handcuffer" were not stopped, at some point the factory production would slow and ultimately grind to a halt. Bjorksten proposed that just such a process, progressive cross-linking in the body, was responsible for the changes that occurred with aging. Bjorksten devised an aggressive experimental approach to discover safe, effective anti-cross-linking agents. He believed that two of the best approaches to preventing cross-linking were physical exercise and chelation therapy with EDTA. More recently, Dr. A. Cerami has updated this theory as the Glycation Theory of Aging, in which the non-enzymatic reactions of glucose and other reducing sugars, with amino groups of proteins and nucleic acids, result in a series of events which alter protein and nucleic acid structure and function. This is the same process that causes the "caramelization" of sugar.