Before Their Time: Rare Aging Diseases Point the Way to Our Own Immortality

Anyone who thinks the search for the Fountain of Youth died with Ponce de Leon has never visited South Florida...or those California labs where many highly-paid doctor-researchers search for the keys to immortality. One of those keys might be found in Ashley Hegi, the primary focus of this excellent Canadian production. A 6-year-old who is two feet tall and weighs only twenty pounds, Ashley has progeria (Hutchinson-Guilford Syndrome), an extremely rare disease which causes rapid, premature aging, equivalent to ten years for every one year of life. Even though she is a kindergartner, Ashley has already lost all her hair and suffered a mild stroke. Her American friend, at age nine, is the oldest surviving progeriac in the United States. The tape also interviews a 45-year-old woman in France with Werner's Syndrome, a different premature aging disease which has given her the body of a 65-year-old. While doctors and scientists want to know more about these diseases with a view to extending lifespans for all, the patients and their families just want help coping with their own rare diseases; none wish to be guinea pigs used for helping people with normal life expectancies to reach 140-160 years of age. Watch this with a box of tissues handy. Recommended for medical and university libraries, as well as budget-flush public libraries. Aud: C, P. (R. Reagan)