To: encinaupdate@yahoogroups.com 
Sent: Friday, June 07, 2002 4:42 PM
Subject: [Encina Update] Encina Update (challenge, pledges, reunions, siblings, bios, madrigals, internet, health, whats new, homecoming)

ENCINA ALUMNI,


ALUMNI CHALLENGE

Steve Palmer '74 wrote:

"Well, it's taken a _bit_ longer than I thought it would, but the video
is finally in the "can".  I have purchased the 5 VCRs and set them up in
Stephanie's room.  I had made a master (last) Thursday night/Friday morning,
but found that my still frames flickered and have remastered and
de-interlaced.  I plan to give the master to Becky Hurley on Sunday and
she will give it to Stephanie on Monday.  She can crank between 21 and 28
tapes per day so most should be in the mail by Friday!

The tape contains a short 40 second intro of stills of plays with
majestic music, followed by intro titles, Channel 3 and 10 stories,
player + ref intros and a short Kojima interview.  This is followed by a
2:52 highlights section and 2:10 of dinner/alum interviews followed by
the game.

Harlan, please let folks know we appreciate their patience and to watch
for the tape in the next 10 days.  We're duping 7 at a time, and are not
reviewing each tape.  If they discover a problem, they should let us know."


ALUMNI CHALLENGE PLEDGES

The Encina High School Booster Club is a nonprofit organization and
pledges to the Booster Club are TAX DEDUCTIBLE. The Booster
Club will include their tax ID number in their letter acknowledging
your pledge or donation.

I've calculated the total pledge for each donor on the pledge/rsvp page:
http://www.encinahighschool.com/homecoming/challenge02/rsvps.htm
Please check this page to see how much you owe.

Make your checks payable to the Encina High School Booster Club
and send them to:

Encina High School
Attention: Heddy Crowder
1400 Bell Street
Sacramento,CA 95825

Thank you for supporting Encina!


UNCOLLECTED PLEDGES

Thanks to all of you who sent your checks in!

According to Heddy Crowder's spreadsheet, Encina has collected over
$35,000.

Here is a list of the pledges we have not received.

Please note, we're not trying to point out deadbeats, but hoping that a
friendly reminder helps those of you who are procastinators...

1964
Micheal Carsey ($0.50/alumni pt, $$48.50)

1965
Walter Lubiejewski ($1/alumni pt,  $2/alumni pt if they win,$194)
Wenzel Ruhman ($1/alumni pt,$97)

1966
Jerry Hallstrom ($50)

1970
Cathy Buchanan Ball ($1/alumni pt,$97)
Paul Whatley ($250)

1972
Van Rodgers ($2/alumni pt,$194)

1973
Steve Daniel ($5/alumni pt,$485)
Bruce Hunt  ($2/alumni pt,$194)

1974
Gregg Magaziner ($1/alumni pt, $0.50/varsity pt,$145)

1976
Carlos X Montoya ($1.50/alumni pt,$145.50)
Lad Wentzel ($1/alumni pt,$97)

1977
Bill Farley ($1/alumni pt, $97)
Tom MacLaughlin ($2/alumni pt,$194)
Mike Martis ($1/alumni pt,$97)
Rocky Niederberger ($50)

1978
Aaron Valencia ($1/alumni pt,$97)

1980
Scott Schnackel ($1/alumni pt, $97)
Jennifer Smith Tierney ($0.50/alumni pt,$48.50)
Georgianna Wooley Marie ($2/alumni pt, $194)

1982
Bo Stephenson ($50 + $3/pt by Guzman or Enriquez,$143)

1984
Joe & Mike Kramer ($1/pt by Enriquez 84, $1/pt by Guzman 84,$31)

1985
Roy Colburn ($0.50/alumni pt, $48.50)

1987
David Martinez Galvan ($2/pt by James Jones,$42)

1988
Peter Casillas ($1/alumni pt, $2/pt by James Jones 87,
$2/pt by Ryan Norris 89, $2/pt by Rafael Enriquez 84,
$50 if alumni win, $291)

1989
Geoff Shumway ($3/pt by Ryan Norris, $90)

1992
Jason Alexander ($2.75/alumni pt,$266.75)

1993
Brian Crall ($50)
Dennis Mulder ($1/alumni pt,$97)

1995
Ernestine Holmes ($1/alumni pt,$1/each pt alumni win by,$98)


REUNIONS

CLASS OF 1962

Event: Bicycle ride
Date: Friday morning, September 27, 2002
Where: American River Bike trail
Contact Randi Muller Kemper at randikemper@earthlink.net
or Barbara Rea Fuller at BarbieJo44@aol.com

Event: Alumni only pre-party
Date: Friday, September 27, 2002
Place: Mace's
Format: No host cocktail party

Event: Golf tournament
Date: Saturday, September 28, 2002
Place: Haggin Oaks
Contact: Bill Corrie

Event: Reunion party
Date: September 28, 2002
Place: Del Paso Country Club
Contact: Alice Braio Bogert 62 at ajbogert@yahoo.com

CLASS OF 1967

No plans for a 35th reunion. Next reunion in 2007.
Contact: Linda Goff 67 at ljgoff@csus.edu

CLASS OF 1972

Up to the minute information and maps to all venues can be
found on the Class of '72 web site at:
http://www.encinahighschool.com/class72/index.html

Event: Alumni Preparty
Date: Friday, July 12, 2002

Event: Reunion Dinner & Dance
Date: Saturday, July 13, 2002
Place: Granite Bay Golf Club

Event: Family Picnic
Date: Sunday, July 14, 2002

Contact: Sue Kehoe Jacobson '72 at jacobson41@msn.com
         Debbie Sprague Mitchell '72 at galsmail@c-zone.net
         Darrel Mitchell '72 at lynk0007@c-zone.net

CLASS OF 1977

Date: August 17, 2002
Place: Doubletree Hotel (near Arden Fair and Cal Expo)
Contact: John Hyland at johnthyland@hotmail.com
         Sue Levy Joslin at Jos964@attbi.com

CLASS OF 1982

Date: August 9, 2002
Place: Croatian Hall
Contact: Soames Funakoshi at alexusfr@yahoo.com

CLASS OF 1987

Date: July 13th
Place: Rusch Park
Time: 12 noon to 9 pm
Contact: Kris Monday Dragoo at jkdragoo@winfirst.com

CLASS OF 1992

Date: Saturday, October 19, 2002
Place: Grapes Dining & Spirits, 815 11th St
Contact Rochelle Karrick Laun at RochLaun@yahoo.com
     or Jannell Penney at penneytax@msn.com


SIBLINGS

Darcy Frields 78 is in contact with cousins:
Margreth Frields 74
Lonnie Frields 77
Craig Frields 83
Sean Frields 86

Evelyne Jadot 84 wrote:
Raoul Jadot 82
Evelyne Jadot 84

Jurgen Lew 74 wrote:
Alan Lew 73
Jurgen Lew 74
Veronica Lew 76 (deceased)
Monika Lew 78
Calvin Lew 79

Jeff Rust 70 wrote:
Glenn Rust 67
Jeff Rust 70

Carmen Avila 86 wrote:
Carmen Avilia 86
Rodolfo Avila 87
Ben Avilia 92

Cheryl Goldenberg 77 wrote:
Cheryl Goldenbeg 77
David Goldenberg 78?
Albert Goldenberg 82


BIOS

TERRY LEVEA 80

Occupation:                      Owner of Island Pools and Spas, Lexi-Corp.
and Fake Rock Inc.Swimming Pool Contractor, Sculptor, Manufacturing,
Pre-cast, Landscape Designer.
Bio: Went to college for a couple of years. Moved to Los Angeles to try my
luck at a golf career. NOT!! Moved back to Sacto. and started a business.
Since then I have been mostly building my companies. Inventing new product
lines. Traveling the world. Raising and spending a lot of time with my
beautiful daughter.
Trivia: I'm not sure what would be considered trivia about myself, however I
am considered one of the best kept secrets in my trade and work mainly for
the very wealthy. How's that?
Friends: The Varsity Soccer guys, too many to name. Steve Powell, John
Reitter, George Champagne, Mark Clark and other infamous water-ballooners.
Hobbies: Right now I am very busy creating a product line for Home Depot and
the like. Putting Video's, CD's and a Book together teaching my sculpting
talents to various trades and soon the public through them as well. My
Daughter is the most important feature of my life however and so I spend as
much time with her as allowed. Play golf a couple of times a year.
Kids: My daughter Alexis was born in October of 1997. At the time of her
birth my wife Megan and I were expecting a healthy baby, just unsure of the
gender. When Alexis came out she went into immediate respiratory distress
and the prognosis was very dark and grim. We were told she would not live
very long and that her chances of a normal life were very bleak. Through all
of the surgeries and lots of therapy, she has stunned the medical community,
including thirty of the brightest minds in the world at U.C.L.A. and has
surpassed all of their doubts, as well as their predictions about her
future. I am proud to say that I have a newly named "miracle" child, that is
now teaching the medical world things they didn't think possible. The only
answer they have is that lots of love, faith and her tenacity to live has
made this possible. Although there are still some minor problems, I have a
wonderful daughter that is very funny. Totally beautiful and makes everybody
she comes in contact with want to take her home. She's v
Grade_school: Lots. Winterstein, Edison to name a couple.
Grade_school_friends: John Reitter, Steve Powell, Eric Moeszinger, Larry
Riggs, Danette Davis
Junior_high: George Champagne, Greg Rogers, Greg Selk, Brian Bender, Mark
Clark, Danny Bell
Junior_high_friends: Same as the other lists.
Favorite_memory: Slaughterball, What a great game! The Soccer teams and
friendships I made with them. Waterballooning on weekends with friends.
Senior class movie. All the nice people that went there and how we all got
along so well no matter what class you were in, we all just seemed to accept
each other. None of the problems of today students.
Story: I think I would just like to thank them and tell them how lucky I
have always felt to have had them in my life. Without them I wouldn't be who
I am today, nor as successful or well balanced. Thank you all!


CATHERINE RAMOS HENNAN 97

Occupation: Full time college senior
Bio: I got married this march at Dunes Beach in Half Moon Bay, and in
persuit of my BS this year and my Masters within this year also.
Friends: They know who they are.
Hobbies: I have taken up birdwatching and in the california wildlife
management field of biology.
Kids: NADA
Memorable_teachers: THe health academy crew of teachers--they've always
believed in their students.
Favorite_memory: A lot---too numerous to mention.


MADRIGALS / JACK CAREY

I have created a mailing list for former Encina Madrigals, many of whom
were students of Jack Carey.

You can join the Madrigals mailing list by sending a blank message to:
encinamadrigals-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Kathy Cooper 66 wrote:
I see Jack Carey, long-time choral music teacher from Encina, every Sunday
at our church.  He recently lost his address book - and corresponding
information about the many, many students with whom he has stayed in touch
during all these years.  He is asking that folks let him know their current
address and phone number so he can reconstruct his address book.

Jack does not have a PC or email.

If you are interested in being in Jack's address book, please write me at
harlan@rambus.com and I will collect the information and get it to
Jack Carey.


INTERNET

>From the WSJ...

FTC's Top Spam Cop Outlines Efforts to Contain Online Fraud

By STACY FORSTER
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ONLINE

Eileen Harrington just may be the only person in America who likes to
get spam.

Ms. Harrington, 49 years old, is the associate director of marketing
practices for the Federal Trade Commission. As the consumer-protection
agency's top spam cop, she and her team of investigators have been amassing
"spam" -- the common term for unsolicited commercial e-mail -- forwarded by
angry consumers. The commission has collected more than eight million
messages since 1998 at its e-mailbox, uce@ftc.gov1, which it uses to track
down perpetrators as well as learn about developing trends and patterns. The
e-mailbox receives more than 50,000 pieces of spam forwarded from consumers
each day.

The FTC's role isn't to stop spam, but to enforce current fraud
statutes by tracking down deceptive marketers. This year, it launched a
major offensive against fraudulent e-mail, bringing two major enforcement
sweeps this spring. Ms. Harrington vows to bring more this year.

The Wall Street Journal Online chatted with Ms. Harrington about the
FTC's efforts to contain the crooked spam epidemic.

WSJ.com: Does the FTC really want all of our spam?

Ms. Harrington: Yes, we do. It all goes into a computer that we call
"The Refrigerator" which is dedicated exclusively to spam we receive from
the public. We are able to search that spam ... and we use it to identify
trends, problems, potential targets for enforcement. We absolutely want it.
We need to see what people are receiving so we can keep abreast of problems
that are arising in consumers' e-mailboxes.

Q: When you say you search spam and look for trends, what are you
looking for?

A: We may be looking for the prevalence of certain kinds of claims in
subject lines. For example, "Earn lots of money working from home in your
spare time." We may be doing a law-enforcement sweep that focuses on
fraudulent work-at-home opportunities. Our spam database is not the universe
of all spam being sent or received, but it's the best proxy we have for
that. There are just probably an endless number of questions that we might
have that we could turn to the spam database to attempt to get at least a
partial answer.

Q: What are the most important lessons you've learned about spam from
sifting through it?

A: That a lot of it appears on its face to be deceptive or fraudulent.
Now, that may be because we're the Federal Trade Commission and what
consumers are sending us is deceptive or fraudulent spam. Many of the claims
that are made in the subject lines that seem deceptive are similar to claims
made in traditional media: "Lose weight while you sleep ... Get a loan or a
credit card regardless of your credit history." In other words,
representations that sounded too good to be true and weren't true in
traditional media are being made in the new medium and they're just as
untrue.

Another thing that we've learned is that there's very widespread use
of false header information. [Header information provides details about
where an e-mail originated, and shows which computer servers it passed
through on the way to a user's mailbox.] For example, if a piece of spam
that seems fraudulent has been sent to lots of e-mail addresses, and when we
go to figure out who sent the spam, it's not unusual to find that the header
information is false. Even if we're able to get a correct identification on
the sender, the Whois domain-name registration information is false.

Q: One of the most difficult things about tracking down spammers is
that it's so easy to mask where it's coming from. How do you get around
that?

A: Some of the techniques we use are plain old gumshoe work and
sometimes we're not successful. There's no mystery to this. It's a matter of
old-fashioned investigative work -- sometimes using new technologies -- but
it's the same thorough, careful investigative work that we use to find the
perpetrators of any deceptive or fraud schemes.

Q: It seems many of the legal actions the FTC has taken occurred
because the spammers were making fraudulent or deceptive claims. Do you go
after them simply for being spammers, or do you target them because of the
kind of business they're running?

A: The Federal Trade Commission Act prohibits deceptive and unfair
practices. Deceptive practices mean that there's been a false or misleading
misrepresentation. Unfairness means that the perpetrator has done something
that causes unavoidable injury to consumers, where that injury doesn't have
countervailing benefits or where the countervailing benefits are far
outweighed by the costs imposed by the injurious practice. You have to look
on a case-by-case basis to see if something deceptive or unfair has
happened.

There could be instances where the mere act of sending out spam could
be an unfair practice, but that really would require carefully vetting the
facts of a particular case to reach that conclusion. Sending spam is
certainly not always unfair, but there are instances where it could be
unfair.

Q: What do you think of the case that New York Attorney General Eliot
Spitzer brought against an e-mail marketing company in New York?

A: From my understanding ... what we have is a company that claims
that it's gotten the permission of the people on their lists to send
unsolicited e-mail to them. That is kind of a back-door privacy promise and
if that representation is false, then not only are the people who subscribe
to the service, or who buy the lists, not getting what they bargained for,
but people who never wanted to receive unsolicited e-mail in the first place
now are getting even more of it. We would applaud Attorney General Spitzer
for taking this action.

Q: There's clearly an overwhelming number of spammers you could
target. How do you decide which people to go after?

A: Regardless of the media that's used by a person or a company that
engages in deceptive practices, bringing enforcement action to deter similar
violations is an important consideration. We never think, and no
law-enforcement agency ever thinks, that it is likely to be able to
prosecute each and every law violator.

All law enforcement does is select cases and bring a critical mass of
cases that will discourage others from engaging in similar practices. We're
at the front end of what will be a long and aggressive enforcement campaign
against deceptive and fraudulent spammers. It's too soon to know what kind
of deterrence we're getting from the actions we've brought. But you can
expect to see a very steady stream of enforcement actions from the FTC.

Q: There's a debate going on right now in the Senate about the need to
regulate spam. Some critics say that a law isn't necessary because the FTC
already has the jurisdiction to go after spammers. Does the FTC right now
have the teeth to attack the spam problem?

A: We've certainly been using the FTC Act to challenge deceptive and
unfair practices. So it's up to Congress to decide whether there's a need
for additional enforcement tools.

Q: How interested are local or state law-enforcement authorities in
learning about spam?

A: They're very interested. In the last 20 months, the FTC has trained
1,700 individual representatives of state, local and other federal
law-enforcement agencies about how to investigate spam and other
Internet-fraud problems. Now we're enlisting all of those people we trained
to do consumer-protection law enforcement with us. The first of those
efforts was the Northwest NetForce sweep that was announced a few months
ago. [In April, a group of eight state investigation teams in the northwest
U.S. teamed with the FTC and four Canadian agencies to initiate 63
law-enforcement actions against Internet fraudsters. Other regional teams
are preparing further sweeps.] You can expect to see more of those sweeps
launched on a regional basis.

Q: One small business owner we spoke with had spammers use his servers
to send out millions of messages. He managed to figure out who was using his
servers, but was at a loss for who to contact in law-enforcement about it.
What would you suggest?

A: Certainly my advice to anyone who has a problem with fraud or
deception on the Internet is to file a complaint with Consumer Sentinel, a
fraud-complaint database that's available to law enforcement throughout the
U.S. and Canada, and increasingly to other countries. The first thing to do
is report it -- any kind of problem with fraud or deception. Go online to
FTC.gov10 or call our toll free number 1- 877-FTC-HELP.

Secondly, the gentleman with whom you spoke exemplifies where we are
today, which is, in many instances, uncharted legal territory. The person
you talked to might well have an action in trespass or theft against the
people who used his server this way. But these are old legal theories that
are being expanded into these new practices.

Q: He did contact some legal authorities and spam experts, who said
that because the damage to his business wasn't significant it would be
difficult to get support from law enforcement.

A: That's why complaining to the FTC is a really good thing to do
because it puts the complaint in front of hundreds of law-enforcement
officials. There are lots of enforcers at the federal, state and local
levels who care about this, and see to it that the worst of the perpetrators
are stopped.

Q: What happens after individuals have contacted the FTC about spam?
Will the FTC follow-up with them?

A: The FTC doesn't intervene on the behalf of any individual. We use
the information given to us by consumers to look for something that's
outrageous, or to determine whether there are multiple complaints that sound
a lot alike. Law enforcement can't identify trends and practices that
warrant further investigation unless people complain. That doesn't mean that
people shouldn't take their own action with local law enforcement as well.

Q: What are the most important things consumers can do to prevent
getting spam or protect themselves from it once they do get it.

A: First of all, they should make full use of their Internet settings
and their mailbox settings and filters to use whatever tools are available
to them to filter out spam.

Second, they should be very leery of promises that sound too good to
be true, no matter what the medium used by the sender. They should know what
kinds of things to be on the lookout for. We have put out a consumer alert
warning11 of the most likely scams to arrive by bulk e-mail from our review
of the spam that people sent to us through the spam mailbox.

Q: How do you work with the Internet service providers?

A: They have a very strong economic incentive to reduce the amount of
spam because it cripples their ability to provide good service. They often
help us in identifying bad spammers, and they also do a pretty good job of
shutting down spammers when they can. When they see that all of a sudden
there's a huge amount of e-mail coming from one account, they shut it down
and they've been very good at posting consumer education information. It's a
good partnership.

Q: Do you get spam in your own e-mail account, and how much do you
get?

A: On my home e-mail account, I probably get 5 to 6 pieces a day.

Q: That's not much...

A: Yes, I don't put my e-mail address all over the Internet.

Q: What's the funniest or most memorable piece of spam you've
received?

A: The most memorable was the chain letter that said if you have any
doubts about the legality of this chain letter, contact the associate
director of marketing practices at the FTC -- that's me.

Write to Stacy Forster at stacy.forster@wsj.com12

Updated June 3, 2002 10:15 p.m. EDT


HEALTH

I'm including this unrelated article because the implications are
fascinating. Staggering even.

Lean Times: The Surprising Rise Of Radical, Calorie-Cutting Diet

Could Self Deprivation Be the Secret To a Longer, Albeit Famished, Life?
By LAURA JOHANNES
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

If there were a magic elixir that extended life to 150 years, most people
would drink it gladly.

But as scientists begin to uncover the secrets of longevity, they are
finding a prescription for long life that few will want to take: a diet so
low in calories that to most Americans, it would feel close to starvation.

The diet, dubbed "calorie restriction" in the clinical parlance of science,
would be called severe deprivation in any other lexicon. Calorie restriction
was first shown to create exceptionally long-lived rats in the 1930s. It
later had the same effect in guppies, water fleas, yeast, spiders and a
microscopic water invertebrate called the rotifer. Last month, Labrador
retrievers became the first large mammals to join the list.

Now, scientists appear on the verge of a finding that calorie restriction
also extends the lifespan of monkeys, who share more than 90% of their genes
with humans. At the National Institutes of Health, where researchers have
been studying a colony of 120 rhesus monkeys for 15 years, evidence for
calorie restriction is mounting. The control animals, fed a healthy lowfat
diet, are dying at a normal rate, while animals fed 30% less appear to be
living far longer -- and avoiding age-linked maladies. One of the underfed
monkeys is 38 years old, the human equivalent of 114 years.

"Calorie restriction has worked in every species in which it has ever been
tested," says Massachusetts Institute of Technology biologist Leonard
Guarente. "I'd be shocked if it doesn't work in humans."

Catalyzing Change

Calorie restriction appears to create biochemical changes in the body that
have a more-profound effect on lifespan than simply avoiding diseases caused
by excess fat. No one knows for sure how it works. It might lower the levels
of free radicals, or potentially toxic particles created by the breakdown of
food. Other scientists believe it triggers a state of emergency called
"survival mode" in which the body eliminates all unnecessary functions to
focus only on staying alive.

If scientists could figure out what the changes are and bottle them as a
drug, "we'd have it made," says Roger McCarter, a scientist at the
University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio.

Encouraged by the animal research, the NIH plans to spend $20 million to
test the effects of calorie restriction on hundreds of Americans. Some
people have seen enough evidence already and have started self-depriving.
Bob Cavanaugh, a 54-year-old landscaper from Morehead, N.C., has trimmed his
intake to two meals a day, totaling 1,500 calories. Breakfast consists of
one cup of quick oats, two tablespoons of toasted wheat germ, one cup of
skim milk and blueberries. For dinner, he eats vegetables, fruit and a small
portion of fish. "I'm hoping to see my great, great grandchildren," he says.

Mr. Cavanaugh's diet may sound extreme, particularly since at 5-feet
9-inches tall and 158 pounds, he isn't overweight. But over the next several
years, if the monkey results hold up, they could represent a major shift in
how we view food and nutrition. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says the
average sedentary woman should eat 1,600 calories a day and the average man
2,200 -- benchmarks already significantly overshot by most Americans.

Minimal Intake

But those guidelines are based on ideal weight, and a calorie-restricted
diet has nothing to do with weight. Rather, the NIH monkey experiments limit
food intake to the minimum necessary to prevent negative effects on
health -- or at least 30% less than the current "healthy" diet. Translated
into human terms, that would be 1,120 calories a day for the average woman,
or 1,540 for a man.

For the average American, eating at that level would create deep hunger
pangs. One meal at McDonald's -- a Big Mac, supersize fries, and small
Coke -- weighs in at 1,450 calories. And if a woman on 30% calorie
restriction had a cappuccino and a large muffin during her morning commute,
she would already have consumed 75% of her allocation for the day, says
Cathy Nonas, director of the Van Itallie Center for Nutrition and Weight
Management at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital in New York.

In the NIH tests, which will last as long as three years, volunteers will be
asked to cut their current intake by 20% to 30%. Since many of those chosen
will likely be overeaters, theirs will be a modest effort by comparison with
the NIH monkeys. Still, to ensure compliance, the Pennington Biomedical
Research Center in Baton Rouge, La., will initially require volunteers to
eat only food provided by the scientists -- and two of the three daily meals
must be eaten in the laboratory cafeteria. Scientists will catalog the test
subjects' metabolism and other biochemical markers, such as blood sugar,
lipid levels and body temperature.

The goal of the tests, says Evan Hadley, head of geriatrics at the National
Institute on Aging, is to give scientists insight into how deprivation
changes body chemistry. Residents of developing countries eat very low
calorie diets. Their nutrition is so poor, though, that any positive effects
are masked by medical problems caused by malnourishment, scientists say. But
a study of the Japanese island of Okinawa -- whose 1.3 million inhabitants
have traditionally eaten a spartan, but nutrition-packed diet of about 1,800
calories a day -- provides some evidence for calorie restriction.

On Okinawa, where the diet consists of soy, vegetables and small amounts of
fish, meat and rice, there are 34 centenarians for every 100,000 people --
more than triple the U.S. rate, says Bradley Willcox, a gerontologist at
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. The oldest person in the
world, 113-year-old Kamato Hongo, lives on a nearby island, he adds.

The Okinawa data fall short of a controlled experiment, because genetics or
other factors could be at work. In rats, the effects of calorie restriction
have been shown repeatedly, and they are dramatic. University of Wisconsin
researcher Richard Weindruch says that broadly speaking, a 30% calorie
restriction results in a 30% increase in maximum lifespan. Translated into
human years, that would mean that the oldest members of the species would
make it to about 150 on such a diet.

Even more striking is that the caloric intake of the rat, not its weight,
matters most. Well-fed rats kept lean by regular exercise are less likely to
die prematurely of disease than well-fed sedentary rats -- but their maximum
lifespan remains the same.

Primates, similar enough to humans that they have been used to study
everything from congenital vision defects to Alzheimer's disease, remain the
gold standard for proof when human experiments aren't practicable. But
monkeys haven't been easy to study, because they live to be around 25,
compared with three years for rodents.

At the NIH facility in Poolesville, Md., in a bucolic area about 40 miles
from downtown Washington, scientists are growing increasingly excited about
the results they are seeing. The experiment began in 1987, with monkeys of
various ages. They were divided into two groups. One group was fed a normal
low-fat diet, equivalent to the healthy diet recommended by nutritionists
for humans. The other group received 30% less than that, or just barely
enough to stave off starvation.

And that's the group that's thriving. Today, 14% of the calorie-restricted
monkeys have died, compared with 22% of the monkeys on the normal healthy
diet, says Mark Lane, a co-investigator on the study. Those figures exclude
monkeys whose deaths were deemed accidental, such as when a batch of
overcooked food caused a fatal stomach ailment called gastric bloat.

"We're very excited," says Dr. Lane. "We think it's working."

Healthier Monkeys

Not only do the calorie-restricted monkeys appear to be living longer, they
also seem to be healthier. Only 14% of them have developed an age-related
disease, such as cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes or failing
kidneys, compared with 32% in the control group, Dr. Lane says.

Also, calorie restriction staved off the normal age-related decline in a
multifunctioned hormone called dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate. DHEA, sold as
a dietary supplement, has touched off a craze among Americans even though
many scientists say there is no proof it will forestall aging.

It's too early to predict what the maximum lifespan will be in either group.
But one of the calorie-restricted monkeys, a rhesus from Indian stock who
goes only by the name given him by his breeders, C58, turned 38 in January.

That makes him one of the oldest rhesuses ever recorded. The University of
Wisconsin, widely believed to have housed the oldest-ever rhesus, says the
oldest monkey for which it had a firm date of birth lived to be 36. Another
animal, still alive but without a well-documented birthdate, is believed to
be about 39 years old. Neither of those monkeys were on calorie-restricted
diets.

C58 looks thin but not gaunt. He weighs 17 pounds, compared with an average
of 24 pounds for elderly control monkeys. Other than a touch of arthritis
and a cataract, he appears in excellent health. Each day, he eats about 3.7
ounces of monkey chow -- dried pellets compressed from wheat, corn, soybean,
alfalfa, fish and brewer's yeast.

In his younger days, scientists say, C58 was an aggressive "alpha male,"
reaching out of his cage to grab passersby. But he's mellowed in his old
age. On a recent day, he sat quietly, munching contentedly on a handful of
chow and gazing out of his cage with mild curiosity.

A small group of humans are practicing C58-style calorie restriction in the
hopes that it will provide a fountain of youth. These people, who
communicate through an online chat group with 800 participants, call their
philosophy "Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition." Its practitioners,
who dub themselves Cronies, follow their own personalized diets, which share
the common goal of minimal calories.

Many draw their inspiration from the Biosphere 2 project in the early 1990s.
Volunteers attempting to live a self-contained existence in a glass-enclosed
community were forced to reduce their calories sharply when food became
unexpectedly restricted. One of the volunteers on Biosphere 2 was Dr. Roy
Walford, a scientist at the University of California Los Angeles who is one
of the pioneers of calorie restriction.

Michael Rae, a six-foot-tall 31-year-old from Calgary, Canada, weighs a
gaunt 115 pounds after three years on a strict calorie-restricted diet. "I'd
much rather weigh 50 more pounds, but I want to live longer and this is the
only proven way to do it," says Mr. Rae. "Every calorie you eat is a second
off your life."

Cronies monitor their vital signs carefully. Like the Biospherians, their
blood sugar, weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels have dropped.
They draw hope from the fact that they have few colds and flus, and that
their bodies seem to be changing in ways similar to animal models. For
example, just as the body temperature of rats and monkeys drops with calorie
restriction, Mr. Rae's has fallen to 97 degrees, below the normal human
temperature of 98.6 degrees.

But many Cronies become irritable and snappish. Testosterone drops, causing
some of the men to lose interest in sex. Several men have developed early
signs of osteoporosis -- a disease of brittle bones commonly found in
elderly women. One Cronie suddenly found himself severely anemic. He had to
start taking iron supplements and eating more red meat.

Families sometimes resent the enormous amount of time it takes to maintain
the Cronie lifestyle. For the most part, prepackaged food is out -- because
it would shoot the daily limit quickly, while providing inadequate
nutrition.

Dean Pomerleau, a 37-year-old technology entrepreneur from Wexford, Pa.,
grows sprouts -- bean, alfalfa, broccoli, arugula and a dozen other kinds --
in his basement. "If you like arugula, you'd really like arugula sprouts,"
says Mr. Pomerleau, who is 5-foot-8 and weighs 127 pounds.

Terry, his wife, isn't enthusiastic. She told her husband the time-consuming
preparation of his giant salads was dirtying the kitchen, he says. The
solution: He spent $1,000 to build a mini-kitchen for himself in the
basement, adjacent to the sprout farm.

If scientists could discover what makes calorie restriction work, people
might be able to enjoy the same effect without the hassle, and without the
deprivation. One theory is that the lower body temperature caused by
near-starvation somehow extends life. In case low temperature is in fact the
secret, Mr. Rae avoids putting on a sweater even when he feels chilly.

There is mounting evidence for another favorite theory -- that lower food
intake results in fewer free radicals, or unstable particles created as a
result of the breakdown of food. These particles can seriously damage genes
and proteins, resulting in potentially fatal diseases. Advocates of this
theory got a major boost when samples of thigh muscles from the
calorie-restricted monkeys at the University of Wisconsin were shown to have
suffered remarkably little free-radical damage, says Dr. Weindruch.

NIH scientists have also found preliminary evidence for the "survival mode"
theory. The scientists found that human and rat cells grown in the blood of
calorie-restricted monkeys are enormously resistant to heat and toxins --
suggesting there is something in the blood that is fighting dangers
aggressively.

Several groups of researchers are now racing to find which genes are
"expressed," or turned on, during calorie restriction. In mice, the
"gene-expression profile," or the list of genes whose functions are turned
on and off, is strikingly similar in calorie-restricted animals to younger
animals -- indicating that calorie restriction may be directly reversing
age-related biochemical changes.

In monkeys, so far, dozens of genes have been found turned on or off as a
result of calorie restriction. But in preliminary data, the gene-expression
profile of the restricted monkeys doesn't appear to mirror that of younger
animals, says Stephen Spindler, a professor of biochemistry at the
University of California at Riverside.

Write to Laura Johannes at laura.johannes@wsj.com2

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB1023051597575192280.djm,00.html


WHAT'S NEW

6/6/02: Terry Levea 80/bio, Susan Smith 72 update, Jeff Rust 70, Glenn Rust
67, Rick Thomas 64, Linda Thomas 66, Bob Thomas 69, Douglas McCaleb 82 bio,
Kaye Garrison 77, Carmen Avila 86, Rodolfo Avila 87, Ben Avila 92, Roberta
Climent 64 update, Pamela Waterbury 87 update, Tim Clark 86

6/3/02: Jurgen Lew 74, Alan Lew 73, Veronica Lew 76, Monika Lew 78, Calvin
Lew 79, Marla Foulk 72, Evelyne Jadot 84, Raoul Jadot 82, Will Lewis 81
update, Wanda Myrick 82 update, Sharon Snider 87, Heidi Studt 62, Trish
Cauley 75/76

5/31/02: Randy Headrick 64 update, Margreth Frields 74, Lonnie Frields 77,
Craig Frields 83, Sean Frields 86, Brenda Horsley 90 update


HOMECOMING PARTY

Congratulations to Candy Mleczko 94, who is the FIRST alumni to rsvp for
this year's homecoming party!

Candy wrote: I've got spirit, yes I do! I've got spirit! How 'bout you??
I can help set-up for rally/party/whatever! Let me know if any help is
needed!! I miss those days!!  Decorations/whatever!!

The current date is Friday, November 1, 2002 versus San Juan.
Please make a note of the date of the Homecoming 2002 party!

Don't forget to submit your contact information or bio:
contact: www.encinahighschool.com/directory/submit_contact.htm
bio: www.encinahighschool.com/submit_bio.htm


Harlan Lau '73
Encina HS alumni webmaster
www.encinahighschool.com
harlan@rambus.com