HL Deb 10 April 2002 vol 633 cc100-1WA
The Countess of Mar

asked Her Majesty's Government:

In the light of the results of the research by B. Ames et al pubished in the National Academy of Sciences United Stress in February, which found that treatment of rats with N-acetyl-L-carntinine and lipoic acid reversed the ageing process, whether these two products can be prescribed for patients suffering oxidative stress-related illnesses, including myalgic encephalomyelitis and chronic fatigue syndrome, Gulf War illnesses and fibromyalgia. [HL3662]

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

No. The researchers, led by Dr Bruce Ames, of the University of California at Berkeley, gave a combination of acetyl-L-carntinine and alpha-lipoic acid to rats the age of which was the equivalent of humans in their seventies. He estimated that the effect on the rats was the equivalent of making a 75 to 80 year-old human act middle aged.

These two chemicals occur naturally in the human body and both are available in health food shops. Acetyl-L-cairntinine is sold as an energy booster and alpha-lipoic acid as an antioxidant with anti-ageing properties.

Studies were conducted into the biochemical action of the supplements comparing the behaviour of old and young rats and testing the memory of the animals fed the compounds. Results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This treatment has not yet been shown to be either safe or effective in humans. The fact that these chemicals occur naturally does not mean that they are safe when given in large doses, and nor does it mean that the combination is effective.

The combination has been patented and further studies are being conducted. In due course, marketing authorisation could be sought from the Medicines Control Agency in the United Kingdom. But until the quality, safety and efficacy of a medicinal form of these chemicals has been established, doctors will not be able to prescribe them, except on a named patient basis, with the manufacturer providing supplies. Doctors do this in the knowledge that they bear the full legal and clinical responsibility for the patient's condition in relation to that treatment.