Man sparks workplace controversy with reaction to co-workers vegan-only club: Petty and ridiculous – Yahoo Sports

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

A man is stirring major internet controversy after sharing his response to his co-workers vegan dining club.

The frustrated employee shared his dilemma in Reddits AITA (Am I The A******) forum. Writing under the username Unlucky_Sound_6040, he explained why he decided to start a meat-eaters-only club at work.

After colleagues created an exclusive vegans-only club at work, I created a meat-eaters-only club at work. Am I the a******? the user asked.

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Unlucky_Sound_6040 wrote that his office issue began with a co-worker named Jane. Several months ago, she started a dining club for vegans at the company.

According to the Redditor, no one took issue with the club at first. But, after Jane approved her club with the companys human resources department, some employees began to complain.

In the [clubs mission] statement, which passed with HR, one of the rules stated that only vegans, vegetarians, and pescatarians will be welcome, and that all dinner options will be vegan, the user wrote. This rubbed some of us the work way, since it was clearly exclusionary and divisive.

The Redditor added that his workplace soon became divided, with many employees feeling left out. Thats why he and a group of co-workers decided to start the Burger and Steak Club.

The new club, which excluded vegans and vegetarians, also managed to pass through the companys HR approval process. However, many members of vegan club complained in response.

[They said] that our club was exclusionary, offensive to their lifestyle, and that eating meat (as opposed to not eating meat) was not a lifestyle, the user wrote.

Divisions grew deep in the office. Unlucky_Sound_6040 wrote that his relationship with Jane, who formed the vegan club, was significantly damaged.

Despite my prior friendship with Jane, she now refuses to talk to me and is only spending time with her club members, he wrote.

The post drew more than 1,500 comments, with Reddit users taking strong stances on the issue. Many argued that the vegan club should have included all employees.

Jane is why people dont like vegans, one user wrote.

It is incredibly stupid to exclude non-vegans since introducing omnivores to delicious plant-based food is a good way to get them to be more open to veganism, another argued.

Others said the meat-eaters were in the wrong, since their club was excluding a group that, in general, has a tougher time finding enjoyable meals.

Nobody is going to come eat burgers and steak if they arent meat-eaters, one user wrote. Its understandable that vegans/vegetarians would want a safe space.

A few commenters dismissed the controversy altogether though. One called the issue petty and ridiculous.

Everyone is being so unbelievably petty here, another user concluded.

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‘Nothing seemed normal anymore, including eating meat’: why sales of vegan products have spiked – Telegraph.co.uk

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

In Kent, Joanna Earle, 36, has gradually reduced animal products for the past year. Though going fully vegan was appealing, Earle says her lifestyle prevented it. When eating at restaurants or on-the-go work lunches, it was tough. With these elements removed, Earle found sticking to a vegan diet easier.

I feel great and I dont think I will [go back to animal products], says Earle. I love all the delicious meals and plant-based foods I make, so I dont feel like Im missing out on nutrients.

Also in Kent, John Ellis, 51, cut out meat after being diagnosed with heart disease at the onset of lockdown, and having three stents fitted.

Nothing seemed normal anymore, including eating meat. Ellis prefers fruits and vegetables (and still eats fish) to processed vegan options, but is developing a taste and appreciation for the alternatives. He doesnt expect to go back to meat, but isnt putting pressure on himself.

Sreedhar Krishna, an NHS consultant dermatologist from south London, says health reasons prompted his switch to a diet consisting solely of vegan meal replacement shakes. A bit extreme, I know, he concedes. He says during lockdown his hospital didnt need him as part of their pandemic response, so he had a rare holiday.

I felt refreshed and took some time to reflect on my lifestyle, Krishna explains. With family members having died from presumed cardiac issues in their 30s and 40s, I thought something had to change.

No longer were unhealthy pastries and soft drinks, scoffed down between patients, appealing. I had known this for a while, but it was only with the time away from work that the penny dropped that I had to act.

In London, Amelie Barrau, 33, struggled to find ingredients in local supermarkets at the beginning of lockdown. As a local butcher quickly ran out of stock, a greengrocer and organic shop became the only options. They primarily offered plant-based food, and the lack of queues appealed. Barrau has switched to a 90 per cent plant-based diet.

Barrau, who feels the best Ive felt in years, was thinking about it since before lockdown, for health and animal welfare reasons. She began to educate herself with her increased spare time, and says the pandemic has definitely highlighted the many issues behind the intensification of farming.

This brings up a factor that has long been known among experts but seldom discussed in wider society: that our hunger for meat, and the way its produced, is considered a vector for disease. As Valentina Rizzi of the European Food Safety Authority said in May: The majority of emerging new infections in humans in the last 10 years really come from animals or food of animal origin.

It was likely true of Sars and Mers, and seems to be the case for Covid-19. Additionally, several large outbreaks around the world have been linked to meat processing plants. The UN, citing links between zoonotic infections and the current animal production system, is insisting on a rethink of farming practices.

The past few years have seen a significant rise in veganism, from an estimated 150,000 in 2006 to 600,000 in 2018. As health, environmental and animal welfare issues become clearer, many more are attempting to cut down their meat and dairy intake, if only for a few days a week. The lockdown has changed the way we eat in many ways perhaps providing the plant-based movement with a further shot in the arm will eventually be seen asthe most significant.

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'Nothing seemed normal anymore, including eating meat': why sales of vegan products have spiked - Telegraph.co.uk

I Went to Germany to Go on a 200-Calorie-A-Day Liquid Diet. Heres Why I Would Do It Again. – Robb Report

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

I should be miserable Id been cautioned: Watch out for day three. Thats when the demons begin to rage. Im on a medically supervised 10-day fast that promises to help me shed some weight while also futureproofing that newly slimmed-down body against aging. Worth the odd demon or a pang or two, then.

Indeed, Im a bit hungrybut thats not surprising, given that Ive consumed little more than tea, juice and soup over the past 48 hours. But I had been anticipating far worse, as several friends, all veterans of the Buchinger Wilhelmi process I am undertaking, had warned me. The real challenges in forgoing food wouldnt be simple hunger, they said. Fasting isnt the hard part, said one. Its the emotional side. I usually spend the third day curled in a ball in my room, weeping. Everything you repress just comes out, all at once. A second moaned about the physical side effects on day three for her: throbbing headaches, a furry tongue and dry skin, all because the toxins her body was purging began to crest, she said, wide-eyed. The consensus was that Id feel, generally, dreadfulnot just hungry but also sad, aching and exhausted, likely confined to my bed, wakefully toggling between napping and fretting. Yet another confided that it was day three when the risk of cheating peaked. Shed heard that folks usually skulk out the clinics back gate and into the nearby town to scarf down a furtive frankfurter or two to offset the gnawing pains.

Instead, I feel fine.

The pool at the Buchinger Wilhelmi clinic.Winfried Heinze

More than fine. Remarkably, I feel absolutely dandy. Ive no physical problems whatsoever; in fact, Im swimming 50 laps in the pool here at the Buchinger Wilhelmi spa every afternoon, and the only reason my eyes are watering is the troublesome pollen. I miss chewing, for sure, and Im not partial to some of the broth recipes: The mere mention of turnip evokes Dickensian deprivation, though the watery tomato is bright-flavored and delicious. But I havent cheated, despite deliberately wandering into town yesterday morning to tempt myself with the smells of fresh-cooked sausages. I took a deep breathdelicious for sure, but I was happy to eat with my eyes.

Either Im too two-dimensional to be troubled by deep thoughts or Im one of the lucky ones, sailing straight from eating three meals daily to the Zen state of semi-starvation without detouring down a physical and emotional rabbit hole. Ive arrived, instead, at 200-calorie nirvana, where the body, now short on fuel, is forced into overdrive. With my metabolism working harder to produce energy, I experience a new level of strength and mental clarity. I am Superman without the blue tights. In fact, the only challenge for me is my sleep. Usually, I slumber deeply and soundly anywhere, so its strange to find myself so fitful, with bouts of deep rest punctuated by an unfamiliar alertness. Otherwise, I nod sympathetically as I try not to gloat when folks mournfully complain in the feeding salon, the lounge-like area where our non-meals are devoured.

A suite at the Buchinger Wilhelmi clinic.Winfried Heinze

Its inside the salon that I first meet my fellow fasters on day one, at what passes for a welcome party at Buchinger Wilhelmi, on the shores of Lake Constance in Germany, just across the border from Switzerland. My fellow fasters are a motley bunch, drawn from across the world. Im surprised the room is equally split between men and women. There are several first-timers like me: a Saudi couple, for instance, well-padded fiftysomethings who plan to stay for three weeks. Other newbies include a pair of friends, fit, middle-aged financiers who usually take an adventure vacation together each year, leaving their wives at home. Most of the room, though, consists of starvation pros, folks whove followed the Buchinger Wilhelmi method several times before. Typical is the French sculptor whos back for a seventh stay. He became a devotee when his first stint allowed him to permanently shed the 40 pounds hed gained after a car accident. Tall and gaunt, he looks to be in his late 60s or older; hes come again, he explains, as an anti-aging effort. More than the chance to shed pounds, its this elusive promise that underpins the work at Buchinger Wilhelmi.

For this is no conventional fat farm. Forget face-lifts and fitness classesits bouts of fasting that Buchinger Wilhelmi claims will offer a slimmed-down path to eternal youth, or something close to it, at least. Fasting, the staff preaches, will better safeguard your body against the forces of age. The focus here, though, is not only extending your life span but also improving the quality of whatever life you have, or whats now known as your health span. The clinics practice aims to address a conundrum: How do we ensure our brains and our bodies remain in peak condition for our entire lives, bringing both quantity and quality of life in sync? Slash our daily energy source, Buchinger Wilhelmi posits, and the bodys metabolic switch is triggered. Deprived of easy fuel, our bodys metabolism instead turns to ketones, compounds produced from fats by our liver in a state known as ketosis, achieved by fasting at least 10 to 12 hours. Theres more afoot, too: During ketosis, the body starts to repair and reboot, helping bat away looming bad health. Per the clinics owners, eating 200 to 300 daily calories for several days, any time from your 20s to your 60s, isnt just good for your waistline; its an investment in the well-being of seventy-something you.

The Buchinger Wilhelmi clinic.Winfried Heinze

Theres no hardship here, though. The clinic doesnt resemble a traditional sanatorium but rather a five-star hotel. Scattered among several buildings on a steep hill, the rooms are decorated in muted tones and filled with tasteful, vaguely modernist furniture. One of the front-of-house staff is an alum of the Ritz Carlton in New York and proudly wears the lapel pin of Les Clefs dOr, the elite cabal of concierges. Theres a hair salon but no conventional luxury hotel-style spa. Instead, the clinic offers two main medical complexes, where the doctors and nurses on staff perform their examinations, plus numerous treatment rooms discreetly tucked into various buildings, where guests can book everything from osteopathy and shiatsu massage to outre rituals like Chi Nei Tsang, a Chinese abdominal massage, to pass the time between non-meals.

And, yes, the food. Other than at the start and end of your stay, when youll receive delicious, low-calorie vegetarian meals to help ease your digestive system into and out of hibernation, theres little to eat. (Dont confuse fasting-induced ketosis with a ketogenic low-carb, high-fat diet.) Breakfast is herbal tea and a tiny saucer of honey; keep it for the day, the nurse advises, and eat it sparingly when you need some energy. Lunch is fresh-squeezed juice, cut with more herbal tea to reduce its calories. Dinner is the aforementioned broth. Such scrapsor dripsof food leave my digestive system effectively fallow, though there are regular enemas from the nurse just to make sure. She also checks my vitals each morning, reminds me to drink at least six liters of water a day (to stay hydrated and prevent gout) and comes to my room every afternoon to wrap my liver, one of the quirks of the Buchinger Wilhelmi process: After what passes for lunch, youll spend an hour or more in bed, swaddled like a baby with a hot water bottle pressed to your liver. Per the clinics theories, such cosseting helps boost the livers ketone production process.

Breakfast: Tea With Honey (65 calories)Jenny Huang

The woman who helped formalize many such theories is Francoise Wilhelmi de Toledo, M.D. Trained as a conventional physician, she visited the clinic as a guest in her 20sand never left. After marrying into the family, she became the medical director. Toledo is now the clinics head of medical research and lives in a sleek glass box of a house nearby; one of her two sons, Leo Wilhelmi, handsome with a mane of dark hair, handles day-to-day operations. At 66, she has a gamine energy and a feline intelligence, and could easily pass for a decade younger. Doubtless, shed attribute her youthful glow to her decades-long adherence to fasting, both daily (in 16-hour windows) and twice yearly, when she follows the clinics regimen for 10 days or more at a stretch.

She invites me over for teafresh herbs, thyme picked from her gardenso she can explain the work here in person. Like the clinics staff and entire operation, the Swiss-born Toledo slides fluently between French, English and German as she talks; she has an evangelists charisma. Think of fasting as metabolic training, she urges, teaching the body how to use different energy sources, much as a hybrid auto switches between electricity and gas for efficiency. Hunger isnt to be avoided but rather deployed, a forgotten reflex that we need to relearn. Toledo is pleased that the clientele here includes so many men as well as womenthat 50:50 ratio is a rarity for conventional spas. Fasting is not easy, as we take away everything you like at the beginning, so its more of a challenge. Men like that, she says.

Indeed, it was a man who founded the clinic, a hundred years ago. His reasons were personal: Otto Buchinger, a physician, was wheelchair-bound from severe rheumatoid arthritis, at least until he fasted for almost three weeks on the suggestion of another doctor. Buchinger followed the most extreme protocols, ingesting only water. As a result, he later claimed, he was able to walk again. Buchinger turned his belief in the healing power of calorie restriction into his lifes work, setting up this clinic, which his descendants, including his great-grandson Leo, still run. But it is only in the last two decades or so that conventional science has turned its attention to the potentials of calorie restriction, and men have increasingly embraced fasting as the final fitness toola way to put their insides through as punishing a training regimen as they follow at the gym. Broadly speaking, there are two common approaches that aim to leverage reduced food intake for health and weight benefits. The first, periodic fasting, is the approach followed by the clinic; cut calories for an extended period every year or so, for example. The second is intermittent fasting, which deprives the body of nutrition in a given pattern each day or week: 16 consecutive hours in every 24 is popular (often called 16:8). Proponents claim both systems allow the body to shift into that sought-after state of ketosis.

Lunch: Freshly Squeezed Juice (50 calories)Jenny Huang

Peter Bowes is a longtime BBC journalist who periodically fasts in his role as host of the podcast Live Long and Master Aging. During fasting, he says, the body undergoes autophagy, or spring-cleaning mode, meaning it recycles damaged or old cell machinery. Studies suggest that this processwhich derives from Greek words meaning self and to eatcan even result in new synapses forming in the brain. When your immune system is challenged like this, it throws out the cells its not using, that are maybe a little weather-worn, Bowes says, and builds a new immune system, re-growing white blood cells.

A prolonged state of autophagy, then, could be thought of as a real-life counterpart to the serum that transformed scrawny Steve Rogers into super-soldier Captain America. Indeed, the US government has explored how to use intermittent fasting to improve the performance of elite commandos, according to Mark Mattson, a world-renowned expert in fasting and adjunct professor of neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Mattson says officials from NASA and the air force contacted him to discuss how to use his research in just this way. Its evolution, he says. If youre food-deprived, you need to be more alert and motivated to find foodthats why you often feel sleepy after a meal. He suggested using intermittent fasting as a training tool, spending two days per week, for example, drinking only water. Mattson has focused his studies on such intermittent fasts and has a hunch its more effective than the Buchinger Wilhelmi method of one long annual fast, though he recognizes the benefits of calorie-deprivation of any kind. His research includes clinical studies of individuals at risk of cognitive impairment from Alzheimers and similar diseases, in which he found that those on a diet that included fasting showed memory and learning improvements within two months. Mattson says intermittent fasting is also a promising component in cancer treatment. You should hit them in the fasting state with drugs or radiation because cancer cells cannot use ketones [as fuel], so if the glucose levels in the body are relatively low, it makes them more vulnerable, he explains.

Dinner: Broth (36 calories)Jenny Huang

Andrew Jenkinson, a London bariatric surgeon and author of Why We Eat (Too Much), does not recommend long-term fasting but is a proponent of the 16:8 approach. Ketogenesis is probably the best way to lose weight, but unfortunately, its difficult to sustain. Whatever diet you do for weight loss needs to be your new life, says Jenkinson, who recommends a low-carb diet. Fasting for a sustained period of time will improve the inflammatory response over the short term, and it will make you think faster and more clearlyit will give you a real buzz.

Experts differ on how long it takes for autophagy to kick in from intermittent fastingfrom right away to 12 weeksbut for optimal results, Toledo recommends practicing it five days a week. Jenkinson urges caution, too: Individual metabolisms and default weights vary. Veer from the program and youll likely rebound to where you started, he says. Though Toledo has led extensive in situ studies to determine the safety of the protocols used at the clinic, there are no records on the long-term efficacy of stays. The high ratio of repeat visitors could suggest that it is, indeed, hard to maintain such weight loss. Then again, it could be evidence of how effective her evangelical zeal proves in recruiting converts.

Im impressed, if not completely converted, by day 10. At my final morning check-in with the nurse, Ive lost close to 12 pounds and two inches from my waistline. More than anything, though, the stay here has changed the way I eat. I couldnt even finish the first meal of solids, post-fast, served up with a candle and certificate in celebration. Im just not as hungry as often anymore, and Ive adopted that 16:8 system most days. Three months later, even during lockdown with limited exercise, Ive remained slim. Would I come again? Absolutely. But perhaps the bigger question is: Why should I need to? Check back with me in a year.

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I Went to Germany to Go on a 200-Calorie-A-Day Liquid Diet. Heres Why I Would Do It Again. - Robb Report

Re-Stem-Funded Study Targeting Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Aging and Age-Related Diseases Published in Science Advances Journal – Press Release -…

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Aug. 9, 2020 / PRZen / SUZHOU, China -- Re-Stem Biotech (Re-Stem or the Company), a biotechnology firm engaged in the research and development of cell therapies targeting osteoarthritis, spinal cord injury and various cancers recently funded in part a study titled "Solid-phase inclusion as a mechanism for regulating unfolded proteins in the mitochondrial matrix". Researchers at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, led by Rong Li, Ph.D., published their findings in the journal "Science Advances" (view full article here: https://advances.sciencemag.org/content/6/32/eabc7288) The study may provide mechanistic insights for mitochondrial dysfunction observed in aging and age-related diseases.

About Mitochondrial DysfunctionMitochondrial dysfunction is a hallmark of age-related diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and neurodegenerative diseases. During aging, damaged/unfolded proteins in mitochondria that are failed to be degraded gradually accumulate. In addition, recent evidence suggests that non-mitochondrial proteins constituting pathological aggregates in neurodegenerative diseases also accumulate in mitochondria and cause mitochondrial dysfunction. However, it remains unclear how excessive damaged proteins are managed within mitochondria when known quality control mechanisms become inadequate, and how they contribute to mitochondrial dysfunction during the aging process.

About the StudyThe researchers discovered that excessive unfolded proteins in the mitochondrial matrix are consolidated into novel structures, which they named Deposits of Unfolded Mitochondrial Proteins (DUMP). DUMP formation is an age-dependent process, while accelerated DUMP formation causes mitochondrial dysfunction and premature aging. They found that DUMP formation was not random, but specific in mitochondria near endoplasmic reticulum (ER), another organelle in cells. The contact sites between mitochondria and ER regulate DUMP formation via transferring lipids between two organelles. Via a series of genetic and live-cell imaging studies, researchers identified key enzymes of mitochondrial lipid metabolism that control DUMP formation. Manipulation of these enzymes modulates DUMP formation, therefore, potentially they could be targets for anti-aging or treating age-related diseases.

About Re-Stem BiotechRe-Stem Biotech (Re-Stem) is a biotechnology firm engaged in the research and development of cell-based therapies and products. Backed by state of the art GMP facilities and an international team of world-leading scientists, doctors and management team, Re-Stem currently has a robust technology platform including four profitable therapies on the market and eight other therapies and products in the pipeline. Incorporated and headquartered in 2012 in Suzhou, China, Re-Stem is focused on the large and aging population of China. It also operates clinics and research and development laboratories in Shenzhen, Beijing, Kunming and Ganzhou. For more information visit Re-Stem Biotech website: https://www.restembio.com/

Forward-Looking StatementsStatements in this press release relating to plans, strategies, trends, specific activities or investments, and other statements that are not descriptions of historical facts and may be forward-looking statements are inherently subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors, which include those regarding our ability to implement objective, plans and strategies for future operations. Forward-looking information may be identified by terms such as "will," "may," "expects," "plans," "intends," "estimates," "potential," or "continue," or similar terms or the negative of these terms. Although Re-Stem believes the expectations reflected in the forward-looking statements are reasonable, it cannot guarantee that future results, performance or achievements will be obtained. Re-Stem does not have any obligation to update these forward-looking statements other than as required by law.

Follow the full story here: https://przen.com/pr/33354426

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Re-Stem-Funded Study Targeting Mitochondrial Dysfunction in Aging and Age-Related Diseases Published in Science Advances Journal - Press Release -...

The Bold and the Beautiful News: Denise Richards Raves About Her Husband – Soap Hub

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Shaunas union with Ridge may be tentative on The Bold and the Beautiful, but Denise Richards, Shaunas portrayer, is rock solid with her real-life mate Aaron Phypers. Recently, the actress/reality TV star took to social media to laud praise upon her mate.

Im always in awe of my husband & never get tired of hearing him talk about the incredible things he does, Richards says. He is the most compassionate & hardest working man I know. Even on his days off, hes anyways helping people selflessly. I love all of his modalities & learning about new technology to help different things. It fascinates me & I love learning too.

Many may not understand, Richards adds, but I have seen so many people come & being grateful that he changed their life. And he changed mine & my daughters. Love him so much. One follower asked Richards what her husband does for a living. She responded that he works in Frequency Medicine. Richards and Phypers, in fact, first encountered each other at his center in Malibu when she began seeing him professionally, and later, it developed into a personal relationship.

So, I met him at his center doing DNA repair, anti-aging, and that sort of thing, Richards explained in an episode of her reality series The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.

Just what is Frequency Medicine? Its hard for me to explain, but its light and sound therapy, Richards says. How he described what is going on is Ella Fitzgerald sings and breaks glass, right? The frequency breaks that. So frequency can also break down different things going on. Its not cuckoo weird [expletive]; its like been around for hundreds of years, holistic medicine, all over the world. Its different for every person. The Bold and the Beautiful airs weekdays on CBS. Check local listings for air time.

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The Bold and the Beautiful News: Denise Richards Raves About Her Husband - Soap Hub

Why Silicon Valley Execs Are Investing Billions to Stay Young – Robb Report

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Entrepreneur Dave Aspreys end-of-life plans are quite simple, really, even if some of his ambitions sound laughably optimistic to most of us.I want to die at a time and by a method of my own choosing, and keep doing awesome things until that day, he tells me. I dont think its outrageous to believe Ill make it to 180 years old. And if I run out of energy, itll just be because I did too much cool shit for my own good.

Asprey is strolling across his lush property in British Columbia, holding up his phone and pointing out the specimens in this years garden as we chat over Zoom in the midst of the global pandemic. Hes protecting his skin from the sun with a goofy Outdoor Research hat and wearing a long string of beads that he says are each over a hundred years old, from cultures around the world.

Asprey, 48, is the founder of the Bulletproof wellness empire and a vocal champion of the movement to extend human life expectancy beyond 100 years. Hes made millions by experimenting on his own body and packaging his home-brewed discoveries into books, a podcast, consulting services and consumer products (you may have even tried his butter-laced coffee). Asprey, who was a web-security executive before he became the Bulletproof Executive, is just one of a cadre of tech elite who have begun directing their attentionand truckloads of moneytoward the problem of life extension. Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, Sergey Brin, Larry Ellisonname a Silicon Valley A-lister and he or she is likely funding longevity research, experimenting with anti-aging interventions or both. These are the masters of the universe who see no reason they cant take the tech industrys optimization obsession and apply it to the ultimate challenge: conquering death itself.

And their efforts appear to be paying off: Thanks to a recent explosion of advances in longevity medicine, Aspreys vision of living healthfully into his second century might not be so crazy. In fact, for people in middle age right now, a handful of therapies in clinical trials have the potential, for the first time in human history, to radically transform what old age looks like. If the life extensionists are right, a person whos 40 today might reasonably expect to still be downhill skiing, running a 10K or playing singles tennis at 100.

Dave AspreyDave Asprey

If you do anti-aging right, Asprey insists, youll have a level of resilience and energy to fight what comes your way. If you get Covid-19, youre less likely to become very sick. The idea is that at a cellular level, youre making yourself very hard to kill.

The most extreme of the controversial interventions Asprey has undergone involved having stem cells extracted from his own bone marrow and fat and then injected into hundreds of locations on his body. Into every joint, between every vertebra and into my cerebrospinal fluid, face and sex organs, he tells me cheerfully. For what I spent on that, I could have bought a really nicely appointed Tesla.

He trots up a flight of stairs to his home office, which sits above a million-dollar lab filled with health gadgets, such as a cryochamber, a hypoxic trainer and an AI-enabled stationary bike. For a wealthy person, investing in your body should be a major part of your Im rich strategy, he explains. Personally, I think you should be spending at least 2 to 3 percent of your net worth on health and longevity. Get a personal chef who can cook you the right food. Its not that hard.

It might be an exaggeration to say BioViva CEO Liz Parrish believes death is optional, but for her, Aspreys goal of living to 180 shows a distinct lack of ambition. If you can reach homeostasis in the body, Parrish says, where its regenerating itself just a little bit faster than its degrading, then what do you die of? An accident or natural disaster, probably. Theres no expiration date at 90 or 100 years old.

Tall, blond and fit, Parrish cuts a strikingly youthful figure at 49one that might convince you to order whatever shes having. But, like Asprey, she has received criticism from the longevity research community for becoming patient zero in her own experimental drug trial, aimed at halting aging at the cellular level. In 2015, Parrish underwent telomerase and follistatin gene therapies in Bogota, Colombia. The procedures involved receiving around a hundred injections of a cocktail of genes and a virus modified to deliver those new genes into her bodys cells. The objective was to prevent age-related muscle loss and lengthen her telomeres: the caps at the end of our chromosomes. Scientists have identified their unraveling as not only a marker of aging but also a potential cause of age-related decline.

Liz ParrishLiz Parrish

Parrish told the media about her clandestine experiment and has published periodic updates on her condition in the five years since, and she reports that she has indeed increased her muscle mass and lengthened her telomeres. Parrishs punk-rock approach stems from her conviction that the medical-research communityboth the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and researchers who arent business-mindedis moving too slowly, with too much red tape, when it comes to advancing aging therapeutics. But gene therapy is a relatively new area of medicine that brings with it a host of new risks, including cancer, severe immune reactions and infections caused by the viral vector used to deliver the drug.

Parrish downplays such worries. There may be risks, she tells Robb Report. But the known risk is that youre 100 percent likely to die. So you have to decide for yourself if the potential benefit outweighs that.

Humans have always aspired to find the fountain of youth, so people might be skeptical about the fact that anti-aging technologies are working now, says British investor and businessman Jim Mellon. But the fact is that this is finally happening, and we need to seize the moment. Mellon cofounded Juvenescence, a three-year-old pharmaceutical company thats investing in multiple technologies simultaneously to increase the odds of bringing winning products to market.

Mellon, 63, has made his fortune betting on well-timed investment opportunities, and he predicts that a new stock-market mania for life extension is just around the corner. This is like the internet dial-up phase of longevity biotech, he enthuses. If youd invested in the internet in the very early days, youd be one of the richest people on the planet. Were at that stage now, so the opportunity for investors is huge. According to a report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, hes not wrong: The market for technologies to increase human life span is projected to grow sixfold to $610 billion in just the next five years.

When I talk to Mellon in the late spring, hes sequestered on the rugged coast of the Isle of Man, a tiny spit of land in the Irish Sea. Despite being what he describes as imprisoned there for 15 weeksand countingduring the Covid-19 shutdown, hes jovial and chatty and wants to make it clear that his interest in life extension is much more than financial. Working to extend life is an ethical cause, he says. If we can help people to live healthfully until the end of life, well transform the world completely. Well reduce a huge amount of pressure on failing health-care systems, and well have to reimagine pension and life insurance. This should be the number-one tick in anyones investment portfolio.

If youd like to get on board with this social-impact view of longevity, it helps to understand the trajectory of aging today. In Americas most affluent neighborhoods, the average life span is about 88 years. (Meanwhile, in this countrys poorest, it hovers around a meager 66 because of a raft of inequalities, such as diet, stress, smoking, pollution and health care.) For most people, health starts gradually diminishing in the last 15 years of life with the onset of chronic conditions, including arthritis, neurodegeneration and diabetes. If we could eliminate such diseases of aging, experts say, the US could save an estimated $7.1 trillion in health-care costs over the next 50 years. (Quite where all these sprightly centenarians might live on this already densely populated planet remains to be seen.)

Jim MellonEric Verdin

One of Mellons bets is on a class of drugs called senolytics, which destroy senescent cells: the so-called zombie cells that, for complex reasons, stop dividing as we age. Senescent cells harm the body by secreting compounds that cause inflammation in surrounding tissues. Many age-related conditionsarthritis, diabetes, Alzheimers, cancerhave an inflammatory component, and studies suggest that a buildup of senescent cells is a large part of the problem.

A number of biotech start-ups are devel- oping drugs that target cell senescence, but the furthest along is Unity Biotechnology, a company in South San Francisco that has three drugs in clinical trials to address aging conditions, starting with osteoar- thritis of the knee. Unity raised more than $200 million from such big names as Thiel and Bezos, who chipped in through their investment firms, before going public in 2018. Since then, Mellon has also bought a small stake.

The holy grail of senolytics will be the development of a preventive therapy to wipe out senescent cells in the body before they cause conditions of aging, theoretically extending life span. In June, a team from Sloan Kettering published new breakthrough research showing that CAR T cellstypically used for precision cancer therapycan also be used to target and kill senescent cells. Prescription senolytics for anti-aging therapy are still years away, but unsurprisingly, theres an audience of longevity enthusiasts who want to access such anti-aging miracles yesterdayand no shortage of FDA-unapproved ways to chase after them. For instance, after a few studies examined the senolytic effects of a chemotherapy drug called dasatinib, the website FightAging.org published a step-by-step guide to senolytic self-experimentation using chemotherapeutics.

It doesnt take a Ph.D. in biochemistry to guess that taking off-label chemo drugs might come with harmful side effects, but that hasnt stopped a zealous group of body-hackers from trying it themselves and chronicling their efforts online. The internet is littered with novice longevity adviceand sketchy anti-aging companies eager to separate the hopeful and desperate from their money, like the company that charges $8,000 for transfusions of plasma from the blood of teenagers and early-twentysomethings (yes, just like Gavin Belson on HBOs Silicon Valley). Many of these are at best ineffective and at worst deadly, since the same cellular systems that fuel growth in young people might cause cancer when tipped into overdrive. Imagine the tragic irony of paying tens of thousands for a therapy that promises to help you live longer but actually causes the cancer that kills you.

Adobe

Beyond the obvious red flags of repurposed chemo drugs and the bloodletting of teens, it can be difficult for a layperson to separate the world-changing longevity breakthroughs from the terrible ideas. Enter one of the worlds leading experts on longevity to help make sense of things.

Eric Verdin, 63, is president and CEO of the Buck Institute, a globally renowned center for aging research just outside San Francisco in Marin County. Verdin is bullish on the promise of living healthfully to at least 100. Today. But 180? Dont count on it. My prediction, based on everything we know today, is that getting to 120 is about the best we can do for the foreseeable future. Ill bet my house were not going to see anyone live to 180 for another 200 years, if ever, he says. But making everyone a healthy centenarian, this is something we can do today. And thats something to be excited about.

Verdins own lab at the Buck Institute studies the aging immune system and how its affected by lifestyle factors, such as nutrition and exercise. Informed by this research, Verdin follows a time-restricted diet in which he eats all of his meals in an eight-to-nine-hour window (similar to the Buchinger Wilhelmi process) and gets plenty of exercise mountain biking in Marins steep hills. The good news is that over 90 percent of what causes diseases of aging is environmental, and that means its within your control, he says.

But he emphasizes that responsible management of your health comes with limits, like avoiding experimental therapies. A group of people have decided to try some expensive and dangerous interventions, but there is zero evidence that any of these are going to help them live longer, he says. The problem, according to Verdin, is that the results of aging interventions in mouse trials can look very promising but rarely translate to success in humans. Theres a huge delta between the health of a stressed lab mouse and an optimally healthy mouse, Verdin says. So when you treat lab mice with longevity therapeutics, you see an outsized result that doesnt at all guarantee the same result in humans.

On the other hand, Verdin tells Robb Report, there are definitely new protocols worth getting excited about. Take, for instance, rapalogs, a class of drugs that interact with a protein called mTOR, which serves as a linchpin for multiple critical biological processes, including cell growth and metabolism. Rapalog drugs tamp down mTOR, possibly preventing age-related diseases such as diabetes, stroke and some cancers. The drug rapamycin, the most heavily studied formula, was approved in the US in 1999 to help prevent organ-transplant rejection. Last year the medical journal Aging published a rapturous opinion piece by oncologist Mikhail Blagosklonny in which he made the case that rapamycinin small or intermittent dosesis effective as a preventive treatment to ward off diseases of aging, and that, in the elderly, not taking rapamycin may be even more dangerous than smoking.

Eric VerdinJim Hughes Photography

Later this year, a biotech firm called resTORbio, which was spun out of the Swiss-based Big Pharma company Novartis in 2017, is expected to seek FDA approval for its rapalog RTB101, which clinical trials have shown to slow age-related decline of the immune system and improve immune response in elderly people by more than 20 percent, a key factor in protecting vulnerable aging populations from disease. (It is currently in trials on elderly patients with Covid-19.) This is the furthest-along program of anything in the aging field, Joan Mannick, cofounder and chief medical officer of resTORbio, told MIT Technology Review last year. If health authorities approve this drug well have a product for people to prevent age-related diseases. Not just in our lifetime, but in, you know, a few years.

One of the many effects of rapamycin is that it mimics the mechanisms of calorie restriction. As Verdins lab and others have shown, fasting provides a number of anti-aging benefits, including insulin regulation, reduced inflammation and, to put it colloquially, clearing out the gunky by-products of metabolismpart of the reason Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and other tech titans eat just a few meals per week. For lesser mortals, fasting is extremely hard to commit to and not much fun, hence the huge interest in calorie-restriction mimetics like rapamycin, which provide all the benefits without the downer not-eating part.

Of all the calorie-restriction mimetics, the one sparking the most excitement among longevity researchers is already on the market: metformin, a decades-old diabetes drug. Metformin became a part of the Silicon Valley health regimen several years ago after an epidemiological study showed that Type 2 diabetics who took the drug lived longer than non-diabetics who didnt. Just about everyone in the longevity industry takes metformin, Verdin tells me. He takes it himself, and nearly everybody I interviewed is taking or has taken it, too.

In April, Nir Barzilai, the renowned endocrinologist who spearheaded research on the anti-aging properties of metformin, announced in an opinion piece he co-authored in the journal Cell Metabolism that his lab is launching a large clinical trial to investigate the anti-aging effects of the drug on non-diabetic populations. Barzilais goal is to prove to the FDA that aging itselfrather than conditions associated with it, like Alzheimers and arthritiscan be targeted as a disease. If Barzilai is successful and the FDA approves aging as a treatment indication, the process of bringing longevity therapies to market would accelerate rapidly.

Just as the FDA was able to move faster to bring Covid-19 therapies to market this year, we will reach a tipping point when public opinion pushes the FDA to approve aging as an indication, and the longevity-research field will make leaps as a result, Mellon says. He has contributed funding to Barzilais metformin research, which he believes will be instrumental in proving that there are compounds that can extend human life across the board.

The fact of the matter is that the US has the best regulatory system for new drug development in the world, Mellon says. Were in the first era ever when humans can be bioengineered to live longer. And in 10 years, well have solutions that are even better than today. Just wait, its coming.

Liz Parrish

Jim Mellon

Diet:Vegetarian.Mindfulness practice:Nightly meditation.

Exercise regimen:30 minutes of cardio and 10 minutes of weights,five days a week.

Anti-aging Rx:Regenerative gene therapies. Im certain most peoplewill take them in the next couple decades.

180th-birthday wish:Solving another critical issue.

Sleep routine:7.5 hours plus a 30-minute nap; in bed by 9 p.m.

Vitamins/supplements/ prescription meds:Vitamins D and B12, metformin.

Exercise regimen:Walk or run minimum 10,000 steps a day;weights three times week.

Anti-aging Rx:Green tea.

100th-birthday wish:Another 25 years.

Dave Asprey

Jim Hughes Photography

180th-birthday wish:Either a cruise to Mars or a 1970 Mustang Fastback,which by then will be 210 years old!

Sleep Routine:Avoid: coffee after 2 p.m., heavy workouts after 6 p.m.,alcohol during the week and heavy eating in the evening.

Vitamins/supplements:Vitamin D, omega fatty acids, NMN, citrus bioflavonoidcomplex, fiber supplement, prebiotic supplement.

Diet:Fasting-mimicking diet once every four to six months;roughly 16:8 intermittent fasting at other times.

Mindfulness practice:Daily meditation.

Anti-aging Rx:I love cooking and eating, so I do not restrict foodon the weekend. Happiness with friends and family is thesurest path to longevity.

100th-birthday wish:A bike tour across the US, from coast to coast.

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Why Silicon Valley Execs Are Investing Billions to Stay Young - Robb Report

Longevity And Anti-Senescence Therapy Market Projected size Witness a Double-Digit CAGR during COVID-19 2023 – Chelanpress

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Theglobal longevity and anti-senescence therapies marketshould grow from $329.8 million in 2018 to $644.4 million by 2023 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.3% during 2018-2023.

Report Scope:

The scope of this report is broad and covers various therapies currently under trials in the global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market. The market estimation has been performed with consideration for revenue generation in the forecast years 2018-2023 after the expected availability of products in the market by 2023. The global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market has been segmented by the following therapies: Senolytic drug therapy, Gene therapy, Immunotherapy and Other therapies which includes stem cell-based therapies, etc.

Revenue forecasts from 2028 to 2023 are given for each therapy and application, with estimated values derived from the expected revenue generation in the first year of launch.

Request for Report Sample:https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/11698

The report also includes a discussion of the major players performing research or the potential players across each regional longevity and anti-senescence therapy market. Further, it explains the major drivers and regional dynamics of the global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market and current trends within the industry.

The report concludes with a special focus on the vendor landscape and includes detailed profiles of the major vendors and potential entrants in the global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market.

Report Includes:

71 data tables and 40 additional tables An overview of the global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market Analyses of global market trends, with data from 2017 and 2018, and projections of compound annual growth rates (CAGRs) through 2023

Country specific data and analysis for the United States, Canada, Japan, China, India, U.K., France, Germany, Spain, Australia, Middle East and Africa Detailed description of various anti-senescence therapies, such as senolytic drug therapy, gene therapy, immunotherapy and other stem cell therapies, and their influence in slowing down aging or reverse aging proce

Coverage of various therapeutic drugs, devices and technologies and information on compounds used for the development of anti-ageing therapeutics A look at the clinical trials and expected launch of anti-senescence products Detailed profiles of the market leading companies and potential entrants in the global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market, including AgeX Therapeutics, CohBar Inc., PowerVision Inc., T.A. Sciences and Unity Biotechnology

Summary

Global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market deals in the adoption of different therapies and treatment options used to extend human longevity and lifespan. Human longevity is typically used to describe the length of an individuals lifetime and is sometimes used as a synonym for life expectancy in the demography. Anti-senescence is the process by which cells stop dividing irreversibly and enter a stage of permanent growth arrest, eliminating cell death. Anti-senescence therapy is used in the treatment of senescence induced through unrepaired DNA damage or other cellular stresses.

Global longevity and anti-senescence market will witness rapid growth over the forecast period (2018-2023) owing to an increasing emphasis on Stem Cell Research and an increasing demand for cell-based assays in research and development.

An increasing geriatric population across the globe and a rising awareness of antiaging products among generation Y and later generations are the major factors expected to promote the growth of global longevity and anti-senescence market. Factors such as a surging level of disposable income and increasing advancements in anti-senescence technologies are also providing traction to the global longevity and anti-senescence market growth over the forecast period (2018-2023).

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the total geriatric population across the globe in 2016 was over REDACTED. By 2022, the global geriatric population (65 years and above) is anticipated to reach over REDACTED. An increasing geriatric population across the globe will generate huge growth prospectus to the market.

Senolytics, placenta stem cells and blood transfusions are some of the hot technologies picking up pace in the longevity and anti-anti-senescence market. Companies and start-ups across the globe such as Unity Biotechnology, Human Longevity Inc., Calico Life Sciences, Acorda Therapeutics, etc. are working extensively in this field for the extension of human longevity by focusing on study of genomics, microbiome, bioinformatics and stem cell therapies, etc. These factors are poised to drive market growth over the forecast period.

Global longevity and anti-senescence market is projected to rise at a CAGR of REDACTED during the forecast period of 2018 through 2023. In 2023, total revenues are expected to reach REDACTED, registering REDACTED in growth from REDACTED in 2018.

The report provides analysis based on each market segment including therapies and application. The therapies segment is further sub-segmented into Senolytic drug therapy, Gene therapy, Immunotherapy and Others. Senolytic drug therapy held the largest market revenue share of REDACTED in 2017. By 2023, total revenue from senolytic drug therapy is expected to reach REDACTED. Gene therapy segment is estimated to rise at the highest CAGR of REDACTED till 2023. The fastest growth of the gene therapy segment is due to the Large investments in genomics. For Instance; The National Human Genome Research Institute (U.S.) had a budget grant of REDACTED for REDACTED research projects in 2015, thus increasing funding to REDACTED for approximately REDACTED projects in 2016.

More Info of Impact[emailprotected]https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/covid-19-analysis/11698

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Longevity And Anti-Senescence Therapy Market Projected size Witness a Double-Digit CAGR during COVID-19 2023 - Chelanpress

An ancient dinosaur relative is also related to humansand its DNA may hold the secret to living longer – SYFY WIRE

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

The tuatara is old. 250 million years old. That was when this bizarre creature shared its last common ancestor with other reptiles before it evolved further and diverged. It used to be one of of several Rhynocephalia species that crawled across the antediluvian continent of Gondwana, but is now the only one that remains. Its genome links it not only to reptiles (which it most obviously resembles), but also birds and yes, mammals like humans.DNA from this living relic could also be the elixir of life.

"We found out when the tuatara diverged withevolutionary dating, using the amount of genetic change that has occurred between tuatara and its nearest relatives," Neil Gemmel, a professor of anatomy at the University of Otago in New Zealand, who led a study recently published in Nature, told SYFY WIRE.We can calibrate the level of change over time against established genetic splits across the tree of life that have been established from the fossil record and key geological events.

Amniote vertebrateswhich either hatch from eggs or develop from an egg in the placentaare thought to have first appeared 312 million years ago and then branched off into two groups. Synapsids included early mammals and now-extinct reptiles with mammalian characteristics. Sauropsids were once dinosaurs and other reptilian ancestors that have since died out and were replaced with or evolved into birds or lizards, snakes and other extant reptiles. The tuatara has baffled scientists for so long because of synapsid and sauropsid features that could reveal what we never knew about amniote evolution.

Sauropsid and synapsid advantages of tuatara range from extreme night vision to a sense of smell that could identify potential mates just as well as potential prey. It makes you wonder whether this lizard-thing was the result of a superpoweredserum.

Tuatara have one of the largest vertebrate genomes ever. There are many repeating elements that are unique to the tuatara, which became an entire phylum of its own after it diverged from snakes and lizards. It shares parts of that genome with turtles, chickens and even humans. Stranger still is that the types of repeating elements in tuatara DNA are closer to mammals than birds or lizards. It has evolved specialized genes for immunity, thermal regulation, odor reception and metabolism.

You can probably see where this is going. Replicating such strong MHC genes in humans could save lives in the future.

Understanding the tuataras extremely low metabolism and Methuselan longevity could possibly help us extend the human lifespan. Tuatara can live past a hundred years, which makes them the longest-lived reptiles next to some species of tortoise, and there may be a link to certain proteins in its system along with genes that protect them from free radicals. Major histocompatibility (MHC) genes mean that its tissues are compatible with those of many different individuals without an immune response. Could that make living to at least a hundred a thing for humans?

What we currently know is that tuatara have a few more genes than others species that are known to be protective against DNA damage and cellular aging from work in other systems," said Gemmel. "It therefore seems possible that these gene products may contribute to tuataras longevity, though it would take quite a bit of work to test if these are indeed protective against ageing.Iff they are there, maybe there will be prospects to develop these into supplements of drugs intended to protect against aspects of aging."

Whatever the tuatara is, it is a window into the deep past that could unlock amazing advances for the future.

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An ancient dinosaur relative is also related to humansand its DNA may hold the secret to living longer - SYFY WIRE

Your health and happiness go hand-in-hand: Dr. Nina Radcliff – Press of Atlantic City

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Your health and happiness are linked. Your level of happiness really can impact the level of your health.

Increased psychological research on mental health has enriched our understanding of the human experience of flourishing in health and happiness. Studies on topics of happiness and health are very telling. What we now know for certain about these life-affirming topics can help everyone live healthier, happier lives while reducing negative, stressful emotions at the same time.

Your happiness and your health

Key factors contributing to human flourishing the link between happiness and health are vital. Positive daily experiences can buffer the effect of negative daily experiences, all while positively impacting your physical, mental and emotional health and well-being.

Three foundational conditions that enable you to flourish and break through in a healthy manner are:

Positive individual traits (compassion, optimism, resilience)

Positive relationships (families, social relationships, communities)

By recognizing the powerful impact of these, you will have greater understanding and insight on how to better manage your overall happiness and well-being.

Understanding positive emotions and happiness

While positive can be a feeling where theres a lack of negativity, the most popular positive emotions are joy, gratitude, peace, interest, hope, pride, amusement, inspiration, awe and love. They can be triggered by your thoughts, people, things and places, along with events you experience. These micro-moments of positivity accumulate over time, putting people on a trajectory of growth by broadening awareness and building a sense of flourishing in happiness.

Happiness is a broad term describing the experience of positive emotions, such as joy, contentment, and satisfaction. Emerging research shows that being happier doesnt just make you feel better, it brings a host of potential health benefits.

Research underscores that positive emotions are more than just feeling good, theyre accompanied by great benefits that make you not only happier but healthier:

Improved physical health from your heart and immune system, and decreased pain

Buffers against depressive symptoms while helping dissipate stress (cortisol) levels

Shown to help prevent and speed up recovery from illness, including the common cold

Helps undo undesirable effects of negative emotions while developing resilience and resourcefulness

Fosters healthy social connectedness

Drives healthier lifestyle habits with more physical activity (increasing energy, strong bones, lower blood pressure); healthier choices of diet choices (helps decrease heart disease, stroke, diabetes risks); and better sleep habits (improves mood, focus, concentration, productivity, good decision-making)

Overall combating negative states, further increasing the likelihood of health

Improves the quality of life and also longevity (living longer)

Fostering positive emotions

There are great opportunities from taking a walk, meditating, mindfulness to listening to your favorite music, as well as outlining good, supportive steps in managing people/projects/time or taking time to relax.

Engaging with those you love to getting quality sleep, eating healthy and being active all contributes. Your dear relationships can be a wellspring in helping you to experience positive emotions.

Exercising positive emotions can take practice, but the good news is that you can help yourself (and others) become more positive by consciously challenging negative, self-limiting thinking and replacing the thoughts with more optimistic thought patterns.

Love is a significant positive emotion ingredient and a driving force behind the health benefits of positive emotions. Your love can be expressed for people, places, hobbies, animals, great outdoors, baking, gardening, decorating, holidays, the arts and so much more. Take time to enjoy your favorite life passions.

Gratitude is vital. Experts remind folks to ask, Which aspects of my current situation might I consider a gift to be cherished? Allow yourself to appreciate that understanding.

Optimism is distinct, and involves hopefulness and confidence about the future or the successful outcome of something. In other words, that positive events are to come.

Research shows that the difference between people who are flourishing and those who are not lies in the magnitude of positive emotions they are able to self-generate from everyday pleasant activities.

What is foundational for a healthy, happy life is not occasional grandiose gifts of fate. Rather, the ability to use your strengths, gifts and virtues for a purpose and a steady diet of those micro-moments of positivity. Good news is that occasions for such moments are much more prevalent than it may sometimes seem. Stay mindful of your emotions, track how you are feeling and what you are thinking. Take stock, re-focusing or reframing when needed.

Your day-to-day positive emotions function as nutrients for your overall well-being. And todays positive emotions do not simply exemplify todays well-being, they also help to create and serve as the foundation for your well-being tomorrow and the day, week, month, and years after. Nourish your mind, body and soul with positivity.

Dr. Nina Radcliff, of Galloway Township, is a physician anesthesiologist, television medical contributor and textbook author.

This article is for general information only and should not be used for the diagnosis or treatment of medical conditions and cannot substitute for the advice from your medical professional.

Dr. Nina Radcliff, of Galloway Township, is a physician anesthesiologist, television medical contributor and textbook author.

Email questions for Dr. Nina to editor@pressofac.com with Dr. Nina in the subject line.

This article is for general information only and should not be used for the diagnosis or treatment of medical conditions and cannot substitute for the advice from your medical professional.

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Your health and happiness go hand-in-hand: Dr. Nina Radcliff - Press of Atlantic City

How tuatara live so long and can withstand cool weather – Science News

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

A tuatara may look like your average lizard, but its not. The reptiles are the last survivors of an ancient group of reptiles that flourished when dinosaurs roamed the world. Native to New Zealand, tuatara possess a range of remarkable abilities, including a century-long life span, relative imperviousness to many infectious diseases and peak physical activity at shockingly low temperatures for a reptile. Now, scientists are figuring out how, thanks to the first-ever deciphering, or sequencing, of the tuataras genetic instruction book.

The research reveals insights into not only the creatures evolutionary relationship with other living reptiles but also into tuatara longevity and their ability to withstand cool weather, researchers report August 5 in Nature.

Technically, the tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) are rhynchocephalians, an order of reptiles that were once widespread during the Mesozoic Era, 66 million to 252 million years ago. But their diversity waned over millions of years, leaving the tuatara as the last of their line (SN: 10/13/03). The reptiles have long been of scientific interest because of their unclear evolutionary relationship with other reptiles, as they share traits with lizards and turtles as well as birds.

Tuatara were once found throughout New Zealand, but now survive in the wild mainly on offshore islands and are considered a vulnerable species. The reptiles have suffered from habitat loss and invasive species such as rats, and are especially imperiled by a warming climate (SN: 7/3/08).

Headlines and summaries of the latest Science News articles, delivered to your inbox

This peril combined with the tuataras cherished status as a taonga, or special treasure, to the Indigenous Maori people led researchers to prioritize compiling the reptiles genome, or genetic instruction book.

In 2012, Neil Gemmell, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, and an international team of researchers began to assemble the tuatara genome, in close partnership with the Indigenous Ngtiwai people. The Ngtiwai are considered kaitiaki, or guardians, of the tuatara and were intimately involved in decisions regarding the use of genetic data from the project.

The tuataras genome is huge, about 5 gigabases, or some 5 billion DNA base pairs in length, the researchers found. Thats about two-thirds bigger than humans and is unusually large for a reptile, says Giulia Pasquesi, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Colorado Boulder who was not involved with the research. Lizard and snake genomes are usually around 2 gigabases, she says. Bird genomes may be half that size.

Based on the genetic analyses, the researchers confirmed that the tuatara is more closely related to snakes and lizards than to crocodilians, birds or turtles. The researchers estimate that the tuatara and their ancestors diverged from snakes and lizards about 250 million years ago, meaning the group predates even the oldest dinosaurs.

The team identified genes possibly involved in the tuataras biological quirks including their long lives, which are the longest of any other reptiles besides tortoises. Tuatara have many genes involved in producing selenoproteins, which help protect against aging and cellular deterioration, and have more of these genes than humans do. Such insights may eventually have useful applications for human biology, says coauthor Matthieu Muffato, a comparative genomicist at the European Bioinformatics Institute in Hinxton, England.

Tuatara also appear to have an unusually high number of TRP genes, which are involved in making proteins tied to temperature sensitivity and regulation of body temperature. Those genes may be behind the reptiles tolerance of cool temperatures, the researchers say. Tuatara have the lowest known optimal body temperature of any reptile, from 16 to 21 Celsius.

Although the new research goes a long way to dispelling some of the mystery surrounding the tuatara, there is much to learn about these scaly enigmas.Publishing the tuatara genome is like uncovering an ancient book, Muffato says. We have started analyzing it, and started decoding some of the genetic information, but we are still a long way off from understanding the complete genome.

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How tuatara live so long and can withstand cool weather - Science News

This Dinosaur Relative Has Links to Humans, Its DNA May Unlock Secrets of Longevity – International Business Times, Singapore Edition

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Tuatara used to be one of the several Rhynocephalia species that had once lived in the continent of Gondwana millions of years ago. Tuataraalso known as the dinosaur survivorhas genetic links to not only reptiles but also to the mammals like humans and scientists think that its DNA may hold the secret of longevity.

Neil Gemmel, a professor of anatomy at the University of Otago in New Zealand, in a recently conducted study, published in the journal Nature, said that this creature, one of the world's oldest species, has a genomic architecture "unlike anything previously reported, with an amalgam of features that have previously been viewed as characteristic of either mammals or reptiles."

Amniote vertebratesa clade of tetrapod vertebrates comprising the reptiles, birds, and mammalsare thought to have first appeared on earth around 312 million years ago and then branched off into two groups. Synapsids included ancient mammal species and now-extinct reptiles which had mammalian characteristics. Sauropsids were once dinosaurs and used to be ancestors of reptiles that have vanished from the earth or evolved into modern birds, lizards, and snakes.

But the Tuatara, which is also called New Zealand's living dinosaur, has puzzled researchers for so long due to its synapsid and sauropsid features which could reveal what we never knew about the evolution of amniote.

Synapsid and sauropsid characteristics similar to tuatara include extreme night vision and a sense of smell that could identify potential mates, as well as potential prey.

As per scientists, Tuatarawhose name derives from the Mori language that means "peaks on the back"has one of the largest vertebrate genomes ever. There are some repeating elements, unique to this lizard-like species, which became the entire phylum after it separated from snakes and lizards.

Hope for The Future

Tuatara shares parts of its genome with modern species like turtles, chickens, and even humans. The types of repeating elements in its DNA are closer to mammals, in comparison with lizards and birds. As per the scientists, Tuatara has evolved specialized genes for immunity, metabolism, thermal regulation, and odor reception.

Scientists believe that replicating such 'major histocompatibility complex' genes in humans could save several lives in the future. After conducting the recent study on the ancient-still living creature, scientists believe that the understanding of its extremely low metabolism and Methuselan longevity may open a new door of possibility to extend the human lifespan.

As Tuatara can live up to 100 years, making it the longest-lived reptiles after a tortoise, scientists believe that there may be a link to certain proteins in the species along with the genes that protect them from free radicals.

Gemmel explained that the MHC genes play an important role in "disease resistance, mate choice and kin recognition, and are among the most polymorphic genes in the vertebrate genome." While explaining the recent research process he also added that "Our annotation of MHC regions in the tuatara, and comparisons of the gene organization with that of six other species, identified 56 MHC genes."

As per the scientists, further research on Tuatara could help unlock still-unknown amazing advances in the future.

What about My Rights? – Thrive Global

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Over the past week I have been sent countless videos and links of people talking about civil rights and how Melbournians are at the effect of a dictatorial government that is not just infringing on our civil liberties but taking them away.

I am learning, from American commentators, how our government is invading homes and ignoring the legal requirement for warrants, to arrest people breaking public directives during the stage 4 lockdown.

Right through this whole Covid-19 drama, I have seen hundreds of posts and online videos of people preaching from the rooftops about civil liberties, personal rights, and freedom.

As I ran this morning, this weighed heavily on me, and I knew I needed to write.

We human beings do not do too well on our own. We are family and community creatures. I have read many health studies over the years exploring the devastating effects of loneliness. Further, longevity studies such as those that explored the lives of women in Okinawa in Japan, life Dan Buettners Blue Zones, have shown the health enhancing powers of close friendships and community.

Further, their have been hundreds of studies, for example House et al in the US, that demonstrated how people who were involved in some form of community service at least once per month had a significantly lower risk of heart disease than the average for US society. In other words, taking care of the needs of others is good for our health.

For a community to work, every person in that community must contribute. There is a responsibility for everyone in that community to do their bit.

I remember back in the 90s when I was working as a Conditioning Coach at an AFL Club. The clubs number 1 recruit was languishing in the seconds. He was best on the ground every week but was continuously overlooked for the senior team. I asked the head coach why and he said, Because he is playing in defence, and whilst he is gathering a huge number of possessions each week, his opponents are doing a lot of damage. He has not learned how to play a defensive role.

I realised the message was not getting through, perhaps because the way the coach was articulating the message was not being understood by the player. So, I took him out for coffee and a chat.

During the chat I asked him to imagine what it might be like to live in a small community where everyone had a hut, the group grew food, and everyone had animals. One of the challenges in the community was the animals droppings, and they would be all over the paths and even on doorsteps. A daily chore was shovelling the shit. I asked him to imagine that he was the Chief or the Mayor. Even though he is the Mayor, and has an important role, he too has to shovel the shit as well as doing all the glorious things. If not, you end up with a lot of shit on your doorstep.

I let him contemplate all that and then shared, Mate, youre are doing all the glorious stuff, but you are not shovelling your share of the shit. His eyes went wide, and the message landed. The following week, he was still best on the ground, but his opponent was completely ineffective. A week later he went into the senior team and went on to become an outstanding footballer.

He was only interested at the time in his freedom to play football the way he wanted, the way he enjoyed it. However, he was ignoring his responsibilities to the team.

The two less glorious terms we do not hear about much are civil responsibility and civil service.

Right now, more than ever, Melbourne, and many other cities around the world, needs its citizens to place more attention on civil responsibility and civil service, to guarantee our future civil liberties.

Melbournians are being asked to shovel their share of the shit, because we didnt do it very well in June and July. And most of us are willingly doing so, while the rest of the world seems to be freaking out.

Wearing a protective face mask is an act of civil service and civil responsibility. It is not about giving uprights.

I feel that for the future of the world, we need to start talking more about civil responsibility and service and less about civil liberties. There has been way too much Me and not enough We. As they say, if you take the letter I our of Illness and replace it with We, you get Wellness.

But while I am on my soapbox this morning, Id like to address something else.

I am in a Football Tipping competition with some of my old Primary School friends. We are a tight group and take care of each other. There are some big hearts in this group of people and some crazy senses of humour.

In one of the seasons, one of the guys suggested the AFL was rigged and a robust conversation soon caught fire. After some time, I chimed in and shared that having worked in the inner sanctum of AFL Clubs, I thought it impossible. Do you know how many people you would have to convince to completely shut down their own moral code, and to keep an awful secret for life? I asked. Just contemplating this question alone makes you realise that it would not be possible for the AFL to be rigged.

The same goes for Covid-19. Sure, there are corporate interests that want to cash in on it, and there are huge egos out there who want to be the one to save the world. But that is how humans have operated for centuries. It is what makes the human race so colourful and fascinating.

But to even think that it would be possible to get tens of thousands of people to become willing conspirators, and to keep an ugly secret concealed for a lifetime, is the stuff of B Grade movies. It is delusional thinking at its very best!

My invitation to everyone is to start looking for the good in everyone. Get behind our leaders. This is a new and challenging situation. They are bound to make mistakes. Cut them some slack and lets all keep going. We will get to the end of this, then we can set to repairing what we have done to create it in the first place. If you start doing your homework you will realise that this virus, like the bushfires from the start of the year, is a product of what we have been carelessly doing to our environment.

To fix that, we are going to have to give up some of our self-proclaimed liberties and take on some serious civil responsibility and deliver a great deal of genuine civil service.

Are you up for it?

Insights on the X-Ray Devices Global Market to 2025 – Drivers, Restraints and Opportunities – GlobeNewswire

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Dublin, Aug. 10, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "X-Ray Devices Market - Forecasts from 2020 to 2025" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The global X-ray devices market is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 5.14% from a market size of USDX10.793 billion in 2019 to a market size of USD14.580 billion by 2025. An X-ray device is used for creating 2D X-ray images of the 3D internal body organs or bones. The growing number of chronic diseases is providing an impetus in fueling market growth in the forecast period. The growing trend of early diagnosis and detection of a disease is further providing an opportunity for the market to proliferate in the forecast period.

The X-ray system emits small amounts of X-rays in the human body and captures an image of the area of interest onto a device. The growing number of non-fatal road accidents are propagating the market demand, as X-ray provides an immediate snapshot of the injury. Also, with innovations, the X-ray devices market has been bifurcated into portable and stationary systems, further propelling the market demand. The growing digitization has segregated the market on the basis of analog and digital technologies, fueling the market share of the digital X-ray systems with a rapid rise in adoptions due to the ongoing improvements in providing better healthcare facilities on the global level. The growing global elderly population is driving the market growth in the forecast period with the emergence and prevalence of age-associated diseases like osteoporosis and the detection of bone degeneration due to the aging process.

The global geriatric population (above 65 years or older) rose from 551,217,090 in 2012 to 673,618,927 in 2018 (source: The World Bank). The growing elderly population requires better healthcare facilities which include preventative measures as many people under this category are either suffering from age-associated chronic diseases or are suffering from diseases due to the adoption of an unhealthy lifestyle when younger. Thus, this population is in the requirement of better healthcare facilities where better diagnostic and treatment measures need to be taken in order to prevent further spreading of the age-associated or degenerative diseases. Furthermore, with the declining fertility rates and increasing life expectancy at birth, global aging is poised to accelerate due to an overall improvement in the survival leading to longevity, further burgeoning the market growth during the forecast period.

On the basis of geography, North America followed by the European region is estimated to hold a significant market share in the forecast period. The Asia Pacific region is predicted to be the fastest-growing with a significant CAGR over the next five years.

There has been a loss of lives of more than one million people due to road crash or accidents. Around 20 to 50 million people suffer due to non-fatal road injuries which lead to disability due to the accident every year. Causes of non-fatal road injuries include speeding, drink-driving, and drug-driving, not using safety restraints like helmets, car seat belts, and child restraints, distraction while driving because of mobile phones, poor and unsafe road infrastructure, and not following traffic laws. This has given rise to huge economic losses to the individual, his/her family, and the nation as a whole.

However, sophisticated equipment like an X-ray provides assistance in the treatment processes following the diagnosis and further helps in the monitoring of the treatment as well. The rising number of road accident cases is creating a market demand owing to the improvement of the lives of the patients and helping them to cope up with their disabilities, mentally and physically.

There is a presence of other medical imaging modalities apart from X-ray systems which include magnetic resonance imaging systems (MRI), CT, and ultrasound among others. These are also widely available, are quite efficient with state-of-the-art technologies, and are used for various diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Additionally, ultrasound is considered the safest form of imaging as this does not make use of any ionizing radiation and makes use of sound waves instead. It is the first choice among people for pregnancy, emergency diagnosis, cardiac, spine, and imaging of other internal organs. Also, a CT scan is widely used during an emergency in emergency rooms, this is because it takes less than five minutes in scanning. While the MRI scans take a longer time, a minimum of 30 minutes but provide an in-depth analysis of a particular diagnosis, which is considered better than an X-ray system. Hence, the presence of these imaging systems will impose a threat in hampering the market growth in the forecast period.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Introduction1.1. Market Definition1.2. Market Segmentation

2. Research Methodology2.1. Research Data2.2. Assumptions

3. Executive Summary3.1. Research Highlights

4. Market Dynamics4.1. Market Drivers4.2. Market Restraints4.3. Market Opportunities4.4. Porters Five Forces Analysis4.4.1. Bargaining Power of Suppliers4.4.2. Bargaining Power of Buyers4.4.3. Threat of New Entrants4.4.4. Threat of Substitutes4.4.5. Competitive Rivalry in the Industry4.5. Industry Value Chain Analysis

5. X-Ray Devices Market Analysis, by Type5.1. Introduction5.2. Portable5.3. Stationary

6. X-Ray Devices Market Analysis, by Application6.1. Introduction6.2. Diagnostic6.3. Treatment

7. X-Ray Devices Market Analysis, by Medical Condition7.1. Introduction7.2. Cancer7.3. Digestive Problems7.4. Fractures7.5. Others

8. X-Ray Devices Market Analysis, by Medical Application8.1. Introduction8.2. Human8.3. Veterinary

9. X-Ray Devices Market Analysis, by Technology9.1. Introduction9.2. Analog9.3. Digital

10. X-Ray Devices Market Analysis, by Geography10.1. Introduction10.2. North America10.2.1. North America X-Ray Devices Market, By Type, 2019 to 202510.2.2. North America X-Ray Devices Market, By Application, 2019 to 202510.2.3. North America X-Ray Devices Market, By Medical Condition, 2019 to 202510.2.4. North America X-Ray Devices Market, By Medical Application, 2019 to 202510.2.5. North America X-Ray Devices Market, By Technology, 2019 to 202510.2.6. By Country10.2.6.1. United States10.2.6.2. Canada10.2.6.3. Mexico10.3. South America10.3.1. South America X-Ray Devices Market, By Type, 2019 to 202510.3.2. South America X-Ray Devices Market, By Application, 2019 to 202510.3.3. South America X-Ray Devices Market, By Medical Condition, 2019 to 202510.3.4. South America X-Ray Devices Market, By Medical Application, 2019 to 202510.3.5. South America X-Ray Devices Market, By Technology, 2019 to 202510.3.6. By Country10.3.6.1. Brazil10.3.6.2. Argentina10.3.6.3. Others10.4. Europe10.4.1. Europe X-Ray Devices Market, By Type, 2019 to 202510.4.2. Europe X-Ray Devices Market, By Application, 2019 to 202510.4.3. Europe X-Ray Devices Market, By Medical Condition, 2019 to 202510.4.4. Europe X-Ray Devices Market, By Medical Application, 2019 to 202510.4.5. Europe X-Ray Devices Market, By Technology, 2019 to 202510.4.6. By Country10.4.6.1. UK10.4.6.2. Germany10.4.6.3. France10.4.6.4. Others10.5. Middle East and Africa10.5.1. Middle East and Africa X-Ray Devices Market, By Type, 2019 to 202510.5.2. Middle East and Africa X-Ray Devices Market, By Application, 2019 to 202510.5.3. Middle East and Africa X-Ray Devices Market, By Medical Condition, 2019 to 202510.5.4. Middle East and Africa X-Ray Devices Market, By Medical Application, 2019 to 202510.5.5. Middle East and Africa X-Ray Devices Market, By Technology, 2019 to 202510.5.6. By Country10.5.6.1. United Arab Emirates10.5.6.2. Israel10.5.6.3. Saudi Arabia10.5.6.4. Others10.6. Asia Pacific10.6.1. Asia Pacific X-Ray Devices Market, By Type, 2019 to 202510.6.2. Asia Pacific X-Ray Devices Market, By Application, 2019 to 202510.6.3. Asia Pacific X-Ray Devices Market, By Medical Condition, 2019 to 202510.6.4. Asia Pacific X-Ray Devices Market, By Medical Application, 2019 to 202510.6.5. Asia Pacific X-Ray Devices Market, By Technology, 2019 to 202510.6.6. By Country10.6.6.1. Japan10.6.6.2. China10.6.6.3. India10.6.6.4. Australia10.6.6.5. Others

11. Competitive Environment and Analysis11.1. Major Players and Strategy Analysis11.2. Emerging Players and Market Lucrativeness11.3. Mergers, Acquisitions, Agreements, and Collaborations11.4. Vendor Competitiveness Matrix

12. Company Profiles 12.1. Fujifilm Holdings Corporation12.2. General Electric Company12.3. Siemens Healthcare Private Limited12.4. Koninklijke Philips N.V.12.5. Shimadzu Corporation12.6. Canon Medical Systems Corporation12.7. Carestream Health12.8. Hitachi, Ltd.12.9. Vision Medicaid Equipments Pvt. Ltd.12.10. IBIS S.R.L.

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/r0gegu

Research and Markets also offers Custom Research services providing focused, comprehensive and tailored research.

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Insights on the X-Ray Devices Global Market to 2025 - Drivers, Restraints and Opportunities - GlobeNewswire

Is the solar industry prepared for a wave of end-of-life inverters? – Solar Power World

Posted on August 11, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

SunSystem Technology

Many commercial and utility-scale solar projects installed at the beginning of the solar construction boom are celebrating their 10th birthday around the year 2020. But instead of something to revel, this milestone is a nuisance for many project owners given that the string inverters on these systems are nearing their average 15-year lifespans.

In a new report, Wood Mackenzie estimated that approximately 4.2 GWDC of global solar assets will run into premature failures in 2020, with the annual total jumping to 36 GWDC in 2025.

The big question is are project owners adequately prepared for the O&M necessary to handle an influx of expired inverters between now and 2025?

In the study, Wood Mackenzie found the basic scope of solar O&M contracts cover very few basic maintenance activities.

Silvia Blumenschein-Schtz, CEO of solar monitoring provider Solar-Log, has found a similar theme in conversations with project owners. She recalls an EPC approaching her at a solar tradeshow in early 2020, saying he was thinking about adding monitoring to his portfolio of about 10,000 projects. She mentioned it would be helpful to also add monitoring hardware to the inverters to collect more comprehensive performance data, and he bristled at the thought of having to visit every site to install them.

I said, Dont you go out there one time per year? And he looked at me and said, I dont see a need for that,' Blumenschein-Schtz said. If you just talk about the typical residential/commercial/industrial sector, I think we would all be surprised to learn how many sites are not properly monitored yet. People dont know that they are losing a lot of money, and how easy it is to get back into that business to make money on the long term.

Solar-Logs monitoring platform.

There are plenty of options in the solar monitoring space. The technology continues to advance to alert project owners of failures or maintenance requirements with greater accuracy. But many asset owners still arent investing in it.

Solar-Log chief marketing officer Anne Nelson said more education is needed to show project owners the importance of monitoring.

O&M and the idea of selling services is a relatively new topic when were talking about the solar market, Nelson said.

Many first-generation solar projects were installed without monitoring, so project owners likely have no way of knowing if those aging inverters are working properly.

Solar-Log Base hardware

When we talk about the amount of money that would be lost, especially if an inverter dies on site and is completely undetected, even a small drop means a big financial loss, but if the inverter completely dies, thats a lot of money lost, Nelson said. So a lot of plant owners, if they knew that, would be totally willing to invest in having a service provider come out and add monitoringso that they can detect and protect this investment thats supposed to last 20 to 25 years,much after the lifetime of the inverter.

Most new inverters come with built-in monitoring options, but when sites have multiple inverter brands due to replacements over the years, monitoring is best performed by one neutral third-party system.

I really believe its so important to have a neutral inverter-agnostic monitoring platform, because when were talking about older plants, if you have to swap out components that are not matching the brand thats already on site, how do you monitor that unless you have a neutral system that can connect all of the different components regardless of which brand or model it is? Nelson said.

Another issue for project owners and O&M companies is that all inverters wont fail at the same time, costing more money for multiple one-off truck rolls to sites.

Youre not going to be able to be super-efficient about this because theyre all going to be a bunch of one-offs and failing at different times, said Derek Chase, CEO of O&M provider SunSystem Technology. If youre able to aggregate all of these and then make a mass purchase and schedule them all really smoothly with dense routes, you could really reduce the cost of all this. But nobodys going to be that proactive theyre just going to wait for one to go off and another one to go off. Somehow, somebodys got to see the bigger picture here and try to aggregate all this stuff together.

SunSystem Technology

SunSystem is working on pioneering such an aggregation with Palmetto Solar for the residential solar segment. The O&M company was struggling to organize sales and financing logistics for all the individual homeowners needing inverters fixed. SunSystem decided to partner with financier Palmetto Solar to aggregate all the individual, non-leased PPA customers and sell them new inverters, service and maintenance through Palmettos existing financing plan. That way, residents arent looking at one staggering bill for an inverter replacement.

But inverter maintenance for the larger-scale solar market is more complicated. Chase thinks many asset owners still view O&M as an afterthought. He also thinks there should be more inspections to ensure systems are safe throughout their lifespans.

Theres not even a standard and theres no enforcement of any of this, so thats what I think makes it be an afterthought. [Owners think], Hey, whatever, if something happens well figure it out,rather than, If I dont do this, an inspector might show up and shut our plant down and that would be bad news,' Chase said.

Chase also has concerns about whether string inverter manufacturers are prepared to handle the influx of inverters approaching their 15-year lifespans that require maintenance or replacement.

When SunSystem has to troubleshoot an inverter, Chase first calls the manufacturer to verify the unit is actually dead and the warranty is out of play. Then he sees if there are any monetary breaks if the unit is replaced with that companys product vs. switching brands.

Unfortunately, many inverter companies from the early 2010s are no longer in business. The inverter market has always been volatile, with high-profile company exits and acquisitions happening almost every year. Even if the original manufacturer is still in business, 10-year-old inverters most likely are out of warranty.

SunSystem Technology

For those companies still around, SunSystems team of 170 technicians has found that calling a manufacturer to help diagnose specific inverter issues can take up to an hour.

If you multiply that by 170 technicians, plus whatever other technicians are out there from different companies, the amount of just sheer on-hold time from a labor cost standpoint is crazy, Chase said.

He thinks inverter manufacturers should either scale-up their customer service workforce or offer digital solutions that allow technicians to submit return merchandise authorization requests through an app or similar streamlined process.

String inverter manufacturer CPS America has heard the customer service issues from O&M technicians and is working on solutions to streamline the process. The company uses RingCentral to route calls and has a goal for a human representative to answer the phone 90% of the time.

CPS also launched an Authorized Service Provider training program in early 2020 to help O&M techs learn specifics about its inverter line to help them troubleshoot in the field by themselves. The training is virtual and also offered at the companys Texas headquarters, which helps O&M techs form relationships with CPS workers.

The inverter companies are squeezed and under pressure. Not every inverter company has enough resources to be able to answer the phone all the time, said Ed Heacox, general manager of CPS America. One way to help make sure good service is available is to anticipate it and get the relationships in place in the region.

CPS has warehouses full of refurbished spare inverter models available for O&M technicians to swap with failed units. But as 2025 gets closer and old units start reaching end-of-life en masse, that stockpile will eventually run out.

In addition to checking with suppliers like us on readiness to support the field, another diligence some companies are going through is thinking ahead to, well, whats a reasonable retrofit of an old site to a modern inverter? Heacox said.

He expects retrofitting to grow in popularity as the original inverter fleet ages, whether its replacing old central inverters with string, replacing 600-V inverters with 1,000-V or higher, or other configurations.

SunSystems Chase said typically the most affordable solution in the case of string inverter failures would be to swap with another string inverter, but systems may have more longevity if the old string inverters are swapped in favor of new technology like string inverters with optimizers, or even microinverters. It may also be an opportune time to add storage to projects.

One thing that I always tell everybody if youre going to get a new inverter [or] make any investments your first dollars need to go toward a monitoring system, Chase said.

Detecting that an inverter is down in the first place is crucial as early inverters inch closer to their 15-year lifespans.

Were 10 years in now. Its a perfect time to go back to your original customer base and say, Hey, you could be losing money, lets take a look at the system. Lets install adequate professional monitoring so we can detect these issues,' said Nelson.

Continued here:
Is the solar industry prepared for a wave of end-of-life inverters? - Solar Power World

NBAs Blake Griffin shares healthy living tips, including cannabis, in new podcast – The GrowthOp

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Blake Griffin is leaving no stone or plant unturned in his new Pursuit of Healthiness podcast.

The six-time NBA all-stars newest project has him sitting down with a host of celebrities and experts to discuss health and wellness, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The podcast, which has already been renewed for a second season by Audible, is the realization of a lifelong dream for Griffin and allows the player to share the many secrets he has uncovered in his quest to lead a truly healthy life.

Every episode I walked away with some information that I didnt know, Griffin said. One of my favourite episodes was when I interviewed Dr. Scott Smith from NASA. Hes the lead nutritionist and we got to go to NASA, tour his whole lab, the rest of the NASA (facility) and then I got to sit down and ask him questions.

That one was special because we actually went there to do the interview in person last summer.

Upcoming episodes feature conversations with Arianna Huffington about the importance of sleep, Michael B. Jordan on his workout routine and Chelsea Handler on (what else?) weed.

Handler, a long-time pot purveyor who said she re-introduced herself to cannabis after Donald Trump became president, famously celebrated her 45th birthday by skiing half-naked down a Whistler mountain with a joint in one hand and a margarita in the other.

I just think it is the way forward, she said. It is a healthy alternative to alcohol, especially for a woman over 40. You dont get the hangovers. You can have a clean living ethos. It has just changed my world so I just wanted to do everything I can to get behind the movement.

She will likely find a sympathetic ear in Griffin. With estimates of cannabis use by current NBA players being as high as 85 per cent, the Detroit Pistons power forward has told Sports Illustrated the drug can only help players who are playing through the pain.

It doesnt really affect me, but so many guys would probably benefit from it and not take as many painkillers, which have worse long-term effects, he said. So I would vote yes. I just think it makes sense.

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NBAs Blake Griffin shares healthy living tips, including cannabis, in new podcast - The GrowthOp

Movie Review: ‘The Old Guard’ | The Harvard Press | Features | Feature Articles – Harvard Press

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Directed by: Gina Prince-BythewoodStarring: Charlize Theron, KiKi Layne, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Harry MellingAvailable on NetflixRated R, 125 minutes

The war in Afghanistan is already the longest military conflict in American history, but human memories are short, and its hard to comprehend 19 years of continuous war. Halfway through The Old Guard, an action thriller with a supernatural twist, whose two hours are otherwise full of gunfights and fistfights and swordfights and double-crosses and for-the-greater-good clichs, a young woman quietly puts the wars terrible longevity into focus. The young woman, Nile, explains that her father was killed in action when she was 11; she herself is now a U.S. Marine, fighting in the same war.

Charlize Theron and KiKiLayne star in The Old Guard. (Courtesy photo)

However, she wont be killed in action; as she has just discovered, shes immortal. The Old Guard is a literal title, referring to a band of immortal supersoldiers, some of whom are hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Led by Andy (Charlize Theron, Mad Max: Fury Road), the groups existence is a perfect secret, their deeds throughout history, from the Crusades to the Civil War, going without notice. This is by design; in previous eras, members of their ranks have been accused of witchcraft and tortured to insanity, so while their lonely way of life is hard, its better than the alternative.

The biggest threat facing the Old Guard these days comes in the form of Big Pharma, specifically a twitchy young CEO, Steven Merrick (Harry Melling, Harry Potter). Helped by a former CIA agent, Copley (Chiwetel Ejiofor, Children of Men), Merrick sends paramilitary squads to ensnare the immortals, hoping to experiment on their bodies and maybe make a few cool billions by synthesizing their genetic material. Sensing the danger theyre in, Andy urges the group to lie low.

Then Nile (KiKi Layne, If Beale Street Could Talk) comes along. New to immortality and unable to comprehend her situation, Nile has questions, but the answers she needs are answers Andy cant give her. When she asks why this small group has been granted immortality, the others cant say with any certainty. When they plot revenge on Copley, Nile stops to ask why others have to die. The next youngest member of the group is over two hundred years old; with a fresh young face in their ranks, the Old Guard is forced, for the first time in centuries, to reckon with the unique advantage they have over mortals.

These moral and philosophical questions arent uninteresting, but what impact these questions have is flattened and diluted by the scripts constant stream of bland dialogue. Are you praying? God doesnt exist, Andy scoffs at Nile on the same day theyve met; This is about science, not profits, Copley pleads impotently when Merrick reveals his true intentions; We dont have all the answers, but we do have purpose, Andy philosophizes in a rambling monologue. The Old Guard is full of lines like these, lines meant to evoke simultaneously the gravitas of superhero movies and the conviction of a political speech. But with understated performances from nearly every member of the cast, these musings, offered in the movies quieter scenes, are unconvincing.

Luckily, quiet scenes are relatively rare; this is an action movie, after all, and a well-designed one at that. Director Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love & Basketball) crafts blistering fight scenes that show off a wide variety of fighting styles, developing characters through wordless choreography. Action movies with high body counts often make us roll our eyes at the absurd scale of their carnage, but The Old Guard homes in on the act of killing, reminding us that death is deeply personal.

What makes The Old Guard linger, though, is the subtle parallel it draws between history and the zeitgeist of this fraught moment in time. Despite its dull dialogue, the movie still articulates an analogy between the eternal violence that haunts Andy and the violence Nile has known throughout her much shorter life. There are historical patterns, the waves that rise and fall over centuries, and then there are the patterns we observe within the smaller span of our lifetimes. Nile may have only ever known wartime, but she still balks when Andy warns her of everlasting cycles of violence. The Old Guard is a violent movie in the tradition of other violent movies, but it challenges us to imagine what it would take to break out of our old habits.

Danny Eisenberg grew up in Harvard and has been reviewing movies for the Harvard Press since 2010. He lives and works in Denver, Colorado.

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Movie Review: 'The Old Guard' | The Harvard Press | Features | Feature Articles - Harvard Press

A Second U Expands Education Platform with Precision Nutrition, Bringing World-Class Nutrition Certification to the Foundation’s Trainers – Club…

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Club Industry was not involved in the creation of this content.

Toronto, Aug. 04, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --A Second U, a nonprofit foundation that trains formerly incarcerated people for careers in the fitness industry, announces today the expansion of its education program, which will now include nutrition certification fromPrecision Nutrition, the worlds largest online nutrition and healthy lifestyle coaching and certification company. Through the new partnership, A Second U trainers will gain complimentary access to the Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification. This will provide A Second U trainers with the ability to integrate nutrition coaching into their personal training programs, while also pursuing new clients as online nutrition coaches.

Jeffrey Korzenik, author of Untapped Talent: How Second Chance Hiring Works for Your Business and the Community, and chief investment strategist at Fifth Third Bank, N.A., has become an advocate of hiring practice reform that supports the employment of formerly incarcerated individuals. When reacting to the news of this partnership, he stated: The stigma of incarceration compounded by a limited education and a lack of employment history make it incredibly difficult for those with criminal records to find steady employment after re-entry. A Second U helps to remove these barriers and together with Precision Nutrition, can elevate its education offering and help these trainers not only satisfy a need for employment but also a desire for stable and fulfilling careers.

Throughout A Second Us intensive six-week program, participants class work focuses on preparation for a national certification exam, and also teaches a set of soft skills such as interpersonal skills and salesmanship. The Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification is the worlds most respected nutrition education program and provides fitness professionals and those interested in a career in health or nutrition with a deep understanding of nutrition, the authority to coach it, and the ability to turn what theyve learned into results. Combined, these two programs provide these formerly incarcerated individuals with a diversified education to help them secure and maintain employment.

Like so many formerly incarcerated individuals, I struggled to build a career aligned with my newfound passion for fitness upon re-entry and that experience inspired me to build the A Second U program. For me, education has always been key to building my confidence and establishing myself in the fitness industry. Partnering with Precision Nutrition helps A Second U expand our education program by providing myself and all of our trainers with the latest in the science of nutrition, allowing us to coach beyond fitness to better health, said Hector Guadalupe, founder of A Second U.

In addition to the Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification, each A Second U trainer will gain unrestricted access to Precision Nutritions extensive library of client-facing articles and infographics, as well as the first-hand experiences shared in the Precision Nutrition online communities.

Health and fitness professionals know that without proper nutrition, clients will struggle with weight, body composition, metabolism, and achieving their health goals. That is where Precision Nutrition's Level 1 Certification comes in, bridging the gap between nutrition, sleep, movement and stress management to create a holistic approach coaches can use to help their clients get sustainable results, said Marc Zionts, Executive Chairman of Precision Nutrition. Precision Nutrition is proud to be that bridge for the ambitious and hard-working trainers at A Second U, helping them to continue their investment in themselves and ultimately, their clients, too.

About Precision Nutrition

Precision Nutrition offers a sustainable, practice-based approach to losing fat, building strength, and getting healthy. As a global leader in providing health and fitness professionals the education, tools, and coaching they need, nearly 100,000 coaches in over 140 countries use the Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certificationalong with ProCoach, the companys proprietary coaching softwareto improve client results, increase operational efficiency, and drive business growth. Precision Nutrition offers the only nutrition certification endorsed by CrossFit, the National Academy of Sports Medicine (NASM), and the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). The American Council on Exercise (ACE) and The National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching (NBHWC) also approve Precision Nutrition for its professionals continuing education credits.

In addition, Precision Nutrition Coaching for Men and Women is a personalized, evidence-based healthy nutrition and lifestyle program, which has been validated in multiple peer-reviewed studies and helped over 100,000 people improve their nutrition, fitness, and lifestyle. For more information, visit http://www.precisionnutrition.com.

About A Second U Foundation

A Second U Foundation is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to educate, certify, and secure employment for formerly incarcerated people as certified personal trainers. Through opportunity, empowerment, and community, they aim to eliminate recidivism or the tendency for reoffending. Since 2016, A Second Us program which combines education and mentorship has helped more than 200 individuals get certified as personal trainers. For more information, or to donate, please visitwww.asecondufoundation.org.

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A Second U Expands Education Platform with Precision Nutrition, Bringing World-Class Nutrition Certification to the Foundation's Trainers - Club...

Reduce High Blood Pressure Healthy Nutrition And Wellness Website Launched – Newswire

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

Best Happy Fit announced that Blood Pressure Drop, a new website, is now available for people looking to discover the most effective natural ways to reduce high blood pressure.

Best Happy Fit announced the launch of Blood Pressure Drop, a new website specialized in helping people reduce high blood pressure. The website provides valuable information about reaching ones health and wellness goals.

More information can be found at https://bloodpressuredrop.com

The American Heart Association estimates that almost 78 million US adults have high blood pressure. The newly launched website Blood Pressure Drop aims to educate people on the numerous ways in which they can reduce high blood pressure.

Although high blood pressure is largely symptomless, it puts people at risk for several diseases, from heart problems and stroke to eye damage and blindness.

According to Blood Pressure Drop, one's lifestyle can play a very important role in treating high blood pressure. If people successfully control their blood pressure with a healthy lifestyle, they might avoid, delay or reduce the need for medication.

One natural way to reduce high blood pressure is to exercise regularly. In addition, exercising helps lower one's stress levels, strengthen their heart and manage their weight. Ideally, one should attempt to do at least 75 to 150 minutes of physical activity per week.

Another excellent way to prevent and control high blood pressure is lowering one's sodium intake. The website recommends eating fewer salty snacks and processed foods like chips, salted nuts and pretzels and not adding table salt to one's food.

Blood Pressure Drop also explains that quitting smoking is highly beneficial. Smoking actually causes an instant raise in one's heart rate and blood pressure and can severely damage blood vessels, narrowing arteries and causing inflammation.

The new website further notes that a healthy eating plan can both reduce the risk of developing high blood pressure and lower a blood pressure that is already too high.

Blood Pressure Drop states: "Hypertension affects a large proportion of the worlds population. While drugs are one way to control this dangerous condition, the natural remedies for high blood pressure in this article may help. Eat healthily, exercise more, and visit your doctor regularly for a checkup."

Interested parties can find more by visiting the above-mentioned website.

DAILY BRIEFING Pacific Beach business improvement district election UC San Diego studies human genome SeaWorld saves unique birds – A round-up of…

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

DAILY BRIEFING Pacific Beach business improvement district election, UC San Diego studies human genome, SeaWorld saves unique birds

On July 31, SD Fire-Rescue fire engineer Ryan Ferraras family and friends gathered for a private memorial in his honor and later that day they held a paddle out ceremony in Pacific Beach next to Crystal Pier. Above, Jen Huyck reaches out to Timmy Ferraraduring the paddle out to celebrate Ferraras life. Prior to his 13 years with SDFD, Ferrara was a San Diego lifeguard in Pacific Beach and a longtime instructor for the San Diego Junior Lifeguard program.Ferrara, 39, was tragically killed in a motorcycle crash on Piping Rock Lane on July 18. PHOTO BY JOHN COCOZZA

A round-upof news, community, and business briefs from sdnews.com highlighting whats happening in our community.

Wednesday, Aug. 5

DISCOVER PB ELECTION

The Pacific Beach business improvement district, Discover PB, is holding its annual board election in the fall. Nominations are currently being solicited for five seats available for the 15-member board, which has appointed a nominating committee to whom nominations may be made by submitting a petition or letter. The nomination petition or letter must be submitted to the nominating committee by Aug. 27 at 5 p.m., either by mail or by emailing [emailprotected]

The Pacific Beach business improvement district includes business and rental properties with six or more units, in the area circumscribed by Interstate 5, the Mission Beach boardwalk, Crown Point Drive and Turquoise Street. The purpose of the business improvement district and the Pacific Beach Community Development Corporation is to provide an organizational framework and funding for the improvement of the area. Pacific Beach area business license holders and owners of rental property with six or more units, are invited to run for election as a member of the Pacific Beach Community Development Corporation board of directors.

The board of directors will also review the list of business and rental property license holders to confirm their representatives eligibility to be voting delegates for the election. The business delegate will be the person named in that business license unless a business indicates differently in writing to the Pacific Beach Community Development Corporation board of directors.

The board of directors must receive the written notice of the business delegate change at or before their Sept. 1 meeting. All delegates terms will end with the election. The list of known business and property license holders eligible to vote will be available for review after the Sept. 1 by contacting Sara Berns at 858-273-3303.

The board will then consider reports and other matters to be placed on the agenda for the annual election meeting. The annual meeting of the board of directors is scheduled for Oct. 20 at 5 p.m. at Discover PB office, 1503 Garnet Ave. Newly elected members of the board will be inducted and the board will consider any other items placed on the agenda by the board. A majority of the current board of directors shall constitute a quorum for a meeting of the delegates for the Oct. 20 annual meeting.

LOCAL ADVISOR RECOGNIZED

Alex Howellfrom UBS La Jolla branchrecently made the 2020Forbes/SHOOKTop Next-Gen Wealth Advisors list. The 2020 Top Next-Gen list recognizes 500 rising advisors who collectively help manage over $1 trillion in client assets. Howell was listed in theForbes2018 and 2019 listings of Best-in-State Next-Generation Wealth Advisors.

As a future industry leader, Alex had appeared with others on rising star lists several times before and the consistency with which they nurture relationships sets an excellent example for those who work with them and for younger people entering the profession. We are exceedingly proud of them and of their teams, saidChris Marsh, managing director and UBS San Diego market head.

SAN DIEGO YOUTH SYMPHONYS 75TH ANNIVERSARY

San Diego Youth Symphony, after having successfully transitioned all programs online, and then having a quieter summer than normal, canceled the International Youth Symphony program as well as plans to offer new summer classes. So the symphony has determined this is a good opportunity to reconnect with the public and share its plans for celebrating its milestone 75th anniversary season.

A 75th anniversary postcard will arrive in the mail soon that highlights events currently being planned including guest artists, collaborations, outdoor performances and a very special celebration for the 25th anniversary of music director Jeff Edmons.After a planned season-ending celebration in June, plans are to bring back the International Youth Symphony program as well as offering new classes in Summer 2021.

SEAWORLD SAVES BIRDS

After several weeks of rehabilitation at SeaWorldSan Diego, two tiny, but incredibly uniquebirds a California least tern and a western snowy plover were recently returned to their natural habitatfor a second chance at lifeat a protected stretch of beach at Naval Base Coronado.Both birds were outfitted with ID bands so that SeaWorldswildlife biologists can continue to monitor their progress.

While these two birds aresmall in size, their importance to the local ecosystem is huge.Both species are indicators of the health of coastal beaches and ocean environments.The return of these two birds illustrates the collaboration betweenSeaWorldSan Diego, theNaval Base Coronado, and SanDiego Zoo Global, who partner to collect, rehabilitate,and release a handful of these threatened and endangered birds every nesting season.

UC SAN DIEGO STUDIES HUMAN GENOME

Researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine are among the contributors to a package of 10 studies, published July 29 in the journalNature,describing the latest results from the ongoing Encyclopedia of DNA Elements (ENCODE) project, a worldwide effort led by the National Institutes of Health to understand how the human genome functions.

This third series of published papers includes descriptions of millions of candidate DNA switches from the human and mouse genomes that appear to regulate when and where genes are turned on, a new registry that assigns a portion of these DNA switches to useful biological categories and new visualization tools to assist in the use of ENCODE's large datasets.

To assess the potential functions of different DNA regions, ENCODE researchers studied biochemical processes that are typically associated with the switches that regulate genes. This biochemical approach is an efficient way to explore the entire genome rapidly and comprehensively.

Tuesday, Aug. 4

MARGARITA MONDAYS

Point Loma Fish Shopis kicking off August with a newMargarita Mondays. Guests can enjoy $2 off any of the locations specialty margaritas. There are many options to choose from including Frozen Margaritas, the classic House Margarita, Spicy Margarita, and a Strawberry Margarita. And dont forget about theSpicy Peach Margarita,a blend oftequila, triple sec, peach pure, jalapeos, fresh lime juice, and signature Fish Shop margarita mix, served over ice with tajin rim. Pair any margarita with Fish Shops tacos, or build-your-own taco, salad, plate, or sandwich. The special runs all day long.

BEWARE OF COVID SCAMS

Anewstudyshows Coronavirus is leading to an unprecedented number of scams and California is the No. 1 most targeted state. As of July 15, California residents filed 10,938 fraud complaints to the FTC. This marks a 110% increase since the WHO declared a pandemic in March when 5,211 complaints were filed. This has resulted in $14.8 million in losses or $300 per victim in the state.

Nationally, the FTC has registered144,727 reports of fraud costing victims $93 million a median loss of $263 per person. Here are four common online shopping scams to avoid:

THE PRICE GOUGING:Some retailers are marking up essential items such as toilet paper a
nd hand sanitizer at abhorrent levels.How to avoid:If you suspect you are a victim of price gouging, report it to theDepartment of Justice.Currently, the market is stocked back up at normal prices for essential items and it is a good idea to plan ahead for a second or third wave.

THE UNDELIVERED GOODS SCAM:There are thousands of websites offering essential products including masks and gloves that simply take your payment and financial information, never send you the product and have your information for future scams. How to avoid:Purchase products from big companies that you trust.If it is a smaller company, do research by googling them to see reviews and if any complaints have been filed. Shipping time-limit:Because of this scam, sellers are obliged by law to either give you an estimated shipping date or to ship your products out to you within 30 days. If there is a delay in the expected shipping date, the company you purchased the product from must notify you.

FREE GROCERIES SCAM:Scammers text their victims telling them that they just won free groceries from Costco at a $130 value. All the customers need to do is give scammers their personal information, and they will supposedly get free Costco groceries at their doorstep. How to avoid:There are currently no national grocery chains offering free groceries. Do not give out your personal information.

GALA GOES VIRTUAL

Experience the magic of The Arc of San Diegos Annual Gala virtually. This year's event is on Saturday, Aug. 29 at 6 p.m. Featured will be fabulous auction items and other prizes as well as special guest speakers and musical entertainment.Chaired by Linda Kurtin, proceeds will benefit children and adults receiving essential life services at The Arc of San Diego.To purchase a sponsorship or make a donation, visitarc-sd.com/gala.

CLEAR THE SHELTERS

During August, most of the San Diego Animal Welfare Coalition sdpetinfo.org/clear-the-shelters-2020/ is participating in a nationwide campaign to Clear the Shelters in partnership with NBC Universal and Telemundo. To help individuals and communities continue to practice safe social distancing, this years Clear the Shelters looks a little different. Instead of a single-day event, this adoption drive will span an entire month to allow for virtual adoption consultations by appointment. In addition to promoting adoptions, the campaign encourages donations to participating shelters.

Benefits of Pet Adoption

* Adoption is more affordable than purchasing a pet.

* You know youre getting an animal who has been assessed behaviorally and medically.

* You may receive special pet-specific resources. For example, San Diego Humane Society offers training advice, pet supplies and educational information to support pet families for the lifespan of a pet.

HOTEL REOPENS

Manchester Grand Hyatt San Diegowelcomed guests back beginningAug. 2 following its temporary service pause due to COVID-19. The waterfront hotel, located in downtown San Diego, provides guests with an ideal, accessible getaway or summer staycation. With two towers and 1,628 guest rooms, the expansive property features ample space for socially distancing thanks to an extensive property-wide renovation, completed in December. The final enhancement included the lobby, whereupon entrance, guests are greeted by a streamlined arrival experience and lobby with soaring ceilings, contemporary architecture, and a design that echoes the modern aesthetic that has been introduced throughout the rest of the hotel.

MONTH-LONG FUNDRAISER

The San Diego Seals professional lacrosse team, which plays its home games at Pechanga Arena in the Midway District, has teamed with Home of Guiding Hands to present theFuel for Movement Healthy Lifestyle Challenge, a month-long campaign promoting health and raising funds for a great cause.

Throughout August, social media-driven content will ask San Diegans how they stay healthy and active, while in-store fundraising at everbowls 21 San Diego locations will support HGH, a San Diego-based non-profit that serves children and adults with developmental and intellectual disabilities.

To join the challenge, participants must post on social media their answer to the question of the day with the hashtag #Fuel4Movement and tag and follow both the Seals (@SealsLax) and everbowl (@everbowl/@everbowlCraftSuperfood) accounts.

LUXURY WORKSPACE PACKAGES

With many people now working remotely, the need for a space where you can find peace and focus has become a necessity.The Lodge at Torrey Pines in La Jolla is now reserving a guest room/office for the day offering stunning views, and all luxury amenities, including room service and poolside cabanas, the AAA Five Diamond resort has to offer. Guests can even upgrade to theBusiness to a Tee package, which includes a priority tee time on the Torrey Pines Golf Course.

NEW BREW AT STONE

In early 2020Stone Brewinglaunched the Stone Pilot Series to trial beers for a coveted spot on its national year-round lineup. Midway through the year, the second release in the series has proven itself worthy. Stone Brewing announces thatStone Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lageris here to stay, and to celebrate, releases its new companion, theStone Michelada Mix.

In celebration of Stone Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lagers success, Stone also announces the release of its Stone Michelada Mix. Not in the sauce business, but most definitely in the any-excuse-to-drink-a-beer business, Stone has made a mix of tomato juice, hot sauce, peppers and spices. The 32-ounce mix is available atshop.stonebrewing.com. It will soon be sold in stores alongside Stone Buenaveza Salt & Lime Lager.

NEW JUNIOR LEAGUE PRESIDENT

Andrea Myers, a partner at the law firm ofSeltzer Caplan McMahon Vitek,has been elected president of The Junior League of San Diego. Myers term was effective July 1 and she will serve as president through June 2021.

Following in her grandmother and mothers footsteps, Myers has carried on her familys active involvement in the organization. Myers joined the League in 2010 and has served in several leadership roles, including the fund development director and chair of the Nominating Committee. She passionately dedicates herself to furthering the Junior Leagues mission of building better communities and developing the next generation of women leaders.

GREEN NEW DEAL LAUNCH

The San Diego Green New Deal Alliance, a diverse, grassroots coalition of local labor unions, environmental and social justice organizations, faith groups, and small businesses will be joined by elected officials, community leaders, and the public at an official virtual launch Monday, Aug. 10 at 11 a.m.

Among the participants will be the Climate Action Campaign, County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego Councilmember Chris Ward, the San Diego Urban Sustainability Coalition and the Kumeyaay and Barona Bands of Mission Indians.

Prompting the virtual event are 2018 findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warning that humanity must achieve a zero-carbon future. Failure to do so, according to the panel, will cause catastrophic and irreversible consequences, with communities of color poised to suffer disproportionately. The San Diego Green New Deal Alliance believes communities cannot afford to wait for federal action, and that our region can and must lead efforts to achieve a livable future in a way that creates good jobs and more just communities. The virtual launch can be accessed byregistering here.

POWERHAUS FUNDRAISER

Powerhaus Wholesome Pizza & Eats at 1550 Garnet Ave. is pitching in to help Discover Pacific Beach, the communitys business improvement district.

DPB provides sidewalk sweeping services four days a week and maintains 36 public trash cans for our neighborhood, said the eatery in a release. With the increase of outdoor dining and takeout, this summer has seen a significant increase in trash.
At the same time, DPB has had to cancel most of its major fundraising events this year due to COVID. We at Powerhaus want to support DPBs continued efforts for sidewalk cleaning and other community improvement projects, and are asking for your help to do. Its simple. Order Powerhaus on Aug. 12. Let us know youre participating in the fundraiser, and well donate 25% of your order to Discover PB." Contact Powerhaus at 858-886-7666 or email [emailprotected].

SANDAG VIRTUAL PRESENTATIONS

San Diego Association of Governments, the regions transportation planning agency, is giving two virtual informational presentations at 9 a.m. on Aug. 7 and 14 on the agencys plans for addressing traffic congestion, increasing social equity by expanding access to quality transit, and meeting state greenhouse gas emissions mandates.

The transportation vision for the2021 Regional Planre-imagines mobility in the 21stcentury and is fundamentally shaped by key strategies known as the5 Big Moves. These meetings will take place virtuallyvia Zoomand will be open to the public. Time will be allotted for committee discussion and public comment. Simultaneousinterpretation in Spanish will be available at each meeting.

SAN DIEGO AIRPORT ADDS NONSTOP ROUTE

San Diego International Airport(SAN) will add once daily, nonstop service toSanta Barbara via Santa Barbara Airport (SBA) onAlaska Airlinesbeginning Nov. 20. This is a new route and the 29thdestination Alaska services from SAN.

The addition of service to Santa Barbara marks the fifth new market added by Alaska Airlines in 2020. Service to Redmond, Ore. and San Luis Obispo began in January. In July,Alaska Airlines announced service to Cancun, Mexico, beginning Nov. 20 through April 12, 2021 and Fort Lauderdale, Fla. beginning Nov. 21. Service to Missoula, Mont. will begin March 11, 2021.

Thursday, July 30

CITY TACOS AT BELMONT PARK

City Tacos taqueria will set up a pop-up installation at Belmont Park, in partnership with the iconic Mission Beach attraction.Beginning Saturday, Aug. 1, City Tacos,will bring its taco selections, along with a pop-up beer garden and specialty cocktail menu to the amusement park. The installation will kick-off this weekend from noon to 9 p.m., with menu favorites available on weekends all month long.

With six existing locations, owner and founder, Gerry Torres is ecstatic to introduce City Tacos to the Mission Beach community in partnership with Belmont Park.The City Tacos pop-up will be located at3146 Mission Blvd. at the oceanfront rooftop Coaster Terrace.

MAVERICKS UNVEILS BRUNCH MENU

Weekends in PB just got more exciting asMavericks Beach Clubis launching a brand-new brunch menu.On Saturdays and Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., chow down on:

The Cali Dude Breakfast Burritoloaded with scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, fajita veggies, French fries, pinto beans, cheddar jack cheese, pico de gallo, and chipotle aioli, with the option to add queso sauce for a few extra bucks.

The beach bar will also be serving theMavericks Frittata, made with carnitas, egg, fajita vegetables, cheddar jack cheese, pico de gallo, and lime crema. Guests can also enjoy the chorizo or veggie frittatas.

Try one-of-a-kindMorning Fries, piled high with chorizo, queso sauce, guac, fried egg, pico de gallo, chipotle aioli, and cotija cheese.

And for those who want to brunch healthy, opt for theLoaded Avocado Toast thick cut multigrain toast, avocado, heirloom tomato, olive oil, feta cheese, fried eggs, and microgreens.

Mavericks Beach Club has expanded its patio seating to their side parking lot, and also along with the street parking on Garnet. Guests can also order via the website for pickup.

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DAILY BRIEFING Pacific Beach business improvement district election UC San Diego studies human genome SeaWorld saves unique birds - A round-up of...

IV Drips Don’t Cure COVID, but That Hasn’t Stopped People Flocking to Them – ELLE.com

Posted on August 6, 2020 by Prof Baldwin

In mid-March, Hoang Vi Fessenden, a stylish stay-at-home mom and lifestyle blogger living in Charleston, South Carolina, posted a smiling photo of herself on Instagram, her arm hooked up to an IV. Fessenden shared with her then-more than 14,000 followers that she was worried about the rise of COVID-19 and had just received IV infusion therapy from Vida-Flo Charleston, a wellness IV spa, to boost her immunity and energy. Are you prepared for this? she asked.

Fessenden, 27, first went to an IV clinic years ago, she tells ELLE.com in an email, and she says she now goes once every two months. She has tried a number of infusions with hydrating fluids, such as saline and electrolytes, as well as B vitamins and Vitamin C. She receives free treatments from Vida-Flo Charleston in exchange for posting about them, but an introductory package at the clinic starts at $69. There are also add-ons, including a Super Boost Vitamin C for $500 (or $250 with a half-off members discount). I feel like my overall well being and health is boosted, Fessenden says. Not to say that I can't get COVID because I had [an IV] treatment, but I think it lessens the chances of me falling ill for a long period of time and helps my body to be able to recover if I were to get it.

Nycole Hutchens, a glowing 33-year-old wellness blogger from Houston, also posted a photo of herself on Instagram in late April with an IV, wearing a mask. In her caption, she noted she was glad she could fight off viruses and colds with IV drip therapy. She received a hydration dripa mix of fluids and electrolytesat the clinic that day, along with a vitamin C booster shot. Hutchens says she believes taking care of yourself on the inside along with a healthy diet is beneficial during the pandemic. She typically pays $100 to $250 for a treatment a couple times a yearshe mostly gets hydration dripsand would go more often, she says, if they were less expensive. (The hydration drip is priced at $90 for members and $150 for walk-ins.)

"We found almost immediately that there was a segment of the wellness industry that was exploiting this pandemicCOVID-19for their own monetary gain."

At present, there is no vaccine for COVID-19 and no products have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat or prevent the virus. But Fessenden believes a healthy lifestyle can help and sees IV drips as a supplement to other measures she takes to avoid COVID-19, like washing her hands and wearing a mask.

Unlike those measures, however, many wellness treatments come with big promises and not enough science. We found almost immediately that there was a segment of the wellness industry that was exploiting this pandemicCOVID-19for their own monetary gain, says Bonnie Patten, executive director of the nonprofit Truth in Advertising (TINA.org). IV therapies jumped out as one of those industries, she adds.

TINA.org scoured ads for IV therapies on social media and identified more than 40 clinics they said employed deceptive COVID-19 claims, with some marketing specifically to first responders.

IV centers have attracted attention in recent years for offering hangover cures, but treatments span the entire wellness gamut, with infusions intended for everything from chronic illnesses to glowing skin. You can pay less than a hundred dollars for one visit if you get a deal, but treatments also often run higher. Celebrities have espoused IV drips in the past, with Chrissy Teigen and Cara Delevingne appearing on social media with hooked-up arms.

What originally evoked partied-out Coachella girls might be more likely now to suggest clean-living. Or a pandemic: On March 13, Marla Maples, a wellness advocate and a former wife of President Donald Trump, shared a video of herself on Instagram saying that vitamin C drips are even more important during COVID-19.

anna_isanGetty Images

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a government agency that seeks to protect consumers, is concerned that some businesses are marketing therapies without adequate scientific evidence. Over the last few months, the agency has sent a number of warning letters to businesses that offer IV therapy from San Francisco to Miami for unlawfully advertising that their products treat or prevent COVID-19. (A warning letter means a company has a chance to stop making the claims and avoid further action.)

Many of those centers were touting the benefits of vitamin C, particularly in high doses, according to the FTC letters. Just a few of our beautiful Superwomen IV guests, one clinic captioned an Instagram post in March, according to a letter. They received our Super-C vitamin cocktail blend and reinforced their immune defense shieldsCOVID-19 is no match for these Superwomen!

Not only can IV vitamin therapies come with a significant financial expense, but we're also concerned that people may get a false sense of security and not take the appropriate preventative measures, says Rich Cleland, assistant director of the Division of Advertising Practices at the FTC.

Weighing in on whether clinics should be making these kinds of claims about COVID-19, Fessenden, the lifestyle blogger, says they shouldn't, because I think anyone can catch it.

One of the businesses that received a FTC letter was Liquivida Lounge, a medical spa founded in 2014 by a former firefighter, which has locations across Florida and other states. The FTC warned the company in April about its marketing of vitamin C, including that IV therapy could help in the battle against COVID-19. Liquivida Lounge has since revised its messaging to emphasize that Vitamin C helps the body fight against infections (in general) and to reassure the public that no one has a cure for Coronavirus, says Emmanuel Trenche, a spokesman for the company.

Trenche views vitamin infusions as a proactive step to keep ones immune system strong during the pandemic, along with measures such as eating a healthy diet. Their stores have seen more interest in Vitamin IV therapy recently, he notes, as have doctors who buy their infusion kits.

"If you don't wash your hands...and you don't wear a maskyou think this is going to save you?"

Getting enough vitamin C, which naturally occurs in foods such as fruit, to bolster your immune defenses is not a new ideaand it has some science behind it. And a number of studies on how certain vitamins, including vitamin C, might help with COVID-19 are in progress. But as USA Today notes, clinical trials with vitamin C could take years before reaching conclusions. And right now, there's no data to support that taking high doses of any vitamin treats or prevents COVID-19, says Dr. Caroline Apovian, the director of the Nutrition and Weight Management Center at Boston Medical Center.

With water soluble vitamins, such as vitamin C, whatever your body doesn't need is expelled through urine, she says. IVs are also not without risk, such as infection, and there's no reason for people who are generally healthy to be taking that risk at all, she tells ELLE.com, especially while paying hundreds of dollars. (Dr. Christopher Davis, the Chief Medical Officer of Liquivida Lounge, acknowledges a risk of bleeding and infection, but notes it is inordinately small.)

IV clinics are selling snake oil to people, Apovian says, arguing that there is no comparison to preventative measures that have scientific backing. "If you don't wash your hands, and you don't practice social distancing, and you don't wear a maskand you think this is going to save you? You're wrong.

Supporters say doing everything you can to stay healthy now is common sense. We strongly believe in our productsI strongly believe in the role of vitamin C and the immune system, Davis says. But we have to be careful not to instill this false sense of hope.

With people anxious about staying safe, anything to help your body absorb the best vitamins and nutrients [is] going to ease your worries, says Fessenden. Like many though, she is concerned people are still not taking COVID-19 seriously
. Masks play a huge role, she says, along with actually social distancing.

Want to be a superwoman? Put on a mask.

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IV Drips Don't Cure COVID, but That Hasn't Stopped People Flocking to Them - ELLE.com

Futurist Transhuman News Blog

Author Archives: Prof Baldwin

Man sparks workplace controversy with reaction to co-workers vegan-only club: Petty and ridiculous – Yahoo Sports

‘Nothing seemed normal anymore, including eating meat’: why sales of vegan products have spiked – Telegraph.co.uk

I Went to Germany to Go on a 200-Calorie-A-Day Liquid Diet. Heres Why I Would Do It Again. – Robb Report

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An ancient dinosaur relative is also related to humansand its DNA may hold the secret to living longer – SYFY WIRE

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Reduce High Blood Pressure Healthy Nutrition And Wellness Website Launched – Newswire

DAILY BRIEFING Pacific Beach business improvement district election UC San Diego studies human genome SeaWorld saves unique birds – A round-up of…

IV Drips Don’t Cure COVID, but That Hasn’t Stopped People Flocking to Them – ELLE.com