A commentary on recent research into the effects of rapamycin on longevity: "Aging is a complex process associated with accumulation of damage, loss of function and increased vulnerability to disease, leading ultimately to death. Despite the complicated etiology of aging, an important discovery of recent years has been that simple genetic alterations can cause a substantial increase in healthy lifespan in laboratory model organisms. Many of these longevity-extending mutations down-regulate the activity of the mTOR/S6K pathway suggesting that reduced Tor/S6K signaling promotes entry into alternative phases normally entered during periods of starvation. In fact, dietary restriction (DR), a reduction in food intake without malnutrition, lowers Tor/S6K signaling and extends the average and maximum life span of a variety of organisms including yeast, flies, worms, fish, and rodents. ... Recently, it has been demonstrated that supplementation with rapamycin (an inhibitor of mTOR) started both at 9 and 20 months of life determines a small but significant extension of average and maximal life span in genetically heterogeneous male and female mice ... More studies are needed to understand benefits and side-effects of rapamycin supplementation in different strains of mice and in monkeys as a candidate cancer-preventive and life-extension pharmacological agent. However, the efficacy of intermittent rapamycin treatment in cancer prevention and life span extension [is] very promising since it is likely to reduce the side effects associated with chronic treatment."

Link: http://impactaging.com/papers/v3/n11/full/100401.html

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

In the next few years were going to see a lot of technology demonstrations in which one very narrow biochemical aspect of aging is reversed in laboratory animals - these are the first few pebbles in what will become an avalanche of rejuvenation biotechnology. You might recall the reversal of lysosomal functional decline in the livers of mice in 2008 as an example of the type. Here is one for the brain: "Drugs that affect the levels of an important brain protein involved in learning and memory reverse cellular changes in the brain seen during aging, according to an animal study. ... [Aging] affects brain cells' ability to alter the strength and structure of their connections for information storage, a process known as synaptic plasticity, which is a cellular signature of memory. ... compared with younger rats, hippocampi from older rats have less brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) - a protein that promotes synaptic plasticity - and less histone acetylation of the Bdnf gene. By treating the hippocampal tissue from older animals with a drug that increased histone acetylation, they were able to restore BDNF production and synaptic plasticity to levels found in younger animals. ... The researchers also found that treating the hippocampal tissue from older animals with a different drug that activates a BDNF receptor also reversed the synaptic plasticity deficit in the older rats."

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/sfn-dra120711.php

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

In addition to funding and coordinating research into rejuvenation biotechnology, the SENS Foundation runs an Academic Initiative program that aims to pull more people into the field at an early stage in their life science careers. We must all bear in mind that turning the vision of ways to repair the biological damage of aging into the reality of suitable therapies will be the work of several decades in the best of circumstances. We have a very clear vision of the path ahead and what needs to be done in detail to repair an old human or prevent a young human from becoming old - but it will still require decades to achieve the end goal. The fastest plausible path to this future starts with a crash program that burns $1 billion in ten years to achieve rejuvenation in mice, but the research community is far from being able to deploy even a fraction of that level of resources and determination. Work proceeds slowly and there is a lot of work to do.

Given that we are looking at 20 to 30 years passing between now and widespread first generation methods of limited age-reversal, it is important to put effort towards ensuring that there will be a growing, enthusiastic research community in the years ahead. Hence the Academic Initiative: building connections, guiding younger life scientists, and encouraging the best to work on the defeat of degenerative aging. In this vein, I see that the SENS Foundation is making a small number of grants for 2012 as a part of the Academic Initiative. Young and interested life scientists in the audience might want to take note:

The SENS Foundation Academic Initiative is pleased to announce that it will be awarding up to $30,000 in materials grants in 2012. These grants are available to undergraduate, graduate, and medical students, and may be used to cover the cost of laboratory materials for aging- and rejuvenation-related research projects. A typical grant will range from $500-$2000, but grants of up to $5000 may be awarded for group projects. These grants are meant to provide students with valuable experience in research and leadership, and to help set recipients on the course to a career in SENS-related research. As such, simple and straightforward "introductory-level" projects will receive full consideration.

The grant application can be found here. You can apply at any time. There may be a high level of competition, so students are encouraged to apply soon.

As the SENS Foundation grows in budget, so too will these long term payoff activities. The primary hurdles within the scientific community that stand in the way of progress towards enhanced human longevity and the reversal of aging are (a) lack of funding, and (b) lack of researchers who are interesting and enthused. Both of these points need fixing, and in both cases that's the long bootstrapped road of incremental progress.

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

You may recall the very promising form of cancer immune therapy pioneered by Zheng Cui that involves transplanting granulocytes from suitable donors - it performed very well indeed in mice, superbly in fact, but only the one anemic human trial is underway in the US. You might look back in the Fight Aging! archives for a report last year on where things were with this line of research:

You might recall that people were enthused a few years back over the work of researcher Zheng Cui, who showed that (a) one breed of lab mice shug off cancer because their immune cells are different in ways that enable them to kill cancer dead, (b) transplanting those immune cells into more vulnerable mice also kills cancer dead, and (c) this same state of affairs exists in humans. Somewhere, someone has an immune system that can kill your cancer. If you could find them and undergo a transplant of leukocyte or granulocyte immune cells, the evidence to date suggests that this would be a very effective therapy.

Unfortunately, one anemic trial and a little additional research is where things still stand, more or less. This is a funding and culture of medical development issue: it's not yet completely understood how the therapy works at the biochemical level, and the prevalent incentives are for research groups to strive to fully understand a mechanism so that they can apply for patents, develop drugs that manipulate those mechanisms, and so forth and so on. Fortunately, if work is well publicized and the scientific papers openly published, clinics and medical developers worldwide can get into the game - and not all of them have the same incentives as US-based scientists and other cancer research concerns.

So I see that there is a clinic in Mexico called NCIM that is now offering granulocyte infusion treatment, for example:

Earlier this year we at NCIM approached biomedical theoretician Dr. Anthony G. Payne and asked him for any ideas or suggestions he might have for bettering the lot of a middle-aged male end stage prostate cancer patient. As he had exhausted whatever conventional approaches were available for his particular malignancy this was time for heroic measures. With Dr. Cui's pioneering work in mind Dr. Payne then set to work to develop an experimental protocol that would combine the use of mismatched donor granulocytes from healthy young people with HLA mismatched umbilical cord stem cells from healthy newborns.

Caveat emptor and all that - this looks a great deal more ad-hoc than the Florida clinical trial setup, for example - but this sort of spread in the application of a well-publicized and openly published technique is exactly what I'd like to see happen for the range of nascent biotechnologies in longevity science. When I talk about Open Cures as a long term project for speeding up medical development and implementation, I am talking about helping to make the very early stage biotechnologies for repairing or slowing age-related biotechnology accessible and renowned, just as Zheng Cui's work and its scientific foundations have become. This accessibility helps to spur entrepreneurs, development groups, and clinicians to do what NCIM has done here - pick up where US-based organizations are slacking due to obstructive regulation or a culture of development that rejects implementation of working-but-not-yet-fully-understood therapies. It doesn't matter that the first wave of implementations are likely to include incomplete or incorrect projects - once things get underway in earnest these will be weeded out or improved.

The clinics that service the medical tourism industry are the natural starting point for this sort of spread of practice, but from their experience technologies will spread out into the region's medical and research establishment. This is ever a painfully slow process, but it is much, much faster than the alternative in which it never happens because too few people know of or understand the prospective biotechnology in question. People are only trying to implement granulocyte therapies because there have been years of advocacy and discussion - absent that, I'd wager this would another largely vanished line of research for now.

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

Via MedicalXPress: "researchers [put] forward a theory for the first time based on research evidence that new air sacs, called alveoli, are constantly being formed. This contradicts information in most medical textbooks that explain that the tiny air sacs begin to develop before birth (around the 6th month of pregnancy) and continue to increase in number until the age of about 3 years. ... It was believed that there was no further increase in the number of alveoli beyond that age, and that the existing alveoli just expanded as the lungs grew bigger until final adult size was reached. Our study has challenged this by suggesting that new alveoli continue to be formed as the lungs grow. ... The researchers studied over 100 healthy volunteers aged between 7 and 21 years. Each volunteer [breathed] in hyperpolarised helium and held their breaths. ... The helium [behaves] like a magnetised gas. Within the scanner, we can measure how the magnetism decays, and this in turn depends on the size of the air sacs - alveoli - which contain the helium. ... We studied small children, whose lungs contain approximately one litre of air, and full-grown adults with lung volumes of around four litres. We found very little difference in the size of the alveoli across everyone we studied. If the size of the alveoli are hardly changing, this can only mean one thing - as our lungs increase in size, we must be growing new alveoli. ... This research has important implications. If we can continue to develop new alveoli beyond early childhood, going on through adolescence, there is the potential for lung repair following injury that was never realised before."

Link: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-fundamentally-lung-growth.html

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

This open access PDF editorial is illustrative of the mainstream scientific examination of human longevity. Demographic studies lead to genetic studies - to identify long-lived populations and then the genetic roots that make them different: "It is now evident from various socio-demographic studies that a greater portion of the population survives into old age, above the seventh decade of life. Projections for Europe estimate that in 1995 13.3% of the population was over the age of 65, whereas by 2015 this figure is expected to rise to 16.3%. However, the factors that promote living after the seventh or eighth decade of life remain unknown. Therefore, a question may arise: what is the 'formula' that allows some elders to avoid chronic diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease? ... Clearly, longevity is a complex attribute determined by factors, such as exposure to disease, variability in sleeping patterns, smoking habits, physical activity and diet, that have a direct effect on longevity, in addition to their indirect emotional and cognitive influence on physiological pathways." This sort of work will continue for many decades, with little sense of urgency and equally little effect upon our lives. It is a world removed from the engineering approach to extending life span advocated by the SENS Foundation, amongst others.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.hellenicjcardiol.org/archive/full_text/2010/5/2010_5_479.pdf

Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

A study published in the Pediatrics journal revealed that excessive intake of energy drinks can lead to strokes, heart palpitations and sudden death.

A group of medical professionals who reviewed data from case reports, scientific literature, and data from interest groups and government-funded studies say that the potential adverse effects of drinking caffeinated energy drinks include strokes, seizures, heart palpitations and even sudden death. They added that energy drinks are overused, under-studied and may be harmful to teens and children.

Their data review included the case of Dakota Sailor, an 18 year-old high school senior student from Carl Junction, Missouri. He experienced seizures and needed to be hospitalized for almost a week after drinking two large energy drinks. Sailor’s doctor said that the caffeine and similar ingredients may have been the primary cause. According to the study, a can of energy drink normally has 400 to 500 percent more caffeine content than soda. Sailor and other kids included in the study said that they consume an average of four to five cans of energy drinks in a day. The researchers want to have pediatricians warn parents and kids about drinking energy drinks.

Chairman of the pediatrics department of the University of Miami Medical School, Dr Steven Lipshultz, said that they are discouraging the habitual use of energy drinks. Their report included information indicating that energy drinks commonly contain ingredients that optimize the effects of caffeine, producing symptoms such as diarrhea and nausea. The researchers added that energy drinks need to be regulated like prescription medicines, alcohol and tobacco. However, the safety level of consumption of drinking energy drinks for young adults, adolescents, and children has not been clearly established.

The industry of energy drinks boom began 20 years ago with the United States as the fastest growing market; the sales of energy drinks is expected to amount to $9 billion by 2011. The study suggest that more than 30 percent of young adults and teens consume energy drinks but there is insufficient research on the long-term effects of energy drink consumption in children, especially those with medical conditions.

Alarming Facts

The study discovered that some energy drinks contain caffeine and alcohol. The US Food and Drug Administration had sent warning letters to manufacturers and banned certain energy drinks in different states due to the rising case of alcohol overdose. The American Association of Poison Control Centers implemented codes in early 2010 in an effort to track cases of energy drink overdose and side effects on national level. They found 677 cases from October to December and 331 year-to-date.

For 2011, most of the cases were in teens and children. With the 200 cases of energy drink poisoning, more than 25 percent of the involved children are aged younger than 6 years. Though this number is only a tiny fraction of the 2 million cases of poisoning due to other substances per year, the symptoms of energy drink poisoning are lengthy and extremely alarming like irritability, high blood pressure, chest pains, rapid heart rate, hallucinations and seizures.  Though there had not been any cases of death caused by energy drink overdose, there had been a few deaths in European teens and adults with epileptic conditions caused by mixing energy drinks with alcohol.

Science policy senior vice president from the American Beverage Association, Maureen Storey, said that the study did nothing but perpetuate misinformation regarding energy drinks. But the American Academy of Pediatrics commended the report for bringing awareness about the resulting risks of excessive energy drink intake.

High Caffeine Intake Can Impair Cognitive Function

Contrary to popular belief, high doses of caffeine which is common in most energy drinks have been found to impair the cognitive function of teens. Researchers from the Northern Kentucky University found that teens with the least consumption of caffeine responded more effectively to a reaction-time test than those who had higher consumption. Study participants who drank more caffeine felt less tired and more stimulated after the test, but they performed less efficiently on the test.

Head researcher, Cecile Marczinski, said that their findings are interesting since energy drinks are often used to counter the effects of drinking alcohol. She added that having a better understanding of the adverse effects of energy drinks is important since there is no regulation on energy drink labeling and health warnings in the United States.

The researchers used data from 80 college students aged 18 to 40. The researchers gave the study participants energy drinks with different levels of caffeine and found that those with the highest caffeine intake performed less in tests that gauged their response time. The results of the study were published in the December issue of the Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology journal.

Healthy Alternatives to Energy Drinks

There is a growing body of research studies revealing the adverse effects of excessive caffeine intake and energy drinking consumption. People, especially teens, tend to seek help from energy drinks in order to keep them functioning at their “peak performance”. But studies had found that the content of energy drinks, like caffeine and other stimulants, can result to different symptoms like palpitations, seizures and hypertension, and may also exacerbate an existing medical condition. So it is therefore recommended that one make use of healthy alternatives to energy drinks, such as:

• Drinking water can be a healthy alternative to drinking energy drinks since the body tends to perform better if well-hydrated. Drinking plenty of water after a small meal can also help sustain the feeling of fullness and can also avoid the drowsiness caused by eating a heavy meal. Water is abundant and inexpensive, so there really is no need to waste your precious dollar on energy drinks.

• Drinking water with a twist of lemon juice can give you a lift whenever you need one. Lemon is a good source of vitamin C, antioxidants and other nutrients that can help in keeping you well-energized.

• Green tea contains less caffeine than coffee and energy drinks. But it can be an effective beverage to fight drowsiness and in stimulating the body and mind to stay awake and alert. Eating sweet fruits can also supply the body with enough energy to last the day.

Caffeine in coffee and other beverages can help in keeping your mind and body alert. But due to its adverse effects, medical and health professionals advise people to limit their consumption.

Sources
myhealthnewsdaily.com
news.yahoo.com
ecochildsplay.com

Discuss this post in Frank Mangano’s forum!

To what degree can you swing the odds of suffering cancer in your favor? A fair amount, if this article is to be taken at face value, as much or more as other common age-related conditions: "Nearly half of cancers diagnosed in the UK each year - over 130,000 in total - are caused by avoidable life choices including smoking, drinking and eating the wrong things, a review reveals. Tobacco is the biggest culprit, causing 23% of cases in men and 15.6% in women, says the Cancer Research UK report. Next comes a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables in men's diets, while for women it is being overweight. ... Many people believe cancer is down to fate or 'in the genes' and that it is the luck of the draw whether they get it. Looking at all the evidence, it's clear that around 40% of all cancers are caused by things we mostly have the power to change. ... We didn't expect to find that eating fruit and vegetables would prove to be so important in protecting men against cancer. And among women we didn't expect being overweight to be more of a risk factor than alcohol. ... About 100,000 (34%) of the cancers are linked to smoking, diet, alcohol and excess weight. ... The researchers base their calculations on predicted numbers of cases for 18 different types of cancer in 2010, using UK incidence figures for the 15-year period from 1993 to 2007." As usual, excess fat and smoking show up as undesirables - they are there as prominent risk factors for most of the unpleasant things that aging inflicts upon us.

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16031149

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

Christopher Westphal of Sirtris is writing a series of guest columns in the Boston Globe: "Last week, I wrote that the best way to live healthier longer was to eat less and exercise more. Meticulous readers asked which of these two approaches, precisely, had more scientific support. Such questions may reflect wishful thinking: Those who exercise a lot might wonder if they can eat the equivalent of steak and fries every night. And for those who don't want too much exercise, might they focus instead on eating less? Unfortunately for those who, like me, have modest will power at the table, the data are clear. The most robust way to increase healthy lifespan in a broad variety of organisms is in fact calorie restriction. In other words, it behooves us to cut our calorie intake markedly, while still maintaining a balanced diet that includes essential vitamins and minerals. Whether we can bring ourselves to do so is another question entirely. ... Who among us, you might ask, would have the fortitude to emulate the calorie restriction studies conducted on animals? It turns out that there are at least hundreds of Americans, and many more individuals worldwide, who are severely restricting their calorie intake in the hopes of extending their healthy lifespans. Studies have indeed found that key cardiovascular measurements, such as blood pressure and heart rate, are much improved in individuals who significantly restrict their calorie intake."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2010/07/12/eat_a_lot_less_live_a_lot_longer/

Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

Via ScienceDaily: "Mammals with larger brains in relation to body size tend to live longer. This is the conclusion reached by researchers [after] having analysed almost 500 mammal species and obtaining new data on the relation between brain size and lifespan. ... The brain size of some mammals is larger than expected for their body size. This is the case of large primates, such as chimpanzees and gorilla, and of whales, dolphins and elephants. Scientists have spent years investigating why sometimes nature favours the development of large brains given that they require much more time to reach functional maturity and use up so much energy. ... the size of the brain affects lifespan regardless of the size of the body. Hyenas, for example, have a larger brain than giraffes in proportion to body size and on average live longer, although they are smaller than these herbivores. ... it is possible that a longer life works in favour of a delay in reproductive cycles and this would in turn allow progenitors to invest more resources and time in caring for their offspring. This also leads to the formation of stable social groups whose members, according to the Social Intelligence Hypothesis (SIH), must deal with more cognitive demands than animals living alone, and this would be the reason for larger brains."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/07/100715110001.htm

Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

A conference on general health tactics that are likely to maximize your remaining life expectancy will be held in October in San Francisco: "Advances are being made daily on what each of us can do NOW to slow the aging process to a minimum, and to delay or prevent the diseases of aging. Life extension news comes out faster than any one of us can evaluate it on our own. Let's get together and determine how to take personal action." Many of the folk involved in the longevity advocacy or research communities are also tinkerers who go beyond simply practicing calorie restriction and exercise, and taking a sensibly modest set of vitamins. My suspicion has always been that this is a dangerous path: there is nothing presently available to the public that is proven to do more for long-term health than calorie restriction and exercise. When you spend time tinkering and optimizing in the absence of solid data, you're not spending time helping to bring forward the advent new medical technologies. The recent history of the pro-longevity community is rife with people who have become distracted from the future and who end up behaving no differently than the pill-sellers and potion-hawkers of the "anti-aging" marketplace. Beware this fate.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://lifeextensionconference.com

Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

Researchers from the University of British Columbia found that roasting coffee beans can further improve its antioxidant content.

Drinking too much coffee can be harmful to your health. This can result to insomnia, heart palpitations and anxiety. But the moderate intake of coffee can offer some preventive health benefits. Studies have found that drinking a few cups of coffee in a day can reduce the risk of certain cancer and even dementia.

Researchers from the University of British Columbia found that dark roasted coffee beans offer the most antioxidants than other coffee varieties. They observed that roasting the coffee beans releases their antioxidant content. The researchers added that antioxidants are important because they inhibit the oxidative processes and protect cells from the damage caused by unstable free radicals; the damage caused by free radicals can lead to chronic diseases and cancer.

The study was headed by David Kitts and Yazheng Liu, and is scheduled to be published in the Food Research International. The researchers found that when raw green coffee beans are browned by exposing them to high temperatures, a chemical process called the Maillard reaction occurs which optimizes the antioxidant content of roasted Java coffee beans.

The Various Health Benefits of Coffee

More than 90 percent of the world’s population drinks coffee, and there is a reason behind this. Coffee is a rich source of essential nutrients and strong antioxidants. It also contains compounds that help in keeping people awake and alert, especially while at work. Health professionals recommend limiting coffee intake. There are several studies showing that too much caffeine can lead to health complications like increased blood pressure. But moderate drinking of coffee can actually produce beneficial health results. Studies show that the antioxidants and other compounds in coffee can counter the risk factors of stroke and heart attack like heart rhythm disturbances and diabetes.

Against Arrhythmia. A study consisting of around 130,000 Kaiser Permanente health plan members found that study participants who drank around 1 to 3 cups of coffee in a day are 20 percent less likely to be hospitalized for arrhythmia or abnormal heart rhythm than non-coffee drinkers. A study on 83,700 nurses enrolled in the Nurse’s health study found that participants who drink two or more cups of coffee in a day can lead to a 20 percent lowered risk of stroke than those who drink less. This finding was independent of other risk factors like diabetes, high cholesterol levels and high blood pressure.

Against Liver Cancer. Japanese researchers found that people who drink coffee are less likely to develop liver cancer.  The study consisted of more than 61,000 participants. The researchers believed that this is due to the chlorogenic acid content of coffee. Arabica coffee contains up to seven percent of chlorogenic acid while robusta coffee contains up to 10 percent. With the help of caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid protects the cells and cerebral neurons from the damage caused by oxidation.  It also normalizes colon function and promotes cellular differentiation. This effect has also been found to inhibit the growth and induce the death of breast cancer cells.

French chemist Louis-Camille Maillard was first to investigate the effects of heat towards proteins, sugars and carbohydrates in food; thus, the process was named after him. During the heating process, different flavored compounds are produced and are broken down to form other compounds. Different foods produce different compounds during the Maillard reaction. As for roasting coffee beans, it produces more antioxidants.

Researchers said that other studies suggest that the antioxidants in coffee can be traced to its chlorogenic acid and caffeine content that is found in green coffee beans. But he added that the Maillard reaction is responsible for creating coffee’s antioxidant content.

Against Prostate Cancer. According to their findings, drinking dark roasted java coffee supplies the body with more antioxidants than other coffee varieties. The benefits of coffee include cancer and chronic disease prevention. A study conducted by a team of researchers from Harvard University found that drinking coffee can reduce the risk of developing prostate cancer. They observed that men who drank the most amount of coffee are 60 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer that those who were not in the habit of drinking coffee.

Against Alzheimer’s Disease. A study published in the January issue of the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease revealed than drinking coffee can have a long-term effect in maintaining cognitive function and reducing the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and dementia at old age. The researchers from Finland randomly selected study participants from a population-based cohort who previously participated in a related study. The participants were observed for an average of 21 years. More than 1400 participants who were 65 to 79 years old completed the study. They observed that coffee drinkers had lower risk of developing dementia at midlife and Alzheimer’s disease at old age. Participants who were in the habit of drinking 3 to 5 cups in a day had a 65 percent lesser chance of developing dementia of Alzheimer’s disease.

Against Depression. A related study published in the Nutrition and Neuroscience investigated the link between coffee consumption and people’s cooperative behavior and sociability. The researchers gathered a group of 77 moderate coffee drinkers and were asked to play a game with an imaginary person. After drinking coffee, the participants displayed fewer signs of sadness and were more open and responsive to their imaginary player. Other studies had found that men and women who drank coffee are less likely to develop depressive symptoms and have lower tendencies of committing suicide.

Coffee: A Richer Source of Antioxidants

Researchers had found that coffee is the primary source of antioxidants of Americans. Studies show that there are more antioxidants in a normal serving of coffee than in a typical serving of oranges, raspberries, grape juice and blueberries. In addition, a cup of coffee has four times more antioxidants than a cup of green tea.

A Fair Warning to Coffee Drinkers

Despite the piling evidence showing that coffee is a rich source of antioxidants, James Lane from Duke University Medical Center said that there hasn’t been any study investigating whether the antioxidants from coffee can indeed reach the bloodstream. He, however, added that there is enough proof to show that caffeine from coffee can reach the blood stream and can lead to hypertension and increase levels of adrenaline.

Sources
naturalnews.com
webmd.com
healthmad.com
methodsofhealing.com

Discuss this post in Frank Mangano’s forum!

From the SENS Foundation: "Progress toward the goal of tissue rejuvenation via stem cells and tissue engineering ("RepleniSENS") is badly hampered by the surprising fragility of human embryonic stem cells (hESC) relative to mouse ESC (mESC). Unlike their murine counterparts, hESC undergo extensive cell death following enzymatic single-cell dissociation; as a result, researchers are forced to rely on laborious mechanical microdissection, or on narrowly-control enzymatic dissociation that ensures that hESC remain above a minimum cluster size. These requirements make their expansion extremely tedious and inefficient. The reasons for the intolerance of hESC to full dissociation - and the development of means to ameliorate it - are therefore of considerable biomedical as well as scientific interest. This month, researchers [report] that they have at once apparently provided the detailed molecular basis for this frustrating anomaly, and its abrogation using either modified culture protocols or either of two small molecules. ... Injected into an area that already enjoys a high level of government and industry investment, these tools bring us closer to realizing the promise of cell therapies and tissue engineering for the treatment of a range of age-related and traumatic diseases and disorders, as well as for the rejuvenation of aging tissues."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.sens.org/node/763

Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

Moderate exercise improves life expectancy: "Undertaking regular jogging increases the life expectancy of men by 6.2 years and women by 5.6 years, reveals the latest data from the Copenhagen City Heart study ... the study's most recent analysis (unpublished) shows that between one and two-and-a-half hours of jogging per week at a 'slow or average' pace delivers optimum benefits for longevity. ... SThe study, which started 1976, is a prospective cardiovascular population study of around 20,000 men and women aged between 20 to 93 years. The study, which made use of the Copenhagen Population Register, set out to increase knowledge about prevention of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Since then the study, which has resulted in publication of over 750 papers, has expanded to include other diseases ... The investigators have explored the associations for longevity with different forms of exercise and other factors. For the jogging sub study, the mortality of 1,116 male joggers and 762 female joggers was compared to the non joggers in the main study population. All participants were asked to answer questions about the amount of time they spent jogging each week, and to rate their own perceptions of pace (defined as slow, average, and fast). ... The first data was collected between 1976 to 1978, the second from 1981 to 1983, the third from 1991 to 1994, and the fourth from 2001 to 2003. For the analysis participants from all the different data collections were followed using a unique personal identification number in the Danish Central Person Register. ... These numbers have been key to the success of the study since they've allowed us to trace participants wherever they go. ... Results show that in the follow-up period involving a maximum of 35 years, [risk] of death was reduced by 44%."

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-05/esoc-rjs050212.php

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

Decellularization involves stripping out the original cells from a donor organ and then repopulating it with cells grown from the recipient's tissue - thereby removing the possibility of immune rejection. One implication of this approach is that the donor doesn't necessarily have to be human: "In proof-of-concept research [a] team successfully used pig kidneys to make 'scaffolds' or support structures that could potentially one day be used to build new kidneys for human patients. The idea is to remove all animal cells - leaving only the organ structure or 'skeleton.' A patient's own cells would then be placed on the scaffold, making an organ that the patient theoretically would not reject. ... this is one of the first studies to assess the possibility of using whole pig kidneys to engineer replacement organs ... For the research, pig kidneys were soaked in a detergent to remove all cells, leaving behind the organ's 'skeleton,' including its system of blood vessels. In addition, the structure of the nephron - the kidney's functional unit - was maintained. The scaffolds were implanted in animals, where they were re-filled with blood and were able to maintain normal blood pressure, proving that the process of removing cells doesn't affect the mechanical strength of the vessels. ... It is important to identify new sources of transplantable organs because of the critical shortage of donor organs. These kidneys maintain their innate three-dimensional architecture, as well as their vascular system, and may represent the ideal platform for kidney engineering."

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-06/wfbm-lkp062112.php

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

If more life science researchers thought like engineers, we might see faster progress towards extended healthy longevity. One of the marks of pure engineering versus pure science is the willingness to pursue development of working solutions in the absence of full knowledge of the underlying principles. Both the Romans and the early British industrialists built superb bridges in the absence of a full understanding of structural and material science, not by chance but because they could deliberately and carefully use empirical knowledge to work around their ignorance of deeper scientific laws. So too there is much more room for empiricism in the development of medicine, and in longevity science in particular, than is presently practiced. In the scientific world, the favored next step following a demonstration of extended life in laboratory animals is to figure out every detail of how it works rather than explore the possibility of building a therapy - but both paths could be explored in parallel.

In any case, here are results from a group of life science engineers, working with nematode worms:

We have taken an engineering approach to extending the lifespan of Caenorhabditis elegans. Aging stands out as a complex trait, because events that occur in old animals are not under strong natural selection. As a result, lifespan can be lengthened rationally using bioengineering to modulate gene expression or to add [components from other species].

...

We overexpressed five genes that act in endogenous worm aging pathways, as well as two genes from zebrafish encoding molecular functions not normally present in worms. For example, we used zebrafish genes to alter mitochondrial function and innate immunity in ways not normally available to C. elegans and extended worm lifespan by ~40%. Next, we used a modular approach to extend lifespan by 130% by combining up to four components in the same strain. These results provide a platform to build worms having progressively longer lifespans.

This project is conceptually similar to using engineering to increase the useful lifespan of a primitive machine (1931 Model T) using both parts from the model T as well as parts from a more advanced machine (2012 Toyota Corolla). Our results open the door to use engineering to go beyond the constraints of the C. elegans genome to extend its lifespan by adding non-native components.

Tinkering with metabolism and genes to slow aging isn't my favored approach for extending healthy longevity - it is a poor path in comparison to efforts aimed at repairing accumulated damage - but I am very much in support of the attitude displayed by the authors quoted above. The research community could do with a whole lot more of that sort of mindset.

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

I'm a little late in pointing out the latest issue of Cryonics, the magazine published by cryonics provider Alcor, is presently available as a PDF.

The March-April issue of Cryonics features an extensive treatment of protecting one's cryonics arrangements against inflation through life insurance. Insurance agent and Alcor member Rudi Hoffman makes the case for "superfunding" your cryonics arrangements to keep pace with the rising costs of advanced medical procedures. The author explains the differences between the major forms of life insurance (term life, whole life, universal life, etc.), gives advice on how to evaluate the various bells and whistles insurances companies offer, and provides guidance how to read those long policy illustrations. This issue continues the recent focus on identity-destroying brain disorders by offering an article by Alcor staff member Mike Perry about the latest developments in Alzheimer's Disease diagnosis. Alcor CEO Max More reports on the upcoming Alcor conference and both book reviews deal with the topic of immortality, albeit from a different perspective.

The main topic of the issue ties into the ongoing discussion on maintaining Alcor's reserve of funds at a sufficient level for the long term - which is essentially a battle against the predatory inflation produced by the self-serving actions of politicians and political appointees. The political class can be expected to create ever more money from nothing, continually reducing the value of money in circulation and savings accounts, because it is the most effective way to tax the masses - all other forms of taxation generate far more unrest, resistance, and non-compliance, and are thus much more self-limiting in the revenue they can generate.The battle against the inflation resulting from depreciation of the currency is fought by all entities that must tie contracts inked today to outlays required years from now:

As evidenced by recent exchanges on the Alcor Member Forums, our members have a wide variety of suggestions for how to close the substantial funding gap that has been produced by Alcor's practice to date of not raising cryopreservation minimums for existing members. If there is one area of strong agreement, however, it is that all members who are underfunded for today's cryopreservation minimums and who can afford to change or upgrade their life insurance, should do so. This will not just reduce Alcor's funding shortfall but it will also allow the member to secure new cryopreservation and storage technologies that cannot be offered without charging an additional amount. Surplus funding can also be allocated to a personal revival trust or to Alcor's hardship fund to help members with poor funding and/or challenges to pay annual dues.

The March-April issue of Cryonics magazine features an extensive review of life insurance options by Alcor member and life insurance agent Rudi Hoffman. Rudi introduces the topic by presenting the disturbing long-term effects of (medical) inflation. Not all of Alcor's services may be subject to the kind of cost increases we see in medicine but it is prudent to plan using conservative assumptions. After this sobering introduction, Rudi runs us through the various forms of life insurance, their pros and cons, and how to read those long, intimidating policy illustrations. We at Alcor hope that many of you will make efforts to update your cryonics funding to make it easier to solve the underfunding problem and to assist with the really hard cases.

Alcor has its cultural roots firmly in the non-profit world and mindset, as you can see from the above material. This is admirable, but would produce challenges in any organization that must have continuity over decades of serving the same customers. Prices must change to suit the times, and business models must take that into account.

It has occurred to me once or twice over the years that, setting aside the cultural history, an organization similar to Alcor might be best suited to growth and stability as a for-profit subsidiary of a large insurance company. Many of these challenges could be met by a strong relationship with a group that manages insurance and accounts with customers that span many years. In any case, this is another of the possible business models that has yet to be explored in cryonics - and is unlikely to be explored until such time as the industry grows larger.

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

There are multiple mechanisms that contribute to the progression of insulin resistance with aging. The most significant contributions seem to stem from excess fat tissue and a sedentary lifestyle, and the metabolic consequences of those choices. (Yes, being fat is absolutely a choice for nearly all people, and one that they could begin to reverse at any point in time by changing the way they live their lives). Avoiding diabetes is a very plausible goal if you keep in shape - but even the most fit of elderly folk suffer some degree of rising insulin resistance and metabolic dysfunction as a consequence of the accumulating biological damage of aging. There is the insulin resistance you can escape, and then there is the insulin resistance you can't.

One line item that crops up when discussing the intersection of exercise, inflammation and insulin resistance, and the course of aging is NF-?B - one of the many machine parts in the cell that seems to have a finger in every pie by virtue of being involved in the process of manufacturing other machine parts. Manipulating NF-?B can extend life in flies, and has beneficial effects in other laboratory animals. Here, a couple of recently published papers look at NF-?B as a regulator of insulin resistance - avoidable and otherwise - and possible target for old-style drug development.

Endothelial NF-?B in Obesity and Aging: Is Endothelial NF-?B a Master Regulator of Inflammation and Insulin Resistance?

Insulin resistance is a major characteristic of type 2 diabetes and develops in multiple organs including skeletal muscle, liver, adipose tissue, and heart. Insulin resistance is caused by obesity and therefore establishes an important causal relationship between obesity and type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance also develops in aging, but this process is less well understood.

Blockade of the NF-?B Pathway in the Endothelium Prevents Insulin Resistance and Prolongs Lifespans

To examine the role of endothelial NF-?B signaling in vivo, we generated transgenic mice [that] exhibited functional inhibition of NF-?B signaling specifically in endothelial cells. Although [the] mice displayed no overt phenotypic changes when young and lean, they were protected from the development of insulin resistance associated with obesity, whether diet- or genetically-induced.

...

In addition to inhibition of obesity-related metabolic deteriorations, blockade of endothelial NF-?B signaling prevented age-related insulin resistance and vascular senescence and, notably, prolonged lifespan. These anti-aging phenotypes were also associated with decreased oxidative stress markers, increased muscle blood flow, enhanced active-phase locomotor activity and aortic up-regulations of mitochondrial sirtuin-related proteins. ... Endothelial NF-?B signaling is a potential target for treating the metabolic syndrome as well as for anti-aging strategies.

At the present pace, by the late 2020s researchers will be able to tell you exactly why, how, and how much common lifestyle choices impact your future health and life expectancy. But it's worth noting that this won't help you live any longer - you could make the same smart choices now as you would if presented with a much thicker bundle of scary evidence. The 80/20 of present day widely available health practices is easy to achieve, after all: calorie restriction and regular exercise. None of this, however, gets us any close to true rejuvenation biotechnology. For that, we need more resources heading towards the work of the SENS Foundation and their allies in the research community.

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

The founder of the Russia 2045 initiative is interviewed here: "Dmitry Itskov is the founder of Global Future 2045, which recently held its first conference. The Russian entrepreneur gathered scientists from around the world to discuss many topics that will help achieve one goal: life extension. ... The main idea of the project and my mission is to help people, to eliminate disease and death probably in the future, to overcome the limitations of our body, and to help humanity grow out of the crisis. As for my personal background, I have always been in the IT business, internet technologies. I published a few internet newspapers in Russia, I produce internet TV channel, a kind of blog service, email service, so being in this business I have always been interested in science and technologies that can extend life. Of course, like anybody, I have seen death and diseases in my family, my grandparents have gone, I've always been thinking how can I personally help. I've also been interested in science and I've seen an example of scientists who haven't gone, who are with us, like Stephan Hawking. He can't even move, he can't even normally talk to people, so this experience inspired me, this made me think how can I participate and help people. I decided to launch such an initiative with the help of Russian scientists who I knew like me. What helped me was that talking to them I was pretty sure that if we launched a kind of a big technical project, a big social initiative, if we work together, if we make our thinking global, and if we are able to launch a global network, then there is a very big chance we make our dreams come true. ... [The Avatar initiative] is the main technological project of the initiative which consists of four steps. One is human-like robot controlled by brain-computer interface. ... the second part is about producing life support system for the human brain. ... The third part is reverse engineering for the brain." The fourth step is to replace the biological brain with an artificial system that is more durable and extendable - which is a long way out, but something that has to be accomplished carefully and thoughtfully to be anything other than an expensive form of suicide that happens to leave behind a copy of the original you. Acceptable means include slowly replacing neurons one by one with nanomachinery that replicates their function and data storage whilst interfacing with the remaining brain tissue - but again, this sort of technology is a long way out from where we stand now, and there are many other challenges to be overcome along the way.

Link: http://sciencefiction.com/2012/03/19/exclusive-interview-with-dmitry-itskov-founder-of-global-future-2045/

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm

Via EurekAlert!: [Researchers] have developed a jelly-like material and wound treatment method that, in early experiments on skin damaged by severe burns, appeared to regenerate healthy, scar-free tissue. ... the researchers reported their promising results from mouse tissue tests. The new treatment has not yet been tested on human patients. But the researchers say the procedure, which promotes the formation of new blood vessels and skin, including hair follicles, could lead to greatly improved healing ... the hydrogel is constructed in such a way that it allows tissue regeneration and blood vessel formation to occur very quickly. ... Inflammatory cells are able to easily penetrate and degrade the hydrogel, enabling blood vessels to fill in and support wound healing and the growth of new tissue ... For burns, the faster this process occurs, [the] less there is a chance for scarring. Originally, [the] team intended to load the gel with stem cells and infuse it with growth factors to trigger and direct the tissue development. Instead, they tested the gel alone [and] were surprised to see such complete regeneration in the absence of any added biological signals. ... The hydrogel is mainly made of water with dissolved dextran, a polysaccharide (sugar molecule chains). ... It also could be that the physical structure of the hydrogel guides the repair .. [Researchers speculate] that the hydrogel may recruit circulating bone marrow stem cells in the bloodstream. ... It's possible the gel is somehow signaling the stem cells to become new skin and blood vessels."

Link: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-12/jhu-itb121311.php

Source:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/newsletter/latest_rss_feed.cfm