Saturday, May 31, 2014

calorie restriction protects telomere length

"We see that mice that undergo caloric restriction show a lower telomere shortening rate than those fed with a normal diet," says Blasco. "These mice therefore have longer telomeres as adults, as well as lower rates of chromosome anomalies," she adds.-link
Caloric restriction appears to reduce the age related loss of telomere length.  It might be interesting to combine with a vegetarian diet as well as moderate exercise, as those lengthen telomeres and might do so more effectively if the normal rate of telomere length loss is reduced.

 Ten of the patients embarked on lifestyle changes that included: a plant-based diet (high in fruits, vegetables and unrefined grains, and low in fat and refined carbohydrates); moderate exercise (walking 30 minutes a day, six days a week); stress reduction (gentle yoga-based stretching, breathing, meditation). They also participated in weekly group support.  ..
 
The group that made the lifestyle changes experienced a “significant” increase in telomere length of approximately 10 percent. Further, the more people changed their behavior by adhering to the recommended lifestyle program, the more dramatic their improvements in telomere length, the scientists learned.-link

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Video on social securitiy


nice quote

"the argument of morality from authority is unsatisfactory, IMHO.   It simply seems that simply postulating an authority does not grant it the ability to be a moral arbiter from an absolute objective point of view."-ES

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Optical disc development

New optical laser can increase DVD storage up to one petabyte-link

 

With a petabyte of storage one could do lots of things


article on genetics and cr

While calorie restriction has been shown to combat aging in everything from humans to flies, the mechanism behind this has remained mysterious. But in a new study published in the journal Nature, a team of researchers from Tel Aviv University have developed a computer algorithm capable of predicting the genes that can be switched off in order to create the same anti-aging effect as calorie restriction. -link

An interesting article on isolating the genetic mechanics of calorie restriction, one of the most backed and well known ways of extending an organisms lifespan.

Leonard Guarante aging antiaging interview video

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Video about nice supplement niagen

nicotinamide riboside lifespan article

The May 3, 2007 issue of the journal Cell reported the finding of Dartmouth University researchers that a vitamin recently discovered in milk extends the life span of yeast in a manner similar to that of calorie restriction. The vitamin is nicotinamide riboside (NR), a cousin of niacin, and is a precursor to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide or NAD, a cellular factor essential for all life. - See more at: link

A nice article on nicotinamide riboside and its effects on lifespan.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

big pharma and cancer research article

Recently, there have been major advances in our understanding of how cancer progresses. As scientists have sequenced thousands of cancer genomes, patterns are starting to emerge. One clear insight we have gained is the likelihood that no single drug will be able to defeat cancer. The reason most cancers become drug resistant and come back is because their DNA mutates quickly. Cancer cells that are not killed by the drugs survive, continue to grow and replace the cells that have been wiped out.-link

An interesting article dealing with cancer research and the pharmaceutical industry.

Monday, May 5, 2014

Article hinting at programmed aging

"Scientists have shown that a protein they previously demonstrated can make the failing hearts in aging mice appear more like those of young health mice, similarly improves brain and skeletal muscle function in aging mice. In two separate articles scientists report that injections of a protein known as GDF11, which is found in humans as well as mice, improved the exercise capability of mice equivalent in age to that of about a 70-year-old human."-link

It is interesting that with age biological factors change in a way that is detrimental to the organism.   Not simply due to damage, but in some cases due to detrimental changes in regulation that the body could easily prevent(as seen by the fact that interventions such as caloric restriction with adequate nutrition being able to revert many of the changes in gene expression, iirc.).   It suggests that it might actually be an orchaestrated process, and if so one that we should with knowledge be able to intervene in.

It had previously been seen that the longest lived nondividing cells in an animal could live about twice as long when transplanted to a longer lived animal, probably longer if the transplant recipient was even longer lived.   Yet despite having such a robust mechanism to keep individual cells alive present in the original animal, nature lets the original animal decay and die with needlessly short life.

In primates some are said to live about a decade while others live for over a century, yet the genetic differences are likely not that much.   Might the changes from animals that live a century to those that live multiple centuries and show no aging, be likewise as small?