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Long before Apple watches, grandfather clocks or even sundials, nature provided living things with a way to tell time.

Life evolved on a rotating world that delivered alternating light and darkness on a 24-hour cycle. Over time, cellular chemistry tuned itself to that rhythm. Today, circadian rhythms governed by a master timekeeper in the brain guide sleeping schedules and mealtimes and influence everything from diet to depression to the risk of cancer. While an Apple watch can monitor a few vital functions such as your heart rate, your body's natural clock controls or affects nearly all of them.

"Circadian rhythms impact almost every aspect of biology," says neuroscientist Joseph Takahashi of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Lately, research by Takahashi and others has suggested strategies for manipulating the body's clock to correct circadian-controlled chemistry when it goes awry. Such circadian interventions could lead to relief for shift workers, antidotes for jet lag, and novel treatments for mood disorders and obesity, not to mention the prospect of counteracting aging.

Prime weapons for the assault on clock-related maladies, Takahashi believes, can be recruited from an arsenal of small molecules, including some existing medical drugs.

"Researchers are increasingly interested in developing small molecules to target the circadian system directly for therapeutic gains," Takahashi and coauthors Zheng Chen and Seung-Hee Yoo wrote in the 2018 Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology.

In sophisticated life-forms (such as mammals), central control of the body's clock resides in a small cluster of nerve cells within the brain's hypothalamus. That cluster, called the suprachiasmatic nucleus SCN for short is tuned to the day-night signal by light transmitted via the eyes and the optic nerve.

But the SCN does not do the job alone. It's the master clock, for sure, but satellite timekeepers operate in all kinds of cells and body tissues.

"There isn't just an SCN clock in the brain," Takahashi said at a recent meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. "There are clocks throughout the entire body. Every major organ system has its own intrinsic clock."

The proliferation of clocks throughout the body makes circadian chemistry relevant to various behaviors and physiological processes, such as metabolism and blood flow. Maintaining healthy physiology requires all the body's various clocks to be synchronized by signals (in the form of hormones and nerve impulses) from the SCN. SCN signals govern the timing of genetic activity responsible for the production of numerous clock-related proteins. Studies mainly in mice have shown how those proteins participate in complex chemical feedback loops, perpetuating rhythmic genetic activity in which proteins are first produced and then degraded to drive circadian cycles. Similar chemistry operates in humans.

Key molecular players in keeping the body's clocks ticking are the proteins known as CLOCK and BMAL1. Studies of liver cells in mice show that CLOCK partners with BMAL1 to regulate gene activity, driving all the important circadian chemical reactions. "Generally in many cells you see a similar kind of picture, in the brain or other tissues," Takahashi said.

The CLOCK-BMAL1 tandem activates genes that produce several forms of the circadian proteins period and cryptochrome. In mice, that process starts work in daytime, leading to a substantial buildup of period (PER) and cryptochrome (CRY) by evening. At night, PER and CRY migrate into the cell's nucleus and block the action of CLOCK-BMAL1, thereby halting production of PER and CRY themselves. PER and CRY amounts then diminish as other molecules degrade them. By morning, PER and CRY levels drop so low that CLOCK and BMAL1 are no longer disabled and can begin producing PER and CRY anew.

Many other molecules participate in circadian chemistry; the exact molecular participants differ from tissue type to tissue type. In the (mouse) liver alone, the activity of thousands of genes fluctuates on a circadian schedule.

An hourglass uses the flow of sand to mark time. The body uses the build-up and flow of proteins to keep its rhythms. Although there are numerous different players in the bodys many clocks, the workings of the circadian proteins period (PER) and cryptochrome (CRY) (and their counterparts CLOCK and BMAL1) exemplify the kind of feedback loop that keeps the body in sync with the day-night cycle.

While signals from the SCN set the daily schedule for circadian chemistry, various small molecules, such as many medicinal drugs, can disrupt cellular timing. (That's one reason certain drugs such as blood thinners and chemotherapy treatments are more or less effective depending on the time of day that they are administered.) Researchers have identified dozens of small molecules that can influence circadian processes.

Some such molecules change the length of the circadian period. Some alter the precise timing of specific processes during the cycle. Others help maintain robust signals for synchronizing the body's clocks. Circadian signaling weakens with age, possibly contributing to many age-related disorders such as impaired metabolism or sleep problems.

Among the common drugs that exert effects on the circadian system are opsinamides, sulfur-containing compounds that suppress the amount of light input into the SCN. Nobiletin, found in the peels of citrus fruits, manipulates circadian rhythms to improve metabolism in obese mice. (Nobiletin also counters tumors and inflammation.) Resveratrol is a well-known compound that alters the activity of certain clock genes, with some possible human health benefits.

Scientists have discovered a long list of existing medicines and small molecules now under investigation that act on or influence the bodys circadian system.

Today's challenge, Takahashi and coauthors say, is to identify the precise targets where small molecules exert their influence. Knowing the targets should help researchers find ways to repair defects in the circadian system or alleviate temporary inconveniences such as jet lag.

Jet lag occurs when sudden changes in time zone generate a mismatch between the body clock's expectations and the actual day-night cycle (not to mention timing of meals and social activities). While it is usually just an annoyance for travelers, shift workers face long-term consequences for working when the body clock advises sleep. Shift workers, Chen, Yoo, and Takahashi point out, are at risk for sleep problems, gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, cardiovascular disease, cancer and mood disorders. Molecules tested in mice have shown promise for reconciling expectations with reality, getting the clock back in phase with the body's environment.

Clock malfunction also affects the body's disease-fighting immune system, and certain clock components have been identified as potential targets for alleviating autoimmune disease and excessive inflammation. Other recent studies have shown that molecular intervention with clock components can aid proper functioning of mitochondria, the cellular structures responsible for energy production.

While most of the details about circadian chemistry come from studies in mice, studies of human sleep disorders indicate that the basic circadian story is similar in people. A mutation in the human gene responsible for making one of the period proteins has been linked, for example, to familial advanced sleep phase disorder. (In people with that mutation, the normal sleep-wake cycles shift by several hours.) Other research has shown that a variant version of the human gene for cryptochrome protein increases the risk of diabetes.

An especially intriguing possibility is that body clock management could provide strategies for slowing down aging.

Many studies have shown that aging in some animals can be slowed by restricting food intake. Fewer calories can lead to longer lives. But work by Takahashi and others has found that (in mice, at least) timing of ingesting the calories can be almost as important as the quantity.

Mice allowed to eat a normal amount of calories, but only within restricted hours, have lived about 15 percent longer than usual, Takahashi reported at the neuroscience meeting. In humans, that would correspond to a life span increase from 80 years to 92.

"We're super excited about these results, because these are the first experiments to show that you can extend life span by restriction of time of nutrient intake only without a reduction of calories," Takahashi said.

"For us it's much easier to restrict the time that we eat than the amount that we eat. Now if you can do both, that's even better. I think that this, I hope, could have benefit for human health and longevity in the future."

This article originally appeared in Knowable Magazine, an independent journalistic endeavor from Annual Reviews. Sign up for the newsletter.

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Looking for answers in the circadian rhythm - The Week Magazine

In tandem with attempts to resist the waves of migration produced by wars, poverty and climate change humanity has been on a quest to find the first, unique modern human, a mitochondrial Eve from which we are all descendants. But the big surprise has been that although there is little doubt that humans originally evolved in Africa, genetic analysis points out rather to groups that separated for different reasons, evolved genetically and culturally in different directions and then came back together mixing both the genetic material and the newly acquired skills. The common ancestors of todays modern humans lived a lot earlier than it was thought and science is leaving the door open for even older findings as the fossil register shows an incomplete picture.

For example, a 2017 finding in Morocco threw into question the idea that modern humans originated in East Africa. Those bones were significantly older than any others ever found.

Researchers determined that the bones unearthed in Moroccos Jebel Irhoud region are 315,000 years old roughly 100,000 older than the bones previously considered oldest modern human fossils. (Those fossils, found in Ethiopia, were roughly 196,000 years old.)

The remains were also found in a different area of Africa than most other ancient human bones: North Africa instead of East Africa. That suggests our earliest ancestors may not have lived in just one part of the continent.

There is no Garden of Eden in Africa, or if there is, it is all of Africa, anthropologist Jean-Jacques Hublin, who led the Morocco expedition, said at the time.

Silo described evolving systems that go through stages of differentiation, complementation and synthesis, before moving to a new differentiation. Here we seem to have a rather nice example.

Furthermore, genetic analysis has revealed that the ancestors of modern humans interbred with at least five different archaic human groups as they moved out of Africa and across Eurasia. According to Dr Joo Teixeira, Australian Research Council Research Associate, ACAD in Science Daily.

While two of the archaic groups are currently known the Neanderthals and their sister group the Denisovans from Asia the others remain unnamed and have only been detected as traces of DNA surviving in different modern populations. Island Southeast Asia appears to have been a particular hotbed of diversity.

There was an evolutionary leap in those first humans, perhaps accelerated by the merging of the diverging hominid/human groups and exposure to different environments through migration. Learning to use fire initiated the technological revolution of changing materials found in nature, such as clay, ore and sand into other materials with different properties, such as ceramics, metals and glass. At the same time a revolution of consciousness was taking place, that changed the whole society through collective communication, starting from pictorial representations that eventually led to the principles of written language, showing the evidence for evolving abstract thinking paired with allegorical mental processes that seem to have promoted also the development of a spiritual drive. So humans were no longer brought up mainly in a natural environment but rather in a cultural one, that is, historical/social. This accelerated evolution beyond anything seen in nature before. The initial spark of intentionality, the capacity to structure the world and thinking in an intentional way, grew and continued acting from the depths of human consciousness pushing the species towards achievements and transformations without any limits, sketching the first questions about meaning. And this takes us to today.

Humanity 2.0 approaching

We are again, like our ancestors, distributed around large geographical areas, divided into nations, races, ethnic groups and corporations, all competing for resources. Two opposing tendencies serve as the backdrop of todays human relationships. On the one hand the nationalistic, racist, white supremacist, anti immigration ideologies with their many levels from the mildly fearful following right wing populist leaders to the frankly active neonazis. On the other hand we have the progressives, welcoming diversity and immigration, promoting solidarity, human rights, equality, the protection of the environment and searching from a new economic system away from destructive capitalist neoliberalism. In between all possible shades and combinations. Polarisation grows at the time of elections and other political crises thanks to the rhetoric of the power-thirsty leaders and softens up during events that bring people together.

But the profound search for meaning, for that which helps us make sense of our own existence continues through the waxing and waning of external events, violence, preposterous leaders and our apparently incomprehensible small place in the Universe.

In this way humanity is preparing itself for its next evolutionary leap which is likely to take place when all humans are connected and nobody is left out of the inspirational wave that shook our ancestors and set the spark of intentionality in their psyches circa 300,000 years ago.

We dont know when this will happen but we can see how the horror of the violence unleashed but certain actors, those who dehumanise others and impose draconian conditions, often work as awakeners. But the green shoots of a new sensibility can be seen everywhere, in new political thinking, in youth movements, in a new spirituality based on experience rather than belief and away from the dogma of old religions, in a search for meaning in life.

A few days ago Pressenza published a comprehensive presentation about the Psychology of New Humanism by Victor Piccininni. He states that This process does not stop and it is perhaps in 1945, with the developments of Victor Frankl, creator of Logotherapy, that it finds its highest dimension. In his work Frankl highlights the spiritual dimension of the human being and stresses that it is the lack of meaning that is the main root of human suffering. This psychotherapy of the meaning of life is based on an active consciousness in search of meaning.

Coincidentally (or not?) the theme kept turning up in different unrelated publications

Steve Taylor ,Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Leeds Beckett University writing for The Conversation posits that Human life is not a meaningless space between birth and death, spent trying to enjoy ourselves and forget about our predicament. I believe that human life and the world mean much more than that. And this is not because I am religious I am not.

Instead, my perspective is informed by my scientific research over the past ten years with people who have undergone what I call suffering-induced transformational experiences.

These experiences include being diagnosed with terminal cancer, or suffering bereavements, or becoming seriously disabled, or losing everything through addiction or having close encounters with death during combat.

What all these people had in common is after undergoing intense suffering, they felt they had woken up. They stopped taking life, the world and other people for granted and gained a massive sense of appreciation for everything.

They spoke of a sense of the preciousness of life, their own bodies, the other people in their lives and the beauty and wonder of nature. They felt a new sense of connection with other people, the natural world and the universe.

They became less materialistic and more altruistic. Possessions and career advancement became trivial, while love, creativity and altruism became much more important. They felt intensely alive.

In this case the awakeners were not obnoxious sociopathic politicians but personal suffering. It is indeed of great interest to discover that crises can lead to new meanings, but we also need to be careful not to extol suffering in itself, and promote it as something good for the soul that we should seek even when things are OK.

Another perspective on the theme of meaning comes from a study published by Science Daily which examines meaning in life and its relationship with physical, mental and cognitive functioning: Over the last three decades, meaning in life has emerged as an important question in medical research, especially in the context of an ageing population. A recent study by researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine found that the presence of and search for meaning in life are important for health and well-being, though the relationships differ in adults younger and older than age 60.

Many think about the meaning and purpose in life from a philosophical perspective, but meaning in life is associated with better health, wellness and perhaps longevity, said senior author Dilip V. Jeste, MD, senior associate dean for the Center of Healthy Aging and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at UC San Diego School of Medicine. Those with meaning in life are happier and healthier than those without it.

The results also showed that the presence of meaning in life exhibited an inverted U-shaped relationship, while the search for meaning in life showed a U-shaped relationship with age. The researchers found that age 60 is when the presence of meaning in life peaks and the search for meaning of life was at its lowest point.

When you are young, like in your twenties, you are unsure about your career, a life partner and who you are as a person. You are searching for meaning in life, said Jeste. As you start to get into your thirties, forties and fifties, you have more established relationships, maybe you are married and have a family and youre settled in a career. The search decreases and the meaning in life increases.

After age 60, things begin to change. People retire from their job and start to lose their identity. They start to develop health issues and some of their friends and family begin to pass away. They start searching for the meaning in life again because the meaning they once had has changed.

Although showing the connection between meaning and health is extremely important, in this case researchers have equated meaning in life with what the Psychology of New Humanism has described as provisional meanings: people. objects, jobs, that may be temporary, ephemeral. In the words of the old Sufi saying, we possess only that we cannot lose in a shipwreck. The presence of a deeper and more permanent meaning guides a different search opening up to other regions of human consciousness.

Kenan Malik for The Observer makes comparisons between uber Christian 17th Century John Miltons Paradise Lost and its less than holy 20th Century counterpart, Philip Pullmans His dark materials. He concludes Reasoned argument and clarity are an indispensable part of our quest for knowledge. So are stories and their ambiguities. They are a celebration of the human capacity to find meaning and a recognition that meaning is not something to be discovered but something that humans create. From Adam and Eve to Lyra and Will*, it is that search for meaning that enchants, excites, moves and inspires.

Perhaps what is missing from this potpourri of views about meaning and how to get it- wholly understandable in our individualistic society- is that meaning is connected to the sense of internal unity and coherence arising from helping others. Many celebrities, to their own surprise, have discovered meaning in empathising and developing acts of solidarity towards others, something ordinary people are much more aware of.

In spite of the efforts of anti migration forces humanity is again mixing, coming together with its new complexity and different paths to answer the great questions. There has been a long period of differentiation and a new complementation is in motion. This convergence of diversity is at the root of the new leap we are about to take, no matter how solid the meaningless dehumanising system appears to be.

* His dark materials characters

Continued here:
The secret of Homo sapiens evolution? Migration, diversity, mixing - and meaning - Pressenza, International Press Agency

The microbiome is the collection of microbes in an ecosystem, whether that's the human gut or a ... [+] boreal forest.

Microbiome. Today, its a household word.

But a decade ago, microbiome was unheard of, unless you were a specific type of scientist. The microbiome is the collection of microbes in an ecosystem, whether in the human gut or a boreal forest.

These community of microbes were incredibly difficult to study before the rise of sequencing technology, which became cheaper at a pace faster than Moores law throughout the 2010s. The availability of this technique cascaded into a boom in products and academic research centered around the microbiome.

Industry

Turn on the TV, and the word microbiome shows up in commercials for household products. Microbiome research has also come with the creation of countless startups and companies looking to create products to improve our lives, from probiotic formula that could help infants get the right microbiome to daily probiotics to boost health in adults.

However, microbiome science is a new field, and one of the challenges is performing cross-cutting research that can link changes in the microbiome to mechanistic changes or outcomes. Consumers, in particular, face challenges trying to determine if a product really elicits a change, or if the change in the microbiome doesnt actually change the outcome they are looking for.

Academic Research

With the rise of microbiome research centers across the country, two biologists at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) decided to create and lead the Microbiome Centers Consortium. Research across multiple fields using techniques and methods related to microbiome science is rapidly changing. The UCI biologists thought that a consortium to share innovations, challenges, and solutions could improve the quality and quantity of academic microbiome research.

Now, researchers from ecologists to immunologists use the microbiome in their research, thanks to the various centers that provide expertise and instruments at their universities.

Health: Researchers are studying the community of microbes that are in and on our bodies. In our bodies, the microbiome plays a role in our health, including mediating metabolic and inflammatory disorders, cancer, depression, infanthealthand longevity.

Ecosystems: Lets not forget the microbiome of the air, soil, and oceans. In ecosystems, the microbiome performs irreplaceable ecosystem services, from breaking down dead material to forming the foundation of energy available to living beings. Microbes in the air help seed clouds, which could impact the clouds reflectivity and how much rain they bring. Microbes form beneficial partnerships with corals. Understanding the role of the environmental microbiome could help us better predict processes, such as carbon cycling.

What exciting new discoveries and solutionsfrom improving human health to climate change mitigationwill microbiome science in the 2020s bring to society?

Read more from the original source:

The Decade Of The Microbiome - Forbes

Looking back 150 years, the proportion of elderly in Japans population was only a few per cent; now it exceeds 27%, making Japan the worlds top super-aged society. In 2060, it will exceed 38% and remain at this level in the future, retaining its top spot. OECD countries and many emerging economies including China will follow suit at their own respective speeds. The transition is a great outcome of public health and medicine.

A super-aged society is a natural consequence of longevity and we should celebrate it; on the other hand, our new challenge is healthy longevity or how we can be healthy, active and happy until the very end of our lives. Japanese data on the elderly, gathered by Dr Hiroko Akiyama of the University of Tokyo, suggests that health status at 65 is a strong indication of quality of life for the rest of life. In the 70-year-lifespan model, where people die in their 60s or 70s, health is not as big an issue for working-age people; in the 100-year lifespan model, one should continuously invest in ones health from as early a point as possible to maintain ones health after retirement. But how?

The Fourth Industrial Revolution offers good news on this front. Now, it is much easier than ever before to gather indicators of what affects ones health. We can gather genomic data, daily vitality data, health check data and medical treatment data. We can also gather data regarding lifestyle, social connectedness and financial activity all at a lower cost. Then artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data analysis can help us to understand our health more accurately and easily, and maintain it cost-effectively. We have rich new solutions for healthier lives.

The issue is the motivation or incentive for ordinary people to invest in their health before becoming elderly. Health geeks with rich health literacy invest in their health, using new technology but we observe quite a number of ordinary people with less health literacy. How can we inspire such uninterested people toward health investment or prevention before becoming sick?

The traditional approaches are from government, insurers or healthcare providers. National or local governments encourage members of their populations to improve health literacy and to receive health checks. Insurers may change member premiums and conditions, based on the member's health status or lifestyle. Hospitals and medical doctors are in a good position to advise locals. However, governments tend to lack resources, insurers cannot reach non-members and hospitals cannot cover people who dont come to hospitals.

Governments can enforce obligations for ordinary individuals or businesses to take care of their health. A typical example of this is regulation for occupational health. While the requirement level and compliance level differs country by country, we observe employers obligations to secure employee safety and health in offices and factories in many countries. However, while a legal obligation is good at securing minimum standards, it is not good at encouraging best practices. An obligation is necessary but insufficient.

We need to use incentives for both individuals and businesses to realize better occupational health. A public-private partnership programme called Health and Productivity Management (H&PM) started in Japan six years ago. It encourages CEOs and company management to invest on a voluntary basis in their employees' health for productivity and creativity purposes. The return of that investment is healthier employees with energy and enthusiasm and better evaluations from the labour market, capital markets, customers and society, all of which improves the value of the company. Now, more than 2,300 large companies and 35,000 SMEs in Japan have implemented H&PM.

External evaluation strengthens the return of investment. The Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the Tokyo Stock Exchange select 35 listed companies from 26 sectors (based on the results of a yearly survey) for the H&PM stock selection competition. in addition, Nippon Kenko Kaigi, a large business and medical federation including the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Japan Medical Association, nominates 3,300 companies as certified H&PM companies.

So far, we have observed positive outcomes from H&PM. In the past five years, certified H&PM companies have outperformed other ordinary companies on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, according to an analysis by Tokyo Mitsubishi and Morgan Stanley Securities. Some institutional investors such as AXA Insurance have started considering H&PM as one element of environment, social and corporate governance (ESG).

While direct evidence is lacking, logically speaking, H&PM will have positive external effects on the rest of society and the economy, since healthier employees become healthier citizens and active consumers. Considering new business trends such as the SDGs, ESG or stakeholder capitalism, some companies are now more focused on these external effects than on the financial returns derived.

Countries with the largest populations aged 60 and above

H&PM is not unique to Japan: Johnson & Johnson started H&PM decades ago and say one dollar invested generates 3 dollars in return. The US Chamber of Commerce issued a report that poor occupational health reduces GDP by 8.2%, 7%, 5.4% in the US, Japan and China respectively. In 2019, Business 20 (B20) included H&PM into its proposal to the G20. H&PM is a good strategy for improving occupational health in emerging economies with fewer initial resources. Sri Lanka started an H&PM awards programme in 2019.

It is fair to say that the rapid expansion of H&PM in Japan faces a unique challenge owing to the countrys labour shortage. As an ageing society, Japan lacks younger individuals as human resources, which makes recruitment a very important business issue. The same is true for the need to retain trained staff and convincing them not to resign. While H&PM works very well in this regard, such a labour shortage may happen in many countries as they age.

Increasing human productivity is one of the hot topics among global businesses amid rapid industrial structural change. I believe, H&PM is a new, positive strategy for realizing healthy longevity which will prove effective in many companies and economies.

License and Republishing

World Economic Forum articles may be republished in accordance with our Terms of Use.

Written by

Kazumi Nishikawa, Director, Healthcare Industries Division, Commerce and Service Industry Policy Group, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan

The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

Read more from the original source:

How to get ageing populations to invest in their health - World Economic Forum

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WTHR) Researchers are looking for America's oldest dog.

They don't want to teach him new tricks, but they are hoping he could teach them a few things.

And your dog could be part of their life-long scientific study that's looking to learn from pets nationwide.

More than 40 scientists and researchers from across the United States including one from Purdue University are looking for dogs to participate the national study of the general health and wellness of dogs.

The Dog Aging Project will be looking at dogs of all breeds and mixes from across the nation. This is the first major longitudinal study involving dogs, and it's scheduled to last at least 10 years.

We are going to look at a lot of different aspects of dogs lives that affect their health and longevity, says Audrey Ruple, a veterinary epidemiologist at Purdue.

Dogs are good models for humans, she says. They have similar genetics, share our environment, and they also have similar diseases and health issues. We will be asking, How do dogs age healthfully? in order to help better understand how we can age healthfully, too.

Dogs of all age ranges, breeds and sizes are eligible to participate in the study. Owners go online to register their dogs, then create a personal profile to track health, home life, diet, environment and lifestyle.

Dogs will need to make regular veterinarian visits every year. If a dog is assigned to a specific group, the owners may get a kit for their veterinarian to collect blood, urine or other samples during the annual visit.

Participation is voluntary and there is no cost to participate.

Its important to get dogs from all parts of the U.S. because of the different environmental factors present, Ruple said. And were trying to find the oldest dog in America, as well.

All dogs registered will be eligible to participate in various studies. The group conducted a soft launch with 4,500 dogs registered earlier this fall. Recently, the researchers reached 75,000 dogs for the study.

Our study population just keeps growing and growing and growing, Ruple said.

Researchers hope to find out more details on how genetics, demographics and environmental factors such as chemical exposures and noise pollution impact health and longevity.

Ruple says one goal of the study is to not just improve the health and longevity of dogs, but also extend those findings to improve human health. By studying aging in dogs, we hope to learn how to better match human health span to life span so that we can all live longer, healthier lives, Ruple said.

Funding for the Dog Aging Project comes from the National Institute of Aging, a part of the National Institutes of Health, as well as from private donations.

Original post:

Purdue taking part in life-long study of dogs health and aging - WTHR

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Washington Innovation in Longevity Summit (WIN) happening here December 9-10 at the National Press Club and produced by Mary Furlong & Associates, is the only conference that brings together a highly curated audience focused on solutions, partnerships, best practices and trends driving the $7.6 trillion U.S. longevity economy. The event is unique in that it selects the top innovators in aging technology backed by leading longevity market investors to share insights, learn from and connect with the federal agencies, private companies,nonprofits and media as well as potential global partners seeking impactful and sustainable innovation to support longer lifespans worldwide.

"The longevity economy offers vast domestic and global potential for investors and entrepreneurs but there are challenges for entrants to the space," said Mary Furlong, executive producer of WIN and CEO of Mary Furlong & Associates. "Our summit is carefully curated to help attendees navigate regulatory, privacy and reimbursement issues and remain at the forefront of trends in aging while also helping innovators scale their solutions with the right U.S. and international partners."

Furlong added, "The private companies, federal agencies and nonprofits who attend also benefit by connecting with this curated collection of innovators. Since technology moves fast and so many players enter the space on a daily basis, it is a resource drain for organizations to meet with every start-up company so attending this conference cuts through the clutter to identify best of breed and pursue quicker yet quality partnerships."

Joining the notable keynote speakers Nancy LeaMond of AARP and George Vradenburg of UsAgainstAlzheimer's, will be an impressive line-up of panel speakers from the federal government: James Parker, senior advisor to the Secretary for Health Reform and director of the Office of Health Reform at the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services; Melanie Egorin, deputy health staff director, U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Ways and Means; Todd Haim, chief of the Office of Small Business Research, National Institute on Aging and Vijeth Iyengar, brain health lead and technical advisor to the Deputy Assistant Secretary

for Aging at the Administration for Community Living, U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services. They join lead investors in the longevity market, Dan Hermann, president and CEO, head of Investment Banking forZiegler Link-Age Longevity Fund and Jake Nice, principal,Nationwide Ventures; along with top aging technology entrepreneurs such as CareLinx, Posit Science, Ageless Innovation, PS Salon & Spa and 12 global companies from countries including Japan, Israel and Sweden.

"Through its small business programs, the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health provided more than $100 million in funding to start up organizations in FY 2019 alone," said Todd Haim, Ph.D., chief, NIA Office of Small Business Research. "For successful applicants, our programs are an excellent source of seed funding for the further development of innovations geared toward older adult health and well-being."

The full agenda and summit details are here. Summit registration is available here. Key sponsors for the Summit include: AARP, Ageless Innovation, CareLinx, Center for Aging + Brain Health Innovation, Sodexo, Thrive Alliance, Posit Science, Audio Cardio, LivPact, Care Predict, Stay Smart Care, LLC., AloeCare, Embodied Labs, Nationwide, It's Never Too Late, VitalTech and Home Instead.

About Mary Furlong & AssociatesFor 17 years, Mary Furlong & Associates (MFA), headquartered in the San Francisco Bay area, has developed strategies for marketing and business development for companies focused on opportunities with the senior and baby boomer markets and the longevity economy. Dr. Furlong is the executive producer of three conferences annually: What's Next Boomer Business Summit, Silicon Valley Boomer Venture Summit, and Washington Innovation in Longevity Summit. She also co-produces What's Next Canada and is scheduled to add a fourth conference in Paris, France, focused on international aging.

Contact Information:Ben Adkins230490@email4pr.com502.619.4267

SOURCE Mary Furlong & Associates

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Federal Agencies, Nonprofits and Global Companies Connect with Tech Entrepreneurs, Investors at Innovation in Longevity Summit Convened in Nation's...

The global longevity and anti-senescence therapies market should 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.

Get Sample Copy Of The [emailprotected]https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/sample/11698

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.

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 process 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

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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.

Report [emailprotected]https://www.trendsmarketresearch.com/report/analysis/BCC/global-longevity-and-anti-senescence-therapy-market

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Longevity And Anti-Senescence Therapy Market 2018 Overview, Consumption, Supply, Demand & Insights - Downey Magazine

For Oakland University voice students, the human voice is more than just a way to communicate its also a precious instrument that must be maintained in order for them to continue sharing their passion for performing.

Voices are like feet in a way no one thinks much about their feet until they have a problem with them, but when they do, it suddenly becomes all they can think about, said John-Paul White, a distinguished professor of music at Oakland University. Its much the same with our voice. We take it for granted until it doesnt work right, and then we realize how very important it is.

How much more so for a performer, especially a professional whose living depends on their voice, White added. Maintaining vocal health is so much easier than having to fix a problem once is has occurred.

Dr. Drake Dantzler, associate professor of music at OU, agreed.

For any singer, their body is their instrument, Dantzler said. Proper health and vocal maintenance is important for successful singing and performing. We teach our students to maintain proper hydration, to avoid diuretics, to avoid smoking and second hand smoke, and to keep their bodies healthy.

Beyond those baseline lifestyle choices, we also work to create a vocal routine that establishes the habits for vocal longevity. Those exercises are based around established vocal science, and new research is emerging all the time.

This past summer, Dantzler and his wife, Dr. Alta Dantzler, an assistant professor of music at OU, participated in the National Center for Voice & Speech (NCVS) Summer Vocology Institute at the University of Utah, where they completed the first part of a three-part certification.

Vocology is the study of the habituation of the human voice, or how we use our voices for singing, Drake Dantzler said. It contains detailed studies in vocal health, anatomy, physics and applied practice.

Recently, more than 40 Oakland University voice students had an opportunity to learn more about their own vocal health when Dr. Adam Rubin and Dr. Juliana Codino from the Lakeshore Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) Center treated them to a free baseline videostroboscopy on Nov. 11.

Videostroboscopy is an examination that uses high-speed light flashes that enable the scope (camera) to see the vocal folds in slow motion, White said. The vocal folds vibrate very quickly, much too fast for the naked eye to see. For example, at the pitch A 440 they vibrate 440 times per second. Stroboscopy enables the laryngologist to see the condition of the vocal cords in much greater detail.

Dantzler called the procedure a tremendously valuable tool for performers.

All performers, like any athlete, will experience some form of distress during their career, he said. By having a baseline stroboscope, the doctor that evaluates their vocal folds will be able to make a much more detailed analysis of the chord movement, and hence a more accurate diagnosis. To be able to provide this to our students, free of charge, is a wonderful opportunity, and we thank Lakeshore ENT for their expertise and time.

Caroline Roberts, a senior vocal performance major with a pre-med concentration, was among the OU students who underwent the procedure on Nov. 11.

It was fascinating to see how my own vocal cords operate, along with the amazing technology used to track vocal health, she said. This visit was especially exciting for me because I hope to be a laryngologist in the future. I believe my education as a vocal performance student will set me apart in this field, since I can empathize with my future patients.

Also in November, several OU voice students had an opportunity to visit the Gross Anatomy Lab in Hannah Hall, where they were able to view an excised human larynx, as well as breathing musculature, with Dr. Rebecca Pratt, a professor of anatomy in the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine.

The anatomy lab was a remarkable opportunity for our students to gain a detailed idea of the physiology of the human voice, Dantzler said. While our students have seen models and drawings, there is no replacement for a physical larynx.

The students excitement and wonder was palpable, and there was no question that high level comprehension was present, he said. Students were connecting questions and ideas from their Voice Tech classes, as well as gaining a broader understanding of the instructions they receive in lesson.

Voice student Gillian Tackett, who visited the anatomy lab on Nov. 12, said the experience was amazing.

To be honest, I wasnt sure how I would feel being in a room with deceased donors and looking at body parts, but being able to see and even touch the parts of the body that are extremely vital to what we do as singers was life changing, she said. When I was holding a human larynx in my hands, I realized that this might be the closest I would ever get to really touching my instrument.

For performers, maintaining that instrument their voice is critically important.

Vocal health begins with awareness, Tackett said. Once we have that knowledge, we can begin to properly use and maintain a healthy voice. Here at Oakland, were very fortunate to have voice faculty who are so supportive and eager to help us learn every aspect of what it means to be a singer and that has to include vocal health.

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OU voice students learn about the importance of vocal health - 2019 - School of Music, Theatre and Dance - News - OU Magazine - News at OU

By 2050, the worlds over-65s will outnumber the under-15s for the first time in history. The root cause of this is simple: infant mortality has decreased. In 1910, about 15% of British babies died shortly after being born. By 1950, this had dropped to about 3%, and last year it was about 0.3%. This reduction is a global trend that only grouches fail to hail as a triumph.

But success brings its own problems. Every surviving baby is a potential pensioner, and by the age of 85, nobody is disease free. Being old is not in itself a problem, but being old and ill is quite another matter.

Over 40% of the UKs National Health Service (NHS) budget goes on the over-65s. Spending on a patient in their mid-80s is more than seven times higher that on someone in their mid-30s. Unless we improve healthy lifespan, by 2050 either healthcare expenditure will become impossibly high or care standards unacceptably low.

Conscious of this, the British government has set itself a commendable target for everyone to have five extra years of healthy, independent life by 2035 and to narrow the gap between the richest and the poorest. The second part of the sentence is key. Simply committing to increase the average healthy lifespan, as the European Union did some years ago, carries the risk that you hit your target by making the healthiest healthier.

Avoiding this is crucial for the UK where the health gap between rich and poor is bad (24% fewer of the poorest British people are in good health relative to the richest) compared with countries such as New Zealand and France (where the gap is only 5%-10%).

An authoritative new report, The Health of the Nation, from the All Party Parliamentary Group for Longevity lays out potential measures the UK government could take, and some traps to avoid, to meet its target. Drawing on contributions from many disciplines, there is something in it for everyone, from what you can do personally to stay healthy, through what your doctors can do to help you, to what scientists can do to help your doctors.

What you can do should come as no surprise. Stop smoking which would cut UK health inequalities in half if everyone did so. Drink less alcohol although you probably shouldnt be a teetotaller. And stay a healthy weight and get enough exercise.

The trap with encouraging people to adopt healthy behaviour, for example by running a lose-weight campaign, is that the people who diet as a result tend to be health-conscious folk already worried theyre fat. So catch everyone measures, such as hiking the prices of beer and cigarettes, have a better chance of raising average lifespan by reducing health inequality. Just dont expect smokers to thank the government for doing it.

Your doctors could help by putting more effort into preventing illness. The NHS focuses on healing the sick. It is extremely efficient at this but spends only 5% of its budget on prevention. This is because its key targets are for treating disease, not enhancing wellness. (Surgeons arent paid for the operations they didnt need to perform.)

One recommended way around this is to shift NHS performance metrics and money away from payment by activity towards payment for meeting population health status targets, such as blood pressure. Healthcare systems worldwide are looking to do this, but the potential for unintended consequences is high. For example, it is not implausible that linking financial incentives to a healthy population would create incentives for doctors not to diagnose people as sick.

Scientists can help because the single greatest risk to your health is your number of birthdays or, in other words, the operation of the mechanisms causing ageing. Social circumstances and individual behaviour affect ageing, but its underlying biological drivers affect every tissue in the body.

Fortunately, we now know that a few fundamental processes cause both ageing and age-related disease. For older people who are already sick, this breakthrough in understanding could add decades to healthy life expectancy.

It took 50 years to establish that senescent cells cells that dont divide or support the tissues of which they are part caused ageing but less than five to develop a drug cocktail that removes them from humans. So the first anti-ageing drugs are coming. But to get them to the clinic fast enough to meet the governments target, the new report recommends establishing a dedicated British Institute for Ageing to lead scientists, entrepreneurs and industrialists in a unified effort.

The global race to patent anti-ageing treatments is firmly on, the human need for them undoubted, and the nations that already have such dedicated agencies are out in front. So this last recommendation is one every country on Earth without these institutions will be well advised to carefully consider.

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Adding five healthy years to UK life expectancy how to achieve it - The Conversation UK

The average human body temperature has steadily declined since the 19th century, according to a study published earlier this month in eLife, raising questions about whether the "normal" human body temperature is actually lower than 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit, Nicholas Bakalar reports for the New York Times' "Well."

According to researchers, the common claim that human body temperature averages 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit originated with a study by the German doctor Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich, who repeatedly measured the temperatures of 25,000 people in Leipzig in 1851. But researchers questioned whether that data truly represented average body temperature in the modern age.

To find out, they examined 677,423 human body temperature measurements from three databases to determine how body temperatures have changed over time. Human body temperatures serve as "a crude surrogate for basal metabolic rate which, in turn, has been linked to both longevity (higher metabolic rate, shorter life span) and body size (lower metabolism, greater body mass)," the researchers noted.

The databases spanned 157 years of measurement. The first database contained temperature readings obtained from 23,710 Civil War veterans between 1862 and 1930. The second database contained temperatures readings for 15,301 individuals collected by CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 1971 to 1975. The third database contained temperature readings for 150,280 individuals collected by the Stanford University from 2007 to 2017.

Overall, the researchers found the average human body temperature has decreased by 0.03 degrees centigrade, or about 0.05 degrees Fahrenheit, per birth decade. Pointing to the findings, Bakalar in the writes, "Today, a temperature of 97.5 may be closer to 'normal' than the traditional 98.6."

According to the researchers, "men born in the early 19thcentury had temperatures 0.59C higher than men today, with a monotonic decrease of 0.03C per birth decade." Meanwhile, women's average body temperatures have decreased by 0.32C since the 1890s, at a similar rate of 0.029C per birth decade.

The researchers said the decline in the average human body temperature could not be explained by differences in measurement techniques. They explained that the decrease in average body temperature occurred annually within each of the three databases and that they found identical declines between the two modern databases, which presumably involved the same equipment and measurement techniques.

While it's unclear what drove the decline in body temperatures, the researchers did offer a few possible explanations. Namely, the researchers pointed to advancements in heating and air conditions, which help maintain constant temperatures; reductions in chronic inflammation; and improvements in dental care, medical care, and sanitation.

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The human body isn't running at 98.6 degrees anymore. (And it hasn't been for 150 years.) - The Daily Briefing

When Ole Kassow was three, his father was diagnosed with MS. We couldnt do the same things that other fathers and sons, we couldnt fish or play soccer, Kassow recalls. But he was really good at putting a positive spin on many things. We invented imaginary superhero glasses wed just turn our thumbs and fingers into little glasses and wed go around and Id pull him in his wheelchair with my bike. In many ways, thats where the seed for Cycling Without Age, a non-profit that uses tri-shaw bikes to take seniors living in care facilities out for rides in cities across the world, was first planted.

What started with Kassow in Copenhagen in August of 2012 has since blossomed into a global network of more than 1,643 Cycling Without Age chapters in 42 countries, including over 300 chapters and counting in the U.S. With my dad, I saw what it does to a person when you lose mobility, Kassow says, noting that many people lose friends when theyre no longer able to engage in the activities they once loved.

After seeing an elderly man sitting on a bench one August day, Kassow got to thinking how much mobility and access to community he could provide to seniors through something as simple as a bike ride. I was dedicated to seeing this man back on a bike. I hired this old tri-shaw and showed up at a care home and began taking elders out for rides, Kassow says. It wasnt exactly cycling: The seniors dont pedal or steer, as those tasks are left up to a volunteer. But the riders get all of the adventure, freedom, and wind in their hair that a traditional bike ride provides.

Kassow quickly saw a slew of unanticipated benefits as well. Seniors who were described as loners who had all but given up on talking suddenly became chatty with everyone from the staff member accompanying them to their bike driver once again as the world became exciting again from their three-wheeled perch. I think what it does is that it allows people to get access to relationships again, Kassow says, musing on the fact that there isnt anything in the [UNs] human rights charter about relationships, even though I just read a book by Susan Pinker that talked about the important role social relationships play in longevity and happiness.

Kassow has since come to see relationships as something of a human right that his organization works to restore through bike rides, an idea that the city of Copenhagen was eager to support. The city funded Kassows first five bikes, a boon because the tri-shaw bikes essentially pedicabs where the seat is in front of the cyclist, rather than behind the organization relies on can cost $7,000 $10,000. In April of 2013, Kassow hosted a joint ride where everyone, regardless of age or mobility, was invited. Over 100 people showed up. It was a cold, clear, frosty day and it was fantastic, he recalls. A lot of people who came said that they wanted to join as volunteers. From there it was a matter of experimenting to figure out how it was going to work.

Largely through word of mouth, the program spread to different care homes across Copenhagen and eventually to different cities as well. Kassow eventually developed a train the trainers methodology so that each new chapter would be able to support the development of other chapters without requiring Kassows direct involvement.

In late 2014 Kassow was invited to give a TED Talk in Copenhagen. Thats when the Cycling Without Age really began to spread, leading to something like 10 new chapters popping up over the course of just a few months. This was also when Kassow left his consulting business to focus on Cycling Without Age full time.

Chapters, like Kalynn McLains in Meridian, Idaho, are still popping up today.

What started as an adventure in testing out electric bikes with her mother in law in October 2017 ended with the duo stumbling across a chapter kickoff in nearby Eagle, Idaho. The Eagle chapter didnt take off, despite having already acquiring a tri-shaw. The woman eventually donated it to McLain. It kind of fell into my lap. I hadnt intended to start a chapter, but I couldnt say no, she says.

With the hardest part acquiring the tri-shaw behind her, McLain set out to establish her chapter by filing with the state and getting logistics like an insurance policy in order. In April of this year McLain began offering rides in partnership with a local assisted living facility.

Once I started working with them, other facilities started asking about it. What I ended up doing was working through the parks and rec department to be able to ride in parks and on pathways around the city, she says. McLain and her stable of volunteers now meet seniors shuttled from their facilities at parks where the rides take place. They get outdoors and it gets them talking to people of different generations and telling their stories, she says.

Currently its McLains handful of volunteers who give most of the rides while she hangs back.

Across the 109 rides that the Meridian chapter gave this season, McLain is most pleased by the seniors who come back time and time again, especially largely nonverbal residents from memory care facilities who have burst into words on their ride.

I had one ride, McLain says, where the staff was asking the resident if she was enjoying the ride and she suddenly said, Yes! Im loving it! The staff member turned to me and was like, Did you hear that?! It was the first time that resident had spoken in some time, all inspired by the ride Cycling Without Age was able to provide.

Cinnamon Janzer is a freelance journalist based in Minneapolis. Her work has appeared National Geographic, U.S. News & World Report, Rewire.news, and more. She holds an MA in Social Design, with a specialization in intervention design, from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a BA in Cultural Anthropology and Fine Art from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

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Cycling Without Age Gives Seniors Access to Biking in Cities Around the Globe - Next City

PLYMOUTH - Jae Dunn has been quietly working behind the scenes to make the towns 400th anniversary later this year a success. And when the opportunity to make a longer lasting impression arose, the local woman knew she must have a part.

While local students celebrated recess last week, Dunn was one of a dozen women taking a hands-on class in embroidery that will leave her mark on history for generations and generations to come even if it is just a couple of large letters on a piece of fabric.

Using skills she learned at her grandmothers knee as a child, Dunn spent two days last week stitching the letters P and L to the prologue panel of the Plymouth Tapestry, a heroically scaled commemorative embroidery interpreting the people and events central to the founding of Plymouth in 1620.

Based on the Bayeux Tapestry, an embroidery project that was crafted in 1066 to celebrate the Norman Conquest of England, the Plymouth tapestry will tell the story of Plymouth from its native American origins to the arrival of the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving.

When finished, it will feature 20 six-foot panels and span 120 feet. But it is its longevity, not length, that has undeniable appeal.

What motivated me first is its outrageously beautiful," Dunn said. "But the thought of leaving something around, something that should be around for the 500th anniversary, that really appealed to me. This is a real, tangible thing that will last long after Im gone.

Plymouth CRAFT offered stitchers the opportunity to have a hand in the project, running two three-day workshops at Pilgrim Hall Museum that taught basic stitches and allowed needle workers like Dunn to work on the title panel.

The class included a visit to the home of Elizabeth Creeden of Wellingsley Studio, who turned her 17th century home on Sandwich Street into a tapestry workshop.

With the help of local historians, Creeden has been designing the panels for years. A team of volunteer stitchers has been helping her embroider the six-foot sketches since last fall.

Two of the panels are complete and were in Pilgrim Hall as inspiration for last weeks Plymouth CRAFT class. Pilgrim Hall expects to unveil four of the panels for the public later this spring. The entire 120-foot tapestry is slated for completion and unveiling in the fall of 2021 for the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving.

Participants in the class included two nationally known embroiderers who have been working with Creeden on the project. Kathy Neal and Barbara Jackson have traveled to Plymouth from their homes out of state repeatedly to help stitch.

For the class they spent the first morning of both sessions teaching their students a half dozen or so stitches like the reverse chain, the alternating stem stitch and invisible couching that will go into the prologue piece a six-foot title page that feature the likeness of the Mayflower.

Local historian Ginny Davis provided the drawing of the ship. It was on a linen napkin she has from 1957, when Mayflower II, the replica of the ship that carried the Pilgrims to America, sailed from England to Plymouth.

Davis husband, Karl Lekberg, already had a hand in the project. He built the custom wooden frames being used to hold the fabric panels during stitching.

Davis got a glimpse of the project as a result and, like Dunn, knew she wanted to be part of something so grand. What she didnt realize was the peace it would bring.

They gave us little panel to practice on, then we sat down to stitch. It was a transformational experience. I didnt even get tired. I got energized. It was like meditation for me, Davis said. Its something that truly makes you feel like youre tied to the past and the future.

Davis said she used the stem stitch almost exclusively to stitch letters during her session. Even that was exacting work, as every line had to be straight and without split strands.

It was very painstaking, but also they can be taken out," she said. "Even the best of the stitchers have taken their stitches out. Sometimes they do a piece and come back the next day and start over.

Celia Nolan traveled from Hull to stitch on the project. A volunteer knitter for Plimoth Plantation, Nolan stitched as a child and thought it would be fun to get back into needlework on such a momentous project. She was also perfectly happy to perfect a single stitch if thats what was needed.

Its an amazing project that looks backward and will last long into the future - something my children can go look at and their children, Nolan said.

She stitched the first T in Massachusetts and most of the Y in Plymouth. Like many of her classmates, Nolan said she is hopeful that her skills might be deemed worthy enough for a call up to Sandwich Street and a chair at one spot on the main tapestry panels.

The H in Plymouth belongs to Caitlin Doyle.

The Hingham woman learned to embroider on her own using online resources after graduating from college a few years ago and was looking for a way to turn a solitary hobby into more of a social occasion.

Since learning about the Bayeux Tapestry, Doyle also dreamed of having a hand in a story telling tradition that started so long ago and commemorates so much human history.

The Bayeux has lasted a thousand years even after being forgotten in a chest for a few centuries," she said. "The Plymouth Tapestry will be cared for with a museums meticulous love and attention from the beginning, so who know how much longer than that it could last?

The Plymouth Tapestry experience was a wonderful way to practice this beautiful art that ties us to people past and present, all over the world, and I am proud to have a part of it. Also, Im so excited to bring everyone I know to see it on display say, Look how great the letter H in Plymouth is - I did that!

Rich Harbert can be reached at rharbert@wickedlocal.com.

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A stitch in time: Plymouth Tapestry Experience traces history of Native Americans and Pilgrims - The Patriot Ledger

In the predawn darkness, you can see an eerie red glow shining from the windows of the Hudson, Wisconsin, home of Thaddeus Owen and his fiance, Heidi Sime.

The couple are awake, having slept in their Faraday cage a canopy over their bed that blocks electromagnetic fields like the Wi-Fi signals or radiation from cellphone towers, which they believe are harmful.

Their primal sleeping environment also has special pads under the bed that are supposed to mimic the effect of sleeping on the ground under the influence of the Earths magnetic field, thus combating Magnetic Field Deficiency Syndrome.

Their house is bathed in red light because they think white incandescent, LED and fluorescent lighting robs them of sleep-regulating melatonin hormones. They wear special sunglasses indoors for the same reason, blocking the blue light from computers, cellphones or televisions when its dark outside.

Their morning routine includes yoga in a shielded, infrared sauna designed to create an EMF-free ancestral space, and putting tiny spoonfuls of bitter white powders under their tongues. These are nootropics, so-called smart drugs, which are supposed to improve focus, mood or memory.

When day breaks, they go out in their yard and face the rising sun Thaddeus in shorts and no shirt, Heidi in a sports bra and yoga pants doing Qigong in the snow and 25-degree air.

Getting early-morning sunlight, they believe, will correctly set the circadian rhythm of their bodies. Exposing their skin to the freezing temperatures, they hope, will help release human growth hormone, stimulate their immune system and trigger the body to burn fat to heat itself.

Forget Blue Zones. This is what your morning looks like if youre biohacking your way to an optimal you.

DIY HUMAN ENGINEERING

Biohacking is a DIY biology movement that started in Silicon Valley by people who want to boost productivity and human performance and engineer away aging and ordinary life spans. Think of it as high-tech tinkering, but instead of trying to create a better phone, biohackers are trying to upgrade to a faster, smarter, longer lasting, enhanced version of themselves.

Owen, 44, describes it as a journey of self-experimentation, using practices that are not talked about by mainstream media and your family doctor. His aim is to combine the latest technology and science with ancient knowledge to modify his environment, inside and out.

My entire goal is to basically age in reverse, he said.

Owen, who is from New York, studied chemical engineering in college. He worked for Procter & Gamble, helping to create beauty care products, and for pharmaceutical firms, developing manufacturing processes.

Now he works from home, managing worldwide product regulations in the sustainability department for office furniture company Herman Miller. But he moonlights as a biohacking guru.

He started a Twin Cities biohacking Meetup group that organizes weekly cold-water immersions at Cedar Lake in Minneapolis. Hes given a TEDx talk urging audience members to wear blue-light-blocking glasses indoors at night.

He founded the website primalhacker.com and he and the 45-year-old Sime (who also goes by the name Tomorrow) run a website called thaddeustomorrow.com, where they market biohacking products like red light panels, a baby blanket that blocks EMF radiation and a $5,499 Faraday cage sauna thats the same type used by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.

Owen said he relies on tons of research to support avoiding blue light at night and the healing properties of the early morning sun.

WHATS THE DEAL WITH BLUE LIGHT?

The Harvard Health Letter, for example, said that blue light from devices, LED and compact fluorescent bulbs can throw off the bodys circadian rhythm, affect sleep and might contribute to cancer, diabetes, heart disease and obesity. Some studies have shown that exposing people to cold temperatures burns calories and repeated cold-water immersions might stimulate the immune system.

And those infrared saunas? They dont appear to be harmful and maybe they do some good, according to Dr. Brent Bauer, an internal medicine expert at the Mayo Clinic.

But being healthy really doesnt need to be that complicated, according to Dr. Michael Joyner, a human performance specialist at the Mayo Clinic.

All these things sound great, Joyner said of the biohacks. Theres a ring of what I call bioplausibility to them.

But Joyner said its often hard to find evidence that biohacking practices actually work and that most Americans would be healthier if they just followed basic advice: go for a walk, dont smoke, dont drink too much and dont eat too much.

But Owens goal is not to be merely healthy.

I want my biology to be shifted to that supernormal range, where Im optimally healthy, he said.

When he started biohacking about 12 years ago, Owens goal was to improve his sleep. As a competitive athlete, he was fit, but he had problems with anxiety and insomnia.

So he started wearing special glasses to block blue light. His co-workers used to think he was odd. Now Owens company is asking him for advice on what kind of lighting should be used in work settings to keep employees healthy. And his sleep and anxiety problems have gone away.

I went from being the weird guy to being consulted, he said.

We all sort of watch what he does, said Gabe Wing, director of sustainability at Herman Miller and Owens boss. Wing said Owen has influenced some co-workers to try blue-light-blocking tools.

When Owen first got into it, he didnt know of any other biohackers in the Twin Cities. Now there are more than 500 people in the Biohackers Twin Cities Meetup group.

Although many biohacks seem odd now, Owen is convinced that some of them will become common practices.

This whole blue light thing, its not going away, he said. More research comes out every day and its becoming more mainstream.

Owen and Sime have five of their children, ages 8 to 17, living with them. The kids wear blue-light-blocking glasses when they watch TV, but theyre OK with it, the couple said.

I think cellphone radiation is going to be the new lead, asbestos and smoking, said Owen, who turns his Wi-Fi off at night, keeps his cellphone in a special Faraday pouch when he sleeps and sometimes wears radiation-proof underwear.

(The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences says scientific evidence has not conclusively linked cellphone use with any adverse human health problems, although scientists admit more research is needed.)

Owen eats what he describes as a local, seasonal diet: local vegetables, fruits, nuts and honey during the growing season. Thats followed by a high-fat, low-carb ketogenic diet in late fall and early winter. Then an all-carnivore diet in late winter, including animals hes raised at a friends farm.

Owen doesnt have a particular longevity goal, unlike biohacker and Bulletproof Coffee founder Dave Asprey, who has said he wants to live to at least 180.

Owen just wants to be healthy and independent for as long as he lives.

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Can red lights, sleep cages and ice baths really extend life spans? - yoursun.com

KEY POINTS

Olive oil has been renowned for its umpteen health benefits and for adding to the Mediterranean diets excellence. A new study reported that olive oil could be associated with good health and longer lives.

The researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School studied how olive oil affected human cells in Petri dishes and found that the fats present in the oil activate certain cellular pathways associated with longevity. The study also demonstrated that olive oil reduced the risk of age-related ailments including diabetes and cardiovascular conditions.

The findings of the study suggested that olive oil fats get stored in the body and gets released during exercise. While combining olive oil consumption with fasting or exercising, the effects of the oil will be more pronounced.

We found that the way these fat works is it first has to get stored in microscopic things called lipid droplets, which is how our cells store fat. And then, when the fat is broken down during exercising or fasting, for example, is when the signaling and beneficial effects are realized," Insider quoted the studys lead researcher Dr. Doug Masheks press release.

Clinical trials might be the next steps for their research in order to discover new drugs or to further tailor dietary regimes that aid health benefits.

Mediterranean diet emerged from the countries surrounding the Mediterranean sea, where individuals historically consumed vegetables, healthy fats, nuts, and oily fish. Unlike the fad diets including Atkins or the keto, the Mediterranean diet allows people to eat a wide variety of foods in moderation. It is one of the safest diets for most people, including older adults and children.

Mediterranean diet staples including fresh fruits, whole-grain bread, salads, nuts, olive oil, beans, and salmon promote a wide range of health benefits, Insider mentioned.

This is not the first study to demonstrate the benefits of olive oil. Previous researches have reported that the oil could reduce frailty in older individuals, reduce inflammation in older people, prevents stroke risk, protect against heart diseases, prevent breast cancer risk and also prevent cognitive diseases including Alzheimers and Parkinsons as well.

olive oil for heart attack Photo: congerdesign - Pixabay

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Consuming Olive Oil After Exercising Can Aid Good Health And Longevity - International Business Times

This Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market research report is focused at providing its reader with all the necessary details that can help them make necessary business decisions. It provides wholesome information that is necessary to understand the market inside-out.

ReportsnReports has recently added a new research report to its expanding repository. The research report, titled Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market, mainly includes a detailed segmentation of this sector, which is expected to generate massive returns by the end of the forecast period, thus showing an appreciable rate of growth over the coming years on an annual basis. The research study also looks specifically at the need for Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market.

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 include 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.

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.

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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 process 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 rising awareness of antiaging products among generation Y and later generations are the major factors expected to promote the growth of global longevity and the 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.

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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.

Recent Industry Trend:

The report contains the profiles of various prominent players in the Global Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market. Different strategies implemented by these vendors have been analyzed and studied in order to gain a competitive edge, create unique product portfolios and increase their market share. The study also sheds light on major global industry vendors. Such essential vendors consist of both new and well-known players. In addition, the business report contains important data relating to the launch of new products on the market, specific licenses, domestic scenarios and the strategies of the organization implemented on the market.

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Scope of the Report:

Through following the Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market through depth, the readers should find this study very helpful. The aspects and details are depicted by charts, bar graphs, pie diagrams, and other visual representations in the longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market study. This intensifies the representation of the pictures and also helps to improve the facts of the Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market industry. At a substantial CAGR, the Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market is likely to grow. Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market reports main objective is to guide the user to understand the market in terms of its definition, classification, industry potential, the latest trends, and the challenges facing the Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market.

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Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market Analysis, Segmentation, Key Players, Opportunities and Forecast 2020 2026 - Galus Australis

SAN FRANCISCO The three-martini lunch may be on the decline, but many big companies still reward their C-suite with that traditional corporate perk: getting poked and prodded as part of an executive physical that can carry a five-digit price tag.

Now, a Silicon Valley startup wants to reimagine these medical workups by offering a version for a broader audience, one that would run 75 minutes and have patients undergo an MRI scan and genetic analysis, among other testing.

You can pay $20,000 and go to Mayo and spend a weekend there. But thats not ever really going to be scalable, said Jeffrey Kaditz, co-founder and CEO of Q Bio, which announced on Thursday that it raised $40 million from leading Silicon Valley venture capital investors.

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Q Bio is interested in a different question, Kaditz said: What is the most valuable information we can collect about your body, in as short a period of time as possible, as efficiently as possible, and non-invasively as possible?

It will still not be cheap. The price for a yearlong membership to Q Bios service starts at $3,500 out of pocket, with more comprehensive options available for $6,500 and $15,000.

By comparison, major U.S. hospitals offer executive physical packages ranging from $1,700 to $10,000, according to a research letter published in JAMA last year. The most famous of the bunch is the Mayo Clinics executive health program, founded more than four decades ago; its price tag varies based on factors including age and family history. Then theres Human Longevity Inc., the company formerly led by the genomics pioneer Craig Venter, which in 2015 launched an extraordinarily in-depth $25,000 physical.

When people sign up for Q Bios service, the startup asks them to list their health care providers as well as clinics and hospitals where theyve been seen; the company then aggregates and digitizes those records. Two weeks after the exam, the company generates a report based on the results of the MRI as well as testing of blood, urine, and saliva samples.

The report, which can be used by the customers health care providers, surfaces the most important and potentially concerning findings up top. Q Bio wants people to undergo follow-up exams so that changes in their baseline can be tracked over time.

That approach may draw criticism.

Experts say there is not strong evidence that such testing and monitoring offer widespread health benefits, or that it can save the health care system money over time. Theres also the risk of false positives, if something turned up in a medical workup leads to unnecessary and potentially harmful follow-up testing or medical interventions.

Q Bios service stands in contrast to the approach more commonly seen in medicine, in which patients are compared to population distributions and population norms, said Vijay Pande, the general partner at the VC firm Andreessen Horowitz who led Q Bios new Series B funding. That makes sense when you dont have a baseline for yourself, Pande said.

Q Bios approach, on the other hand, recognizes that you can actually be within tolerance of a population norm, but be way out of scope for your personal norm, Pande said. He said hes optimistic that that approach, along with the wide range of measurements the company is collecting, has potential to dramatically minimize false positives.

Kaditz said the company tried to be conservative in deciding which things in the body to monitor, opting to capture only that which could be measured in a reproducible way and would be useful for doctors. For example, Q Bio steered clear of measuring the microbiome. And in contrast to competing medical workups that pitch whole genome sequencing, Q Bio decided to analyze a panel of just 147 genes.

One of Q Bios co-founders is Michael Snyder, a Stanford geneticist who has been an evangelist and a human guinea pig for an approach to precision medicine involving intensive health tracking over time. Last year, Synder and his team reported results from a longitudinal study of 109 people who underwent an initial intensive physical and genetic analysis and then provided blood and other samples every quarter for a number of years. The researchers identified more than 67 clinically actionable health discoveries.

Q Bio, founded in late 2015, came out of stealth mode on Thursday. Kaditz wouldnt say how many people have paid to get exams since the Q Center opened in Silicon Valley late last year, but he said demand from locals and people who have flown in has been so high the company had to create a waiting list.

Kaditz said there have been instances in which executives who have paid for a membership for themselves have proceeded to decide to cover it as a benefit for their C-suite or other employees. He wouldnt say how often thats happened.

With the new funds announced on Thursday, the company plans to open additional Q Centers in other U.S. cities and to invest in trying to line up deals with employers to cover memberships for their employees.

Continued here:
Silicon Valley startup tries to move executive physicals beyond the C-suite - STAT

Did you know TNW Conference has a track fully dedicated to bringing the biggest names in tech to showcase inspiring talks from those driving the future of technology this year?Tim Leberecht, who authored this piece, is one of the speakers.Check out the full Impact program here.

If there is pain, nurse it, and if there is a flame, dont snuff it out, dont be brutal with it. Withdrawal can be a terrible thing when it keeps us awake at night, and watching others forget us sooner than wed want to be forgotten is no better. We rip out so much of ourselves to be cured of things faster than we should that we go bankrupt by the age of 30 and have less to offer each time we start with someone new. But to feel nothing so as not to feel anything what a waste!

These are the words of theclosing monologue of the movieCall Me By Your Name(based on the namesake book by Andre Aciman); the monologue of the father, Mr. Perlman, who assures his son Ellio of the inconceivable magnitude of emotions, insisting that even the most conflicted ones are better than none.

These lines could not be more timely. We have begun to realize that feeling more not only makes for richer lives but is also the best antidote to a world of self-optimization and efficiency, in other worlds, a world of machines.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos this year, Alibaba co-founder and executive chairmanJack Mamade the case for investing in our emotional capacities and even proposed a love quotient. Management thinkers believe that socio-emotional skills are going to be a key asset in tomorrows marketplace, simply because tasks requiring operational excellence and efficiency are likely to be performed much more effectively by AI and robots. Emotions, however, remain a human bastion. Our very weakness is our strength.

In a 2016survey, the World Economic Forum ranked socio-emotional skills as increasingly critical for future career success. Business schools are adjusting their curricula to include them, and private educational institutions such asThe School of Lifehave made it their mission to teach them.

Read: [Humility, trust, and empathy: The skills needed to work with robots]

And yet, despite our most ambitious efforts to demystify them, emotions remain utterly mysterious and elusive. They are better felt than explained, better portrayed often through works of arts than analyzed. We dont understand them unless we feel them, and feeling them, of course, is the very blind spot that may prevent us from ever objectively understanding them.

There even appears to be some confusion as to what counts as human emotion and what does not, and which of our emotions are distinctive. For a considerable period of time, common wisdom held that there is a base set of six classic emotions: happy, surprised, afraid, disgusted, angry, and sad. But in 2014, a study by theInstitute of Neuroscience and Psychology at the University of Glasgowclaimed there are only four basic emotions happy, sad, afraid/surprised, and angry/disgusted. Ah, wouldnt life be easy and yet oh-so-boring if that were the case!?

However, in 2017, a new study by theProceedings of National Academy of Sciencessuggested that there are as many as 27 different categories of emotions, and that they in fact occur along a gradient and are not sharply distinguishable or mutually exclusive. This new set of emotions ranges from admiration, adoration, awe, and surprising outliers such as aesthetic appreciation, to envy, excitement, horror, and empathetic pain to equally unexpected contenders such as nostalgia, romance, or triumph.

Looking at this comprehensive list, a few emotions stand out. One wonders whether romance is an emotion or a feeling, an interpretation of an emotion, or simply a way to relate to the world. Similarly, the omission of loneliness is glaring, although in this case, too, one could argue that it is a feeling, not an emotion. Per neuroscientistDr. Sarah McKays definition, feelings aremental experiences of body states, which arise as the brain interprets emotions, themselves physical states arising from the bodys responses to external stimuli. Yet the line between the two remains blurry.

Moreover, some emotions may not have been listed because they areculturally unique, e.g.Schadenfreude, the very German joy over another persons mishap or misfortune. Or these Bantu, Taglog, and Dutch terms:mbuki-mvuki the irresistible urge to shuck off your clothes as you dance kilig the fluttering feeling as you talk to someone to whom you are attracted oruitwaaien the refreshing effects of taking a walk in the wind. Others that were included in the list such as triumphappear to be a temporary sign of our times more than a fixed emotion: in our winner-takes-all societies, winning is arguably the one emotion that is putting all the others in second place. The winner feels it all.

How will digital technology, specifically AI and robotics, affect our emotions?

Researchers have long studied our emotional relationship to machines. Numerousstudieshave proven that we quickly form emotional attachments to robots, and it might indeed be worthwhile exploring which social skills we need in order to collaborate with them.

So-called Artificial Emotional Intelligence (AEI), advanced by firms such asAffectiva,Emotient(acquired by Apple), andEmotion Research Lab, now seeks to analyze our emotions by scanning our facial expressions and body language. From studyingMark Zuckerbergs behavior during the congressional hearingsto the use for candidate assessments in job interviews (HireVue), AEI, like any technology, can be used for benevolent and malicious purposes, from boosting our emotional intelligence to manipulating and emotion-engineering us as citizens and consumers, from helping autistic children recognize their emotions (see, for example, theKaspar project) topenalizing us at the workplace for not being happy.

Empathetic robots occur at the timely convergence of two trends: empathy and AI. As we fear the loss of civility and with xenophobia, racism, and nationalism on the rise in many liberal societies, empathy has become a hot topic, and initiatives to muster it range from podcasts with those who are not like us or even bully us (e.g.Conversations with People Who Hate Me) toMITs Deep Empathyinitiative orGoogles Empathy Lab, to using VR and other immersive technologies as the great empathy machines.

At this yearsConsumer Electronics Showin Las Vegas, several robots were exhibited that can apply empathy and emotional intelligence toward their human user, e.g. the social robot Buddy; the table-tennis playing Forpheus that can read its opponents body language to anticipate their moves; or Pepper, which is capable of interpreting a smile, a frown, your tone of voice, as well as the lexical field you use and non-verbal language such as the angle of your head, according to its manufacturer, SoftBank. InJapan, a society with an aging population, empathetic robots like Paro, applied in elderly care, are becoming a mainstream phenomenon.

Analyst firmGartnerrecently predicted that by 2022 smart machines will understand our emotions better than our close friends and relatives, which of course is an outrageous claim, as the ethnographerJonathan Cookhas pointed out: The more certain research firms claim to be in their ability to measure emotion with quantitative precision, the more incompetent they are likely to actually be at accomplishing the task because they have lost touch with what emotion actually is, he writes.

And yet, the question remains: If robots become better at reading and responding to our human emotions, could technological advances in AI and robotics lead to the emergence of new emotions that were not only previously unmeasured, unnamed, and unidentified, but also un-felt?

You could argue that all possible human emotions have always been present and that we just lacked the words to describe them and only over time simply refined our understanding of them. But there are good arguments for accepting the notion of a history of emotions, the belief that emotions, like our bodies and cognitive abilities, have evolved over time as well, in response to everchanging environments and social stimuli.

Piotr Winkielman and Kent Berridge, psychologists at the UC San Diego and the University of Michigan, conducted an experiment in 2014 in which they showed participants sad and happy faces in such fast order that these had no conscious awareness of seeing any faces at all. When participants were asked afterward to drink a new lemon-lime beverage, those who had subliminally been exposed to the happy faces rated the drink better and also drank more of it than the others. The researchers took this as evidence to suggest the existence of unconscious emotions: feelings we have without actually feeling them. Evolutionarily speaking, the ability to have conscious feelings is probably a late achievement, they concluded. In other words, asentimental education, the education of our hearts, may indeed have been an accomplishment of civilization, a blessing and curse of modern man alike.

Aside from our consciousness of emotions, evolution may have caused new emotions to form. Take envy, and specifically status envy, as a more recent phenomenon, as a product of the industrial revolution and growing consumerism in developed countries. Envy necessitates a materialistic culture. Envy, if you will, is the refined, commoditized version of jealousy. It describes the disappointment and humiliated self that doesnt possess or receive what another one does, a self that finds itself excluded from the marketplace and not able to participate in the transaction.

The natural companion to envy in todays experience economy isFOMO the Fear-Of- Missing-Out. This fear is about missing out onexperience: it is a preemptive fear of loss as much as it is an envy for anothers, possibly richer and more rewarding experience. Ultimately, FOMO is a fear of dying dying without having lived.

While FOMO is its perverse version, boredom is the realhorror vacui. At first glance, it seems like an increasingly precious good. In fact, boredom might become extinct because of the proliferation of smart phones and other devices that deprive us of any vacant moment in time. However, due to automation and the loss of traditional employment, many of us will face more unstructured time in the future and will need help to combat the numbness of boredom as it engulfs our lives.

At the TED conference this year, science writerJessa Gambleheld a fascinating workshop on awe, an emotion triggered, by say, entering the St. Peters Basilica or experiencing the vastness of a desert.

Gamble referenced Stanford researcherMelanie Ruddwho studied the effects of awe on consumer behavior and claims that after feeling awe we tend to choose experiential goods like a movie over material goods like clothes. She further concludes that it also makes us more willing to volunteer in our communities. It looks like we need not only citizenship classes but also experiences of awe to build more civil societies.It is important though to note that awe empowers and disempowers at once. It makes us bigger and smaller. Gamble pointed out that the smaller self was both a prerequisite and consequence of awe: awe overpowers the self. That is both inspiring and humbling.

This very sentiment is at work in our relationship to AI and robots: we are in awe of them, which means, we are enamored and terrified at the same time. The uncanny valley a term used to describe the creepiness of an AI that is nearly fully artificial nor fully flesh, that is arrested at the blurry border between robotic and human, just humanoid enough to trigger our perception of human derangement will be our constant state for the foreseeable future.

It is this tension, this kind of contradictory feeling, that might serve as a blueprint for the future of emotions. The range of what we feel may increase, and it will be less and less binary. Even our language will have to catch up and come up with neologisms expressing this ambivalence. As always, the Germans are especially skilled at inventing new verbs, just consider Verschlimmbessern (which, loosely translated, means making something significantly worse by trying to make it incrementally better).

On the one hand, we are witnessing a radicalization of our emotions, as they are fleeing to the extreme edges (most of us will nod their heads in response to a book title like Pankaj Mishras The Age of Anger); on the other hand, our emotions are becoming more mixed, more conflicted, with different kinds of emotions overlaying each other.

At the same time, the volatility and complexity of our digital times are popularizing emotional states that are simple and balanced, such as mindfulness or the Japanese concept ofikigaithat is attracting more and more followers in the Western world. The Japanese island of Okinawa, whereikigaihas its origins, is said to be home to the largest population of centenarians in the world, and one of the allures of ikigai is the promise of longevity.Ikigaiis the convergence of four primary elements: What you love (your passion), what the world needs (your mission), what you are good at (your vocation), and what you can get paid for (your profession).

Ikigai is similar to the Western concept of purpose that has emerged as the holy grail of organizational and personal transformation. Whats your purpose? as a brand, company, individual, and even nation is the biggest and yet the smallest question everybody is happy to ask and only rarely really able to answer, despite an army of consultants and agencies devoted to it. It is not an entirely new concept. The American philosopher and civil rights leader Howard W. Thurman put it best: Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Mindfulness, ikigai, or purpose are neither emotions nor feelings they are techniques to help us restore balance as our emotions become more extreme and tools to help us refine how we manage them.

Naturally, emotions, too, are affected by the digitization, the atomization of our lives. In our fast-paced daily interactions, micro-aggressions the subtle humiliation by a cranky waiter can sour our mood as much as moments of micro-attachment the smile of a stranger on the subway can make our day. It appears that were transitioning from one emotional state to another much more quickly (the psychologist Susan David has coined the term emotional agility to pinpoint a new skill we must develop to cope with this phenomenon), that were losing the middle ground, the common thread, as well as the stability and continuity of long-term relationships. Instead, we are satisfying our emotional needs either through the instant kicks of the dopamine economy online, little escapisms (social media, gaming, movies, travel), or big ones: assuming an alternate identity, an avatar, a fluid self.

This virtualization of our selves may ultimately lead to the virtualization of our emotions, too, with us going from experiencing age-old emotions in new virtual environments to experiencing new emotions in digital or at least partly digital interactions, to full-on surrogate emotions, digital placeholders of the real thing: fake intimacy, virtual grief, and so on.

Japanese roboticist Hiroshi Ishiguro, who builds humanoid robots and was recently portrayed in this rivetingWired story,is convinced that human emotions are nothing more than responses to external stimuli. David Levy, in his seminal 2007 book,Love and Sex With Robots, subscribes to this point of view: If a robot behaves as though it has feelings, can we reasonably argue that it does not? He argues that human emotions are no less programmed than those of an AI: We have hormones, we have neurons, and we are wired in a way that creates our emotions. Levy projects that roughly by the year 2050 humans will want robots as friends, sexual partners, and even spouses.

This raises some big questions: Will it matter if our human emotions are increasingly manipulated by smart algorithms or even un-real, or does it suffice that wefeelthem? Have emotions ever been pure and can they? Arguably, weve never had much control over them. Emotions are never fully ours rather, despite our insisting on their private nature, theyre part of the public commons and some sort of open-sourced software. And yet, so much of what we feel we are incapable of sharing. We seem to lack the full code for unlocking it, which causes great frustration and a great desire to overcome it. Perhaps, in the future, hacking our brains may involve hacking our emotions, too. Technology may allow us to (re-)mix our emotions together with those of others, as the ultimate form of deep connection.

What makes us human is our proclivity to fall for the other: somebody who is not us, something beyond our control, greater than ourselves. We cant help but be drawn to persons, objects, or experiences that promise us new emotions, new sensations, new highs and lows, new joy and happiness, but also new heartbreak and suffering.

Although we are calling them by our name (Alexa, Buddy, Sophia, Kaspar, Samantha, Erica.), as a mirror of ourselves, the AI bots remain elusive. They are the enigmatic other, the greatest desire of all, the ultimate romance. If they can help us feelmoreand feel new emotions, and if we refine these emotions through more advanced emotional intelligence, with the arts and humanities as our interpreters, then the very machines that are growing adept at analyzing and manipulating how we feel will ensure that we stay a step ahead of them.

This article was originally published by Tim Leberecht, an author, entrepreneur, and the co-founder and co-CEO of The Business Romantic Society, a firm that helps organizations and individuals create transformative visions, stories, and experiences. Leberecht is also the co-founder and curator of the House of Beautiful Business, a global think tank and community with an annual gathering in Lisbon that brings together leaders and changemakers with the mission to humanize business in an age of machines.

Read next: The sustainability of wearables will depend on how we use them

Read more from the original source:
Human emotions must adapt to thrive in the machine age - TNW

SAN DIEGO, January 31, 2020Human Longevity, Inc.(HLI),an innovator in providing data-driven health intelligence and precision health to physicians and patients, announced the publication of a ground-breaking study in the journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(PNAS). The study titled, Precision medicine integrating whole-genome sequencing, comprehensive metabolomics, and advanced imaging, showed thatby integrating whole-genome sequencing with advanced imaging and blood metabolites, clinicians identified adults at risk for key health conditions.Data from 1190 self-referred individuals evaluated with HLIs multi-modal precision health platform, Health Nucleus, show clinically significant findings associated with age-related chronic conditions including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, chronic liver disease, and neurological disorders leading causes of pre-mature mortality in adults.

The goal of precision medicine is to provide a path to assist physicians in achieving disease prevention and implementing accurate treatment strategies, said C. Thomas Caskey, MD, FACP, FACMG, FRSC, chief medical officer for Human Longevity, Inc., lead author of the study, and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Our study showed that by employing a holistic and data-driven health assessment for each individual, we are able to achieve early disease detection in adults.

Study highlights include:

This study shows that the definition of healthy may not be what we think it is and depends upon a comprehensive health evaluation, said J. Craig Venter, PhD, founder, Human Longevity, Inc. and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. The data underscore Human Longevitys innovative approach to helping clinicians with early detection and personalized treatments, potentially achieving better health outcomes for patients.

Our traditional approach to the annual health assessment has been very superficial and will need to be replaced by data-driven measures that will be made possible as costs continue to decline for whole- genome sequencing, advanced imaging, especially MRI, and specialized blood analytics, said David Karow, MD, PhD, president and chief innovation officer, Human Longevity, Inc.

ABOUT THE STUDY

The study cohort was composed of 1190 self-referred participants who enrolled at Health Nucleuswith a median age of 54 y (range 20 to 89+ y, 33.8% female, 70.6% European). A multidisciplinary team, including cardiologists, radiologists, primary care physicians, clinical geneticists, genetic counselors, and research scientists, integrated deep phenotype data with genome data for each study participant.Participants were enrolled in the study between September 2015 and March 2018.

ABOUT THE HEALTH NUCLEUS

Health Nucleus is Human Longevitys premier health intelligence platform utilizing state-of-the-art technology to provide an assessment of current and future risk for cardiac, oncologic, metabolic, and cognitive diseases and conditions. This is provided through a proprietary, multi-modal approach, integrating data from an individuals whole-genome sequencing, brain and body MRI imaging, cardiac CT calcium scan, metabolomics, advanced blood test, and more. The health assessment is conducted at Human Longevitys Health Nucleus precision medicine center in La Jolla, California.For more information, visitwww.healthnucleus.com.

ABOUT HUMAN LONGEVITY

Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI)is a genomics-based,health intelligence companyempowering proactive healthcare and enabling a life better lived. HLIs business focus includes the Health Nucleus, a genomic-powered, precision medicine center which uses whole-genome sequencing analysis, advanced imaging, and blood analytics, to deliver the most complete picture of individual health. For more information, visitwww.humanlongevity.com.

# # #

For more information, contact: Debbie Feinberg, VP of Marketing, Human Longevity, Inc., 858-864-1058,dfeinberg@humanlongevity.com

Read this article:
Human Longevity's Largest Study of its Kind Shows Early Detection of Disease and Disease Risks in Adults - Cath Lab Digest

Right now, Stanford University is addressing a pressing and fascinating question:

What happens to society when everyone starts living to 100? How will we stay physically fit, financially stable and mentally sharp, especially in that back half?

Exploring these questions is the goal of the Stanford Longevity Project. To answer them, theyve partnered with major brands like Wells Fargo, Instructure, and Principal to help research key elements like financial security, lifelong learning, and healthcare.

Despite Americas average life expectancy declining the past couple years due to more overdoses, suicides and alcohol-related illnesses, people are going to be able to live longer. Strong advancements have been made in cancer. This month, the U.S. saw its sharpest one year decline in cancer death rate. That will save millions of lives alone.

But this isnt just a health and wellness conversation. What this presents are multiple opportunities in multiple verticals for marketers.

One of the biggest trends at CES this month was a new generation of healthcare wearables. There were earbuds designed to detect blood pressure for those with hypertension, temporary tattoos that tell you when to get out of the sun, smart glasses that assist people with dyslexia and watches that detect sleep apnea. These technologies are all discreet, easy to use, and built in to everyday things we already use.

We are heading toward a near future in which every human body will have a functioning check engine light. You can imagine how much better healthcare will be when a sensor will tell you something needs attention, rather than panicked scrolling through WebMD.

We will have the ability to know when something is wrong and immediately trigger tests, medication and treatment. Imagine if that sensor, using the IoT, could immediately send and fill a prescription for you.

This is all coming down the pipeline, and its going to help us live longer. Its also going to change the way marketers do their jobs and open up countless new opportunities to reach new audiences.

Heres what some of those opportunities will look like.

Cincinnati has one of the best healthcare startup scenes in the country. Cincinnati Childrens Hospital is ranked #3 nationally. CincyTech has raised nearly a billion in healthcare follow-on investment over the past ten years.

The common thread these organizations share is they are tackling high-use issues in different ways. That includes everything from small, wearable, injectable devices (Enable Injections) that can be used for a multitude of conditions, to analyzing peoples sweat to ensure proper medication dosing (Eccrine Systems).

One of the most interesting might be Sense Diagnostics because their simple device addresses a huge need: stroke detection. Right now there isnt a good way to tell which kind of stroke (transient ischemic, ischemic, or hemorrhagic) someone is having in the field. An ambulance with this non-invasive device will be able to quickly diagnose which stroke is occuring, allowing them to begin the best possible treatment immediately.

As people begin living longer, well see that the traditional approach to education and work must change. A longer living workforce will be more likely to need to reskill for second and third careers.

Private equity firm Thoma Bravo is buying Instructure (makers of the popular Canvas Learning Management System) for $2 billion, precisely because of the projected growth and opportunity in education as people extend their careers.

Of course, four-year higher education will still exist. But new avenues and approaches to learning will emerge as supplemental or alternative ways of reskilling for jobs that will target people in their 60s, 70s, and 80s.

Curricula will obviously also have to adapt, becoming more flexible, personalized, and life-long. Being able to brush up every three months on relevant skills via a subscription model may be a better future model for education than entering a full-time program. Most of the marketing opportunities will be around aiding employers, because they have the budgets and the competition for retention.

Living longer changes a persons entire financial strategy.

Most standard retirement principles assume that retirement will last a maximum of 30 years. The commonly-used "4% rule" of retirement is an example of this. However, if you live to 100 or beyond, your retirement could last 35 years, 40 years, or longer, said Nathan Hamilton, director and industry analyst at The Ascent from The Motley Fool.

A deferred annuity could be worth a look. Essentially, you put some money into an annuity when you first retire (or earlier), but that won't start paying out until a certain agesay, 80 or 85. The idea is that even if your retirement nest egg is getting low as you get older, this move guarantees you a predictable income stream for life.

How we invest may also change as we look to create steady income streams that kick in throughout retirement rather than just upfront. This also may inevitably cause people to work later and longer especially as our workforce trends farther away from physical labor to more mental and creative labor.

The biggest takeaway here isnt that living longer will impact one thing. It will impact everything.

As humans, we need to think about that for ourselves and our future generations. And as marketers and entrepreneurs, we can start thinking about ways we can make that reality better, more productive, and more secure for people.

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Marketing To 100-Year-Olds: How Longevity Will Transform Finance, Healthcare And Education - Forbes

ITINERARY Justin Matherly's contorted sculptures, Doug Wheeler's deep dives into light and space, Madeline Hollanders luminous Bortolami debut, and more. THE EDITORS January 20, 2020

When: Jan. 8Feb. 22

Where: Demisch Danant, New York

What: In the 1960s and 70s, French design took a turn toward rounded forms, saturated colors, and a medley of textures that designers such as Pierre Paulin and Olivier Mourgue playfully employed to soften the severity of modern architecture. Color Diaries riffs on this humanization by presenting a curated color field in three-dimensional soft forms, encouraging visitors to engage in color play guided by none other than their own personal associations.Ryan Waddoups

When: Jan. 10Feb. 22

Where: Bortolami, New York

What: Over the past few years, Madeline Hollander has choreographed bewitching, systems-based dance pieces that have established her as one of the most whip-smart artists in town, and also one of the most thrilling. (A memorable 2018 piece had four performers enacting intricate, athletics-inspired moves until they raised the heat in the room enough to activate air conditioners. When the temperature dropped sufficiently, they went at it again.) For her Bortolami debut, Hollander is working with objects instead of humans, programming scores of car headlights and taillights to respond to the traffic light at the nearby intersection. When that light goes red, the taillights come alive in a sea of disparate sequences that she has conceived, imagining drivers stuck in traffic. Transposing peoples everyday actions into a symphonic light work, the piece is uncanny and oddly moving. It seems likely to become even more so. Once the driverless car competition is won, the wildly blinking field will be a memorial to one more form of human control that has been replaced by machines.Andrew Russeth

When: Jan. 11Feb. 15

Where: Modern Art, London

What: The interlocking figures that populate Paul Mpagi Sepuyas photographs are his close companions: friends, lovers, or fellow queer artists interlocking with fragments of his own body. For the artists first solo exhibition in the U.K., presented in collaboration with New Yorkbased Team Gallery, a series of recent visuals range from close-up mirror portraits of tangled limbs to self-reflexive collages, conveying his sensitivity and skill in capturing bodies on camera.Ryan Waddoups

When: Jan. 12Feb. 23

Where: Magenta Plains, New York

What: Growing up in Arendal, Norway, about three hours southwest of Oslo by car, the artist Tiril Hasselknippe watched a lot of nature documentaries. One program, focused on a volcano whose eruption was 100 years overdue, convinced her that the end was near, and she has held onto that apocalyptic worldview. Thats just how Im wired, the 35-year-old says, sitting in the Magenta Plains gallery in New York, where her latest solo show just went on view. Much of her work, which has appeared in the 2018 New Museum Triennial and shows at kunsthalles across Europe, could be seen as attempts to stave off or mitigate such disastertheyre scrappy, hand-fashioned solutions to potential catastrophes.Tiffany Jow

When: Jan. 16Feb. 15

Where: The Future Perfect, San Francisco

What: As FOG Design+Art kicks off in San Francisco, the Los Angelesbased ceramist Bari Ziperstein is presenting her Tube collection, a line of new and exclusive ceramic pieces, in her first solo exhibition at The Future Perfects Bay Area outpost. The work on view riffs on an industrial tube, curving, cutting, and combining different versions of the cylindrical shape in artful, unexpected ways.Tiffany Jow

When: Jan. 16Feb. 22

Where: Lehmann Maupin, New York

What: Erwin Wurms One Minute Sculptures are everyday objects accompanied by instructions that tell viewers how to interact with them (usually in ways that are playful and absurd). The artist, whos been experimenting with video, performance, installation, and other mediums for more than three decades, will present a series of new sculptures in this exhibition. One piece, One Minute forever (hands/fruits) (2019), consists of a concrete cast hand with oranges pushed onto its fingertipsan act that prolongs Wurms participatory project for eternity.Tiffany Jow

When: Jan. 17April 30

Where: Carpenters Workshop Gallery, San Francisco

What: The Dutch design duo known for ambitious projects and asking really big questions scales things up even more with About Nature, Technology, and Humankind, which marks the largest installations to date of their seminal works Flylight and Fragile Future III in the United States. Both works, which showcase how artists utilize cutting-edge technology to mimic existing natural phenomena such as the flight patterns of birds and longevity of dandelions, are presented during a time of dire environmental turmoil that beckons new scrutiny of the sustainability of human progress.Ryan Waddoups

When: Jan. 22March 7

Where: Gladstone Gallery, Brussels

What: One of the standout participants in the central show of the 2019 Venice Biennale, the Paris-based artist Cameron Jamie makes figures and masks in a panoply of mediums (glazed stoneware, most famously) that are fearsome, inventive, and often discomfitingly familiar; they suggest dark emotions and unsettled states of mind. For his first exhibition at Gladstones stately Brussels branch, Jamie is presenting what the enterprise is terming a rogues gallery of ceramic masks. Some are faced away from the viewer, a signature move that the artist seems to use to invite viewers to venture into the alternate states that he conjures, or simply to embody the hidden ones that he recognizes in us all.Andrew Russeth

When: Jan. 23April 18

Where: Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York

What: Julia Morgan (18721957) was the first female architecture student at the Paris in cole des Beaux-Arts and later became a proponent of the American Arts and Crafts movement. Jules Bourgoin (18381908) was a Paris-born professor at the institution who spent time exploring the Middle East and North Africa, intricately documenting the ornate structures he encountered. While Bourgoins exact impact on his students is not known, the Beirut-based artist Rayyane Tabet juxtaposes their work in this exhibition, prompting viewers to consider notions of appropriation and context. Tiffany Jow

When: Jan. 24March 21

Where: David Zwirner, New York

What: Though he began his career as a painter, Doug Wheeler quickly became fascinated with light, incorporating actual bulbs into his wall-mounted artworks and then a light environment inside his Venice Beach studio in 1967. Since then, the American artist has realized ethereal luminous environments at the Guggenheim, Hirshhorn, and Stedelijk museums, which fellow artist Daniel Buren has likened to experiencing a spatial event, entering into light. Wheelers latest exhibition, which takes over David Zwirners 19th Street gallery, continues his lifelong study of lights atmospheric and perceptual effects. Ryan Waddoups

Jan. 25March 14

Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich

American artist Justin Matherly uses Greek and Roman antiquity as a jumping-off point for his weird, contorted sculptures. This exhibition presents new work that showcases his interest in statues, columns, and reliefs as well as his production process, in which forms are first carved out of XPS insulation foam then cast in concrete, gypsum, or fiberglass resin. Tiffany Jow

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12 Must-See Exhibitions This Week, from San Francisco to Paris and Beyond - Surface Magazine