Jafar Alexander - Based in Washington, DC, Jafarbegan sharing the practice of yoga in 2008 after years as an athlete and is certified in the styles of hatha, restorative, therapeutic, vinyasa, and yin. He is also a passionate meditation guide. New classes include "Arise and Unwind" (Vinyasa Level 1), "Softening the Shoulders" (Yin Level 1-2) and "Energetic Armor" (Meditation). See Jafar Alexander here.

Tiffany Bush- Based in Colorado, Tiffany is a 500-hour certified yoga teacher and loves teaching to underserved populations, athletes, and those interested in redefining their health. She specializes in flowing yoga asana and meditation. Newly added classes include "Shoulder Care for Climbers" (Hatha Level 2) and "Workday Rest for Hips" (Vinyasa Level 2). See Tiffany Bush here.

Taylor Harkness- Based in Atlanta, GA, Taylor is passionate about public health and social issues. As a former paramedic, he found his way to yoga in response to the stress of long nights spent driving an ambulance.Now a yoga teacher and nurse, his friendly, energetic and personable teaching style is supported with his medical background for a strong foundation in anatomy and his love of helping people de-stress and find healthy lifestyles. Newly added classes include "All Day Strong" (Vinyasa Level 1-2) and "Energy Flow" (Vinyasa Level 2). See Taylor Harkness here.

Jafar, Tiffany and Taylor join ranks of world-renowned yoga and meditation teachers now accessible to gaia.comsubscribers around the world.

About GaiaGaia is a member-supported streaming video subscription service available in 185 countries around the world. Using a powerful combination of modern technology and ancient traditions, Gaia produces and curates transformational video content that includes guided yoga and meditation instruction, as well as series and films covering a wide variety of topics, from health and longevity to human transformation and science, all of which aim to empower the evolution of consciousness. Gaia is available on Apple TV, IOS, Android, Roku, Chromecast, and sold through Amazon Prime Video and Comcast Xfinity. Subscriptions are US$11.99 a month and include exclusive, ad-free access to over 8,000 films, documentaries and original programs. Gaia is a division of Gaia, Inc. (NASDAQ: GAIA). For more information, visit: http://www.gaia.com

SOURCE Gaia

http://www.gaia.com

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Gaia adds Three New Yoga Specialists To Its Streaming Subscription Platform - PRNewswire

Truthfully, theres no secret to living longer.

Many studies will tell you that if you eat this or have a better outlook on life, you could increase the chances of living a longer life than others who dont. If youre an optimist, you might live past 85. If you play team sports, it could make you live longer. Oh, and even how fast you walk could even you get the picture.

Getting to 100 is a big milestone. Recently, Sport Obermeyer founder Klaus Obermeyer celebrated his 100th birthday and he hasnt stopped working. Obermeyer said hed tell those younger than him to set priorities like your health through eating and exercising, living and breathing. He also suggested finding out how to make a living and most importantly, find out what you want to do for your fun stuff.

If youre not a believer in science, take it from someone who is actually the worlds oldest living man.

Meet Chitetsu Watanabe, who will turn 113 next month. He was presented with a certificate from the Guinness World Records at a nursing home in Japan, where he became the worlds oldest man at 112 years, 344 days old, according to Guinness.

Watanabe, a father of five, worked in a sugar company for years before taking a career with Japans government until he decided to settle down and retire. According to CNN, he was also in the military at the end of World War II in 1944.

The once avid gardener who continued tending plants until he was 104 said in an interview last year that the secret to longevity is pretty simple.

Not to get angry and keep a smile on your face, Watanabe told a local paper in 2019.

Yoko Watanabe, the wife of Tetsuo, the first son of Chitetsu, said that Chitetsus philosophy is true she never saw him angry.

Ive lived together with him for over 50 years, and Ive never seen him raise his voice or get mad, Watanabe said via the Guinness World Records. Hes also caring. When I was working on my patchwork hobby, he was the one who praised my work the most. I think having lived with a big family under one roof, mingling with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren helped keep a smile on his face as well.

Recently, retired Brigadier General Charles McGee a Tuskegee Airman and World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam War veteran attended President Trumps State of the Union address where the 100-year-old shared similar advice on his longevity.

Thinking positive and the good Lords many blessings, he told WTOP last year. We human beings are just one small aspect in a mighty grand world.

McGee also shared this advice for young people, built on what he calls the four Ps: Perceive (Find something you like), prepare (education), perform (strive for excellence), and persevere.

If youre more interested in the health and science route to live longer, John Hopkins Medicine suggested abiding by these four pillars:

1. Dont smoke

2. Maintain a healthy weight

3. Exercise!

4. Make healthy food choices

And with exercise one you may want to consider in particular is swimming. According to a 2017 study bySwim England, swimmers have a 28% lower risk of early death and a 41% lower risk of death as a result of stroke or heart disease.Swimming is good for individuals with arthritis because its less weight-bearing, Dr. I-Min Lee, professor of medicine atHarvard Medical School, told Harvard Health.

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How to live a long, happy life, according to this 113-year-old man - Ladders

When planning for human moon landing missions in the 2020s, NASA needs detailed budgetary estimates to get a better chance of securing congressional support, Rep. Kendra Horn, chairwoman of the House Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics, said in an exclusive interview with Space.com.

The subcommittee recently marked up NASA's fiscal year 2021 bill, which is supposed to ramp up funding in preparation for a mission to land astronauts on the moon in 2024 as a part of the agency's Artemis program. The White House's budget request includes a 12% increase in NASA's total budget, putting its cap at around $25.2 billion. The biggest line item on the wish list is $3.37 billion for the crewed lunar landing system, according to NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine's State of NASA speech last week..

The subcommittee introduced several large changes in its version of the bill, including pushing back the moon landing deadline to 2028 (giving NASA the option to go earlier if it has the appropriate resources) and asking for NASA to take more control of the moon lander's design. NASA has expressed worries that the commercial partners would not be involved enough, but Horn said the subcommittee made that decision after hearing testimony from Apollo 10 astronaut Tom Stafford in November 2019.

Related: Trump calls for $25 billion NASA budget for 2021 to boost moon and Mars goals

In his testimony, Stafford spoke of the success of the first Apollo moon landing in 1969 (that of Apollo 11); the moon landings continued through Apollo 17 in 1972, with some design changes made after a serious explosion in space during Apollo 13 in 1970. His written statement did not mention Apollo 1, whose crew died in a launchpad fire in 1967 in part due to faulty communication between the agency and its contractors, prompting changes in communication. But Stafford did say close relationships with contractors were key to NASA's ability to put humans on the moon in the 1960s and 1970s.

"He said the thing that allowed NASA to be successful in the Apollo program was that you had NASA right there in the center," Horn told Space.com. "You had the engineers, the administrator, the technical experts [and] the astronauts, working side by side with contractors."

The new moon landing effort also will require more details on how money will be spent in budgetary line items, Horn said, considering the troubled history of NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Two Commercial Crew companies SpaceX and Boeing were selected in 2014 to provide spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the International Space Station; at the time, NASA said the companies were expected to have at least one commercial vehicle ready by 2017.

It's now three years past that deadline, and neither vehicle has launched humans to space, although both companies are in the final testing stages and flew uncrewed orbital flights in 2019. SpaceX's Crew Dragon safely reached the International Space Station during an uncrewed test flight in March 2019, and the company is getting ready to launch its first astronauts in May. However, multiple software errors prevented Boeing's CST-100 Starliner from accomplishing the same feat in December.

NASA "has been chronically underfunded; that's one of the reasons things have taken a long time," Horn said. She also pointed to other factors, such as overly optimistic cost assessments (including criticism of the NASA Office of Inspector General in 2019) and "challenges unseen," referring to developmental issues the companies encountered.

"We know things are going to change," Horn said of NASA's Artemis plans, because many of the big pieces are still being developed for example, the Space Launch System rocket and lunar spacesuits, both of which haven't been tested in space.

The subcommittee asks NASA for feedback and plans, and those details help the subcommittee present the budget to Congress to "ensure that NASA can get the funding it needs," Horn said.

In October 2019, Bridenstine told the House Appropriations Committee that NASA doesn't have the line items ready yet. Several members of that subcommittee repeatedly asked Bridenstine for detailed cost estimates, saying they can approve more money only if they know what that funding would be used for.

Bridenstine said the 2024 moon landing deadline is good for NASA because proceeding with the plans safely while political support is in place will give the agency a better chance of success than pushing out the deadline would. That's because long lead times killed similar moon landing efforts under the Bush administrations in the 1990s and early 2000s.

But moving past 2024 would mean the moon landing happens after the Trump administration leaves the White House, regardless of whether the president is reelected. And it's still unknown which political party will control the White House, and thus NASA's efforts, at that time. When asked if the moon effort could persist under a new administration or a different political party, Horn said the bill's bipartisan support in her subcommittee gives it a better chance of continuing.

"This is a story that isn't told nearly enough, which is that this was a true bipartisan effort," Horn said of her subcommittee's work. "We worked together in a way that was intentional, and we took our time. We did that, and we wanted to get that right."

The subcommittee's goal, she said, is to provide a bill with "certainty and longevity," and she noted that it's up to NASA to do the same. NASA's plans changed rapidly during the budget negotiations for fiscal year 2020, she added. In a span of just three weeks in 2019, she said, the Trump administration requested a 2024 landing effort, even while the NASA budget was in the process of being approved.

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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NASA needs to put a price on its moon landing missions to gain support from Congress - Space.com

There is light at the end of the tunnel for lifelong learning, but not for the reasons you may ... [+] think.

We are now closer to the year 2050 than the year 1990. Let that sink in for a bit and along with it try to contemplate the massive talent development revolution we will face in the next 30 years. With rapidly changing technology, the speed at which businesses must operate to be competitive in a global economy and with human life expectancy rising steadily, its clear that lifelong learning will become essential for humans to remain relevant in the workplace. The bad news is theres little evidence that lifelong learning can be taught and that any organization thus far has mastered it for their own human resource needs. The good news is that those hard truths might not matter anymore simply because lifelong learning will be thrust upon us as a staple of everyday work life. It will no longer be optional or aspirational; it will be a necessity and ubiquitous.

Weve already heard some of the statistics that project people will have as many 15 different jobs over their working lifetime. And we know the shelf-life of technical skills, such as software development, are getting shorter and shorter. Then theres the recent IBM report that predicts more than 120 million people will need up-skilling or re-skilling in the next three years and that the average length of training needed to close skills gaps has increased from 3 days to 36 days in just five years time. On top of the fast-changing marketplace of jobs and technology, theres also the coming impact of human longevity. Projections from a 2015 United Nations report indicate that average lifespans in the U.S. will reach 95 years for females and 90 years for males in the U.S. by 2050. Another report from 2012 indicated that 1/3 of babies born that year will live to 100. If it becomes common for people to live to 100 (or beyond), it will also become common for them to retire in their 80s extending their working years dramatically.

How will we grapple with all this? Its hard to fathom. But whats clear is that we need to build and operate a talent development system that is closer to the 2050 version than to the 1990 (or dare I say 1890) model we have now. Lifelong learning has long been a stated ambition of colleges and universities. The words lifelong learning are among the most commonly used in college mission statements. Given that, we ought to have ample outcome measures that demonstrate how graduates become lifelong learners. The truth is, we dont. Searching for evidence of lifelong learning is a little like the search for evidence of life on Mars; many scientists believe well eventually find it, but so far we havent.

Through an analysis of responses from more than 250,000 U.S. adults conducted by Gallup, there was no difference in the likelihood of respondents saying they learn or do something interesting each day across high school drop-outs, high school graduates, associates degree holders and bachelors degree holders. The only group that was statistically more likely to say so were those with post-graduate education. Other Gallup research arguably its most profound and influential of all on innate talent and strengths-based development, makes a strong case that some humans are born with learner talent. That is, learning comes more intuitively and naturally to them than it does to others. My current thesis about why post-graduate degree holders are more likely to report lifelong learning is two-fold. First, they are simply more likely to be those innate learners. And, second, post-graduate education involves more applied learning and in-depth research work than the typical undergraduate education.

If its the case that not even bachelors degrees are guarantees for becoming lifelong learners, how will we ever get our entire workforce there? The answer is a hopeful one because the question has rather suddenly been rendered moot. A quick look around our world today and a peek onto the horizon of 2050 tells us so. The expression necessity is the mother of invention is rather apropos here. Well bring the invention of lifelong learning to fruition once and for all because of outright necessity.

Colleges, for example, can no longer hope that lifelong learning magically happens for graduates after 4 years of study; they have to extend their roles by getting directly involved in delivering it for graduates next 40 to 60 years of their careers. Employers can no longer assume that a sprinkling of compliance training, some occasional professional development and some sporadic technical re-skilling will turn their human capital into lifelong learners. It will require them to transform everything from how hours are spent during the workday to how continual learning and education will be financed. What every CEO will soon realize is that business transformations require human capital transformations. And once that realization sinks in, we will all become lifelong learners whether we like it or not.

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The Really Good And Really Bad News On Lifelong Learning - Forbes

Ive been committed to understanding the biology of aging since I was a teenager, and my education and career took aim at this problem from many angles. One aspect that still perplexes me is that there isnt a good, easily communicable answer to this simple question: What is biological aging?

When it comes to biological aging research or, to use a fancier term, translational geroscience, scientists finally have a pretty good understanding of the major components of aging. But theres no consensus definition of it that consolidates the existing framework.

Why do we need such a definition of biological aging? A good definition can grab the essential characteristics of an entity and put them to good use. Two examples illustrate this.

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Here is an example from medicine, published this month in Nature: Cancer is a catch-all term used to denote a set of diseases characterized by autonomous expansion and spread of a somatic clone. That is a more exact way of saying, Cancer is a disease caused by uncontrolled division of abnormal cells. This definition captures the universal mechanism behind all cancers. As such, it also offers therapeutic options. No matter how diverse cancers get, keeping them under one umbrella is easier compared to the broad-spectrum of biological aging.

A definition from mathematics is also instructive: The derivative of a function is the measure of the rate of change of the value of the function dependent on changes in the input. It is a solid definition as it offers a procedure to compute the extreme values of a function.

Here are three consecutive steps empirical, philosophical, and computational that can be taken to create a good definition of biological aging:

The empirical step involves collecting what is already out there. Over the years, researchers have invented their own idiosyncratic definitions of biological aging, though these generally miss parts of the story.

Scientists often start papers with a summary referring to the consensus knowledge in the field and then ask the particular question they want to address and highlight the results. These summaries, which often contain definitions, are important educational windows into science, used by mainstream media to publicize results and form relevant narratives.

To illustrate the empirical step, I extracted four definitions from scientific papers exploring different aspects of aging that reveal the conceptual mess around defining biological aging.

Aging is characterized by a progressive loss of physiological integrity, leading to impaired function and increased vulnerability to death came from a 2013 paper in the journal Cell by Carlos Lpez-Otn and colleagues.

Aging underlies progressive changes in organ functions and is the primary risk factor for a large number of human diseases was the definition in a 2019 report in Nature Medicine by Benoit Lehallier and colleagues.

Aging is a progressive decline in functional integrity and homeostasis, culminating in death was used in a 2019 review of the genetics of aging in Cell by Param Priya Singh and colleagues.

Finally, a 2020 paper in Nature Medicine on personal markers of aging by Sara Ahadi and colleagues offered this: Aging is a universal process of physiological and molecular changes that are strongly associated with susceptibility to disease and ultimately death.

I analyzed several components of these definitions of biological aging, as indicated by the column headers in the table below, and identified some recurring themes. The final column indicates logical connections between these components.

This analysis offers two lessons, one negative and one positive. The negative lesson is that some definitions have hardly any overlap, as seen in I and II its apples and oranges. The positive lesson is that the recurring themes suggest the possibility of creating a core definition for biological aging using a bottom-up, empirical approach by analyzing many attempted definitions.

However, I dont believe that such a process would be sufficient.

The myriad definitions of biological aging help identify some necessary components of it. But an aggregated mash-up wont guarantee a formally correct and useful definition. Identifying the content itself is not enough, especially when dealing with such a complex and lifelong process. Just because we have found most of the puzzle pieces does not mean we can put the puzzle together without a clue to its shape.

This is where the philosophical step comes into the picture. Here, biologists will benefit from recruiting people trained to come up with a formal definition: philosophers, mathematicians, computer scientists, and the like.

The philosophical step involves identifying a list of criteria that a consensus definition of biological aging should meet. I believe that such a definition should meet at least these five criteria:

Completing the empirical and philosophical steps would yield a good starting point for a well-formed definition that captures the essentials of biological aging.

A consensus definition that meets both content and formal criteria, achieved through the empirical and philosophical steps, might help stabilize not just scientific consensus but consensus on public policy. Here the main issues are the relationship between biological aging and disease; and regulatory, clinical, and social aspects of healthy longevity. But a completed computational step will give us actual tools, helping the biomedical technology that advances healthy lifespans.

Applicability is perhaps the most important feature of a good definition, and this where the computational step comes in. The definition should suggest future experiments and, even more important, lend itself to computability so a formal model of biological aging can be built from it. Such a model can be used to simulate and compute biological aging scores based on input data and assess the effects of planned or real interventions to slow or stop negative aging processes.

Biomedical researchers now have a solid core of knowledge on biological aging, but do not have a working consensus definition to consolidate and represent this core knowledge and capture this so far elusive life process. The lack of an unambiguous and computable formal consensus definition of biological aging severely limits the applicability of this core knowledge to design comprehensive interventions to slow or stop negative aging processes.

A confident answer to the question What is biological aging? in humans will help us ensure that complexity does not hide any magical mysteries. Controlling that complexity to maximize a healthy lifespan wouldnt need a magic wand, either.

Attila Csordas is a longevity biologist and philosopher and the founding director of AgeCurve Limited, based in Cambridge, U.K.

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We need to take steps toward building a consensus definition of biological aging - STAT

The relationships between our brain and body and the world around us are complex. What you do or dont do can significantly change how your health and wellbeing.

A healthy brain is determined by both biological and physiological factors genes, hormones, the immune system, nutrition, exercise, and other lifestyle choices.

Social, psychological and environmental factors including relationships, stress, emotions, mindset, life events and current circumstances also contribute to your brain health.

Each element can impact others in a multi-directional and dynamic way. Example, your thoughts can influence your physical health (which is why chronic stress can lead to abnormal heart rhythms or heart attacks).

Everyone wants to live an active, vibrant life for as long as possible. And that goal depends on robust brain health. You cant do much about your genes, but other physiological, social and environmental factors can be modified to improve your brain.

Our brains naturally decline if we do nothing to protect them. However, if we intervene early, we can slow the decline process its easier to protect a healthy brain than to try to repair damage once it is extensive.

You can improve your lifestyle habits to promote a highly healthy brain one free of physical or mental illness, disease, and pain. We have more control over our ageing brains than we realise.

These habits are just a reminder you already know the importance of these lifestyle choices. It pays to make a conscious effort to help yourself your brain will thank you.

That means eating lots of foods associated with slowing cognitive decline blueberries, vegetables (leafy greens kale, spinach, broccoli), whole grains, getting protein from fish and legumes and choosing healthy unsaturated fats (olive oil) over saturated fats (butter).

The connection between what goes into your body and how your brain performs is a strong one. The best diet should also be good for your brain, your heart and blood vessels.

Omega-3 fats from fish or nuts fight inflammation associated with neurodegeneration. Fruit and vegetables combat age-related oxidative stress that causes wear and tear on brain cells, says Dr Gary Small, a professor of psychiatry and ageing, and director of the Longevity Center at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience & Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles.

Find your moment or place of calm and separate yourself from chronic stress.

Chronic stress can change the wiring of our brains.Stress shrinks the brains memory centres, and the stress hormone cortisol temporarily impairs memory, says Dr Small.

To reverse stress and improve your mood and memory, adopt relaxation methods like meditation. Meditation even rewires the brain and improves measures of chromosomes telomere (protective cap) length, which predicts longer life expectancy argues Dr Small.

Find your place or moment of calm, and do something pleasurable that makes you come alive a personal passion project can help you destress.

Physical activity is one of the best things you can do for your brain and body. You already know the countless benefits of exercising.

Dozens ofresearchhave found that that nearly any type of physical activity walking, running, cycling, minimal weight-lifting and even mindful exercise such as yoga contribute to improved cognitive performance.

Exercise stimulates the brain to release brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), a molecule essential for repairing brain cells and creating connections between them.

Physical activity also boosts endorphins, which can lift your mood. Aerobic exercise helps improve the health of brain tissue by increasing blood flow to the brain and reducing the chances of injury to the brain from cholesterol buildup in blood vessels and from high blood pressure, says Dr Joel Salinas, a neurologist at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital.

A simple walk outdoors gets you away from digital devices and into nature. Youll do your best thinking when walking.

Stimulating and challenging the brain helps it stay fit and firing. Spend some time in new thoughts.

To improve your brain health, try to do one activity that challenges the mind every day spend some time in new thoughts. The desire to learn and understand other people, ideas, cultures and concepts can boost your brain.

higher cognitive activity endows the brain with a greater ability to endure the effects of brain pathologies compared to a person with lower cognitive engagement throughout life, says David S. Knopman, M.D., a clinical neurologist involved in research in late-life cognitive disorders.

Lifelong learning and mentally challenging work build cognitive reserve. Find reasonably challenging activities you can practice regularly try activities that combine mental, social and physical challenges.

Were social creatures meaningful social connections make us happier. Happiness makes your brain work better.

Psychological studies show that conversation stimulates the brain. It may seem effortless to many, but it requires a complex combination of skills including attention, memory, thinking, speech and social awareness.

Astudypublished in theAmerican Journal of Public Healthfound that better social interaction can help protect the brain against dementia and Alzheimers.

Social connections are as important to our flourishing as the need for food, safety, and shelter. The urge to connect is a life-long human need.

Matthew Lieberman, a social psychologist, neuroscientist, and author ofSocial: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect,sees the brain as the center of the social self. He writes in his book, Its hard to find meaning in what we do if at some level it doesnt help someone else or make someone happier.

Researchers at the Oregon Health & Science University and the University of Michigan havesuggestedthat human interaction and conversation could be the keys to maintaining brain function as we grow older.

Supportive friends, family and social connections helps you live longer, happier and healthier. Socialising reduces the harmful effects of stress

Sleep is the number one, fundamental bedrock of good health. A good night sleep every night should be a priority, not a luxury.

Without good sleep, we see increased anxiety and stress. Sleep is restorative, helping you be more mentally energetic and productive, advises Sandra Bond Chapman, Ph.D., founder and chief director of the Center for BrainHealth at the University of Texas at Dallas and author ofMake Your Brain Smarter.

Apart from getting a good and quality night sleep, make time for wakeful rest it pays to plan breaks in between your busy schedule. Plan downtime on your calendar.

After a busy day, give your brain time to recover sit back, close your eyes and let your mind wander (spontaneous thought in our wakeful life) in the knowledge that your brain is busy consolidating information.

In a study onBoosting Long-Term Memory via Wakeful Rest,the authors found that wakeful rest without any external stimulation allows the brain to consolidate the memories of what it has learned.

It is never too early or too late to start living more healthily. Your daily habits have more impact on how long and how well you live plan to eat well, take short walks, engage in mental stimulation, and manage your social connections for better brain health.

This article first appeared on Medium.

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6 habits of highly healthy brains - Ladders

AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. ("AgeX"; NYSE American: AGE), a biotechnology company focused on developing therapeutics for human aging and regeneration, announced a research collaboration with the University of California, Irvine (UCI) using AgeXs PureStem technology to derive neural stem cells, with the goal of developing cellular therapies to treat neurological disorders and diseases for which there are no cures. The collaborations initial R&D work, expected to take approximately one year, will be conducted in the UCI laboratory of Leslie Thompson, PhD, Chancellors Professor of Psychiatry & Human Behavior and Neurobiology & Behavior, a leading researcher in the field of Huntingtons disease and other neurological disorders, under a Sponsored Research Agreement handled by the Industry Sponsored Research team at UCI Beall Applied Innovation. The initial focus will be on Huntingtons disease, while other potential targets may include Parkinsons, Alzheimers, and stroke.

The primary goal of the research will be to develop a robust method of deriving neural stem cells from pluripotent stem cells in sufficient quantity and with sufficient purity and identity for use in cell-based therapy. Professor Thompsons laboratory has already accumulated safety and efficacy animal data that may support an IND submission to the FDA as early as 2021 for the commencement of clinical trials to treat Huntingtons disease.

"We look forward to utilizing AgeXs cell derivation and manufacturing PureStem technology, with its many potential advantages, including industrial scalable manufacturing, lower cost of goods, and clonal cells with high purity and identity. Our goal is to have an improved neural stem cell production method ready within a year to move into clinical development," said Professor Thompson.

"We are absolutely delighted to start this exciting collaboration with Professor Thompson, who has worked tirelessly over her career to develop a neural stem cell product candidate for Huntingtons disease and who has already generated preclinical animal data that may support the initiation of clinical studies," said Dr. Nafees Malik, Chief Operating Officer of AgeX. "Moreover, we are very excited to be entering the field of neurology, which has huge clinical and commercial potential. Neural stem cells may be very useful in other neurological disorders that are common in aging demographics, such as Parkinsons, Alzheimers and stroke."

"This is an example of the kind of collaboration we will be seeking under our newly-unveiled collaboration and licensing strategy, which is to run parallel to our in-house product development," said Dr. Greg Bailey, Chair of AgeX. "We will be collaborating with a world leader in their field on a research project which is close to the clinic."

The collaboration includes an opportunity for AgeX to organize a company to be jointly owned with Professor Thompson and other researchers to pursue clinical development and commercialization of cell therapies derived using licensed inventions arising from the research program, as well as certain patent pending technology for neural stem cell derivation, and certain technical data, including animal data, to support IND submissions.

About AgeX Therapeutics

AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. (NYSE American: AGE) is focused on developing and commercializing innovative therapeutics for human aging. Its PureStem and UniverCyte manufacturing and immunotolerance technologies are designed to work together to generate highly-defined, universal, allogeneic, off-the-shelf pluripotent stem cell-derived young cells of any type for application in a variety of diseases with a high unmet medical need. AgeX has two preclinical cell therapy programs: AGEX-VASC1 (vascular progenitor cells) for tissue ischemia and AGEX-BAT1 (brown fat cells) for Type II diabetes. AgeXs revolutionary longevity platform induced Tissue Regeneration (iTR) aims to unlock cellular immortality and regenerative capacity to reverse age-related changes within tissues. AGEX-iTR1547 is an iTR-based formulation in preclinical development. HyStem is AgeXs delivery technology to stably engraft PureStem cell therapies in the body. AgeX is developing its core product pipeline for use in the clinic to extend human healthspan and is seeking opportunities to establish licensing and collaboration agreements around its broad IP estate and proprietary technology platforms.

Story continues

For more information, please visit http://www.agexinc.com or connect with the company on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements that are not historical fact including, but not limited to statements that contain words such as "will," "believes," "plans," "anticipates," "expects," "estimates" should also be considered forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements and as such should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect the business of AgeX Therapeutics, Inc. and its subsidiaries particularly those mentioned in the cautionary statements found in more detail in the "Risk Factors" section of AgeXs Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commissions (copies of which may be obtained at http://www.sec.gov). Further, in the case of AgeXs new neural stem cell program there can be no assurance that: (i) any new cell derivation methods will be invented in the sponsored research program, (ii) any derivation methods that may be developed will be sufficient to derive neural stem cells in quantities and of purity suitable for clinical use and commercialization, (iii) that any new inventions or existing technology will be licensed on commercially favorable terms, (iv) that any neural stem cells derived for therapeutic use will be shown to be safe and effective in clinical trials, and (v) that any neural stem cells derived for therapeutic use will be successfully commercialized even if clinical trials are successful. Subsequent events and developments may cause these forward-looking statements to change. AgeX specifically disclaims any obligation or intention to update or revise these forward-looking statements as a result of changed events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release, except as required by applicable law.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200203005261/en/

Contacts

Media Contact for AgeX: Bill Douglass Gotham Communications, LLC bill@gothamcomm.com (646) 504-0890

Originally posted here:
AgeX Therapeutics to Collaborate with University of California, Irvine on Neural Stem Cell Research Program for Huntingtons Disease and Other...

A new fad diet making the rounds on wellness influencer Instagram won't actually help you lose weight. And it could cause dehydration, urinary tract infections, kidney stones, organ failure - even death.

It's called "dry fasting." It goes beyond what most of us would consider fasting - abstaining from solid food or liquid calories - and requires consuming no water or liquids of any kind for many hours or even days at a time.

Instagram and other social media sites have provided a glossy new platform for extremely dubious health and nutrition claims. Posts about dry fasting often tout the need to "heal" or "rest" or "reset" your kidneys, or "boost" their filtration. In practice, what dry fasting will do is make you look a bit more toned, because your body is using up the water in your cells for energy.

Even more dubious claims suggest that dry fasting forces your body to burn toxins, or fat, or inflammation, or tumors. It does not. When you stop feeding your body calories, it breaks down muscle and fat. The toxic byproducts of that breakdown process build up in your system, requiring extra hydration to flush them out.

In other words, if you're abstaining from food, your body needs more water, not less.

Experts agree: There is no dietary or nutritional reason to go on a "dry fast."

"I don't recommend it at all," said Dr. Pauline Yi, a physician at UCLA Health Beverly Hills who regularly treats patients in their late teens and early 20s. She said intermittent fasting and other fasting-type diets are a popular topic with patients, and she has no problem with people trying them out.

"But I also tell them when you're fasting you have to drink water," she said. "You cannot go without hydration."

The majority of the human body is water. Your individual water consumption needs depend on your height, weight, health and the climate, but generally speaking, Yi said people should be consuming at least 68 ounces - almost nine cups - of water every day.

Cary Kreutzer, an associate professor at USC's schools of gerontology and medicine whose area of expertise includes nutrition and diet, says digestive systems aren't meant to have extended "breaks." She likened making your kidneys go without water to letting your car's engine run out of oil. "You can basically burn out some parts of the car that you're going to have to get replaced," she said. "You don't want those replacement parts to include your vital organs."

Another unintended consequence of dry fasting: It sets your body in water-conservation mode.

"Your body likes homeostasis," said Yi, the physician. "If you're going to cut back on water, your body will produce hormones and chemicals to hold onto any water."

So while you might gain a very short-term benefit by looking a tiny bit more toned while you're severely dehydrated (body-builders have been known to dry fast before competitions for that reason), once you consume liquid again, your body rebounds and desperately hangs on to even more water than before. It's like yo-yo dieting in fast motion.

Dry fasting is not the same thing as intermittent fasting, which has become a popular fad diet in recent years. There are different variations of intermittent fasting, but most people start with 16 hours of fasting followed by eight hours of eating. Martin Berkhan created the "LeanGains" 16:8 intermittent fasting guide and is widely credited with popularizing the diet. On his website, leangains.com, Berkhan writes that during the 16-hour fasting window, coffee, calorie-free sweeteners, diet soda, sugar-free gum and up to a teaspoon of milk in a cup of coffee won't break the fast.

The subreddit for fasting, r/fasting, has an "Introduction to Intermittent Fasting" guide that contains the following tips for surviving the fasting portion of your day:

Always carry water, a canteen, a bottle, or keep a full glass within sight

Water, water, water, water

Valter Longo has studied starvation, fasting and calorie restriction in humans for nearly 30 years. He's currently the director of the Longevity Institute at USC and a professor of gerontology. He developed the Fasting-Mimicking Diet, or FMD, a fasting-type diet with small prepackaged meals intended to provide the health and longevity benefits of a five-day fast without requiring a doctor's supervision. Fasting-type diets have grown in popularity in recent years for a simple reason, he said: "Because they work."

But he said he's not aware of any reputable studies about the effects of dry fasting, and said he wouldn't even consider putting one together, also for a simple reason: It's incredibly dangerous.

"For sure, the body needs to reset, but there are safe ways of doing that, and dry fasting is not one of them," Longo said. "We require water."

His work has also involved looking at how cultures and religions have engaged with starvation and fasting throughout human history, and says he hasn't heard of any that involved extended fasting without water. The closest is Ramadan, during which observers go without food or water during daylight hours - but at most, that lasts for 16 hours, and it's preceded and followed by extensive hydration.

If someone tries dry fasting for a full day, Longo said, they risk side effects like developing kidney stones. Longer than that, and you start risking your life.

Some proponents of "dry fasting" eschew water but recommend hydrating with fresh fruits and vegetables. Hydrating with fruit is certainly better than not hydrating at all. An orange has about a half-cup of water in it; to get to the recommended 68 ounces of water a day, you'd have to eat around 17 oranges. That's a lot of peeling.

So, in conclusion: Dry fasting puts you at risk of kidney stones or organ failure. There are no known, proven long-term benefits to doing it. Though different types of fasts and fasting diets can be beneficial, there is no medical evidence to suggest you need to stop consuming water for any period of time, or that water from fruit is better for you than filtered drinking water. Do not take medical advice from a photo of a person in a sarong.

(c)2020 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

Excerpt from:
What 'dry fasting' is and why you shouldn't do it - PostBulletin.com

Q: I enjoy the nostalgia articles in my hometown newspaper The Gainesville Sun. The recent Cars We Remember section was really fun to read, and I enjoyed the AMC history of high performance. One AMC car you didn't mention was the 1970 Rebel Machine, and I'm wondering your thoughts on the Rebel Machine by AMC? How many were ever made and is it a worthy collector car?

Shawn S., Gainesville, Florida.

A: Shawn, I'm happy to tell you about the 1970 Rebel Machine and also a very rare 1971 AMC muscle car, too.

As I mentioned in the Cars We Remember special edition, by the time AMC released its pony and muscle car lineup during the latter part of the 1960s the company was way behind the performance youth movement that began in earnest with the 1964 GTO. And even though Chevy, Ford and Chrysler produced some really hot full-size muscle cars in 1961-1963 like the Chevy 409, Ford 390-406-427 and the MOPAR 413-426, American Motors was not in the performance ballgame at all.

To make things worse when it came to AMC completely missing this very profitable muscle car boom, the stuffed shirts at the board meetings decided to release newspaper advertisements that emphasized the only "race" AMC was interested in was the "human race." So, even though the baby boomer generation was clearly into excitement and muscle cars in a big way, AMC was not.

After finally relenting, AMCs mid-size performance started in 1967, when the good-looking Rebel SST hit the showroom floors. As a precursor to the Rebel Machine, the SST featured a 343-inch V8 with 280 horsepower and some interesting high-performance options like Carter 4-barrel carb, bigger camshaft, and even an optional 4:44 rear end gear. Still, a 343-V8 with just 280 horsepower was no match against the competition, like an Olds 442, Chevelle SS396 or a Ford Fairlane GT. It just didn't cut it.

But to answer your Rebel Machine question, immediately following AMC's compact size SC/Rambler American in 1969, which happened to be the hottest AMC ever to hit the roads and just 1,512 were ever built, AMC then decided to release the Rebel Machine in 1970. The Rebel Machine rode on a 114-inch wheelbase and was more in line with the Plymouth Roadrunner size of muscle car than the compact style SC/Rambler. The first 1,000 were painted red, white and blue, while the others could be ordered in any solid color.

Under the hood sat a 390-inch, 340-horse engine mated to the great shifting Borg Warner T-10 four-speed with a factory Hurst shifter. The suspension was beefed up with stiffer AMC station wagon springs in the rear, resulting in a nice "funny car style" rake. However, the raised rear resulted in some wheel hop under full acceleration with street tires at the drags. The car would run in the 14-second range at 90 mph, which was good back then for a street muscle car.

Other "The Machine" notables were a ram air type hood operated by vacuum with an integrated 8,000 RPM tachometer. In my opinion, the Rebel SST and the Rebel Machine were the best-looking AMC's of all, hands down.

As for longevity, the Rebel Machine was produced only one year, 1970, at a base price of $3,450. Thus, it is a very rare collector car and only 2,326 were ever built. Concerning pricing, a 390 Rebel Machine in excellent original or fully restored condition today will fetch an easy $50,000 and up according to NADA pricing. Even an average condition Machine needing some TLC should go in the $20,000 range, making it a desirable collector car.

Now for that other AMC performance car I mention above, which may well be the rarest AMC muscle car ever built.

Following AMC dropping the Rebel Machine from its lineup, a real sleeper popped up for just a bit of time in 1971 when less than 60 1971 AMC Matador two-door hardtops were delivered with AMC's "The Machine Go Package" option. The Go Package added either a 360-V8 at 290 horses or the preferred 401-inch V8 with 330-horsepower. The Borg Warner T-10 was again part of the package, along with dual exhaust, heavy duty suspension, 15-inch Goodyear Polyglas raised letter tires and a 3.90 rear end gear. As rare as this Rambler is, I've never seen one in person but it may well be the best of the mid-size muscle cars from AMC. By mid-1971, the option disappeared.

If you ever see a 1971 Matador with the 401 The Machine Go Package (valued at a top price of near $50,000) you are in the minority as very few survived the crusher. Thanks for your question.

Greg Zyla writes weekly for More Content Now and GateHouse Media. Contact him at greg@gregzyla.com.

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Cars We Remember: The Rebel Machine by AMC and a rare 1971 Matador Go Machine - The Providence Journal

The national spotlight fell upon the Greek island of Ikaria and particularly the islands honey.

CBS News featured a video spot on the islands special elixir, which it suggested, could be the secret to the longevity of the islands residents who have one of the highest life-expectancies in the world.

The video featured the natural process involved in producing the honey, which involves no chemicals or industrial processing.

Honey throughout Greece is produced in similar ways, especially on Crete, which is one of the most prolific natural honey producers in Greece.

Most recently, Chef Maria Loi under her Loi brand of products began importing two kinds of honey from Crete to Whole Foods Markets throughout the Northeast, with plans for wider distribution throughout the United States.

But like the product from Ikaria, Chef Loi has a hard time keeping it on the shelves at the popular super market chain because of limited production.

We can only bring as much as the bees produce, Loi explains, adding that her honey is 100% natural and has no human or mechanical intervention other than the bee keepers pouring it from the beehives.

Many of her recipes feature honey as a substitute for sugar and her best-selling book, The Greek Diet, includes a lot of information about the medicinal values of the Greek delicacy.

Chef Lois honey isnt available via mail order but several brands of honey from Crete are, including a fine brand from the mountains of western Crete that is farmed and imported by the Saviolakis family, which sells it via Amazon.

Go here to read the rest:

National Spotlight on Ikarian Honey on CBS Sunday Morning News - The Pappas Post

Worldwide, there are now 31 people over the age of 110. Of these, 30 are women.

Sounds odd?

According to the Morbidity-Mortality Paradox or Health Paradox, despite higher rates of disability and poorer health than men, women experience greater longevity in modern human societies.

Representational image. Image source: Getty Images.

What is the reason behind this? Is it a woman's immune system, luck or magical powers?

None of the above. Here are three science-backed reasons why women outlive men:

One of the factors that affect longevity in men is that they are more likely to be seen with a cigarette hanging out of their mouths - according to the World Health Organization (WHO), 40% of men are smokers compared to 9% of women. Also, fewer women tend to abuse alcohol compared to men.

Scientists confirm that these habits make men more prone to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, coronary heart disease, digestive problems, and liver disease.

Studies have also shown that compared to women, men are at a higher risk of developing diabetes and its complications like diabetic nephropathy and diabetic foot.

Also read:World COPD Day 2019: Why this lung disease is still under-diagnosed in India

Scientists have shown that testosterone may stimulate the prostate gland and increase the risk of prostate cancer. Also, studies have shown that testosterone improves reproductive function earlier in life but shortens the lifespan in the long run (antagonistic pleiotropy effect).

Other than maintaining female sexual organs, estrogen helps in blood clotting, increases the level of good cholesterol and maintains gastrointestinal tract.

Estrogen also has antioxidant properties and helps delay the decrease of skin collagen in women as they grow older.

Scientists believe that because of estrogens protective effect, premenopausal women are less likely to have coronary heart disease than men and women who have hit menopause.

Some scientists believe that girls are more robust, stronger and healthier, than boys from birth itself.

Joy Lawn, director of the Centre for Maternal, Reproductive, and Child Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, has said that whenever a newborn boy comes into the neonatal unit, statistically, he is more likely to die compared to a girl.

The extra X chromosome in the female DNA is somehow said to be responsible for this.

Human DNA is made up of at least two sex chromosomes that decide the gender. Females have XX, whereas males have XY.

Recently, research was done on two sets of mice: one with natural male-female mouse biology (XX and XY) and the other set with XX chromosomes paired with testes and XY chromosomes paired with ovaries. A senior author of the study and neurologist, Dena Dubal, found that mice with two X-chromosomes outlived all the mice but the ones with testes and XX chromosome also turned out to live longer. This longevity effect was observed after 21 months, as it is considered to be the end of a normal mouse's lifespan.

The researchers concluded that the second X and its genetic expression has a protective effect that increases survival.

Health articles in Firstpost are written by myUpchar.com, Indias first and biggest resource for verified medical information. At myUpchar, researchers and journalists work with doctors to bring you information on all things health. For more information, please read our article onEstrogen.

Updated Date: Dec 02, 2019 15:39:41 IST

Tags : Live Longer, Longer Life, Longer Lifespan, Longevity, Men Age, NewsTracker, Why Women Live Longer, Women Live Longer

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Three reasons women live longer than men - Firstpost

In writing further about the coronavirus crisis - now being called the greatest ever threat to the world in peacetime - I offer comment this week on the latest developments in Europe, including Britain, and here at home as well. The crisis affecting so many countries has become nothing short of a human catastrophe and the most serious global health challenge of our times. Its effects have also had a horrifying impact on the world economy and have disrupted modern society on an unimaginable scale.

As of yesterday, there have been more than 700,000 infections worldwide and some 20,000 deaths in Europe, with Italy recording 10,000 fatalities the most anywhere in the world and Spain some 6,000. In the UK, there have been more than 1,000 deaths with 17,000 people testing positive for the virus. In a letter over the weekend to 30 million households, Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned the situation will become worse before improving and stressed the importance of social distancing, a message that has been repeated so often that even those who are still asking what all the fuss is about should take heed of by now.

The UK government has produced what appears to be a generous financial bailout and support package designed to help keep afloat as many floundering businesses as possible and also to assist the self-employed. The new Chancellor of the Exchequer (Minister of Finance) spoke in inspiring fashion in defining the crisis as a generation-defining moment that had to be met with a collective national response. The government is also opening new hospitals, extending coronavirus testing to National Health Service staff and increasing supply of equipment like ventilators, surgical masks and gloves and hand sanitisers.

Meanwhile, the situation worsens by the day in the US. Ever the accused villain of the piece, President Trump has been criticised for his governments slow and inadequate response, particularly the lack of testing that meant the spread of the virus could not be tracked properly. But, as well as extending the emergency measures until April 30, he has signed the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill which will surely be a lifeline to the domestic economy after more thanthree million Americans applied for unemployment benefit last week, the largest number in US history.

To my mind, much of the criticism of both the US and UK governments ignores the fact that a silent and invisible virus on this scale - and without any real prior warning - was bound to challenge even the most well-funded and equipped health system. Despite the situation probably becoming worse in the immediate future, the UK may not be that far off a peak of positive cases while the US may end up with the worst outbreak in the industrialised world Trump tops the world was the headline, but how grotesquely inappropriate and insensitive was Hilary Clintons reported tweet that he did promise America First.

In The Bahamas, with 14 cases of COVID-19 confirmed as of yesterday, the Governments emergency measures announced on March 17 seem to have been effective in limiting any real spread, though it can only be speculated whether there would have been more cases without such draconian measures. No one can know this for sure, but people instinctively accept that such tough action is for the common good because health and the preservation of life must be any governments top priority - as one British government minister put it, you cannot put a price on peoples lives.

Now, the 24/7 curfewhas been extended by eight days. Surely, few would disagree with this despite the personal inconvenience to so many and the inevitable continuing serious effects on the local economy when businesses are forced to remain closed.

It is interesting that, after initially criticising the Prime Minister, the PLP changed tack and supported him when just about the whole country seemed to think Dr Minnis emergency measures were correct and timely. Not to have done so could have been ruinous politically.

The economic consequences of an extended lockdown are incalculable. But it looks almost certain that without some sort of financial support from the government such a lockdown could destroy the local economy. So, in light of the stark reality, the question is, even if everyone survived the current crisis, how would they fare in the longer term if the economy was in ruins. Since the main driver of the nations wealth is tourism - and we have no control over when visitors from the US, Canada and Europe are likely to return - the only thing left is the remaining parts of the economy which are needed to sustain us, not in some distant future but right now.

The Minister of Finance is quoted as saying that after the first case of Covid-19 about two weeks ago the government announced several relief measures for workers in the tourism industry who have been most affected by the crisis. But so many others are hurting as well and they have to be able to put food on the table.

Finance Minister Peter Turnquest announced a series of new measures offering some assistance yesterday but I fear it does not go nearly far enough.Many countries have accepted they must throw huge sumsat the problem - to keep families safe and fed, to keep businesses afloat through the crisis - not just to start up again when the pandemic fades away.

Is it not possible, for example, to be more selective in determining the list of essential services as long as assurances can be given about observing social distancing, and should this not be under constant review during the lockdown period? Moreover, could not the government be more flexible in allowing businesses to open on a restricted and rotating basis, as suggested by my fellow columnist, Diane Phillips, in this newspaper last week?

The whole world order in finance is changing before our eyes. Now is not the time to beoverly concerned about pressure on the nations foreign currency reserves even though it is important to maintain suitable levels of reserves in order to maintain parity between the Bahamian and US dollar. For this is a national emergency requiring immediate action.

Long-term considerations about the economy and worrying about matters like the credit agencies ratings should surely be put aside in the short-term in order to concentrate on measures to enable the economy simply to survive even if that means taxes will have to be increased in the longer term.

In recent weeks, people in Britain have become so accustomed to watching the regular briefings about the virus crisis by Boris Johnson, flanked by the Chief Medical Officer for England and the governments main adviser Professor Chris Whitty, that they probably found it hard to believe these two could themselves become infected with COVID-19.

So it was a surprise to many that Mr Johnson announced a few days ago he had tested positive. He is, therefore, now holed up on his own for14 days in the spacious flat at No 11 Downing Street next door to No 10, the famous office and residence of British prime ministers. He is reported to be continuing to work by using video conferencing and he remains in charge of the government. Meanwhile, Professor Whitty declared he was showing symptoms of the virus and would be self-isolating at home. In addition, the Health Minister, Matt Hancock - with whom both were in regular contact - has tested positive and the trio are now being accused of failing to practise what they have been preaching about social distancing.

Earlier, of course, Prince Charles also tested positive and it was announced at the weekend that Spanish Princess Maria Teresa had died of complications from coronavirus at the age of 86. There are reports Prince Charles is coming to the end of his self-isolation at The Queens royal residence of Balmoral in Scotland. He is said to be in good spirits but there are concerns about the last time he was in contact with his mother, which apparently was as recently as March 13 - and, reportedly, infection from him cannot be ruled out.

So this virus respects no-one, whoever they might be, and everyone is vulnerable. It is now well known that social distancing remains the key in order to guard against its spread. From what I have heard, most people who have tested positive are all too ready to self-isolate for the incubation period of the virus if that serves to prevent them passing it on to others. But still, it seems, the government is having difficulty in persuading people that it is even better to stay away from other people in a bid to avoid contracting it in the first place. That would have been all but impossible for the Prime Minister who has paid the price accordingly. But his approval rating is currently high and many will wish him well while he awaits a full return to his duties.

To lighten the gloom and despair a bit, a happier tale to relate is the 112th birthday of the oldest man in the world. Having written last week about the 103rd birthday of Britains national treasure, the famous singer Vera Lynn, I cannot resist drawing attention to the story of Englishman, Bob Weighton, a former teacher who celebrated his birthday on March 29 and he did so this year as the oldest man in the world following the death in February of the Japanese previous holder of that distinction.

Living in his own flat in the town of Alton in Hampshire in the south of England and supported by family and friends, this now 112-year-old great-grandfather remains in relatively good health and pursues his hobbies of reading and making model windmills. As someone over 110, he is called a super-centenarian and he has received ten traditional birthday cards from The Queen, but he now says he does not want to give her the trouble of sending him any more greetings!

Mr Weighton says he is surprised to have lived so long and cannot account for his great age for he never planned it and has no secret to his longevity. He has remarked that the worlds in a bit of a mess over coronavirus and this worries him because nobody knows what is going to happen.

Coincidentally, Britains oldest woman, Joan Hocguard, of Poole in Dorset also in the south of England, not only shares a birthday with him but also reached the same milestone of 112-years-old on March 29. So, the pair are the joint-oldest people in Britain and have wished each other a happy birthday.

According to UK press reports, there has been talk of the importance of kindness during the course of their long lives and that the joy of family and friends has been at the heart of everything.

Such longevity combined with good health is a remarkable achievement, and it seems that both of them have been well looked after and provided for in their declining years. But, perhaps it also reflects well on Britain, indirectly, as a nation in which, generally, the old, frail and vulnerable are not left to feel abandoned because, if families are unable or unwilling to protect them, society is equipped to provide a safety net and step in to do what is required in the name of human kindness.

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PETER YOUNG: Are we doing enough to prevent economy being left in ruins? - Bahamas Tribune

The chaos of the coronavirus pandemic has undoubtedly affected each one of us in some way or another. For most, in the world and our country, it has had a salty effect on lives one that you wish you could just spit out and be done with.

Maybe it was the temporary shutdown of your dream business, a loved one lost, one who died alone, a fearful child, a nurse lamenting going to work or the one who hurts because she needs to work to pay the bills but doesnt want to bring the virus home to her weak mother with cancerous lungs.

There is no doubt that the pandemic has had an effect probably on every human being that has the ability and maturity to reason and feel. Unfortunately, we cant spit out the salty taste of COVID-19. At least not now. We can pray, as has clearly been seen on many different social-media venues. And, as faithful people, we know it will make a difference. It will minimize the pain for many and bring hope and love. We know this and believe this as faith-filled people who are longing for brighter days.

We can unite and bring good to those in need, which has been done in this amazing community of Champaign-Urbana. There are silver linings to everything, and yes, chaos always brings opportunity. But there is just too much hurt in too many places to count the silver linings openly. However, I am challenging myself and those in my family to let this change us, not just for this spring of 2020, but forever.

What is it about this experience that we are living through that can permanently change us for the better? Is it more donations to Eastern Illinois Foodbank because we realized how many children go without food? Or do we vow to pray more because we noticed that this last week, we were on our knees more often, and it actually felt good? Do we say to ourselves, I had strength I didnt know existed in myself, then bottle up that strength for another day down the road when life turns upside down? Is it a newfound appreciation for your job, such that when you want to complain and forfeit the day sometime this summer, you instead dig deep and forge through because you know you are lucky to have one? Will it be you that you understand more deeply the value of human life, whether it be riddled with Alzheimers disease or just simply longevity, because you know more deeply that every life is precious?

Pick one way this has changed you for the good and let it change you forever. Today, write in your planner or enter into Google Calender a reminder for every week of the next year about what it is that tangibly made you change for the good, and live that change.

A few years down the road, or even longer, when you hear COVID-19, that salty taste might come to mind, and you will be able to spit it out. But maybe instead you might just humbly hang your head, because you know that somewhere deep down inside you, it changed you for the good, forever.

Tece Hendrickson is a freelance writer who lives in Champaign.

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Tece Hendrickson/Voices | Let this change us for the good forever - Champaign/Urbana News-Gazette

Even large ecosystems the size of the Amazon rainforest can collapse in a few decades, according to a study that shows bigger biomes break up relatively faster than small ones.

The research reveals that once a tipping point has been passed, breakdowns do not occur gradually like an unravelling thread, but rapidly like a stack of Jenga bricks after a keystone piece has been dislodged.

The authors of the study, published on Tuesday in the Nature Communications journal, said the results should warn policymakers they had less time than they realised to deal with the multiple climate and biodiversity crises facing the world.

To examine the relationship between an ecosystems size and the speed of its collapse, the authors looked at 42 previous cases of regime shift. This is the term used to describe a change from one state to another for example, the collapse of fisheries in Newfoundland, the death of vegetation in the Sahel, desertification of agricultural lands in Niger, bleaching of coral reefs in Jamaica, and the eutrophication of Lake Erhai in China.

They found that bigger and more complex biomes were initially more resilient than small, biologically simpler systems. However, once the former hit a tipping point, they collapse relatively faster because failures repeat throughout their modular structure. As a result, the bigger the ecosystem, the harder it is likely to fall.

Based on their statistical analysis, the authors estimate an ecosystem the size of the Amazon (approximately 5.5m km2) could collapse in approximately 50 years once a tipping point had been reached. For a system the size of the Caribbean coral reefs (about 20,000 km2), collapse could occur in 15 years once triggered.

The paper concludes: We must prepare for regime shifts in any natural system to occur over the human timescales of years and decades, rather than multigenerational timescales of centuries and millennia.

Humanity now needs to prepare for changes in ecosystems that are faster than we previously envisaged through our traditional linear view of the world, including across Earths largest and most iconic ecosystems, and the social-ecological systems that they support.

The paper says this could be the case in Australia where the recent Australian bushfires followed protracted periods of drought and may indicate a shift to a drier ecosystem.

Scientists were already aware that systems tended to decline much faster than they grew but the new study quantifies and explains this trend.

What is new is that we are showing this is part of a wider story. The larger the system, the greater the fragility and the proportionately quicker collapses, John Dearing, professor in physical geography at the University of Southampton and lead author of the study, said.

What we are saying is dont be taken in by the longevity of these systems just because they may have been around for thousands, if not millions, of years they will collapse much more rapidly than we think.

Dearing said he was concerned that one of the possible implications of the study was that complete destruction of the Amazon could occur within his grandchildrens lifetimes.

This is a paper that is satisfying from a scientific point of view, but worrying from a personal point of view. Youd rather not come up with such a set of results, he said.

A separate study last week warned the Amazon could shift within the next decade into a source of carbon emissions rather than a sink, because of damage caused by loggers, farmers and global heating.

Experts said the new findings should be a spur to action.

I think the combination of theory, modelling and observations is especially persuasive in this paper, and should alert us to risks from human activities that perturb the large and apparently stable ecosystems upon which we depend, said Georgina Mace, professor of biodiversity and ecosystems at University College London, who was not involved in the studies.

There are effective actions that we can take now, such as protecting the existing forest, managing it to maintain diversity, and reducing the direct pressures from logging, burning, clearance and climate change.

These views were echoed by Ima Vieira, an ecologist at Museu Emlio Goeldi in Belm, Brazil. This is a very important paper. For Brazil to avoid the ecosystem collapse modelled in this study, we need to strengthen governance associated to imposing heavy fines on companies with dirty supply chains, divestment strategies targeting key violators and enforcement of existing laws related to environmental crimes. And we have to be quick.

However, the methodology was not universally accepted. Erika Berenguer, a senior research associate at the University of Oxford and Lancaster University, said the regime shifts paper relied too much on data from lakes and oceans to be useful as an indicator of what would happen to rainforests.

While there is no doubt the Amazon is at great risk and that a tipping point is likely, such inflated claims do not help either science or policy making, she said.

The authors said their study was not a forecast about a specific region but a guide to the speed at which change could occur.

More:
Ecosystems the size of Amazon 'can collapse within decades' - The Guardian

The coronavirus crisis has spurred the growth of online work. The genie is not going back in the bottle and we must plan for a future of decent digiwork.

The trend of working online from afar is experiencing a crucial boost, as Covid-19 compels companies and organisations to impose mandatory work-from-home policies in an increasingly no-touch world. The sudden switch to remote digital work, overnight and en masse, has the potential to accelerate changes in how work is performed and the way we think about working arrangements.

Looking at the broader picture, Covid-19 may prove to be a major tipping point for the digital transformation of the workplace. It looks near impossible to put that digital genie back in the bottle, once the health emergency is over.

As the virus keeps spreading, some employees will be working from homeand in digitally-enabled environments not bound by a traditional office spacefor the first time.Their working lives will be hugely disrupted and upturned. Yet, for millions of workers around the globe doing gig work, moving their working lives online isnt new. Its just business as usual.

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Especially for crowdworkers in the gig economy, work is not a place: it is a web-based task or an activity, which can be done from any location that allows for internet connectivity. Many millennials and Generation Zers are living the gig-economy model today precisely for the flexibility and freedom remote digital work can offer. Covid-19 could be the catalyst which takes the evolution of work anywhere arrangements to the next level of growth, in ways that considerably improve opportunities to collaborate, think, create and connect productively.

Not all is rosy, though. Currently, Covid-19 is putting the low-paid contingent of gig workers, often linked to digital platformssuch as ride-hailing and food deliveryunder huge strain. After doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers, gig workers lacking any or adequate access to employment-insurance benefits or sick leave are the hardest hit in the United States, Europe and Asia. In countries with some of the biggest clusters of cases, such as Italy, some couriers working for food-delivery apps still go to work because they cant afford not to.

Thus, the Covid-19 crisis leaves especially those who depend on gig work as their primary source of income extremely vulnerable to (fatal) health risks. It undermines their dignity and it intensifies social and economic divides which may potentially generate new cleavages, anger and political discontent in countries and regions.

As the crisis evolves, gig workers wont be the only ones suffering even more than usual. The International Labour Organization published a high global unemployment estimate of 24.7 million because of Covid-19 in mid-March; a week later, the head of its employment policy department warned the outcome could be far higher still. By comparison, global unemployment increased by 22 million in the 2008-09 economic crisis. It is also expected that, worldwide, there could be as many as 35 million more in working poverty than before the pre-Covid-19 estimate for 2020.

These statistics send an important message: Protecting workers against the adverse impacts of the crisis is not only about increasing protection for typical jobs. It is also about including and protecting better those working at the margins: non-standard workers in tourism, travel, retail and other sectors most immediately affected, dependent self-employed persons with unstable incomes, zero-hours workers and low-paid workers in precarious working conditions who stand to gain little from the various countries latest packages of emergency measures, as recent evidence shows.

Persistent gaps in social-protection coverage for workersin old and new forms of employmentconstitute a major challenge for our labour markets in the post-Covid-19 environment. This matters particularly for the future of the work we want to create in the digital era. We need to facilitate digital work, for the many benefits it can offer businesses and workers. But we must not allow this to assume a form for workersunprotected and socially deprivedtoo common in todays gig economy.

As you may know, Social Europe is an independent publisher. We aren't backed by a large publishing house, big advertising partners or a multi-million euro enterprise. For the longevity of Social Europe we depend on our loyal readers - we depend on you.

Next to the deadly human toll, the war metaphors which have been recently invoked by world leaders in the fight against Covid-19 reveal an uncomfortable truth. We are confronted with the flaws and fundamental weaknesses of our labour-market and social policies, solidarity mechanisms and models of collective responsibility for managing the risks that weigh unfairly and gravely on the most vulnerable citizens.

What can be done? A more expansive, resourceful and inclusive recovery is crucial, so that the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on labour markets becomes less far-reaching. We need to make our digital future immune to the virus of precarity, with our labour markets built on the principle of human dignity and the potential of decent digiwork for all.

This is a vision of full participation in a digital-work future which affords self-respect and dignity, security and equal opportunity, representation and voice. It is also about defining a digital responsibility by default modelan entirely different mindset in society as to the role of governments and the private sector, in ensuring labour standards are updated to respond better to the evolving reality of digital workplaces.

In these tragic circumstances, there is a lesson for the future: the experience of gig workers shows going digital means more than just shifting channels. It is about refitting our labour markets, social-protection and welfare systems and making sure everyone has the ability to realise the human right to social security in the post-Covid-19 digital era. No society and no organised democracy can afford to ignore the vulnerable situations of workers who have few social protections yet are critical in a crisis.

Done right, we can shape a fair future of work. More than ever before therefore, the message for policy-makers, employers, workers and their representatives is straightforward: prepare for the next day. Bring precarious digital work into the realm of social protection. Take action for decent digiworknow.

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The future of work in the post-Covid-19 digital era - Social Europe

Sepa has zero tolerance for officials harassing people or institutions: Murtaza Wahab

Sindh Environment and Law Adviser Barrister Murtaza Wahab has said they have a zero tolerance policy against any government officials involved in harassing a person of an institution in the name of the provincial environment department.

It is worth mentioning here that the industrial and commercial establishments in Karachi often complains that officials of the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency (Sepa) often resorts to exploitative and unfair means against them to mint money under the pretext of imposing provincial environmental laws.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, Wahab said the provincial environment department should enhance its ties with the associations of the industrialists in Sindh in order to take firm action against the violators of the environmental laws.

Barrister Wahab directed the Sepa director-general to depute officials of the agency for every industrial estate in the province for taking action against the violators of environmental laws in all zones.

He sought assistance of the associations of the industrialists and fishermen to identify the violators of the environmental laws, saying that as for the purpose they should remain in contact with the relevant government authorities.

He said every person and institution was under moral obligation to fully conform to the environmental laws, saying the issues relate to very survival and longevity of the human and other living creatures on the planet earth.

Meeting

Sindh Minister for Human Settlement and Special Development Ghulam Murtaza Baloch met with Barrister Wahab in his office. MNA Sardar Jam Abdul Karim Bijar also attended the meeting.

The meeting discussed the issue of loss to the environment and farmers of District Malir due to the constant discharge of industrial effluents into the Malir River. Barrister Wahab said an action would be taken against the people involved in causing pollution in the Malir River. In this regard, he added, the Sindh government fully sided with the farmers of the Malir District.

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Sepa has zero tolerance for officials harassing people or institutions: Murtaza Wahab - The News International

Miskawaan Health Group Medical Director Dr Johannes Wessolly outlines key steps to improving the immune system

With the novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) epidemic bringing parts of the world to a panic-stricken standstill, now is the best time to think about the state of ones overall health and wellbeing and just how susceptible you might be to an infection.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005875/en/

Miskawaan Health Group Medical Director Dr Johannes Wessolly. (Photo: Business Wire)

Global average life expectancy increased 5.5 years between the years 2000 and 2016, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). While our life expectancy is rising, all too often, our quality of life is not enhanced in an equal measure. For over 30 years, Miskawaan Health Groups Medical Director, Dr Johannes Wessolly, has used a functional medicine approach to tailoring treatments for his patients in a natural and effective manner.

At the forefront of functional medicine, Miskawaan uses highly accredited doctors, scientists, and oncologists as well as technology solutions such as artificial intelligence and machine learning to innovate and create cutting-edge, highly personalised treatments for patients. Founded by Dr Wessolly & David Boehm, Miskawaan fuses its offering of the best of German technology with the art of Thai hospitality to ensure peace of mind, excellent health and longevity for its clients.

Below, Dr Wessolly highlights a few important steps toward improving the immune system, safeguarding the body against disease, and advancing optimal health.

In life and in health, defense is the best offense.

None of us need to be told that proper nutrition and restful sleep are two of the basic keys to maintaining mental and physical wellbeing, and yet, for one reason or another, were not doing either of those enough. To effectively shield the body against the novel coronavirus and other viruses for that matter means actively seeking ways to lower ones vulnerability to infection. Keep your immune system as strong as it can be by ensuring sufficient intake of vitamins, in particular vitamins C and D and zinc, which together work as boosters for the system. If you find yourself in a congested area, wear a mask and make sure you disinfect your hands as often as possible.

Despite the prevalence of the most advanced technologies for curing a spectrum of diseases, the saying prevention is better than cure still holds water. Be intentional in your investment in long-term solutions to the protection of your health.

Treat the cause, not the symptom.

Instead of waiting until you feel something might be amiss, recognise that time is of the essence, and that what you do today could greatly affect the trajectory of your health in the future. Where traditional medicine is structured to manage symptoms, functional medicine strives to address the causes. In functional medicine, a doctor will ask why a person is sick and then try to understand if there are underlying dysfunctions that are causing a condition instead of simply masking its symptoms with a prescription.

Recognising the complexity of the human body as one biological system rather than a collection of organs, Miskawaans doctors begin with a comprehensive one-on-one session that lasts a minimum of 60 minutes. During this in-depth consultation, our doctors look for interactions among genetic, environmental, hormonal and lifestyle factors that can influence chronic inflammation and long-term health. Illness may manifest differently and progress at varying speeds depending on the body, and that is precisely due to these markers. We strive to identify the why before approaching the how.

Story continues

In addition to personalised nutritional programmes and post-disease recovery support, Miskawaan offers infusions and injections, from 100% natural customised proprietary IV infusions to therapies for cancer, diabetes, mitochondria and more, making treatments available to patients at every stage of their health journey.

Its all personal.

Every person is genetically and biochemically unique, so why do we believe that a traditional, one-size-fits-all approach of prescribing the same medications will work? The approach should be patient-centric rather than the traditional disease-centric.

Functional medicine is a philosophy of optimal health, where the complexity of the human body is examined through alternate interpretations of diagnostic data and health treatments are customised for each patient.

Holistic diagnostics, punctuated with a personal touch that references warm Thai hospitality, is the hallmark of every Miskawaan clinic. At Miskawaan, which carries out more extensive testing through its own biotechnology lab and collaborative health technology ecosystem supported by access to the top labs across the globe, diagnostics include testing for food intolerance, heavy metals and minerals, blood and pathology, cardiovascular and peripheral-vascular, and metabolic profiling.

In functional medicine, a personalised health treatment plan targets the specific manifestations of disease in each individual. Our goal is to use natural therapy to maximise the inherent efficiency of the immune system. We then work with you to embark on a health roadmap with the objective of improving health and vitality.

Visit http://www.miskawaanhealth.com for more information.

Please download high-resolution images through this link: http://ftp.catchonco.com/Miskawaan.zip.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200304005875/en/

Contacts

For media enquiries or interview opportunities, please contact CatchOn, a Finn Partners Company: Manica Tiglao Direct Line: (852) 2807 0899 | Email: manica.tiglao@finnpartners.com

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Why Functional Medicine is the Future of Healthcare - Yahoo Finance

Precision Medicine Software Market Overview:

Precision Medicine Software Market was valued at USD 1.2 Billion in 2018 and is projected to reach USD 2.8 Billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 11.2% from 2019 to 2026.

In the report, we thoroughly examine and analyze the Global market for Precision Medicine Software so that market participants can improve their business strategy and ensure long-term success. The reports authors used easy-to-understand language and complex statistical images, but provided detailed information and data on the global Precision Medicine Software market. This report provides players with useful information and suggests result-based ideas to give them a competitive advantage in the global Precision Medicine Software market. Show how other players compete in the global Precision Medicine Software market and explain the strategies you use to differentiate yourself from other participants.

The researchers provided quantitative and qualitative analyzes with evaluations of the absolute dollar opportunity in the report. The report also includes an analysis of Porters Five Forces and PESTLE for more detailed comparisons and other important studies. Each section of the report offers players something to improve their gross margins, sales and marketing strategies, and profit margins. As a tool for insightful market analysis, this report enables players to identify the changes they need to do business and improve their operations. You can also identify key electrical bags and compete with other players in the global Precision Medicine Software market.

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Top 10 Companies in the Precision Medicine Software Market Research Report:

2bPrecise LLC, Syapse, PierianDx, Fabric Genomics, SOPHiA GENETICS SA, N-of-One, Foundation Medicine, Human Longevity, Sunquest Information Systems Translational Software,

Precision Medicine Software Market Competition:

Each company evaluated in the report is examined for various factors such as the product and application portfolio, market share, growth potential, future plans and recent developments. Readers gain a comprehensive understanding and knowledge of the competitive environment. Most importantly, this report describes the strategies that key players in the global Precision Medicine Software market use to maintain their advantage. It shows how market competition will change in the coming years and how players are preparing to anticipate the competition.

Precision Medicine Software Market Segmentation:

The analysts who wrote the report ranked the global Precision Medicine Software market by product, application, and region. All sectors were examined in detail, focusing on CAGR, market size, growth potential, market share and other important factors. The segment studies included in the report will help players focus on the lucrative areas of the global Precision Medicine Software market. Regional analysis will help players strengthen their base in the major regional markets. This shows the opportunities for unexplored growth in local markets and how capital can be used in the forecast period.

Regions Covered by the global market for Smart Camera:

Middle East and Africa (GCC countries and Egypt)North America (USA, Mexico and Canada)South America (Brazil, etc.)Europe (Turkey, Germany, Russia, Great Britain, Italy, France etc.)Asia Pacific (Vietnam, China, Malaysia, Japan, Philippines, Korea, Thailand, India, Indonesia and Australia)

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Table of Content

1 Introduction of Precision Medicine Software Market

1.1 Overview of the Market1.2 Scope of Report1.3 Assumptions

2 Executive Summary

3 Research Methodology of Verified Market Research

3.1 Data Mining3.2 Validation3.3 Primary Interviews3.4 List of Data Sources

4 Precision Medicine Software Market Outlook

4.1 Overview4.2 Market Dynamics4.2.1 Drivers4.2.2 Restraints4.2.3 Opportunities4.3 Porters Five Force Model4.4 Value Chain Analysis

5 Precision Medicine Software Market, By Deployment Model

5.1 Overview

6 Precision Medicine Software Market, By Solution

6.1 Overview

7 Precision Medicine Software Market, By Vertical

7.1 Overview

8 Precision Medicine Software Market, By Geography

8.1 Overview8.2 North America8.2.1 U.S.8.2.2 Canada8.2.3 Mexico8.3 Europe8.3.1 Germany8.3.2 U.K.8.3.3 France8.3.4 Rest of Europe8.4 Asia Pacific8.4.1 China8.4.2 Japan8.4.3 India8.4.4 Rest of Asia Pacific8.5 Rest of the World8.5.1 Latin America8.5.2 Middle East

9 Precision Medicine Software Market Competitive Landscape

9.1 Overview9.2 Company Market Ranking9.3 Key Development Strategies

10 Company Profiles

10.1.1 Overview10.1.2 Financial Performance10.1.3 Product Outlook10.1.4 Key Developments

11 Appendix

11.1 Related Research

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About Us:

Verified market research partners with clients to provide insight into strategic and growth analytics; data that help achieve business goals and targets. Our core values include trust, integrity, and authenticity for our clients.

Analysts with high expertise in data gathering and governance utilize industry techniques to collate and examine data at all stages. Our analysts are trained to combine modern data collection techniques, superior research methodology, subject expertise and years of collective experience to produce informative and accurate research reports.

Contact Us:

Mr. Edwyne FernandesCall: +1 (650) 781 4080Email: [emailprotected]

TAGS: Precision Medicine Software Market Size, Precision Medicine Software Market Growth, Precision Medicine Software Market Forecast, Precision Medicine Software Market Analysis, Precision Medicine Software Market Trends, Precision Medicine Software Market

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Precision Medicine Software Market 2020 Trends, Market Share, Industry Size, Opportunities, Analysis and Forecast by 2026 - Instant Tech News

Studying is something most of us dread. From stress to wandering thoughts, it is easy to get lost on where to begin when there is so much information in front of you. To help prevent pre-test anxieties and to help you ace your next exam, here are some ways that you can perfect your study routine in the most effective ways possible.

The most obvious skill to acquire is note taking, and it is better to write notes on a notepad instead of typing on a digital device. The main issue with typing as a form of note taking is that students are more likely to type what they hear without putting any critical, cognitive thinking into it. Note taking can be simplified into the key points of the lecture, that way you can separate unimportant information into key concepts for the most effective results. It is also good to talk with your professor if you feel as if you arent grasping a certain concept or you are confused, that way your notes are complete when it comes time to study.

Having an organized space often leads to having a more organized mind. The cleanliness of your workspace can have a positive effect on your mindset when it is time to start the studying process. This means having a clean desk, keeping a planner and calendar with important dates and keeping your classes separate in terms of notes, folders and notebooks. Placing sticky notes on pages or concepts you want to return to can help your textbooks stay organized before an exam. If your textbook is online, highlighting key points to come back to works just as well.

Although tricky, unplugging from social media during study time not only saves time but also helps improve the longevity and speed of information retention. Apps such as Offtime of Flipd can lock you out of social media for a certain amount of time, which helps enforce studying if you have a bad habit of checking your phone frequently.

Cramming for tests last minute may be tempting, but this only increases stress and limits the amount of information you retain. You will also be more successful if you start studying bits and pieces at a time. It is often recommended that after getting done with a section, review the topics discussed instead of saving it for the few days before the test when you have a ton of work due on top of exam preparation.

Although hard to believe, there is a thing such as over-studying. This can be easily solved by scheduling specific times to go to the library or your dorm to study. Schedule what chapters you will be studying and key concepts, that way you do not intake more information than your brain can handle in one sitting. Time management is key to being a successful test taker. Taking a break from studying is crucial. We are human, not machines. Studying in intervals helps reset your brain and allows you to relax. Try reviewing for 50 minutes and then taking a 10 minute break to refresh, grab a drink, stretch or close your eyes.

While studying is important, so is your physical and mental health. Taking care of your body by eating a nutritious meal or taking a hot shower can make all the difference in preparing for that upcoming exam.

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Study habits to help you ace your next exam - The Maine Campus

On Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020, my roommate and my brother were sitting on my living room couch as they heard a gurgled scream coming from my room. They immediately ran to my door.

G-Garrett? said my roommate in a concerned tone as he gently knocked.

I couldn't speak, so they barged in, only to find me lying back on my chair, drooling and shaking with tremors, my eyes rolled back into my head.

I was having a seizure.

My roommate immediately called 911. When he told them that I wasnt breathing, the dispatcher instructed my roommate to lay me down on the floor and to tend to me until the ambulance arrived. Emergency responders got to my house in three minutes and immediately got to keeping me alive. They put me on a stretcher and took me to Medical City Frisco.

I came alarmingly close to dying that afternoon. I would have surely turned into worm food had I not been within earshot of someone, and even then, it would have almost certainly happened had EMTs taken any longer to arrive. Everything had to go right, and every day since, I've thanked my lucky stars that it did.

This traumatic memento mori has changed my reality in many disruptive ways, but it also gave me a newfound lease on my life for the simple reason that I am no longer afraid of death. Of course, I want to live as much of a long, healthy life as possible, but when the gravity and certainty of your own mortality truly sinks in, you realize theres an undesirable trade-off behind increasing your longevity. Abstaining from red meat, for example, can make you less vulnerable to carcinogens (or so they say), but do you truly want to spend those 20 additional, cancer-free years not eating a juicy rib-eye or a greasy hamburger?

I bring this up because music industry analyst Bob Lefsetz said in a Feb. 29 blog post that the coronavirus outbreak will kill the concert business. Perhaps hes being hyperbolic, but the fact remains that some admittedly legitimate fears are causing the public to stockpile food and other necessities so they can stay bunkered in their homes, and that is even more frightening than the coronavirus itself.

I will be the first to admit that I have no clue what the future holds for the coronavirus. I dont know whether it will infect people in the thousands or millions. I dont know if it will last for a few weeks or even a few years. But I do know that the economy takes a hit when everyone sequesters themselves from the public for a long period.

Forget the stock market (though we shouldn't); human beings need entertainment and culture in our lives, and the longer we go without having a nightlife, the more likely restaurants, clubs and venues are to shutter, and that, too, is more frightening than the coronavirus.

We need a vibrant culinary scene because food shatters cultural barriers. We need local restaurants because nothing sucks more than Googling Italian food near me, only to see a long list of corporate chains. If we dont patronize local restaurants, we stand to lose any semblance of a food culture.

That is more frightening than the coronavirus.

Bars and clubs give us an escape from the minutiae of daily life. Sometimes one night at a club gives people much-needed stimulation and keeps them from feeling like another cog in the machine. Millions of people go to local bars after work to escape. Many people meet their significant others at bars and nightclubs.

Losing that is more frightening than the coronavirus.

Music is a form of communication that predates language. Human beings are creative by nature, and music is such an important part of our expression that even the most economically devastated regions on earth have music scenes. Music gets us through tumultuous periods of our lives and is conducive to any mood or expression we may feel. Concerts are a multibillion-dollar industry, and in the era of streaming, touring has never been so crucial a revenue stream for artists.

Taking that away is more frightening than the coronavirus.

Im not saying the coronavirus isnt a threat. It is, and we need to do everything we can to prevent its spread. I am, however, emotionally indifferent to it, because I am not allowing it to change my routine. If the disease spreads to our area and devastates our community, Im still going to experience nightlife and engage with the vibrant culture the area has to offer.

After having a front-row view at what death looks like, Im not afraid of its potential to kill, especially since death will be my inevitable conclusion. What I am afraid of, however, is a world in which culture and entertainment are seen as inessential and disposable and not as life-affirming aspects of our existence.

After all, whats the point of living if were not even living?

Read more:
How Almost Dying Made Me Realize the Coronavirus Shouldn't Stop Us From Living - Dallas Observer