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Long life study explores genetics of extreme longevity

A new grant from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) supports research into the mysteries of extreme longevity. Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis are leading the Long Life Family Study, which includes several generations of families with unusual concentrations of long-lived individuals. The goal is to uncover genetic factors that play roles in long life spans.

Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has received a $68 million grant to investigate and discover what contributes to extreme longevity. The researchers are studying hundreds of families over several generations with individuals who have had exceptionally long lives. Many of these families have unusual concentrations of people living to at least age 100.

The goal of the Long Life Family Study, funded by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), is to identify genetic factors that contribute to exceptional longevity. Such information could lead to new therapeutics or other health innovations to help people live longer, healthier lives.

These families provide a unique opportunity for finding genetic links to long life spans, said principal investigator Michael A. Province, PhD, a Washington University professor of genetics. Remarkably, many study participants in the older generations are unusually healthy for their ages. We think we will find clues in their DNA that suggest how they might be protected from common diseases, such as diabetes or Alzheimers disease or, at the very least, uncover genetic factors that might delay the onset of these health problems.

The School of Medicine is the coordinating center for the project, which has field centers at Boston University, Columbia University, the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Southern Denmark. Province and Mary K. Wojczynski, PhD, an assistant professor of genetics at Washington University, lead the primary site and coordinate collaborations among the field sites and the University of Minnesota, where the laboratory for analyzing blood samples is located.

The study includes almost 5,000 individuals from three generations of 539 families across the United States and Denmark, first recruited from 2006 through 2009. The average age of representatives of the oldest generation in the study was 90 at that time, with some individuals exceeding 110. Those in the second generation of these families now average over 70 years of age, and the grandchildren of the oldest group are now in their 50s, on average. Studying multiple generations of families with histories of long lives presents the opportunity to study individuals who have a greater chance of reaching older ages. In particular, it provides the ability to study such individuals when they are younger and not yet obviously different from those with shorter life spans.

When we study long-lived people, we would really like to be able to travel back in time and study them before they reach older ages to see how they might differ from the general population when those differences might not yet be obvious, Province said. Our earlier findings from this study have shown that individuals in the second generation are healthier, on average, than individuals from families with more typical longevity, when measured, for example, in middle age. But these healthier traits vary by family. For example, some long-lived families might tend to have lower blood pressure while others might have better cognition into later life, and still others might have better lung function or grip strength. Across these families, there is no single factor that stands out as the main reason for the long health and life spans.

The researchers suspect this variability may be linked to specific rare genetic variants that may protect such families from the harmful effects of aging in a variety of ways. The new funding will support whole genome sequencing of study participants in an effort to identify special protective variations in the DNA.

The researchers also will study the consequences of such differences in DNA through analyzing what effects they might have on the proteins, metabolites and other molecules that have a direct impact on the bodys biology. Such measures change with age, and the researchers are interested in comparing these with more average populations over their life spans. The comparison group is composed of participants from the well-known Framingham Heart Study, which has been tracking the health of multiple generations of families living in Framingham, Mass., since that study began in 1948. The researchers said less than 1% of families participating in the Framingham Heart Study meet the longevity criteria of the Long Life Family Study.

One genetic characteristic that stands out in some but not all long-lived families is the length of telomeres, or the end caps on chromosomes that protect the DNA from damage. Every time a cell divides, the telomeres get a little shorter, and shorter telomeres have been associated with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, dementia and other disorders common among elderly people. Long-lived families seem to have longer than average telomeres.

Telomere length might be one key component of healthy aging, Province said. There is evidence that healthy behaviors like exercise can protect telomere length or even extend it. But there is a genetic component to it as well. Some people just naturally have longer telomeres, or at least appear to have resilient telomeres. And that is the case in many of the families were studying. Based on that data, we have honed in on a gene that could be involved in telomere length, and this new grant will help us explore that possibility and other new avenues further.

Washington University School of Medicines 1,500 faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals. The School of Medicine is a leader in medical research, teaching and patient care, ranking among the top 10 medical schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Childrens hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.

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Families with long, healthy life spans focus of $68 million grant - Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis

Dmitry Kaminskiy speaks as though he were trying to unload everything he knows about the science and economics of longevityfrom senolytics research that seeks to stop aging cells from spewing inflammatory proteins and other molecules to the trillion-dollar life extension industry that he and his colleagues are trying to fosterin one sitting.

At the heart of the discussion with Singularity Hub is the idea that artificial intelligence will be the engine that drives breakthroughs in how we approach healthcare and healthy aginga concept with little traction even just five years ago.

At that time, it was considered too futuristic that artificial intelligence and data science might be more accurate compared to any hypothesis of human doctors, said Kaminskiy, co-founder and managing partner at Deep Knowledge Ventures, an investment firm that is betting big on AI and longevity.

How times have changed. Artificial intelligence in healthcare is attracting more investments and deals than just about any sector of the economy, according to data research firm CB Insights. In the most recent third quarter, AI healthcare startups raised nearly $1.6 billion, buoyed by a $550 million mega-round from London-based Babylon Health, which uses AI to collect data from patients, analyze the information, find comparable matches, then make recommendations.

Even without the big bump from Babylon Health, AI healthcare startups raised more than $1 billion last quarter, including two companies focused on longevity therapeutics: Juvenescence and Insilico Medicine.

The latter has risen to prominence for its novel use of reinforcement learning and general adversarial networks (GANs) to accelerate the drug discovery process. Insilico Medicine recently published a seminal paper that demonstrated how such an AI system could generate a drug candidate in just 46 days. Co-founder and CEO Alex Zhavoronkov said he believes there is no greater goal in healthcare todayor, really, any venturethan extending the healthy years of the human lifespan.

I dont think that there is anything more important than that, he told Singularity Hub, explaining that an unhealthy society is detrimental to a healthy economy. I think that its very, very important to extend healthy, productive lifespan just to fix the economy.

The surge of interest in longevity is coming at a time when life expectancy in the US is actually dropping, despite the fact that we spend more money on healthcare than any other nation.

A new paper in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that after six decades of gains, life expectancy for Americans has decreased since 2014, particularly among young and middle-aged adults. While some of the causes are societal, such as drug overdoses and suicide, others are health-related.

While average life expectancy in the US is 78, Kaminskiy noted that healthy life expectancy is about ten years less.

To Zhavoronkovs point about the economy (a topic of great interest to Kaminskiy as well), the US spent $1.1 trillion on chronic diseases in 2016, according to a report from the Milken Institute, with diabetes, cardiovascular conditions, and Alzheimers among the most costly expenses to the healthcare system. When the indirect costs of lost economic productivity are included, the total price tag of chronic diseases in the US is $3.7 trillion, nearly 20 percent of GDP.

So this is the major negative feedback on the national economy and creating a lot of negative social [and] financial issues, Kaminskiy said.

That has convinced Kaminskiy that an economy focused on extending healthy human lifespansincluding the financial instruments and institutions required to support a long-lived populationis the best way forward.

He has co-authored a book on the topic with Margaretta Colangelo, another managing partner at Deep Knowledge Ventures, which has launched a specialized investment fund, Longevity.Capital, focused on the longevity industry. Kaminskiy estimates that there are now about 20 such investment funds dedicated to funding life extension companies.

In November at the inaugural AI for Longevity Summit in London, he and his collaborators also introduced the Longevity AI Consortium, an academic-industry initiative at Kings College London. Eventually, the research center will include an AI Longevity Accelerator program to serve as a bridge between startups and UK investors.

Deep Knowledge Ventures has committed about 7 million ($9 million) over the next three years to the accelerator program, as well as establishing similar consortiums in other regions of the world, according to Franco Cortese, a partner at Longevity.Capital and director of the Aging Analytics Agency, which has produced a series of reports on longevity.

One of the most recent is an overview of Biomarkers for Longevity. A biomarker, in the case of longevity, is a measurable component of health that can indicate a disease state or a more general decline in health associated with aging. Examples range from something as simple as BMI as an indicator of obesity, which is associated with a number of chronic diseases, to sophisticated measurements of telomeres, the protective ends of chromosomes that shorten as we age.

While some researchers are working on moonshot therapies to reverse or slow agingwith a few even arguing we could expand human life on the order of centuriesKaminskiy said he believes understanding biomarkers of aging could make more radical interventions unnecessary.

In this vision of healthcare, people would be able to monitor their health 24-7, with sensors attuned to various biomarkers that could indicate the onset of everything from the flu to diabetes. AI would be instrumental in not just ingesting the billions of data points required to develop such a system, but also what therapies, treatments, or micro-doses of a drug or supplement would be required to maintain homeostasis.

Consider it like Tesla with many, many detectors, analyzing the behavior of the car in real time, and a cloud computing system monitoring those signals in real time with high frequency, Kaminskiy explained. So the same shall be applied for humans.

And only sophisticated algorithms, Kaminskiy argued, can make longevity healthcare work on a mass scale but at the individual level. Precision medicine becomes preventive medicine. Healthcare truly becomes a system to support health rather than a way to fight disease.

Image Credit: Photo byh heyerleinonUnsplash

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Why AI Will Be the Best Tool for Extending Our Longevity - Singularity Hub

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Monumental demographic shifts and growing health crises are set to play a major role in the kinds of housing, healthcare facilities and built environments the country needs.

Bisnow: Miriam Hall

Macro Consultants Senior Partner Nisan Gertz, Montefiore Medicine Chief Academic Officer Gordon Tomaselli and New York Proton Center Chief Medical Officer Charles Simone

By 2030, all baby boomers will beover the age of 65and the U.S. population will be made up of more older people than children for the first time in history.

Meanwhile, Americans life expectancy has dropped in the last few years suicides, drug use, alcoholism and chronic health problems have edged up the death rate of people in middle age.It is now crucial that developers, healthcare providers and communities as a whole think about how to best build, develop and innovate to prepare for the future, panelists said at Bisnows New York Healthcare and Life Sciences Summit last week.

The greatest success story of the 20th century was longevity today you are going to live to 80 or 90 years old, said Terry Fulmer, who is the president of The John A. Hartford Foundation in New York, a philanthropic organization aimed at improving the care of older adults.What we have not done is figure out how to take care of people in their older years [We need to] focus on aging, focus on older adults what they are going to need and where they are going to need to live.

Bisnow: Miriam Hall

McKinsey & Co. Partner Dr. Daniel Moskovic and The John A. Hartford Foundation President Terry Fulmer

Rapidadvances in technology have had a major impact on how healthcare is provided, along with where medical facilities are built and designed. Procedures and treatment are now increasingly delivered in ambulatory and outpatient centers, rather than hospitals, and people want caredelivered in a retail-like environment.

Now, panelists said, it is imperative to push forward with new ways to support older people, particularly as they increasingly want to stay home.

Older people of tomorrow want to stay home; they will not go to a nursing home, they don't want to go to a continuing care community, Fulmer said, adding there is exciting work going on in developing things like apps, avatars and robotics to supportpeople in their homes.We're thinking about all the different ways that we can address loneliness [and] think about social isolation.

The issue of housing seniors is already on the minds of some developers, who see it as an obvious business opportunity.Related, best known for pricey condominiums like15 Hudson Yards, said last year it is planning to spend $3Bby2023 building luxury apartments aimed at the countrysaging population.

The projects are slated for Manhattan, San Francisco, Boston, Los Angeles, Miami and Washington. The buildings, with between 150 and 250 units, will have space set aside for people with illnesses like Alzheimers and amenities like spas and restaurants.

Meanwhile, Maplewood Senior Living and Omega Healthcare Investors are developing a senior living community on 93rd Street and Second Avenue. Welltower and Hines are building a senior housing building at 139 East 56th St.

Bisnow: Miriam Hall

Turner Construction Co. Construction Executive Richard Lanzarone, Jeffrey Berman Architects' Jeffrey Berman and Simone Healthcare Development President Guy Leibler

This problem is a much bigger problem than I think people really appreciate, McKinsey & Co. partner Dr. Daniel Moskovicsaid at the event.

He pointed out there are about 25 million adults in the U.S. who are over the age of 75, and a third of them live alone. That is leading to social isolation, mental health issues and greater healthcare burdens, he said.

We are seeing a lot of experimentation happening in real estate, Moskovic said. So I there is going to be a lot of opportunity for folks on the infrastructure side to deliver concepts, but I think providers are going to have to make difficult decisions in terms of which concepts they want to implement based on the objectives that they are solving.

Attracting capital to healthcare development, the medical office leasing market and the citys fast-developing life sciences sector were alldiscussed at the event.

Bisnow: Miriam Hall

Jeffrey Berman Architects' Jeffrey Berman, Simone Healthcare Development President Guy Leibler, William Macklowe Co. CEO Billy Macklowe, Talisen Construction Business Unit Director Christopher Norris and Gil-Bar Industries Sales Engineer-Health Care Jack Conway

Pushing forward with technology to better provide patient care, as well as design and construction of facilities, were also subjects of discussion. And while the nations aging population is something we need to prepare for, collectively, some pointed to the urgent need to work to improve health and well-being across the entire population.

Just this week, the Journal of the American Medical Association released a grim study showing that mortality rate of young and middle-aged Americans has increased over the last 10years. Death rates of people aged between 25 and 34 jumped 29% between 2010and 2017, the Washington Post reports.

Bisnow: Miriam Hall

Blue Sky Real Estate Services & Development President Philip Silverman

Montefiore Medicine Executive Vice President and Chief Academic Officer Gordon Tomaselli agreed that it is important to find ways to help older people live at home and improve their later years.

However, hesaid it is also enormously important to find ways to prevent diseases and improve the health of people throughout their lives.

We have a storm cloud on the horizon, and that storm cloud on the horizon is the fact that we have a population that has the prospect that [it] will not live as long as this generation, he said.

He pointed to obesity, Type 2 diabetes and health issues that have to do with the built environment.

The way we build cities and we make them friendly for people to walk and to exercise is going to be critically important if we want to continue to realize the gains in the healthspan not the lifespan but the healthspan of this population, he said.

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How To Adapt The Built Environment To The Aging Population - Bisnow

Life expectancy in the United States has fallen for three consecutive years, the result of higher death rates for young and middle-aged adults, and Ohio is one of the primary contributors to the trend.

The Washington Post examines what it calls a "strikingly bleak study," published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, that looked at the past six decades of mortality data.

From The Post's article:

Despite spending more on health care than any other country, the United States has seen increasing mortality and falling life expectancy for people age 25 to 64, who should be in the prime of their lives. In contrast, other wealthy nations have generally experienced continued progress in extending longevity. Although earlier research emphasized rising mortality among non-Hispanic whites in the United States, the broad trend detailed in this study cuts across gender, racial and ethnic lines. By age group, the highest relative jump in death rates from 2010 to 2017 29% has been among people age 25 to 34.

The findings, The Post says, "are sure to fuel political debate about causes and potential solutions because the geography of rising death rates overlaps to a significant extent with states and regions that are hotly contested in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election."

The reason: About one-third of the estimated 33,000 "excess deaths" that the study says occurred since 2010 were in four states: Ohio, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and Indiana.

"It's supposed to be going down, as it is in other countries," said the lead author of the report, Dr. Steven H. Woolf, director emeritus of the Center on Society and Health at Virginia Commonwealth University. "The fact that that number is climbing, there's something terribly wrong."

The New York Times, in looking at the study, notes that in recent years, researchers examining life expectancy issues have focused on "the plight of white Americans in rural areas who were dying from so-called deaths of despair: drug overdoses, alcoholism and suicide." But the paper says the new study "found that the increased death rates among people in midlife extended to all racial and ethnic groups, and to suburbs and cities. And while suicides, drug overdoses and alcoholism were the main causes, other medical conditions, including heart disease, strokes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, also contributed."

Death rates are actually improving among children and older Americans, Woolf tells The Times, "perhaps because they may have more reliable health care Medicaid for many children and Medicare for older people."

The Times notes that Ohio, in addition to being one of the state's with the highest number of "excess deaths," also is one of five states with the greatest relative increases in death rates among young and middle-aged adults. The others in that category are Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and West Virginia.

Of the Ohio/Pennsylvania/Kentucky/Indiana grouping of states with the 33,000 excess deaths, Woolf said, "What's not lost on us is what is going on in those states," he said. "The history of when this health trend started happens to coincide with when these economic shifts began the loss of manufacturing jobs and closure of steel mills and auto plants."

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More Americans are dying in the prime of their lives, and 'excess deaths' are clustered in Ohio and three other states - Crain's Cleveland Business

Women who exercise appear to live longer: Those who are very fit run a much lower risk of dying from heart disease, cancer and other common causes compared to those who are less active, a new study suggests. They new report is considered important because it's one of the few exercise studies that focus on benefits for women.

Spanish researchers found that compared to the fittest women, those with poor capacity for exercise were nearly four times more likely to die from heart disease, according to the study presented at EuroEcho 2019, the annual meeting of the European Association of Cardiovascular Imaging.

The fittest women in the study were able to manage the equivalent of walking up four flights of stairs in about 45 seconds, or walking up three flights very fast, said the studys lead author Dr. Jesus Peteiro, a cardiologist at the University Hospital A Coruna.

Prior to Peteiros research, information on the benefits of exercise in women had been scant as many studies have focused on men.

Peteiro believes there is hope even for women who don't workout if they are willing to make a change now. While gym memberships may work for some, its too easy to let those lapse, he said in an email.

Women were considered fit if they could walk fast up four flights of stairs or very fast up three flights without stopping to catch their breath.

We think that it is more important to change the lifestyle than to merely join a fitness club for a time, Peteiro said. For changing lifestyle we mean to change the daily routine to make it more active. For instance, commuting to work by walking, cycling or public transport always leads to more exercise than taking your car."

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Also, walking up stairs at home or work instead of using the elevator can help.

To take a closer look at how a womans fitness might impact her longevity, Peteiro and his colleagues turned to data that had been collected on 4,714 adult women with an average age of 64 who had been referred for a heart disease test that involves working out on a treadmill.

The women were asked to walk, and then run if they could, with increasing intensity until they couldnt go any longer. Images of the womens hearts were generated during the test.

The women were declared fit if they could work out at 10 metabolic equivalents or METs equal to walking fast up four flights of stairs or very fast up three flights without stopping to catch their breath.

One question Peteiro cant answer is what the fit women did to get in shape. That information wasnt in their records, he said.

The women who achieved 10 METs or more were compared to those who couldnt make 10 METs.

Over the next four and a half years, there were 345 deaths from heart disease, 164 from cancer and 203 from other causes.

The annual rate of death from heart disease was nearly four times higher among women who didn't exercise compared to those who were fit, 2.2% versus 0.6%, while the annual rate of cancer deaths among women with poor exercise tolerance was double that of the fit women, 0.9% versus 0.4%.

The annual rate of death from other causes was more than four times higher in those with poor exercise capacity compared to those who were fit, 1.4% versus 0.3%.

The new research adds to what is already known about exercise and longevity, but heralds as one of the few landmark studies that focus solely on women, said lcilma Fergus, director of cardiovascular disparities at The Mount Sinai Hospital in New York.

While many existing guidelines indicate that physical activity is an important first step, this study does help to quantify how much more of a benefit can be achieved by exercise, especially vigorous exercise, Fergus said in an email.

The new study underscores the importance of regular exercise for all of us, said Kerry Stewart, a professor of medicine and director of clinical and research physiology at Johns Hopkins Medicine.

The vast majority of evidence suggests that 30 minutes a day of moderate exercise will produce health benefits and lower the risk of many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, hypertension, diabetes and arthritis, Stewart said, adding that just being thin isnt enough to protect against these diseases.

There is research in men showing that those who were able to maintain a high level of fitness had the lowest risk of cardiovascular disease, Stewart said. And those who worked at becoming fit lowered their risk of heart disease, whereas those who started out in very good shape, but lost fitness over time were more at risk.

Linda Carroll is a regular contributor to NBCNews.com and Today.com. She is also the co-author ofOut of the Clouds: The Unlikely Horseman and The Unwanted Colt who Conquered the Sport of Kings.

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How to live longer: Women who exercise have healthier hearts - TODAY

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If you were to ask people in committed romantic relationships who in their life has the greatest impact on their health and well-being, theyd probably point to their partner. This is because partners are, typically, who coupled-up people connect and share their daily lives with most intimately and frequently.

However, a new study published Thursday in the Journal of Family Psychology found that significant others dont have that much of an impact on their partners health. In fact, its our relationships with family membersin the study, this refers to our parents and siblingsthat matter more when it comes to our overall health. According to the study, greater family strain is linked to greater chronic health conditions down the road, and vice versa (a decline in health can lead to familial turmoil)each were found to be causal to the other. The opposite is true, too, according to the study: Good relationships with family are "associated with longevity."

The researchers studied data from 2,802 people who participated in a national survey that collected information about their health between 1995 to 2014. The survey included questions about family relationshipslike, how often do your family members criticize you or demand things of youalong with questions about their intimate relationshipshow much does your partner appreciate you or argue with you? The research team then looked at the participants health, such as whether they ever experienced a stroke, stomach trouble, or chronic headaches. They found that those with toxic family relationships had poorer health, whereas intimate partner relationshipsgood or baddidnt have a big effect on peoples health.

These findings contradict previous research suggesting romantic relationships are the most important type of relationship for adults and can therefore influence our mental and physical health the most. The researchers of the latest study suspect family members seem to have a greater impact on our health more or less because were stuck with them. Partners change, breakups happen, and, now, people tend to put off relationships until later in life, but family is always there. This isnt to say our partners have no effect on our health whatsoeverits too soon to negate all that past evidence we have claiming intimate relationships influence our cardiovascular, endocrine, immune, and neurosensory healthbut that our familys impact seems to be much more powerful.

The researchers recommend prioritizing family ties and adding in family therapy if needed. Its important that people dont leave critical, strained relationships with family unchecked, especially since they may have serious ramifications for physical health, the studys lead author Sarah Woods, an assistant professor of family and community medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, said.

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Stress Over Your Family Can Make or Break Your Long-Term Health - VICE

Ample evidence shows that regular exercise is a surefire way to boost longevity, because it lowers the risk of developing a wide range of deadly conditions.

Cardiovascular disease is one of the greatest threats to longevity, for example, but it can largely be prevented by maintaining high fitness levels and following a healthy diet.

While numerous studies demonstrate the health benefits of exercise in general or focus on specific groups of exercise, there is a growing field of research that is shedding a light on the specific forms of exercise that will extend longevity.

One of those studies, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, makes the case for speeding up your walking pace.

The study found that walking at an average pace was found to be associated with a 20 percent risk reduction for all-cause mortality compared with walking at a slow pace, while walking at a brisk or fast pace was associated with a risk reduction of 24 percent.

A similar result was found for risk of cardiovascular disease mortality, with a reduction of 24 percent walking at an average pace and 21 percent walking at a brisk or fast pace, compared to walking at a slow pace.

Interestingly, the health benefits were most pronounced in older age groups, with average paced walkers aged 60 years or over experiencing a 46 percent reduction in risk of death from cardiovascular causes, and fast paced walkers a 53 percent reduction.

READ MORE:How to live longer: Can eating an apple a day increase life expectancy? Dr Chris' verdict[INSIGHT]

A fast pace is generally five to seven kilometres per hour, but it really depends on a walker's fitness levels; an alternative indicator is to walk at a pace that makes you slightly out of breath or sweaty when sustained," said lead author Professor Emmanuel Stamatakis from the University of Sydney's Charles Perkins Centre and School of Public Health.

The researchers sought to establish the link between walking pace and all-cause, cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality.

To gather the findings, the researchers pooled together and analysed mortality records with the results of 11 population-based surveys in England and Scotland between 1994 and 2008 - in which participants self-reported their walking pace - the research team then adjusted for factors such as total amount and intensity of all physical activity taken, age, sex and body mass index.

"Walking pace is associated with all-cause mortality risk, but its specific role - independent from the total physical activity a person undertakes - has received little attention until now," Professor Stamatakis said.

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He continued: "While sex and body mass index did not appear to influence outcomes, walking at an average or fast pace was associated with a significantly reduced risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular disease. There was no evidence to suggest pace had a significant influence on cancer mortality however."

In light of the findings, the researchers are calling on public health bodies to promote walking pace as a simple and accessible way for people to help ward off developing life-threatening conditions.

Professor Stamatakis said: "Assuming our results reflect cause and effect, these analyses suggest that increasing walking pace may be a straightforward way for people to improve heart health and risk for premature mortality -- providing a simple message for public health campaigns to promote.

"Especially in situations when walking more isn't possible due to time pressures or a less walking-friendly environment, walking faster may be a good option to get the heart rate up - one that most people can easily incorporate into their lives."

The health benefits of exercise can be reaped at any age, according to research led by Alexander Mok, a doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

Mok and his team of researchers examined how changes in exercise levels over time affect a person's risk of dying from any cause, as well as dying from specific conditions such as cardiovascular disease.

The findings, which are the result of a large population-based cohort study comprised of almost 15,000 people, found that high levels of exercise and increased physical activity over time correlated with a lower mortality risk overall.

Significantly, the results suggested that even if someone decided to exercise after being physically inactive, they would still both their longevity.

The greatest longevity benefits were seen among individuals who had high physical activity levels at the start of the study and increased them even more with time. These highly active people were 42 percent less likely to die prematurely from any cause.

According to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, when done regularly, moderate-and vigorous-intensity physical activity strengthens your heart muscle, and this improves your heart's ability to pump blood to your lungs and throughout your body, and as a result, more blood flows to your muscles, and oxygen levels in your blood rise.

The health said: Capillaries, your body's tiny blood vessels, also widen. This allows them to deliver more oxygen to your body and carry away waste products.

Heart-healthy eating is also essential to longevity, and the health site recommends opting for the following to protect heart health:

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How to live longer: The simple exercise shown to extend your lifespan - Express

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Why?

Because their hormone levels are OPTIMAL at that age. At Longevity Wellness & Anti-Aging Institute, we believe that these hormone levels of youth should be optimized at any age, therefore decreasing the risk of such diseases, and providing the energy, vitality, strength, sex drive, and mental capabilities that we all tend to lose as we age.

But until now hormone supplementation has been about foreign, synthetic substances pushed by pharmaceutical companiessynthetics that often cause unwanted side effects and complications.

We have a better way.

OUR PROVEN SOLUTIONS

At Longevity Wellness & Anti-Aging Institute, hormone supplementation is provided with those that are bio-identical, as opposed to synthetic. In other words, we supply you with a molecularly exact replica of the hormones your own body produces.

These hormones have been scientifically proven to be associated with a very low risk and incidence of side effects. If they are the same substances your body produces, and they are at optimal levels in your earlier years, you dont hear about untoward effects at that age, and neither when youre older.

Our comprehensive and integrative solutionsfrom hormone replacement and hyperbaric oxygen therapy to body sculpting and nutritional counselingare complete health solutions designed specifically to your needs.

And it all starts with a clear and individual plan of action:

ASSESSMENT AND DIAGNOSIS

Consultation and physical examination with one of our expert physicians

Diagnostic assessment via a comprehensive blood evaluationof all your essential bodily functions and hormone levels

Ultrasound Examination of carotid arteries

Additional testing as deemed necessary

EDUCATION

Our physicians will thoroughly explain the nature and extent of your hormone deficiencies and other abnormal results, and their implications to your health. A customized and personalized treatment plan will then be formulated to meet your specific needs. This will specifically include supplementation with bio-identical hormones, not the synthetic type prescribed by most physicians.

MONITORIZATION

Follow-up testing of all your abnormal levels will be provided at one, three, and six month intervals to assure optimization of your levels, and assessing any possible side effects. You will receive personalized attention and support by your Physician and our Professional Medical Staff to assure a successful outcome in achieving your goals.

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Standing on a verdant hillside far north in Thailands Chiang Rai region, I gaze out at rolling hills of jiaogulan, also known as the immortality herb. This name derives from the purported longevity of people living in the mountainous Guizhou province of southwest China, who consume a tea made of steeped jiaogulan leaves on a regular basis. The plant may actually hold a key to longer and healthier life.

Despite its possible benefits for stemming the tide of aging and enhancing youthful health, the plant is not so well known.

Jiaogulan, Gynostemma pentaphyllum, is in the same family of plants as cucumbers and gourds, though the plant bears no fruits. The plant is a climbing vine, and from my vantage point I see the wire fencing supporting the vast quantity of jiaogulan before me, covering perhaps 20 acres or so. The vines have climbed up and over the fencing, covering it all in a thick layering of bright green leaves.

Its the leaves of this plant that are made primarily into tea, and drunk the way one would drink any other infused tea. Known also as amachazuru, jiaoguan is endemic to the southern regions of China, and to parts of Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, Japan. The herb has never really had its day in the sun, as it has never been distributed as widely as other popular botanicals like ginseng.More on this...

This brings up a connection between jiaogulan, the lesser known herb of immortality, and ginseng, the very well-known, longevity-promoting herb. Thanks to some canny scientific inquiry conducted in the 1970s, we know that the two unrelated plants actually share similar compounds known to offer benefits to many aspects of health. We can thank Japanese chemists Masahiro Nagai and Tsunematsu Takemoto for this knowledge. The former made groundbreaking discoveries that the two plants both contained saponins of particular types known to enhance health. The latter identified a very large number of these healthy saponins.

In ginseng, the 28 active saponin compounds in the root are called ginsenosides. In jiaogulan the 82 known saponins are referred to as gypenosides. The former can actually be converted into the latter, and in the human body both groups promote diverse beneficial effects, improving the health of key organ systems.

Jiaogulan offers potent antioxidant protection. When you consume jiaogulan tea, your body increases its production of its own super antioxidant, known as SOD, or superoxide dismutase. This defends and protects the cells of the body from premature destruction due to exposure to harmful agents of all kinds.

Jiaogulan has shown benefits for heart health, enhancing the muscular activity of the heart and improving overall bloodflow. It also helps to reduce LDL cholesterol, while providing a boost to healthy HDL. Jiaogulan proves a top-rated blood pressure control agent, reducing high blood pressure about half as well as the drug indapamide, which is marketed by Servier.

As an adaptogen, jiaogulan increases energy, endurance, stamina, and recovery time, while reducing all forms of mental and emotional stress. It may also help to mitigate jet lag. The tea also appears to help stabilize blood sugar, and is a source of the popular flavonol ampelopsin, which is used to soothe hangovers. As if that were insufficient, jiaogulan is also liver-protective.

Among the 50,000 or so medicinal plants in the world, only a few hundred are popular outside of their native regions. Jiaogulan is now ready to make its way into the global health market on a larger scale, for all the right reasons.

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Jiaogulan: The Little-known Herb That May be the Secret to ...

In many species,females have a tendency to live longer than males.Our own species is no exception: the average human life expectancyfor females is 74.2 years compared to just 69.8 years for males. This chasm in lifespan is often explained by environmental or social factors, such as males undertaking more dangerous jobs, indulging in riskier behavior, or taking less care of their health.

However, it's starting to look like it might have something to do with doubling up on sex chromosomes. A new study has found that having two copies of the same sex chromosome is associated with having a longer lifespan. In humans, sex chromosomes are generally either XX (female) or XY(male).

Some species of bird, fish, reptile, and insect have a different system of sex determination based on Z and W chromosomes, where the males have ZZ sex chromosomesand females have ZW chromosomes. Interestingly, even under this "reversed" system, the theory remains true:the males, which have two copies of the same sex chromosome, generally outlive the females.

Reporting in the journal Biology Letters, researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) wanted to see whether this trend could be seen among a wider variety of animals. They looked at sex differences in lifespan in 229 species spanning 99 families, 38 orders, and eight classes and noted whether the longer-living sex had homogametic chromosomes (such as XX or ZZ) or heterogametic chromosomes (XY).

As expected, the sex with homogametic chromosomes tended to have a longer life across most species.

We looked at lifespan data in not just primates, other mammals and birds, but also reptiles, fish, amphibians, arachnids, cockroaches, grasshoppers, beetles, butterflies and moths among others, Zoe Xirocostas, first author on the paper and PhD student at UNSW, said in a statement.And we found that across that broad range of species, the heterogametic sex does tend to die earlier than the homogametic sex, and it's 17.6 percent earlier on average.

In species where males are heterogametic (XY), females live almost 21 percent longer than males," she added. "But in the species of birds, butterflies and moths, where females are heterogametic (ZW), males only outlive females by 7 percent.

This idea is known as the unguarded X hypothesis." While this theory has been floating aroundfor some time, this is the first time a scientific study has tested the hypothesis across such a wide range in animal taxonomy.

The theory goes that individuals with heterogametic sex chromosomes, such as XY, are less able to protect against harmful genes expressed on the X chromosome. On the other hand, those with homogametic sex chromosomes have a second copy that could serve as a back up. Alternatively, it might have something to do with how the Y chromosome degrades and telomere dynamics as possible explanations for this trend.

However, there are examples of heterogametic species that buck this trend, so though it appears to certainly be a factor in the longevity of some species, other factors may also play a role.

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Why The Females Of Many Species Live Longer Than The Males - IFLScience

New compound provides an observed 90% increase in the activation of the gene's activation in the animal's heart tissue

The University of Hawaii Cancer Center has developed a compound called Astaxanthin that turns on whats called the FOX03 'Longevity Gene' in mice. Their scientists measured an almost a 90% increase in the activation of the gene in the animals' heart tissue.

In a joint venture, The University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine ("JABSOM") and Cardax, Inc. ("Cardax") (OTCQB:CDXI), a Honolulu based life sciences company revealed their promising results toward a new anti-aging therapy

Dr. Bradley Willcox, MD, Professor and Director of Research at the Department of Geriatric Medicine, JABSOM, and Principal Investigator of the National Institutes of Health-funded Kuakini Hawaii Lifespan and Healthspan Studies states, "All of us have the FOXO3 gene, which protects against aging in humans," said. "But about one in three persons carry a version of the FOXO3 gene that is associated with longevity. By activating the FOXO3 gene common in all humans, we can make it act like the "longevity" version. Through this research, we have shown that Astaxanthin "activates" the FOXO3 gene," said Willcox.

"This preliminary study was the first of its kind to test the potential of Astaxanthin to activate the FOXO3 gene in mammals," said Dr. Richard Allsopp, PhD, Associate Professor, and researcher with the JABSOM Institute of Biogenesis Research.

Experiments with the mice the control group was fed regular food and the other group was either a low or high amount of Astaxanthin compound CDX-085 provided by Cardax. As expected the group with higher doses gained the greatest increase in the FOXO3 gene in their heart tissue. "We found a nearly 90% increase in the activation of the FOXO3 "Longevity Gene" in the mice fed the higher dose of the Astaxanthin compound CDX-085," said Dr. Allsopp.

"This groundbreaking University of Hawaii research further supports the critical role of Astaxanthin in health and why the healthcare community is embracing its use," said David G. Watumull, Cardax CEO. "We look forward to further confirmation in human clinical trials of Astaxanthin's role in aging."

"We are extremely proud of our collaborative efforts with Cardax on this very promising research that may help mitigate the effects of aging in humans," said Vassilis L. Syrmos, Vice President of Research at the University of Hawaii. "This is a great example of what the Hawaii Innovation Initiative is all about -- when the private sector and government join forces to build a thriving innovation, research, education and job training enterprise to help diversify the state's economy."

Life sciences company Cardax, Inc. looks forward to further confirmation in human clinical trials of Astanxanthin's potential role as an anti-aging therapy.

Dr. Michael J. Koch, Editor withwww.WorldHealth.net and for Dr. Ronald Klatz, DO, MD President of the A4M has 28,000 Physician Members, has trained over 150,000 Physicians, health professionals and scientists in the new specialty of Anti-aging medicine. Estimates of their patients numbering in the 100s of millions World Wide that are living better stronger, healthier and longer lives. A4M physicians are now providing advanced preventative medical care for over 100 Million individuals worldwide who now recognize that aging is no longer inevitable.

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Discovery of a New Compound Turns on a Longevity Gene in Mice - Anti Aging News

Concierge medicine. You have heard about it. Another name for it is direct patient care or DPC. The most common perception about concierge medicine is access to longer appointments and the ability to reach a doctor easier. Well, what if..Kahn-cierge was access to longer appointments, access to Dr. Joel Kahn, Americas Holistic Heart Doc.AND the MOST advanced detection and treatment center for measuring and treating heart disease at ANY stage with a goal of optimal LONGEVITY. Not just extra time but extra expertise from the worlds first physician to be Certified by a major University medical center in Metabolic Cardiology. A Summa Cum Laude medical school graduate, author, TV personality, and speaker. Are you seeking Healthy Aging? More Energy? Fewer Medications? Early Disease Detection? Strategies for Disease Reversal? Natural Cardiology? Nutritional Cardiology? Are these of interest to you? Feeling better, looking better, sleeping better, more Kahn-fident, and enjoying and following a plan for your best health and energy! Science is advancing rapidly, and it is possible to live longer and better free of dis-ease, dis-stress, and dis-comfort. The future of healthy aging is so exciting. Dr. Kahns personalized medicine offers a plan for you, based on your individual health, nutritional profile, genetic profile, preferences, and abilities. One size does not fit all when it comes to living your most enjoyable and healthiest life. So become one of a few select members of the Kahn Center for Cardiac Longevity and lets walk together, preparing for a bright and joyful future without the worry about Americas #1 killer, heart disease.

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Twenty years from now, a 60-year-old might be able to buy a drug that will extend healthy life by a decade or two.

The treatment might be taken over a period of six weeks or so. The end result? A boost to the immune system and protection against a host of age-related diseases, including heart disease, cancer and dementia.

This kind of intervention wouldnt be the fountain of youth it wont turn back the clock and make that 60-year-old a 16-year-old again. It wouldnt offer eternal life. But it would produce an extended healthspan extra years spent free of chronic age-related disease and disability.

At least, this is one version of the near future. Some, like gerobiologist Matt Kaeberlein, believe that an extended healthspan is a likely near-future scenario and policy makers, governments and the medical profession should be prepared for it.

It has been done with animals like worms, fruit flies and mice. There have even been some promising early results using a drug called rapamycin in a study involving pet dogs.

Whether or not it will actually happen with people is still debatable. But the idea and repercussions around it are real enough to warrant an entire issue of the journal Public Policy & Aging Report, which asked the question: Is aging a disease?

Chinese 104-year-old twins, Cao Daqiao (senior, R) and Cao Xiaoqiao talk at home in Weifang, east Chinas Shandong province on November 29, 2009. According to the Shanghai Guinness World Records, this twin sisters, who were born in 1905, were the oldest living twins in the world as of 2009.STR / AFP via Getty Images

Kaeberlein, a professor at the University of Washington who studies the biological mechanisms of aging, is asking for nothing less than a paradigm shift in the medical approach to the diseases associated with aging. He thinks its reasonable to expect there will be products on the market within the next 20 years that could extend healthy life, although it will take a runway of several decades to prove it works.

This is a much more effective approach toward health than the traditional medical approach of waiting until people are sick and trying to cure their disease.

As it stands, physicians treat individual diseases. The risks for a number of diseases, including many types of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimers and neurological disorders like Parkinsons disease, increase with age. The biggest risk factor in heart disease, for example, isnt smoking, too many cheeseburgers or some other environmental cause. Its age.

One estimate suggests that curing cancer or heart disease would increase life expectancy for only three or four years and curing both cancer and heart disease would increase life expectancy by less than 10 years because the risk of other kinds of diseases continue to increase exponentially. If aging could be slowed down, then life expectancy could be increased by two or three decades.

Modern medicine has gotten pretty good at keeping sick people alive, but we are not very good at curing age-related disease, said Kaeberlein. By treating one disease at a time, we havent done anything to prevent all of the other age-related functional declines from happening in that person.

Christian Mortensen, 114-years-old, smokes a cigar at his home in the Aldersly Retirement Community in San Rafael, CA in 1997. Mortensen was the oldest man alive and celebrated his 115th birthday 16 August, 1997. AFP PHOTO/JOHN G. MABANGLOJOHN G. MABANGLO / AFP via Getty Images

By holding back aging, it is possible to hold back not just one disease, but a whole bunch of them. Age-related chronic diseases are taking an increasing toll on the world economy. One 2017 analysis estimated that half of the global health burden among adults can be attributed to age-related diseases.

I think you can make an argument that the extended period of time many older people live with multiple comorbidities currently is likely a direct result of the traditional medical approach of treating individual diseases, rather than treating biological aging.

Others are skeptical that an effective intervention to modify aging is just around the corner.

I know of no current intervention I would be willing to place a bet on, said Douglas Gray, a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and professor of biochemistry, microbiology and immunology at the University of Ottawa. The motivations are genuine and admirable. I just dont buy it.

Researcher Jane Rylett, whose lab at Western University investigates the mechanisms regulating chemical communication in the nervous system, doesnt believe there is a single silver bullet for aging. What might work is a combination of approaches, she said.

Never say never. But I dont see anything on the horizon that would signal something imminent that would allow us to prolong life for, say, 20 years, said Rylett, who is the scientific director for the Institute of Aging at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

Even if there was a drug targeted at aging, it would affect different people in different ways.

There are few hurdles to be overcome. One is research funding that recognizes biological aging as a risk factor in a disease. While biological aging accounts for more than 90 per cent of the risk of developing Alzheimers, for example, only a fraction of one per cent of the Alzheimers research dollars spent in the U.S. is allocated to research on the role of aging in developing Alzheimers. To turn the tide on the disease, more resources need to be spent on understanding how aging works, Kaeberlein argues.

In this Aug. 14, 2018 file photo, Dr. William Burke goes over a PET brain scan at Banner Alzheimers Institute in Phoenix.Matt York / The Associated Press

The other major hurdle is regulatory. Drugs approved by the FDA are approved for an indication that is, the drug treats a named disease. Most of the promising work on aging so far has been with animals, and not very complex animals at that. Translating these findings to people means clinical trials. Some contend that aging has to be recognized as a disease so it can be targeted by a drug aimed at treating it. Its worth noting, however, that some drugs have long been approved to prevent diseases. Vaccines are an example.

Kaeberlein doesnt think we should be trying to gain acceptance for the idea that aging is a disease. Thats a semantic argument that distracts from the more important conversation, he said.

Whats more important is to get people to understand that biological aging is a modifiable process.

For some, the idea that aging is a disease is absurd and potentially dangerous.

The thing that excludes aging from being a disease is its universality, said Gray.

Some animals may live extraordinarily long lives. The naked mole rat, a hairless burrowing rodent native to East Africa which can live more than 30 years at least 10 times the lifespan for a mouse is of great interest to scientists. The hydra, a tiny freshwater polyp, may live virtually forever.

There is also great scientific interest in the outer limits of longevity for humans. There have been numerous documented cases of people living over the age of 110. But all humans age and eventually die.

In this Oct. 28, 2014 photo, neurosurgeon Dr. John Sampson places a catheter into a glioblastoma patient at Duke in Durham, N.C. The risk of cancer increases with age.Shawn Rocco / The Associated Press

In 1825, the English actuary Benjamin Gompertz determined that the likelihood of dying doubled every eight years from the age of about 30. Two hundred years later, even though people live longer, his mathematical model, known as the Gompertz curve, still holds. It just distributes death over a longer arc, said Gray.

There is a genuine problem with ageism in our society, and the last thing we need is for older people to be perceived as diseased, he said. The very word invokes an entirely inappropriate response at least that is my perception. Perhaps it is because to many people the word brings to mind the Spanish Flu or the Black Death, not a universal, passive, and gradual loss of function.

Geriatrician Dr. Peter Boling agrees. If aging is a disease, simply by staying alive, we are all sick, he said.

While we can and should improve aging by tackling the impact of age-related health problems, aging is inevitable and should be considered a fact of life, not a disease. Its better to work on preventative measures that will result in healthier people, and better care for those who are sick, said Boling, who is also a professor of medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University.

The presumption is that the quality of life among older individuals is not good, he said. Its an interesting mix of things when we get older. Im more and more aware of some of the things I cant do. I have arthritis. I know changes are taking place in my cardiovascular system. But these things are predestined. I want to say Im glad for the things I have seen and the experiences I have had. Accumulated experience is part of the aging process.

Advocating for more basic research funding to learn about the biological causes of aging is a legitimate scientific objective. It will help us understand what makes us tick and may then lead to better health. But it will likely not ultimately uncover a fountain of youth, Boling argues.

He is cautious about the idea of taking drugs with possible side effects, or editing genes to change the aging process. You might, for example, be able to boost the immune system and increase resistance to illnesses such as influenza and shingles, he said. But there might be downstream effects. Aging is a complex process and humans are complex organisms.

When you change things in a large system, you dont know what else may occur, Boling warns.

Both life expectancy (the average number of years a person is expected to live) and health-adjusted life expectancy (the number of years spent in good health) increased in Canada over a 20-year period, according to a study released by Statistics Canada in 2018. Life expectancy at birth for Canadian men was 79.8 years in 2015, but health-adjusted life expectancy at birth was 69.0 years, said the study, based on responses to health surveys. For Canadian women, life expectancy at birth was 83.9 years, but health-adjusted life expectancy was 70.5 years.

Increasing healthspans could save governments mountains of money. One 2013 study estimated that extending a healthy life by only 2.2 years would save the U.S. $7.1 trillion in health-care costs and increased productivity, for example.

But a world where 80 is the new 60 also brings up a lot of questions. Would treatments that extend life be available to everyone, or would this open a new rift between haves and have-nots? Would two more decades of life mean postponing retirement and spending two more decades in the workforce?

Obviously, there are several policy and social implications associated with an increase in healthy lifespan of 20 to 30 years. Retirement age and social security would need to be redefined, for example, said Kaeberlein.

A woman exercises with wooden dumbbells during an event marking Respect for the Aged Day at a temple in the Sugamo district of Tokyo, Japan, on Monday, Sept. 19, 2016. The proportion of Japans aged has been rising steadily for decades, with U.S. Census Bureau data showing that last year more than one in four Japanese were over 65.Tomohiro Ohsumi / Bloomberg

He is doubtful it would happen all at once, and it will most likely be a gradual application of new discoveries. There are also questions about access and who will benefit first from such discoveries and how long it will take for them to become widely available which cant be answered right now.

Kaeberlein would like to see Food And Drug Administration approval of an intervention to target biological aging. This could take many forms. For example, approval of a drug that when given to healthy people acts as a preventative for several age-related diseases or indications.

Researcher Jane Rylett recently returned from a trip to Japan, the worlds first super-aged country, defined as one in which more than one in five people are 65 or older. Canada will be a super-aged country in 10 to 15 years. The World Health Organization predicts that by 2050, there will be several dozen countries in that category, she said.

Lets say there was something on the horizon. Lets say theres a great discovery, she said. There are a lot of health policy questions that would have to be answered. What does it mean for society if people live longer?

jlaucius@postmedia.com

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What would you do with 20 extra years? Scientists are close to extending a human's 'healthy lifespan' - Ottawa Citizen

With more than 140 years of heritage to its name, the homegrown TCM brand is still breaking new ground in Singapore

Eu Yan Sang may have started off in Singapore with one clinic in 2002, but today, the brand has more than 20 traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clinics islandwidea new addition at Chinatown Point recently opened in October 2019.

The brands clinics have three different concepts, each catering to a different need. The Eu Yan Sang TCM Clinic serves patients in the heartlands and aims to help with acute and chronic illnesses, while the Eu Yan Sang TCM Wellness Clinic helps patients with sub-health, skin as well as weight and pain management; it offers travel health solutions for busy executives, too. The Eu Yan Sang Premier TCM Centre is managed by a team of experienced physicians who are trained to manage complex or chronic health conditions through a combination of prescribed herbal medication, acupuncture, tui na and cupping.

(Related: Now A Century-Old, Eu Yan Sang Has Transformed Holistic Healthcare)

Eu Yan Sangs longevity can be credited to its balanced use of technology and tradition. While it prioritises a holistic health and wellness approach thats based on its centuries-old TCM heritage, Eu Yan Sang has simultaneously built a reputation for quality, safety and innovation.

We aim to demystify TCM for the modern patient through continuous learning and by upgrading and adapting our practices, which are supported by rigorous standards in terms of structures, processes and controls, explains Lim Swee Cheng, general manager (clinic services and operational excellence) at Eu Yan Sang.

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Technology and Tradition are at the Heart of Eu Yan Sang's Longevity - Singapore Tatler

The public is invited to a community open house at Renaissance Pilates + Wellness, a boutique fitness sanctuary and wellness oasis located at thriving metroburb Bell Works. Guests are invited to meet the staff and to inquire in a relaxed manner about the over 60 fitness and functional movement classes offered in addition to the latest trends in optimal health and wellness services including CryoSkin, CryoTherapy, Infrared Sauna, & Oxygen Therapy. Recently, Renaissance has entered the holistic sphere and has added Nutritional Counseling, Functional Medicine, Holistic Coaching, and Organic Meal Preparation to the roster of wellness services. Special discounts will be in effect and will be offered to anyone who attends and wants to sign on for a particular service or groups of services. 'Wellness Wednesdays' are part of the Renaissance mission to motivate "Every Body" and are designed to encourage optimal health and to assist the community in the lifelong quest for vitality and longevity. More information is available by viewing the website, http://www.renaissancebellworks.com or by calling (732) 444-1111.

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Feb 19 | 'Wellness Wednesdays With The Works' | Middletown - Patch.com

For Americans who live in communities where prospects for economic advancement are scant, life is not only bleak its shorter too.

New research has found that people who live in counties with more opportunities to improve their lot in life can expect to live longer than those who live in counties where its virtually impossible to get ahead.

The longevity gap between rich and poor Americans is already well known. Once they reach the age of 40, American men with household incomes in the top 25% can expect to live 45 more years, on average. But 40-year-old men in the bottom 25% have an average life expectancy of just 36 years.

The gap for women is smaller, but still significant. A typical 40-year-old woman in a high-income household can expect to reach the age of 87. Thats 5 years longer than her counterpart at the other end of the economic spectrum.

But thats not the whole story.

The new analysis of U.S. counties links greater social mobility to a smaller longevity gap, as well as a lack of social mobility to a bigger life expectancy gap. In fact, differences in Americans ability to climb the economic ladder helped account for roughly 20% of the disparity in the length of life, according to the study published this week in JAMA Internal Medicine.

The findings offer novel evidence that the vitality of the communities in which we live can make a difference in our health and longevity. In places where jobs are scarce, education is poor and ambition is dimmed, residents who should be in the prime of life are more prone to physical and mental illnesses, and are less likely to quit unhealthy habits or seek the help they need to improve their condition.

The result: shorter lifespans.

The findings underscore the importance of both opportunity and hope, said Dr. Anand Parekh, chief medical director of the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center. We are just starting to realize as a healthcare community how important emotional well-being is to overall health, added Parekh, who was not involved in the new research.

The implications are raising alarms in a country where the chasm between rich and poor is widening, and where economic opportunity is spread unevenly across regions, among ethnic groups and between metropolitan and rural communities.

After rising steadily for decades, the average lifespan of Americans began falling in 2015 and continued to do so through 2017, the most recent year for which such data are available. That trend has been driven by surging rates of suicide, fatal drug overdoses and deaths attributed to excessive alcohol consumption.

These fatalities, collectively described as deaths of despair, have been concentrated among working-age Americans. And they have risen sharply among white adults in communities depleted by the departure or long-term absence of good jobs.

Those premature deaths are especially evident in communities where mining and manufacturing industries have collapsed, moved to places with cheaper labor, or reduced their workforces through automation. Jobs that long gave workers with little education the chance to own homes and send their children to college cornerstones of social mobility have dwindled in counties across Pennsylvania and the Midwest, northern New England and the South.

Without the hope for upward mobility that such jobs provided, individuals may be more vulnerable to the diseases of despair, Parekh said. Their emotional well-being may suffer, he added, and the seeds of chronic illnesses depression, diabetes, heart disease, pain syndromes find fertile ground.

But the reverse is also true, said Dr. Atheendar Venkataramani, a physician who teaches medical ethics and health policy at the University of Pennsylvania.

The American dream is good for the economy, and it seems to be good for peoples health, said Venkataramani, who led the study. Policies that give more Americans access to that uniquely American promise could boost the publics health and change lives, he said.

Venkataramani, who recently studied the link between automobile plant closures and fatal drug overdoses, acknowledged that the new findings cannot prove that social mobility directly lengthens lives, or that lack of mobility shortens them. But it suggests theres a real connection between having a reason to strive and the chance to thrive.

Take, for instance, two 40-year men whose families scrape by in the bottom 25%. Though both are poor, one of them resides in a county the American Dream forgot. When his children turn 30, their household incomes will probably be no larger than what their parents provided.

The other man, by contrast, lives in a county where a bit of hustle results in a job that can support his family. Over time, he may learn of a better job from his union shop steward, his barber or a member of his church. His kids attend school alongside college-bound classmates. By the time those kids turn 30, their household incomes will probably surpass that of their parents.

And on average, the second man will outlive the first by 18 months.

The pattern is the same for two 40-year-old women at the bottom of the economic ladder, though a little less dramatic. Compared to her sister who lives in a stagnant county, the one in a thriving county with more and better jobs and education will live 15 months longer, on average.

For the most affluent Americans, the social mobility of their home counties had virtually no bearing on their life expectancy.

The opportunity gaps brought to light by the new research are not just unfair to the people and places they disadvantage, said Brookings Institution economic development scholar Mark Muro, who was not involved in the work. They are matters of life and death.

The analysis provides a hypothetical window into a very different United States. If a magic wand could transform counties with little social mobility into ones with the most, the life expectancy of poor men might rise by four to six months. Poor women might gain three to four months.

That may seem modest, but cancer drugs that prolong life by a similar amount are quickly approved and embraced by doctors and patients, Venkataramani said.

He and his co-authors emphasize that a magic wand may not be necessary to improve social and economic mobility in the most bereft counties. A raft of time-tested policies have been shown to help members of low-income families do better in school, earn more as adults and live healthier lives. They include early childhood education programs like Head Start, others that allow nurses to make home visits to new parents and housing initiatives that move low-income families into higher-income neighborhoods.

Further research should clarify the link between social mobility and lifespan, Venkataramani said. In the meantime, the new findings offer a gauge of just how powerfully mobility could influence health.

Our country is predicated on the idea that anyone can become anything, and people want to have hope that thats true for them, he said. The lack of that may hurt peoples desire to stay healthy. And it may hurt their health directly.

Venkataramani has seen that loss of hope firsthand: Until two years ago, he was a primary care physician in a poor neighborhood of Boston, where many patients saw little reason to stop smoking, start exercising or take their medications.

They had no interest in certain healthy behavior changes I suggested, because they didnt feel they could get ahead in life, he said. Theres a real malaise there.

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The American dream may help the poorest among us live longer - Los Angeles Times

The University of Virginias top leaders gathered Wednesday evening at the Boars Head Resort to honor faculty members from across Grounds for their outstanding contributions to their fields of study and societal impact through their research and scholarly activities.

University of Virginia President Jim Ryan presented the 2019 Research Achievement Awards to 13 UVA faculty members at the dinner event.

This is the first year of the Research Achievement Awards, Vice President for Research Melur Ram Ramasubramanian said. We believe that as a university, we are what we celebrate. We want to acknowledge the talented UVA faculty who are leaders in their fields and are impacting the world in positive ways.

Provost Elizabeth Liz Magill said, Were delighted to have a chance to celebrate the accomplishments and achievements of our faculty. From education policy to precision medicine to police-community relations, there are many different fields and individuals being honored by these awards.

Im awed and immensely grateful for the contributions the award winners have made to their respective fields and to the University of Virginia, Ryan said. Our strategic plan focuses a good deal of attention on supporting research. ... Our ultimate goal is to make it possible for researchers at UVA to do their very best work.

The awards covered excellence in research, collaboration, mentorship, public impact and innovation.

Pompano arrived at UVA in 2014 and assembled a robust research team in her lab. Pursuing new technologies and new questions, she is developing new approaches to study immunity. In the areas of immunoanalysis and immunoenineering, she is working to map out cellular activity in live tissues. Her group was recently awarded a large grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop an artificial lymph node on a microfluidic chip.

Dr. Pompano chose the road less travelled by pursuing entirely new technologies and questions, rather than the safer route of building on the experiences from her Ph.D. or postdoc work, Jill Venton, chair of the Department of Chemistry, said. This strategy required spending the first 2.5 years of her professorship laying new groundwork. Dr. Pompano is a research leader in the fields of analytical chemistry and immunoengineering.

Bassoks work is in early childhood education, and her focus has been to find a way for it to both meet high standards and make a difference in the lives of young children. To do this, she has partnered with policymakers and school districts in Virginia and Louisiana to study how early childhood education opportunities can happen at scale.

In the past four years, her work has accelerated. She has published 16 articles and received more than $6 million in grant funding. In 2017, Bassok was honored with the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Daphna Bassok has raised the bar for the field and will motivate other scholars to do more insightful and rigorous work, said Katherine Magnuson, director of the University of Wisconsins Institute for Research on Poverty.

Alhusens research focuses on improving maternal and early infant health outcomes for disabled women and women living in poverty. Her research has been funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Health Resources and Services Administration and numerous foundations, and the goal of her work is to provide higher quality care to vulnerable populations.

She has received numerous awards for her work, including the Southern Nursing Research Society Early Science Investigator Award; the Association of Womens Health, Obstetric, and Neonatal Nurses Award for Excellence in Research; and School of Nursings Faculty Research Mentor Award.

Walsh is Lockhart B. McGuire Professor of Internal Medicine and directs the School of Medicines Hematovascular Biology Center. His research is focused on clonal hematopoiesis of indeterminate potential, or CHIP.

In his lab, he is looking at how mutations in blood cells lead to chronic diseases like heart attack and stroke. Through precision medicine, he is identifying and combatting the out-of-control multiplying process in these mutations to fight age-related diseases, as well as blood cancers like leukemia.

Walsh has published more than 350 scientific articles and he is the recipient of multiple research grants from the National Institutes of Health, including a MERIT Award. In 2011, the American Heart Association designated him a Distinguished Scientist by for his contributions to cardiovascular research.

Throughout his career, Scullys research, scholarship and teaching have focused on the science of how corrosion occurs and the engineering required to prevent it. He has conducted research and collaborated with scientists around the world in numerous industries such as energy, transportation, infrastructure, aerospace, maritime and microelectronics.

His projects include two U.S. Department of Energy Energy Frontier Research centers, two Department of Defense multi-university research initiatives, as well as grants from the National Science Foundation, PPG Industries and Axalta (formerly DuPont), and the U.S. Office of the Undersecretary of Defense.

Scully, the Charles Henderson Chaired Professor and chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, also co-directs the Center for Electrochemical Science and Engineering, one of the leading centers in the world focusing on materials degradation. The center has generated more than $30 million in research funding in the last 10 years and graduates on average four to five Ph.D. students per year.

Scully is technical editor in chief of CORROSION, The Journal of Science and Engineering, the premier international research journal for the field. He serves in several capacities as an ambassador for the materials-corrosion field, including several meetings to debrief the U.S. Congress on materials degradation issues of national importance.

John Scullys contributions to corrosion can be characterized by quality, quantity and longevity, said Gerald S. Frankel, Ohio State University distinguished professor in materials science and engineering and a member of CORROSIONs editorial board. It is clear that he is a world leader, if not the world leader, in metal passivity, passivity breakdown and localized corrosion, and stress corrosion cracking.

In more his more than 20 years at UVA, Lambert has advanced the science of risk analysis and systems engineering. He has led more than 60 projects related to advanced logistics systems for a total of approximately $25 million in research funding.

Lambert, a professor in the Department of Engineering Systems and Environment, has focused on the disruption of system priorities by emergent and future conditions, including technologies, regulations, markets, environments, behaviors and missions. His work has been applied to disaster resilience, energy infrastructure, coastal protection, economic development, transportation, biofuels and Olympics planning, among other challenges.

His research has been cited more than 5,000 times across more than 200 publications. In 2019, he chaired the Fifth World Congress on Risk, convening more than 300 scientists in Cape Town, South Africa.

Professor Lambert is among the most accomplished and respected scientists of systems engineering and risk analysis in the world today, said Igor Linkov, Risk and Decision Science Team Lead for the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center. Lambert in his research invented the application of scenario-based preferences in risk analysis.

Connelly, Morris and Grossman worked together on a multi-disciplinary project to examine how early life experiences affect the brain and social behaviors. The team studies the brain, as well as social and cognitive development, during the first two years of life, focusing on oxytocin and its role in social behavior. Their research has helped to illuminate gaps in our knowledge about behavioral development in humans, and helps us better understand healthy and atypical development.

They received a National Science Foundation Research Award in 2017 for their cutting-edge approach in combining epigenetic, neuroscience and behavioral methods across their three labs, and their work has led to several publications.

Moore is a busy physician-scientist with his own lab, and has recently become the division chief of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, & Nutrition at UVA. He also co-wrote the application for a Trans-University Microbiome Initiative grant, which was funded last year by the Universitys Strategic Investment Fund in an effort to make UVA a center for microbiome research. But that has not stopped him from repeatedly aiding his colleagues and providing them with key resources when they needed them.

Three colleagues joined forces to nominate Moore for the mentorship award, mentioning his critical support, his generous sponsorship and advice, and his guidance as they dealt with grant applications and the logistics of their first accepted grants. Moore went above and beyond, donating lab space and reaching out to his networks to help them make the connections and give them a leg up in their careers.

Williams only arrived at Batten two years ago, but after the violent Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in August 2017 he was able to immediately show the value of his research and public service engagement to the University community.

Starting before he came to the University, he has spent two decades doing research in the field on police-community relations around racial profiling, community policing and the need for law enforcement officers to work with their community on issues of public safety. In all his work, he strives to make an impact on communities by building relationships and tackling problems wherever they crop up.

Dr. Williams consistently uses his knowledge, experience and passion for the good of our city, Mindy Goodall, executive director of the Charlottesville Police Foundation, said. Charlottesville is fortunate to have gained him as a citizen and champion of police and community reconciliation.

The award for Innovator of the Year was presented to Dillingham and Ingersoll for their creation of PositiveLinks, an application designed to improve health outcomes and care for people living with HIV. They will give deliver a keynote lecture Feb. 18 in the Rotunda Dome Room.

Other researchers (in alphabetical order by school) were honored for being the top 25 in sponsored funding, top cited, national award winners, named to a national academy, or named as an outstanding researcher for their school:

Timothy Beatley, PlanningBarbara Brown Wilson, PlanningMona El Khafif, Urban & Environmental Planning

Jessica Connelly, PsychologyRita F. Dove, EnglishKevin Everson, ArtTobias Grossman, PsychologyL. Ilse Cleeves, AstronomyNitya Kallivayalil, AstronomyLee M. Lockwood, EconomicsJames P. Morris, PsychologyKen Ono, MathematicsRebecca R. Pompano, ChemistryMarilyne Stains, ChemistryAlan S. Taylor, History

Christopher Barrett, Director

David G. Mick, Marketing

Derrick P. Alridge, Leadership, Foundations and PolicyDaphna Bassok, Leadership, Foundations and PolicyRobert Q. Berry, Instruction and Special EducationCatherine Bradshaw, Human ServicesBenjamin L. Castleman, Leadership, Foundations and PolicyNancy L. Deutsch, Youth-NexJason Downer, Human ServicesSara E. Rimm-Kaufman, Leadership, Foundations and PolicyWilliam J. Therrien, Instruction and Special EducationArt Weltman, KinesiologyJoanna Lee Williams, Leadership, Foundations and PolicyAmada P. Williford, Human Services

Thomas H. Barker, Biomedical EngineeringHilary Bart-Smith, Mechanical and Aerospace EngineeringCraig H. Benson, Environmental EngineeringSteven M. Bowers, Electrical and Computer EngineeringJames T. Burns, Materials ScienceBenton H. Calhoun, Electrical and Computer EngineeringJoe C. Campbell, Electrical and Computer EngineeringGeorge J. Christ, Biomedical EngineeringJason L. Forman, Center for Applied BiomechanicsJeffery W. Holmes, Biomedical EngineeringPatrick E. Hopkins, Mechanical and Aerospace EngineeringKevin A. Janes, Biomedical EngineeringJames H. Lambert, Systems and EnvironmentXiaodong (Chris) Li, Mechanical and Aerospace EngineeringPamela M. Norris, Mechanical and Aerospace EngineeringElizabeth J. Opila, Materials ScienceMatthew B. Panzer, Mechanical and Aerospace EngineeringJohn R. Scully, Materials ScienceKevin Skadron, Computer ScienceMary Lou Soffa, Computer ScienceJohn A. Stankovic, Computer ScienceMalathi Veeraraghavan, Electrical and Computer Engineering

Brian N. Williams, Public PolicyJay Shimshack, Research Dean

Jayakrishna Ambati, OphthalmologyRuth Bernheim, Public Health SciencesAlison K. Criss, Microbiology /GIDIRebecca Dillingham, Infectious DiseasesLinda R. Duska, Obstetrics/Gynecology OncologyAnindya Dutta, Biochemistry/Molecular GeneticsW. Jeff Elias, NeurosurgeryEdward H. Egelman, Biochemistry/Molecular GeneticsRobin A. Felder, Clinical PathologyEric R. Houpt, Infectious DiseasesKaren Ingersoll, Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral SciencesKaren C. Johnston, NeurologyJaideep Kapur, NeurologyAnne K. Kenworthy, Molecular Physics and BiophysicsJonathan Kipnis, NeuroscienceRobert C. Klesges, Public Health SciencesBoris P. Kovatchev, Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral SciencesThomas P. Loughran, Oncology and MedicineColeen A. McNamara, Internal and Cardiovascular MedicineWladek Minor, Molecular Physics and BiophysicsSean R. Moore, PediatricsJames P. Nataro, PediatricsImre Noth, Internal and Pulmonary MedicineMark D. Okusa, NephrologyGary K. Owens, Cardiovascular Research, Molecular Physiology and Biological PhysicsKevin A. Pelphrey, NeurologyWilliam A. Petri, Internal Medicine and Infectious DiseasesKodi S. Ravichandran, MicrobiologyPatricio E. Ray, PediatricsStephen S. Rich, Public Health SciencesLukas K. Tamm, Molecular Physics and BiophysicsGregory C. Townsend, Internal Medicine and Infectious DiseasesKenneth Walsh, Internal and Cardiovascular MedicineKatharine Hsu Wibberly, Public Health SciencesMichael C. Wiener, Molecular Physics and BiophysicsMark Yeager, Molecular Physics and BiophysicsJames C. Zimring, Pathology

Jeanne L. Alhusen, Nursing

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UVA Honors Its Leading Researchers at Boar's Head Banquet - University of Virginia

Turns out you can start fighting the biological agents of aging with your morning cup of coffee. According to new research published in the journal ofOxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity,the simple decision to opt for skim or 1% milk as opposed to whole milk can add years to your life.

The new pioneering study conducted at Brigham Young University effectively knee-caps recent reports challenging dairys contribution to optimal health.

The authors write in the reports abstract:Investigations evaluating the effect of adult milk consumption on health and disease have produced inconsistent findings. Some studies indicate that the consumption of cows milk promotes health, while others show that it increases risk of disease and mortality. Numerous investigations highlight the mixed results. Overall, the findings highlight an association of increased biological aging in U.S. adults who consumed high-fat milk. The results support the latest Dietary Guidelines for Americans (20152020), which recommend consumption of low-fat milk, but not high-fat milk, as part of a healthy diet.

A lengthy analysis of the beverage habits of 5,834 Americans not only motioned low-fat milks impact on longevity, but it also uncovered a slew of other benefits.

Nearly 50% of the entire study pool drank some form of milk every single day and a quarter consumed dairy on a weekly basis. Of these, a little more than 30% drank whole milk, exactly 30% drank 2%, 17% drank skim, 13% preferred non-dairy alternatives like soy or almond and a modest 10% regularly drank 1% milk.

Participants who routinely drank either skim or 1% milk aged around four and half years slower than their 2% milk-loving counterparts.

The low-fat milk drinkers even demonstrated slower genetic aging markers than the individuals that privileged nondairy milk. Of course, this adverse correlation was the most pronounced among habitual whole milk drinkers.

You might recall Ladders recent mediation on the physiological hallmarks of aging. It was an in-depth look at the function of telomerestheends of chromosomes that gradually shrink as a result of repeat cell replication. In other words, the older we get, the shorter they get.

This process was thought to be an unalterable one butin the last few decades,experts have motioned several different ways we can protect these chrome-caps and fend off aging.

The researchers behind this new report, for instance, concluded that every 1% increase in milk fat imbibed was associated with a 69 base pair telomere length-decrease. This is the equivalent offour and a half years of increased aging.

Participants who drank whole milk considerably more often than they drank skim or 1% milk expressed a 145 base pair telomere length decrease. Even with these insightful citations in the chamber, the studys lead author, professor Larry A. Tucker,has no doubt that the scholarly wrangle surrounding the health merits of long-time dairy consumption will survive. And rightly so. On the key question, theres still a fair share of unknown left to discover.

Milk is probably the most controversial food in our country, Tucker said in a press release . If someone asked me to put together a presentation on the value of drinking milk, I could put together a one-hour presentation that would knock your socks off. Youd think, Whoa, everybody should be drinking more milk. If someone said do the opposite, I could also do that. At the very least, the findings of this study are definitely worth pondering. Maybe theres something here that requires a little more attention.

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Drinking this every day can reverse the effects of aging - Ladders

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aiming for supernormal

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

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

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

Hes helping to organize a Cold Thermogenesis and Heat Shock retreat at the end of next month in Pequot Lakes, Minn., where 50 people will pay up to $2,300 to spend four days going on shiver walks, drinking Bulletproof coffee and plunging into ice water.

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

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

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

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

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

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

But Joyner said its often hard to find evidence that biohacking practices actually work and that most Americans would be healthier if they just followed basic advice.

You need to go for a walk, not smoke, not drink too much, dont eat too much, he said.

But Owens goal is not to be merely healthy.

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

Moving into the mainstream?

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

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

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

We all sort of watch what he does, said Gabe Wing, director of sustainability at Herman Miller and Owens boss. Wing said Owen has influenced some co-workers to try blue-light-blocking tools. But no one at the Michigan-based company is going outside shirtless in the winter.

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

Susan Eiden regularly gets advice from Owen. The Minneapolis resident said using red lights at home has drawn comments from neighbors, but the lights combined with blue-blocking glasses and turning off the Wi-Fi at night have improved her sleep.

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

This whole blue light thing, its not going away, he said. More research comes out every day and its becoming more mainstream. And using nootropics is growing bigger and bigger every day, he said.

Owen takes supplements, some of which are considered prescription drugs in Europe and Russia, like phenylpiracetam, which is said to have boosted stamina among Soviet cosmonauts. Other preclinical compounds he and Sime use are in a regulatory gray area in the United States. Nootropic developers give them supplements that arent on the market yet because theyre biohacking influencers.

Were like lab rats. They send us stuff. We try it out, Sime said.

All for longevity

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

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

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

Owens diet isnt typical, either.

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

One of the few white light bulbs he has in his house is pointed at the stove because in red light, its hard to tell if meat is cooked.

He also consumes ceremonial grade cacao, coffee with collagen peptides and chocolate ghee and homemade sauerkraut thats fermented and subjected to special music that has the frequency of love.

Those are living microbes, so I infused them with a love frequency to make them happy and healthy, said Owen, who has a masters degree in holistic nutrition.

While he used to do marathons and triathlons, he now exercises for longevity rather than competition, with high-intensity training, weights, racquetball and cross-country skiing.

If its too cold to be barefoot when he goes out in the morning, hell put special straps on his boots to create a conductive connection between his body and the Earth.

Its a practice called grounding or Earthing thats supposed to allow electrons to pass between the Earth and his body to reduce inflammation and neutralize free radicals. Gwyneth Paltrow swears by it, according to an article on goop.com.

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

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

I want to maximize the health of my biology to what its capable of, he said. I want to live the best life that I can. I want to be happy. And I want to have a body and a mind that does the things I want them to do.

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Sleep cages and ice baths: The extreme lifestyle of local biohackers - Minneapolis Star Tribune