Category Archives: Human Longevity

An Indonesian man claimed to be 146 years old the longest living human ever. He died in his village in Central Java.

According to his papers, Sodimedjo, also known as Mbah Ghoto (grandpa Ghoto), was born in December 1870.

But Indonesia only started recording births in 1900 and there have been mistakes before.

Yet officials told the BBC his papers were valid, based on documents he provided and interviews with him. He was taken to hospital on 12 April because of deteriorating health. Six days later he insisted on checking out to return home.

Mbah was an Indonesian Christian man who unverifiably claimed to be the oldest person ever recorded. In May 2010, Solopos reported that enumerators of that years census had recorded his age next birthday as 142, which would make him 19 years older than the official oldest recorded person, Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997. He outlived ten siblings, four wives and all his children. The Liputan 6 website reported that Mbah Gothos estimated age was 140, that he could not remember his date of birth but claimed to remember the construction of a sugar factory built in Sragen in 1880.

Indonesian officials at the local record office confirm the birth date. There is no independent, third-party verification of his claimed age, which is required for the longevity claim to be recognized by record authorities such as Guinness World Records. Robert Young of the Gerontology Research Group said the claimed age was fiction, unbelievable and in the same category as Sasquatch [Bigfoot], the Yeti, and the Loch Ness Monster. The 2010 Liputan 6 story noted others of a similar claimed age including a woman named Maemunah and known as Ambu Unah, supposedly born in 1867, in Cimanuk, Pandeglang Regency.

There are living supercentenarian cases, in descending order of claimed age, with full birth and review dates, have been updated within the past two years, but have not had their claimed age validated by an independent body such as the Gerontology Research Group or Guinness World Records. Only claims over 115 years but under 130 years are included in the list. See longevity myths for claims over 130 years, such as Mbah Gotho.

Maria Lucimar Pereira, is a native of Feij and was born on September 3, 1890. She is of the Kaxinaw ethnic group and lives in Aldeia Grota. She is believed to be 126 and has better documentation than Mbah. Marias claim has not been independently verified.

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Oldest human might have reached 146 or it was a very long con - Next Big Future

No matter what doctors say about needing sleep to stay healthy and live longer, everyone knows it's not that easy. The office is only a click away, the kids require attention and all of those "friends" on social media are constantly beckoning. So what do the experts do to shut down and get some shut eye? We asked sleep and wellness pros for their best sleep secrets.

"The biggest thing I do to improve my sleep is to pull the plug. Its not easy. I made the decision that my sleep comes before catching up on my life. So when its 11 oclockapologies to every person who wrote me whom I havent answered yetbut I turn off my email and my phone and my computer.

Warm baths and warm milk also help. If you raise your body temperature, it not only helps you fall asleep, but it gets you into deeper sleep."

Robert Stickgold, associate professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

"I think there are three ways you can mess yourself up. The first is by smoking cigarettes, the second is by becoming obese, and the third is really shortchanging yourself on sleep. I try to get eight hours each night."

Leonard Guarente, co-founder of Elysium Health and director of MIT's Paul F. Glenn Center for Science of Aging Research

"I was a chronic snorer, depriving my brain of a certain amount of oxygen. Now I sleep much more restfully using a sleep-apnea machine. I also believe in getting mental exercise, so I do daily cognitive tests. If I've had a short night of sleep, I consistently score much lower, and it definitely affects my cognitive function.

J. Craig Venter, scientist and CEO of Human Longevity Inc.

You should sleep in a room thats pitch blackno LEDs or light coming from behind the curtains. I use my phone on airplane mode to track my sleep.

Dave Asprey, founder and CEO of Bulletproof

I have trained my body to not use alarms. I wake up on a consistent rhythm now. I block out light from any ambient light that disrupts different hormones and I try to get 8-9 hours of sleep a day.

Geoffrey Woo, CEO and co-founder of Nootrobox

Read this article:
5 Things Sleep Experts Do for Better Sleep - TIME

It's no secret that people living to 100 or more in longevity hot spots like Sardinia and Okinawahave something in common: they eat mostly plants.So why do we cling to the notion that meat is central to a healthy diet?

For one thing, we're stuck on the idea that it takes animal protein to build muscleand thanks to Paleo some of us also think our health depends on eating like our hunter-gatherer ancestors.

These beliefs come under scrutiny in The Reducetarian Solution, a new book on why reducing meatis healthy for humans and the planet. Edited by Brian Kateman, co-founder of the Reducetarianmovement, this book like the movement doesn't demand a meat-free diet. But it does offer good reasons from a range of experts, including doctors, scientists and food writers, for eating less and it demolishes a few myths.

Let's start with muscle.

"Meat is not required to build muscle," says Dr David Katz, director of Yale University's Prevention Research Centre. "Rather, animal muscle can be built from any fuel that animal is adapted to burn and we humans are adapted to both plant and animal food."

If meat protein is so essential for building muscle, how come some of the world's elite athletes are vegan, he asks. Why is it that a race horse can build so much muscle by munching on plants and why do gorillas acquire massive muscle on a diet that's 97 per cent vegetarianwith a few caterpillars and termites tossed in?

What about the argument that humans haven't evolved to eat foods like grains and legumes produced by agriculture and we should stick with the flesh foods and vegetables eaten by our early ancestors?

That depends on which ancestors we're talking about. The diet of early humans depended on where they were and what was available in their environment, according toChris Stringer and Brenna Hassett, both anthropologists from London's Natural History Museum. Evidence from the teeth of people living before the invention of farming shows there was a fondness for carbohydrate-heavy foods and that pretty much anything would do (even, at times, theflesh of other humans and no one's suggesting we revive that ancestral habit).

Stringer and Hassett also point to modern hunter gatherers such as the Hadza, of Tanzania, who've had more time to hone their hunting skills than our ancestors and they still get 30 per cent of their calories from plants.

In fact it's our ability to eat virtually anything that's helped us survive when other species died out, they write.

"There's no design that makes us need to eat a meat-heavy diet to be healthy. What we do have are a series of environmental, cultural and social choices that humans with our big brains and fancy tool-making habits can make about how and when (if at all) we consume meat."

But if meat is a big and much loved part of your diet, the book also points the way to eating less.Start with small changes you can maintain like a meatless meal once a week rather than a radical change of diet.

Tweak the meals you're used to rather than attempt too many exotic dishes.Try chickpeas and button mushrooms as a swap for chicken in mixed dishes like sauces and curries or black beans and darker mushrooms in tacos. Meatless Mondayis a good source of ideas.

Eat what you know include familiar meatless dishes like pasta with tomato-based sauce or fried rice with vegetables (add legumes or nuts for plant protein).

Let vegetables, whole grains and legumes take a starring role on the plate so there's less space left for meat.

If you've been thinking about going meatless for a while and are ready for the plunge, why not sign up for No Meat May.

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Human health and the mythology of meat - The Sydney Morning Herald

I did a quick Twitter poll asking which technology companies you think are the most innovative today. The options were:

(Note: Twitter polls only allow four options... yes, theres also Apple, Microsoft, Uber, Samsung and SpaceX, to name a few others).

With over 1,000 responses, a clear overwhelming winner emerged: Tesla.

Here was the final tally:

Google and Amazon each spend over $50 billion per year on R&D (2016 figures). In other words, they each spend more R&D dollars in a year than Teslas current market cap of $49 billion.

So why is it that Tesla garnered more votes than Google and Amazon combined?

What can an entrepreneur or CEO learn from this?

Here are my top four reasons (if you have others, please tweet them at me @PeterDiamandis):

Teslas MTP is to accelerate the worlds transition to sustainable energy. To this end, every product Tesla brings to market is focused on this vision and backed by a Master Plan Elon Musk wrote over 10 years ago. Google and Amazon, on the other hand, have scattered vision. Both are collectively working on dozens of innovations, from drone delivery to autonomous cars, that stray from their respective MTPs.

Musk has an eccentric, celebrity-like persona as a founder and has rallied a diehard fan base around himself. He believes 500 percent in what he is doing. He is crystal clear and driven 100 hours per week to execute. While he divides his time between Tesla and SpaceX (and now Neuralink), he doesnt do anything else or speak on any other subject. His companies reflect his clarity and confidence. To a large degree, like Steve Jobs and Apple, Tesla is a reflection of Musk himself.

Musk has garnered a cult-like following on social media, with 8.3 million Twitter followers. On the other hand, Larry Page does not even have a Twitter account, and scarcely speaks publicly; Jeff Bezos has tweeted less than 10 times per year since 2009 and has only 208,000 followers. Musk often responds directly to questions his followers throw his way, and has become famous for leaking product updates and launches on Twitter. He certainly has the news media eating out of his hands and effectively controls the perception of the Tesla brand himself.

Building hardware is HARD. And taking on complex industries like automotive and energy (not to mention space) with new tangible products is perceived by all to have a high degree of difficulty. Hard = Innovative.

In summary, there is a takeaway for entrepreneurs who want to build powerful, innovative companies to change the world. Theres a strong force-multiplier for your company if youre willing to be a powerful, outspoken CEO with a clear and dominant MTP/Moonshot, something you believe in with all your heart and soul.

Image Credit: Tesla

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Here's Why People Think Tesla Is the Most Innovative Company Today - Singularity Hub

Tim Beach, For the Express-News

Photo: JIM BEST /UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS /NYT

Earth Day was about science and politics

Natural scientists would rather work in their labs or their natural labs, such as the Maya Tropical Forest or on Himalayan glaciers. Every part of this planet holds unanswered questions that scientists would joyously study for a hundred lifetimes. Activism takes scientists out of their comfort and confidence zones, but if there was ever a time to do it, now is that time.

Indeed, heroes of the environment include more policy people and artists, though I would like to think my own tribe of natural scientists was as important. Earth Day, which just concluded, started after the wild ride of the 1960s carried along with a growing scientific arsenal that showed nature in decline from burning rivers, toxic waste and sooty cities. Some scientists dared to speak up about those dangers in the 1960s, and some are still speaking up.

Earth Day and the broader zeitgeist that created it produced a phalanx of laws to protect the environment and human health, which made America greater for more people in terms of better health and new jobs. Air quality improved, water quality improved, and we have more sewage and water treatment that spread around the world.

But the divide of the environmental impacts on rich and poor has never been greater. We have improved air quality in rich nations in contrast with off-the-charts pollution levels in China and India, while the hammer of global warming, forged in richer nations, disproportionately pounds the worlds poor.

Two recent travels underscore this divide: through the streets of Rome and down the Tiber, and through the cities of Peru and down its El Nio-swollen quebradas. Despite its congestion, Rome is starkly cleaner. Both have hordes of people and motorcycles, but the lack of pollution laws and enforcement make every step along the garbage-strewn streets in Peru choked with life-shortening exhaust.

When I visited Rome in 1983, its air was also polluted from exhaust. Why Rome is cleaner today is partly due to the global impact of Earth Day and the fact that Europe, like America, is rich enough to care about clean air and water laws that increase human well-being and longevity.

For Earth Day 2017, bad news prevailed about species extinction and soil degradation. As a participant in a recent conference in the Vatican on biological extinctions, I can say that we have made less progress on these keystones of nature species diversity and soil health. Again, rich nations have made progress with such laws as the Endangered Species Act and attention on soils. But both are always in threat as administrations change and most of the hemorrhaging of species and soils is in the tropics, where poverty and politics trump the needs for preservation.

We have embarked on the sixth global extinction in the Earths 4.55 billion years.

Long before Earth Day, but a clear precursor to it, was the Dust Bowl. Many Americans know the role the New Deal and Civilian Conservation Corps played. But fewer know the outsized role that Big Hugh soil scientist Hugh Hammond Bennett played when he used a skillful mastery of science and politics to organize the Soil Erosion Service. Bennett and the service that became the Natural Resources Conservation Service put legions to work to restore soils, and their legion of ecosystem services made America greater, such as water purification, fertility and carbon sequestration.

Now enter President Donald Trump, who seems determined to cut environmental protection by slashing the very programs that grow the economy with clean technologies and save lives in the process. All types of scientists rose from their labs and rainforests this year to march for science on Earth Day in Washington, D.C., and across the country, standing against the ignorance of science by those in power who question even the basics of science.

Remember the Dust Bowl and Big Hugh, and hope these marching scientists will make an administration listen.

Tim Beach is the C.B. Smith Sr. Centennial Professor of Geography and the Environment at the University of Texas at Austin.

Excerpt from:
Earth Day was about science and politics - mySanAntonio.com

Between the 1920s and 1940s, huge advances in medical procedures were made, including discoveries such as penicillin, sulpha drugs, bacitracin, streptomycin and chloroquine. In the post-Second World War years, such drugs became widely available and their application brought about the remarkable decline in the crude death rates experienced in many developing countries. By the 1950s and 1960s, fewer and fewer children and young people were succumbing to the easily preventable diseases that, historically, had depressed the health indicators of developing nations. Throughout the world, life expectancy was on the rise.

This process continues today. New drugs and medicines invented in one place are made available throughout the world via international markets. Most drugs start off protected by patents which eventually expire and open the market for generic competition. As a result, many off-patent medicines are available at extremely low prices, allowing people in poorer countries to benefit from the knowledge and innovation of more affluent countries. Recent examples of this include antiretroviral drugs, statins and insulin, as well as neo-natal intensive care units, kidney dialysis equipment, screening equipment and myriad other modern medical devices.

Many patented drugs are also subject to competition from other medicines in the same class, which puts downward pressure on price, and the strategy of price differentiation practised by manufacturers allows many developing countries to access patented drugs at prices close to the cost of production or for free.

Patent laws were developed to encourage people to share their inventions with others for the benefit of all. The logic was obvious: if people could own the right to their creative endeavours they would earn more by sharing them with others rather than by concealing them. Innovations would spread more rapidly to the benefit of society. Perceptive entrepreneurs would recognise their potential and develop them further. As competition and financial rewards build up, it encourages more and more people to invest in innovation.

Countries that followed the patent law path went on to become the worlds first advanced countries, after being, at the time, less advanced than those countries that now doubt the wisdom of patent laws. For a country, such as SA, that aspires to reduce poverty and boost income levels, innovation is a critical cornerstone for economic growth. Innovators and creators need to be able to secure their investment in developing their creations or they simply do not create. They certainly will not invest in commercialising and bringing products to market if they can freely be stolen and copied.

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Intellectual property spurs innovation and technological progress - Business Day (registration)

Forbes

Why India's Biggest Multinationals Are Seeking Out The Smallest Startups To Collaborate With Forbes In 2015-2016, RNT's highest investment of more than $4 million (Rs 31 crore) was made in a company called Human Longevity. This year his venture capital firm RNT Capital Advisors has made investments of more than $62 million (Rs 400 crore) in India's ...

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Why India's Biggest Multinationals Are Seeking Out The Smallest Startups To Collaborate With - Forbes

April 24, 2017 Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Researchers have discovered that a protein implicated in human longevity may also play a role in restoring hearing after noise exposure. The findings, where were published in the journal Scientific Reports, could one day provide researchers with new tools to prevent hearing loss.

The study reveals that a gene called Forkhead Box O3 (Foxo3) appears to play a role in protecting outer hair cells in the inner ear from damage. The outer hair cells act as a biological sound amplifier and are critical to hearing. When exposed to loud noises, these cells undergo stress. In some individuals, these cells are able to recover, but in others the outer hair cells die, permanently impairing hearing. While hearing aids and other treatments can help recovered some range of hearing, there is currently no biological cure for hearing loss.

"While more than a hundred genes have been identified as being involved in childhood hearing loss, little is known about the genes that regulate hearing recovery after noise exposure," said Patricia White, Ph.D., a research associate professor in the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) Department of Neuroscience and lead author of the study. "Our study shows that Foxo3 could play an important role in determining which individuals might be more susceptible to noise-induced hearing loss."

Approximately one-third of people who reach retirement age have some degree of hearing loss, primarily due to noise exposure over their lifetimes. The problem is even more acute in the military, with upwards of 60 percent of individuals who have been deployed in forward areas experiencing hearing loss, making it the most common disability for combat veterans.

Foxo3 is known to play an important role in cell's stress response. For example, in the cardiovascular system, Foxo3 helps heart cells stay healthy by clearing away debris when the cells are damaged. Additionally, people with a genetic mutation that confers higher levels of Foxo3 protein have been shown to live longer.

White and her team carried out a series of experiments involving knock-out mice who were genetically engineered to lack the Foxo3 gene. The researchers found that, compared to normal mice, these animals were unable to recover hearing after being exposed to loud noises. The team also observed that during the experiment the Foxo3 knock-out mice lost most of their outer hair cells. In the normal mice, outer hair cell loss was not significant.

"Discovering that Foxo3 was important for the survival of outer hair cells is a significant advance," says senior author Patricia White. "We are also excited about the results because Foxo3 is a transcription factor, which regulates the expression of many target genes. We are currently investigating what its targets might be in the inner ear, and how they could act to protect the ear from damage."

Explore further: Success of sensory cell regeneration raises hope for hearing restoration

More information: Felicia Gilels et al, Severe hearing loss and outer hair cell death in homozygous Foxo3 knockout mice after moderate noise exposure, Scientific Reports (2017). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-01142-3

In an apparent first, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital investigators have used genetic manipulation to regenerate auditory hair cells in adult mice. The research marks a possible advance in treatment of hearing loss ...

(HealthDay)The noise of modern life causes permanent hearing damage to many U.S. adults who don't even suspect they've experienced a loss, federal researchers reported Tuesday.

Patients who complain they can't hear their friends at a noisy restaurant, but pass a hearing test in their doctor's office, may be describing hidden hearing loss.

The loss of tiny, sound-sensing cells in the inner ear, known as "hair cells," is a leading cause of hearing loss, a public health problem affecting at least 5 percent of the world population. Hair cells, which do not regenerate ...

Researchers from the Eaton-Peabody Laboratories of the Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School have created a new mouse model in which by expressing a gene in the inner ear hair cellsthe sensory cells that ...

Hearing loss is a natural part of the aging process. But noise-induced hearing loss is on the rise.

Researchers have discovered that a protein implicated in human longevity may also play a role in restoring hearing after noise exposure. The findings, where were published in the journal Scientific Reports, could one day ...

The largest genomic analysis of puberty timing in men and women conducted to date has identified 389 genetic signals associated with puberty timing, four times the number that were previously known.

Whole-exome DNA sequencinga technology that saves time and money by sequencing only protein-coding regions and not the entire genomemay routinely miss detecting some genetic variations associated with disease, according ...

(Medical Xpress)An international team of researchers has developed a way to use RNA sequencing to help in diagnosing patients with rare genetic muscle conditions. In their paper published in the journal Science Translational ...

Research published this week in Scientific Reports uses computer image and statistical shape analysis to shed light on which parts of the face are most likely to be inherited.

Salk scientists and collaborators have shed light on a long-standing question about what leads to variation in stem cells by comparing induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) derived from identical twins. Even iPSCs made from ...

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Gene may hold key to hearing recovery - Medical Xpress - Medical Xpress

Aside from finding a cure for cancer, one of the most elusive battles that numerous scientists all over the world have been trying to win is the fight against aging.

So far, with mice as test subjects, anti-aging techniques include the use of blood plasma, protein adjustment, stem cells, gene manipulation and senescent cell removal. The objectives are also diverse. Some scientists are working on slowing down the process, while others want to reverse it. There are also those who want to stop the process altogether so human life can be extended indefinitely.

Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov director of the International Aging Research Portfolio (IARP) and U.K.-based charity group Biogerontology Research Foundation, also co-founder and CEO of bioinformatics firm Insilico Medicine is among those who believe that while aging happens naturally and is experienced by all living organisms, it doesnt necessarily have to mean that it should result in a degraded quality of life. In other words, Zhavoronkov is one of those who are advocating to classify aging as a disease an unnatural condition that can be treated and cured; a problem that can be solved. He is likewise a longevity enthusiast Zhavoronkov believes it is possible to extend the current longevity record beyond 122 years.

Insilico Medicine is one of the avenues through which Dr. Zhavoronkov intends to prove what he believes about aging and life span. As he told LEAF (Life Extension Advocacy Foundation) in an interview, the companys long-term goals are continuous improvement of human performance, and the prevention and cure of age-related diseases. And he believes the way to do it is by using A.I. to discover new drugs and develop biomarkers for aging.

Among Insilico Medicines more noteworthy projects is OncoFinder an algorithm thats used to analyze the activities of molecular pathways involved in growth, development, aging and cancer. In normal conditions, the algorithm can be used to determine which pathways lead to the development of conditions associated with aging. In pathological conditions, it can be used to predict which drugs will be most effective in treating diseases like cancer.

Theres also iPANDA algorithm which can be used to monitor changes in tissues and identify molecules that can target these changes. Together, these two algorithms help provide a better understanding on the changes that take place from a young state to an old state, as well as from a healthy state to a cancerous state.

Dr. Zhavoronkov is confident that in five years, they will be able to make breakthroughs in personalized medicine by being able to build comprehensive models that can be used as reference to predict, recommend and treat deviations from ideal healthy conditions. In other words, initiate interventions before disease has a chance to progress. And AI will play a major role in bringing this into fruition.

As he explained to LEAF: I think that applying AI to aging is the only way to bring it under the comprehensive medical control. Our AI ecosystem is comprised of multiple pipelines. With our drug discovery and biomarker development pipelines we can go after almost every disease and we even have several projects in ALS And since we are considering aging as a form of disease, many of the same algorithms are used to develop biomarkers and drugs to prevent and possibly even restore aging-associated damage.

Renowned futurist Peter Diamandis envisions that in the next one to two decades, AI will bring in demonetization of our major everyday expenses and therefore considerably bring down the cost of living, including health care. But before that happens, Dr. Zhavoronkov believes that AI can help bring about the cure for aging and maybe other notorious diseases like cancer.

If both scientists are proven correct, and we are certainly rooting for them and the field they represent, then we logically should start believing in the idea that AI really promises to progressively improve our lives. So instead of fantasizing how the development of this striking technology could bring the end of the world, maybe we should focus more on the scale that AI promises, and how it will help usher in the beginning of a new world.

Link:
How AI Will Help Us Defeat Aging - Wall Street Pit

by: Shelby Lin Erdman, Cox Media Group National Content Desk Updated: Apr 23, 2017 - 8:45 AM

Violet Mosse-Brown of Jamaica is officially the oldest living person in the world, at 117 years of age.

Mosse-Brown earned the title after the death of Emma Morano of Italy, who died earlier this week at 117 years, 137 days old.

>> Read more trending news

Mosse-Brown has a simple secret to her longevity.

Really and truly, when people ask what me eat and drink to live so long, I say to them that I eat everything, except pork and chicken, and I dont drink rum and them things, Mosse-Brown told the Jamaica Gleaner in a 2010 interview in honor of her 110th birthday.

Mosse-Brown was born in 1900 and still lives in the same house with family members. The home has been in their family for the past 200 years.

According to a biography posted by the Violet Mosse-Brown Foundation, started by her family, she was a sugarcane farmer for much of her life.

According to CNN, she is the last living subject of Queen Victoria from when many of the Caribbean islands were ruled by the British.

2017 Cox Media Group.

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New 'oldest person in world' is 117, explains secret to longevity - KIRO - KIRO Seattle