Category Archives: Human Longevity

By Clifton B. Parker

Scholars say there's little scientific evidence that computer-based brain games do more than improve performance playing them.

The Stanford Center for Longevity joined today with the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in issuing a statement skeptical about the effectiveness of so-called "brain game" products. Signing the document were 69 scholars, including six from Stanford and cognitive psychologists and neuroscientists from around the world.

Laura Carstensen, a Stanford psychology professor and the director of the Center for Longevity, said as baby boomers enter their golden years, commercial companies are all too often promising quick fixes for cognition problems through products that are unlikely to produce broad improvements in everyday functioning.

"It is customary for advertising to highlight the benefits and overstate potential advantages of their products," she said. "But in the case of brain games, companies also assert that the products are based on solid scientific evidence developed by cognitive scientists and neuroscientists. So we felt compelled to issue a statement directly to the public."

One problem is that while brain games may target very specific cognitive abilities, there is very little evidence that improvements transfer to more complex skills that really matter, like thinking, problem solving and planning, according to the scholars.

While it is true that the human mind is malleable throughout a lifetime, improvement on a single task like playing computer-based brain games does not imply a general, all-around and deeper improvement in cognition beyond performing better on just a particular game.

"Often, the cited research is only tangentially related to the scientific claims of the company, and to the games they sell," said Carstensen, the Fairleigh S. Dickinson, Jr. Professor in Public Policy.

Agreeing with this view were the experts who signed the Stanford-Planck consensus statement, which reads in part:

"We object to the claim that brain games offer consumers a scientifically grounded avenue to reduce or reverse cognitive decline when there is no compelling scientific evidence to date that they do. The promise of a magic bullet detracts from the best evidence to date, which is that cognitive health in old age reflects the long-term effects of healthy, engaged lifestyles."

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Scientific evidence does not support the brain game claims, Stanford scholars say

Have you heard of graphene?

This is a blog about why graphene may be the next multibillion-dollar material, holding the key to computing, healthcare and energy storage.

What is graphene?

Graphene is a pure form of carbon that is very thin, very strong and very expensive.

When I say thin, I mean VERY thin graphene is one atom thick (almost transparent).

And when I say strong, I mean VERY strong. For its very low weight, it is 100 times stronger than steel, as stiff as a diamond, and yet also flexible and even stretchable.

But its other characteristics are most interesting. It conducts heat and electricity with great efficiency (faster at room temperature than any other known material), and it charges and discharges 100x to 1000x faster than traditional batteries.

Right now, its expensive.

Nature reported in 2013 that just one micrometer-sized flake made in this [original] way can cost more than $1,000 making graphene, gram for gram, one of the most expensive materials on Earth.

However, as mass production increases, there is potential for a 70% to 80% price drop, making graphene production much more economical. Chemical vapor deposition (CVD), for example, has brought the cost down to about $100,000 per square meter.

Read more:
Materials That Will Change the World Graphene

Updated May 11, 2013.

How long did humans live in the past? We often hear statistics about the average lifespan of people living hundreds, even thousands of years ago. Were our ancestors really dying at the age of 30 or 40, back then? To help you understand how life expectancy and life spans have changed over time, heres a little primer on longevity throughout history.

Lifespan vs. Life Expectancy: The term life expectancy means the average lifespan of an entire population, taking into account all mortality figures for that specific group of people. Lifespan, by contrast, is a measure of the actual length of an individuals life. While both terms seem straightforward, a lack of historical artifacts and records have made it tough for researchers to determine how life spans have evolved through history.

Life span of early man: Until fairly recently, little information existed about how long prehistoric people lived. Too few fossilized human remains made it tough for historians to estimate the demographics of any population. Anthropology professors Rachel Caspari and Sang-Hee Lee chose instead to analyze the relative ages of skeletons found in archeological digs in eastern and southern Africa, Europe, and elsewhere. Comparing the proportion of those who died young, with those who died at an older age, the team concluded that longevity only began to significantly increase (that is, past the age of 30 or so) about 30,000 years ago quite late in the span of human evolution.

In an article published in 2011 in Scientific American, Caspari calls the shift the evolution of grandparents, as it marks the first time in human history that three generations might have co-existed.

Life expectancy through to 1500 A.D.: Life expectancy estimates, which describe the population as a whole, also suffer from a lack of reliable evidence gathered from these periods. In a 2010 article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences gerontologist and evolutionary biologist Caleb Finch describes average life spans for ancient Greek and Roman times as short: in the area of 20-35 years, though he laments the numbers are based on notoriously unrepresentative graveyard epitaphs and samples.

Moving forward along the historic timeline, Finch lists the challenges of deducing historic life spans and causes of death in this information vacuum. As a kind of research compromise, he and other evolution experts suggest a reasonable comparison can be made with demographic data that does exist from pre-industrial Sweden (mid-18th century) and certain contemporary, small, hunter-gatherer societies in countries like Venezuela and Brazil.

Finch writes that judging by this data, the main cause of death for centuries would most certainly have been infections, whether from infectious diseases or infected wounds from accidents or fighting. Unhygienic living conditions, with little access to effective medical care, meant life expectancy was likely limited to about 35 years of age. Thats life expectancy at birth, a figure dramatically influenced by infant mortality pegged as high as 30%. It does not mean that the average person living in say, 1200 AD, died at the age of 35. Rather, for every child that died in infancy, another person might have lived to be 70.

Early years up to the age of about 15 continued to be perilous, thanks to risks posed by disease, injuries, and accidents. People surviving this hazardous period of life could well make it into old age.

Other infectious diseases like cholera, tuberculosis and smallpox would go on to limit the longevity of the day, but none on the scale of the bubonic plague of the 14th century. The Black Death moved through Asia and Europe and wiped out as much as a third of Europes population, temporarily shifting life expectancy downward.

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Longevity Throughout History - About

On October 1, the world celebrated the United Nations "International Day of Older Persons". This symbolic day gives us an excellent opportunity to raise awareness about the challenges of ageing and to advocate for increasing healthy longevity in the wider public.

On this day we can say clearly and openly: the debilitating ageing process is the root cause of most chronic diseases afflicting the world population. This process causes the largest proportion of disability and mortality, and needs to be treated accordingly. Yet, it is not an inexorable process, it can be ameliorated. Society needs to dedicate efforts toward its treatment and correction, as for any other cause of illness. If given sufficient support, such measures can increase the healthy life expectancy of the aged population, the period of their productivity, their contribution to the development of society and economy, as well as their sense of enjoyment, purpose and valuation of life.

Recently, an online conference was conducted by India Future Society, a young non-profit dedicated to promotion of emerging technologies, including life-extending technologies.

A History of Longevity Research My own personal way of celebration and advocacy for the International Day of Older Persons is the publication of my new book on the history of life extension research, titled A History of Life-extensionism in the Twentieth Century. The book describes the development of life extension research in France, Germany, Austria, Romania, Switzerland, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

I wanted to show that the desire to prolong human life often constituted a strong motivation for biomedical research and discovery. The novel fields of biomedical science often had their origin in far-reaching pursuits of radical life extension. Several well-known "mainstream" therapies, such as probiotic diets, cell therapy and adjuvant immunotherapy, were born from biological research of ageing and life extension. This exemplifies the value of this research and the need to invest further resources and human interest into it.

My book examines the ideological motivations and social conditions for the pursuit of longevity. The pursuit of life extension could be adjusted to any social and national setting, to any ideology or religious belief. This was in a fact a unifying knowledge, a common belief and aspiration shared by people universally. In particular, the pursuit of longevity has a strong basis in Indian cultural tradition.

But my work is not 'purely academic', not a purely descriptive history of science but a chance to contribute to advocacy for biomedical progress, for the legitimacy and value of life extension research.

Longevity History is now One of the main arguments of my work is that the history of life extension research is far from being finished. In fact it is very much in its infancy, and its growth and development are largely in our own hands. Further developments in the field, far advanced compared to anything that could be imagined in the past, may be possible - provided that the work in this field continues and expands.

There are strong grounds for optimism for the development of this field. A large panel of basic theoretical and experimental studies (mainly in animal models) has clearly demonstrated the possibility of slowing down and even reversing the degenerative ageing processes, the feasibility of regeneration and restoration of biological functions, of a significant healthy life extension accompanied by amelioration of age related diseases. These successes encourage increased investment and effort for their expansion and reinforcement, as well as effort for their maximally rapid translation into effective, safe and universally accessible medical applications. Yet, much further research and validation will be needed for such applications to arrive!

Some of the promising research areas and key directions include: geroprotective substances; regenerative medicine; regulation of cell cycle; regulation of whole body homeostasis; detoxification at the cellular and molecular level; dietary supplementation; gene therapy and genetic and epigenetic modulation; nanomedicine; tissue engineering; artificial organ replacement and electrophysiological interfaces and stimulation; quantified self or comprehensive self-monitoring and diagnosis of age-related conditions, calculating regimens for balanced and healthy nutrition and sufficient physical activity and rest.

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The present, the past and the future of longevity research

Electron microscopy reveals a meshlike protective layer in the viruses that cause herpes and mononucleosis, among other disorders

Although no one has developed a vaccine against bacteriophages now that human pathogens like EpsteinBarr and herpes simplex have been added to the viral chain mail club, that's likely to change. Credit: Naranson via Wikimedia Commons

The EpsteinBarr virus and its relatives in the herpesvirus family are known for their longevity. They persist in host tissues for years, causing diseases like mononucleosis, Kaposi's sarcoma and herpes, and are notoriously difficult to kill. University of California, Los Angeles, biophysicist Z. Hong Zhou thinks the secret to herpesviruses' resilience may be a layer of microscopic chain mail.

Zhou and his colleagues examined the outer shells, or capsids, of a primate herpesvirus under an electron microscope and saw a pattern of interlocking protein rings. Those rings form a mesh that can withstand intense pressures and explain why herpesviruses can maintain decades-long infections.

The study, published in the October 7 issue of Structure, marks the first time anyone has been able to bring the herpesvirus structure into focusliterally. Solving the configuration of a viral capsid requires both the ability to discern individual molecules and the ability to see how those molecules fit together in the viral shell.

Herpesviruses are so big that they don't fit within most electron microscopes fields of view. Trying to understand their structure by looking at atomic-resolution images is like trying to understand the anatomy of an elephant based on extreme close-upseasier said than done. Once Zhou's team brought the image into focus, however, they saw a familiar pattern. The interlocking mesh pattern is very similar to the structure other virologists have found in bacteriophages, a family of viruses that infect bacteria, which suggests that herpesviruses and bacteriophages may share a common evolutionary origin. We never would have seen that connection based on genetic sequences alone, says Jack Johnson, a virologist at The Scripps Research Institute not involved with the study who first discovered the chain mail pattern in bacteriophages. This study shows how important it is to actually look at the structure.

These results may also open up new possibilities for vaccine development. According to Zhou, understanding the geometry of chemical bonds within the chain mail may help researchers develop antiviral particles that can break them apart. Most viruses do not have these rings, Zhou says. Instead, their capsids are made of bricks that disassemble once they've entered a host cell. These capsid bricks are like LEGO blocks ; even though they fit together tightly, they're meant to be pulled apart. Herpesviruses, however, are built to last.

They have to be. Their DNA is packed into the capsid so tightly that the pressure it exerts on the capsid wall is about 50 times greater than the pressure Earth's atmosphere exerts at sea level. Techniques that neutralize viruses which have LEGO-style capsids often don't work on EpsteinBarr, herpes or Kaposi's sarcoma viruses, much to the disappointment of many vaccine developers.

Solving the structure is only a first step toward a vaccine, but a crucial one. Although no one has developed a vaccine against bacteriophages (There really isn't a market for immunizing bacteria, Johnson says), now that human pathogens like EpsteinBarr and herpes simplex have been added to the viral chain mail club, that's likely to change.

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The EpsteinBarr Virus Wears Chain Mail

Elon Musks announcement of a semi-autonomous Tesla Model D this past week is one of many autonomous vehicle announcements coming your way

And the implications of self-driving cars will be staggering.

In this blog, I want to outline and explore those implications, and give you context on the dematerialization, demonetization and democratization of transportation.

The First Real Autonomous Car

During the 1980s and 1990s, the U.S. Defense Department spent hundreds of millions of dollars on autonomous vehicles, but it wasnt until the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge, a $2 million incentive prize, that the first truly autonomous vehicles (AVs) able to navigate long distances (a 150-mile route) at significant speeds (>30 mph) came into existence.

The Stanford University Racing Team, headed by Sebastian Thrun, won the competition with their car named Stanley. In addition to Stanley that year, four other driverless cars successfully completed the challenge.

Since Then

Soon thereafter, Sebastian Thrun joined Google to start a Self-Driving Car initiative, ultimately building a fleet of autonomous Prius vehicles that have logged nearly 700,000 autonomous miles.

In late May 2014, Google revealed a new prototype of its driverless car a cute 2-seat vehicle sporting NO steering wheel, NO gas pedal, and NO brakes. 100% autonomous.

And Google isnt the only player in the game.

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Self-driving Cars are Coming

However, many times we are not told what we should eat to stay healthy. It is not enough to know which diet to ditch; we also need to know which one to adopt for healthy living.

A doctor of Chinese medicine, who is also an authority in anti-aging medicine, Mao Shing Ni, contends that human beings can find longevity at the end of the rainbow. By this, he means eating naturally colourful foods - as opposed to those laced with artificial food colourings - leads to good health, a precursor of sound aging.

Indeed, the new dietary guidelines from the American Dietetic Association encourage people to literally colour their plates with a rainbow of foods, especially to ward off health and beauty problems - from heart disease to wrinkles. Eastern wisdom believes that health and longevity depend on a balance of the five elemental energies represented by five colours: red, orange/yellow, green, white and blue/purple. Some have ascribed the eating habits of the Asians to be the reason for them having longer life expectancy.

Nutritionists contend that both Western nutritional science and Eastern wisdom agree that when you eat foods that contain all the colours, you are working far more disease-combating nutrients and vitamins into your meal. Vegetables, fruits, beans and legumes, nuts and grains all contain these colours in varying degrees, and are therefore worthy for the table.

Red Colour psychologists say just as is the case in the fashion world, red seems to have dominance with regard to actual food products as well. Experts say this is probably because red is the colour that induces hunger, as it instantly attracts attention. Nutritionists say it also makes people excited, energetic, and increases the heart rate.

The fragments that impart the red colouring to many foods are known as anthocyanins, flavonoid compounds that fight free radicals and prevent oxidative damage to cells.

The antioxidant, lycopene, which is found in pink grapefruits, tomatoes and watermelons, has been shown to reduce the risk of prostate cancer. Other red coloured fruit and vegetables are strawberries, apples, red bell peppers and kidney beans.

Tomatoes take the lead here. They are a terrific source of vitamin C with a touch of vitamin A, potassium and fibre. Nutritionists say tomatoes fights skin aging and may be beneficial against cancer and heart disease simply because of lycopene, an antioxidant.

Orange and yellow

Foods with yellow and orange colours help the eyes and skin. The carotenoids that are responsible for the bright colours take care of free radicals, improve the eyesight and bolster the immune system. Orange/yellow foods include, oranges, tangerines, plums, pineapple, mango, corn, melon, sweet potatoes, carrots, pawpaw, cashews, millet and grapefruit. Beta-carotene, which is the precursor to vitamin A, can help reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease, while the vitamin C and folate (folic acid) in citrus fruits can peel away free radicals and boost immunity.

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Eat colourful foods for health and longevity

(PRWEB) October 10, 2014

MetroMD, a leading anti-aging clinic of Los Angeles, is making waves in Los Angeles with its flagship anti-aging treatments like PRP and HGH therapy. Platelet Rich Plasma or PRP Therapy and Human Growth Hormone or HGH Therapy is the two anti-aging treatment concepts introduced by MetroMD which have taken the wellness world by storm.Platelet Rich Plasma or PRP Therapy and Human Growth Hormone or HGH Therapy is the two anti-aging treatment concepts introduced by MetroMD which have taken the wellness world by storm.

Human growth hormone is a protein based peptide hormone secreted naturally in humans by the pituitary gland and is responsible for growth in children and adolescents. In adults, the growth hormones or HGH is responsible for cell reproduction, tissue regeneration and immune system functioning. It is also responsible for vitality, energy, metabolism and sexual performance in adults. After the age of 30, human HGH levels show a steady decline and after age of 40 the decline rate becomes rapid. This leads to feeling fatigued, low in energy levels, a loss in sexual libido and a weakened cardio-vascular system.

An HGH specialist at MetroMD elaborated Permanent fatigue, weight gain, loss of lean muscle mass and lowered sexual performance as well as sexual arousals are all classic symptoms of aging and it simply means the body has started its shut-down mechanism. With research it has been found that the condition is caused because of growth hormone deficiencies in body. So the cure has to be one which returns the hormone levels to the youthful levels. One way is to stimulate pituitary gland to secrete optimum HGH again and the other treatment method is to artificially inject bio-synthetic HGH in the body to remove the deficiency. This second treatment method is what the clinic provides and it is known as the Human Growth Hormone Therapy or in short, HGH Therapy.

Growth hormone therapy has proven immensely beneficial to those who have undergone the treatment. Children, who had stunted growth, gained a near normal growth and adults who have undergone HGH Therapy have shown remarkable improvement in their body composition, physical strength and sexual performance. A 50+ male undergoing HGH replacement treatment for the last five months was exuberant in its praise I felt energized from the day one. I no more feel that persisting fatigue and body pain and my libido shoots through the roof. Erectile deficiency was a thing of the past and I my abdominal fat just seems to melt away. I clearly gained lean muscle mass and my friends say I look 10 years younger now. I was skeptical earlier and thought I was trashing my money. But now I am a believer.

In aging women, human HGH replacement counters weight-gain problem which affects a lot of women in their middle age. Like men, they too experience a dip in libido levels by age 35-40 which is returned to normal levels with treatment. Facial wrinkles are replaced with a firm youthful skin. Hair quality too improves and in many cases, the treatment causes reverse of graying and hair loss. In both men and women, this therapy causes strengthening of the immune system which translates into improved life expectancy.

MetroMD has been a pioneer in human growth hormone treatment in Los Angeles and has treated hundreds of highly satisfied HGH deficiency patients so far. The clinics clientele include big names from Hollywood, American Music Industry, Sports, Authors, Socialites, Professionals, Business World and other walks of life. Medical Director of MetroMD, Dr Alex Martin has been involved in growth hormone treatment and anti-aging regenerative medicine research since 70s and in mid 90s. He launched his anti-aging clinic in Newport Beach California. He was among the first to initiate Growth hormone treatment for children who had a stunted growth due to growth hormone deficiency. Like Dr Alex Martin, MetroMDs Managing Director Devin Stone is also an expert in anti-aging treatment, stem cell research and regenerative medicine. MetroMDs key treatments include Stem Cell Therapy, PRP therapy, Laser Treatments, Smartlipo and HGH Therapy. All these treatments are associated with concepts of longevity, giving its patients a chance to live a highly active and healthy middle age and old age filled with fun and vigor of youth.

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MetroMD The HGH Clinic Announces A Better Process of Reducing Aging

Published: Tuesday, October 7, 2014 at 8:06 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, October 7, 2014 at 8:06 p.m.

Organizers of a new partnership between AARP and the University of North Carolina at Wilmington hope to make retirement better for the region's sizable 50-and-over population.

At a kick-off event Tuesday, leaders of the "Secure and Healthy Retirement Initiative" detailed plans for AARP-North Carolina and UNCW's College of Health and Human Services and Cameron School of Business to develop programs to help people plan, save for and enjoy retirement. The partnership is the first of its kind for AARP.

Charles Hardy, dean of health and human services at UNCW, said the area is "a destination for the 50-plus."

"We want to become a model for the nation of how public and private partnerships really advance the community's agenda," he said during the presentation.

While the initiative is in its beginning stages, AARP-NC Associate State Director Suzanne LaFollette-Black said some programs are getting started.

AARP has hired four interns from UNCW and hopes to recruit 100 local volunteers to teach public classes on finance, health and wellness and other issues related to retirement.

A symposium on care giving is in the works for mid-November as is one focused on business for early 2015.

The initiative will also include a research component, using university and AARP resources to gather data on issues facing retirees in Southeastern North Carolina.

"We want to empower people with resources and AARP has quite a few that are free as well as the university expertise," LaFollette-Black said.

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UNCW, AARP partner to help with retirement issues

Icelanders love keeping track of how they're related, which has made them "the world champions of human genetics.

A commercial for an Icelandic phone company from a few years ago depicted a couple waking up after a one-night stand. They both pick up their smart phones. They both log into a family-tree website, Islendingabok. And thats where things get awkward.

There are only 320,000 people who live in Iceland, and most are descended from a small clan of Celtic and Viking settlers. Thus, many Icelanders are distant (or close) relatives. Sometimes too close.

The desire to avoid unwitting incestuous pairings at one point even spawned an app, created by a group of engineering students at the University of Iceland, that allows its users to bump their phones together to determine whether they share a common ancestor. (Tag line: Bump in the app before you bump in bed.")

Concerns about wading into the shallow end of the gene pool are just a small part of the Icelandic obsession with genealogy. As Iva Skoch explained in Global Post, when two Icelanders meet, the first question is usually, "Hverra manna ert bu?" (Who are your people?) Bookstores are stocked with thick volumes on the histories of Icelandic families.

For nearly a millennium, careful genealogical records had been kept in the Islendingabok, or Book of Icelanders. In 1997, Icelandic neurologist Kri Stefnsson created a web-based version of Islendingabok in order to offer his countrymen 24/7 access to their family trees. Along with developer Fridrik Skulason, he scoured census data, church records, and family archives in order to encompass what he claims is 95 percent of Icelanders who have lived within the past three centuries. It has since become one of the most popular sites in the country.

If you take the old Icelandic sagas, they all begin with page after page of genealogy, Stefnsson told me. It assures that the common man won't be forgotten.

For Stefnsson, the national preoccupation with heredity has yielded an unexpected professional benefit: Having the genealogy of the entire nation is one of the things that has turned us into the world champions of human genetics.

Because Icelanders do such a good job of tracing their family histories, Stefnsson and his colleagues at Decode, the genetics firm he founded, have a rich trove of data for experiments. So far, hes discovered how specific genetic mutations affect a person's chances of having everything from Alzheimers to blond hair. Hes identified a certain cancer-causing mutation thats much more common in Iceland than in America, and he's uncovered a genetic component to longevity. Most recently, he and many co-authors found that a certain mutation introduced in Iceland in the 15th century is the primary driver of Icelanders risk of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a disease in which the heart muscles thicken.

Having the genealogy gives us an opportunity to figure out how everyone is related to everyone else, he said. If you are tracing genes to figure out disease, it is important to figure out, how does this mutation travel from one generation to the next?

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How Iceland's Genealogy Obsession Leads to Scientific Breakthroughs