Category Archives: Human Longevity

SAN DIEGO (KUSI) An analysis of a national study by UC San Diego researchers published Monday found starting tobacco products, including e- cigarettes, before the age of 18 is a major risk factor for people becoming daily cigarette smokers.

In the report, published in Mondays online edition of Pediatrics, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science researchers found in 2014 people ages 12 to 24 using e-cigarettes were three times as likely to become daily cigarette smokers in the future.

Among those who reported using a tobacco product, daily use increased with age through age 28. Daily cigarette smoking nearly doubled among 18 to 21 year olds and 25 to 28 year olds from 12% to 21%.

This is the first paper that actually looks at progression to dependent cigarette smoking among young adults, saidthe studys first author, John Pierce, professor emeritus at the Herbert Wertheim school and UCSD Moores Cancer Center.

In these data, e-cigarettes are a gateway for those who become daily cigarette smokers. The start product has changed from cigarettes to e- cigarettes, but the end product has stayed the same. When users become dependent on nicotine, they are converting to cigarette smoking, Pierce said.

Researchers used data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study, a study of tobacco use and its effect on the health of people in the United States. The PATH Study enrolled a nationally representative sample of 12 to 24 year olds between 2013 and 2014 and re-interviewed them annually for four years to explore progression to daily use among experimenters of 12 tobacco products.

In the first year, 45% of study participants reported using at least one tobacco product in their lifetime. By the fourth year, as participants aged, 62% reported some tobacco experimentation.

Among those who have experimented with tobacco, 73% had tried cigarettes and 72% had tried e-cigarettes. More than half tried hookahs and cigarillos. Traditional cigars, filtered cigars, smokeless products, pipes and snuffs were each tried by more than 10% of study participants.

The analyses revealed that, by year four, 12 % of participants were using tobacco products daily half of whom became daily users after the first year. Of daily users, 70% smoked cigarettes and 63% used cigarettes exclusively. Of those who smoked cigarettes and used another tobacco product, half vaped e-cigarettes on a non-daily basis.

Among the 17% of daily users who were vaping every day, almost half were also non-daily cigarette smokers. Further follow-up will determine whether these young daily tobacco users continue to use both products or whether they settle on a single product, Pierce said.

What were seeing is that the proportion who are daily e-cigarette users did not increase with age. Whereas with cigarettes the number of users jumps up rapidly with age, said Pierce. This rapid increase with age only occurred with cigarettes, not with any other tobacco products.

Less than 1% of study participants who experimented with just one tobacco product progressed to daily cigarette smoking. People who had tried five or more products increased their risk of becoming daily cigarette smokers by 15 percentage points.

Trying e-cigarettes and multiple other tobacco products before the age of 18 is also strongly associated with becoming daily cigarette smokers, said senior author Karen Messer, professor at the Herbert Wertheim School and director of biostatics at Moores Cancer Center.

We know that e-cigarette use among high school seniors, most under the age of 18, increased from 38% in 2016 to 45% in 2019. These results suggest that recent rapid growth in adolescent e-cigarette use will lead to increased daily cigarette smoking among young adults in the United States, reversing decades of decline in cigarette smoking, she said.

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UCSD report finds youth using e-cigs three times as likely to be daily smokers - - KUSI

By Deborah Borfitz

January 13, 2021 | As aging researchers are aware, birthday candles are not a good guide to either human health or longevity. But there is an abundance of clues in the genome and, as suggested by studies in animals, some of age-related damage is reversible by removing or reprogramming problematic cells or blocking the activity of key proteins.

As it turns out, DNA methylationa frequently-used biomarker of biological ageis not just marking time like a clock on the wall but actually controlling time within cells, according to David Sinclair, an expert on aging at Harvard Medical School and cofounder of 4-year-old Life Biosciences. The revelation emerged from a study recently published in Nature (DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2975-4) where Harvard researchers showed, for the first time, that the pattern of DNA methylation in the genome can be safely reset to a younger age.

It was in fact a prerequisite to restoring youthful function and vision in old mice, says Sinclair, who has spent most of his adult life studying the epigenetic changes associated with aging. Up until a few years ago, he thought the process was unidirectional and that cells ultimately lost their identity and malfunctioned or became cancerous.

It seemed crazy to try to get proteins to return to the place they were in young cells, Sinclair says. Proteins move around in response to age-associated DNA damage and end up in the wrong places on the genome, causing the wrong genes to be turned on, but scientists did not know if proteins could go back, where the instructions were stored, or if they were being stored at all.

As covered in his 2019 bestseller Lifespan, Sinclair now believes that aging is the result of the so-called epigenetic changes scrambling how the body reads genetic code. Were essentially looking for the polish to get the cell to read the genome correctly again, he says, a process he likens to recovering music on a scratched CD.

Yamanaka Factors

Sinclair and his research associates have been focusing on the eye, in part because retinal tissues start aging soon after birth, he explains. While a damaged optic nerve can heal in a newborn, the injury is irreversible in a 1-year-old.

Yuancheng Lu, a former student of Sinclairs, was also interested in the eye because his family has a vision-correction business and recognized sight loss as a huge unmet need, he continues. We thought if we could take the age of those retinal cells back far enough, but not so far that they lose their identity, we might be able to see regrowth of the optic nerve if it was damaged.

Among the foundational work was a 2016 study in Cell (DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2016.11.052) by Life Biosciences cofounder Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte (Salk Institute for Biological Studies) who partially erased cellular markers of aging in mice that aged prematurely, as well as in human cells, by turning on Yamanaka factors Oct4, Sox2, Klf4, and c-Myc (OSKM) highly expressed in embryonic stem cells. Short-term induction of OSKM ameliorated hallmarks of aging and modestly extended lifespan in the short-lived mice.

The lifespan gain was widely dismissed as an artifact of shocking a mouse, says Sinclair, since the mice died if the treatment continued for more than two days. Although the human health implications appeared unlikely, his Harvard team decided to try the approach using an adeno-associated virus as a vehicle to deliver the youth-restoring OSKM genes into the retinas of aging mice.

The technology kept killing the mice or causing them to get cancer until Lu decided to drop the c-Myc genean oncogenein his experiments using human skin cells. He looked at [damaged] cells that had been expressing OSK for three weeks and the nerves were growing back toward the brain to an unprecedented degree. Moreover, the cells got older by the damage and younger by the treatment.

As the broader team went on to show in the Nature paper, the trio of Yamanaka factors effectively made cells younger without causing them to lose their identity (i.e., turning back into induced pluripotent stem cells) or fueling tumor growth even after a year of continuous treatment of the entire body of a mouse. If anything, the mice had fewer tumors over the course of the study, says Sinclair.

Although the mice needed to be autopsied to definitively measure tumor burden, Sinclair says the study will be repeated to learn if the epigenetic reprogramming technique can increase lifespan.

Findings have implications beyond the treatment of age-related diseases specific to the eye, says Sinclair. Aging researchers have published studies showing other types of tissues, including muscle and kidney cells, can also be rejuvenated.

Clocked Results

In the latest study using mice, epigenetic reprogramming was found to have three beneficial effects on the eye: promotion of optic nerve regeneration, reversal of vision loss with a condition mimicking human glaucoma, and reversal of vision loss in aging animals without glaucoma. The latter finding, from Sinclairs vantage point, is the most important one. This is ultimately a story about finding a repository of youthful information in old cells that can reverse aging.

Results of all three experiments are noteworthy and have commonly thought to be three separate processes, says Sinclair. That is only because the fields of aging and acute and chronic disease are distinct disciplines that rarely talk to each other.

The Harvard team is pioneering a new way to tackle diseases of aging by addressing the underlying cause. This is the first time, as far as Sinclair is aware, where nerve damage was studied in old rather than young animals. In the case of glaucoma and most diseases, aging is considered largely irrelevant, when of course we know glaucoma is a disease of aging.

A variety of aging clocks, including some the research team built themselves, have been deployed for studies because they are considered the most accurate predictor of biological age and future health, says Sinclair. As embryos, cells lay down different patterns of methylation to ensure they remember their purpose over the next 80 to 100 years.

For unknown reasons, methyl groups get predictably added and subtracted from DNA bases across cell and tissue types and even species, Sinclair says. In 2013, UCLAs Steve Horvath (another Life Biosciences cofounder) showed that machine learning could be used to pick out the hot spots and predict individual lifespan depending on how far above or below the DNA methylation line they sit (Genome Biology, DOI: 10.1186/gb-2013-14-10-r115).

A multitude of aging clocks have since been developed. Eventually, we will need some standardization in the field, but there is nothing super-mysterious about aging clocks, says Sinclair. One of my grad students could probably get you one by the end of the day.

Booming Field

Aging research is a rapidly accelerating field and epigenetic reprogramming is poised to become a particularly active area of inquiry. In terms of numbers, there are still only a dozen or so labs intensely working on this, but there are probably a hundred others I am aware of who are getting into it, says Sinclair.

Life Biosciences began with four labs, but new ones are now joining on an almost weekly basis, he adds. Collaborators have expanded work to the ear and other areas of the body beyond the eye, he adds.

Were also reducing the cost of the DNA clock test by orders of magnitude so [biological age prediction] can be done on millions of people, he continues. In the future, aging clocks are expected to be a routine test in physicians arsenal to guide patient care as well as to monitor response to cancer treatment.

Harvard University has already licensed two patents related to the technology used by the aging researchers to Life Biosciences, Sinclair says. The company has built a scientific team with a group of world-class advisors who developed gene therapy for the eye, which will be tested first for the treatment of glaucoma.

The role of chaperone-mediated autophagy in aging and age-related diseases is another promising area of research being pursued by Life Biosciences Ana Maria Cuervo, M.D, Ph.D., professor, and co-director of the Institute of Aging Studies at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Cuervo recently reported at a meeting that fasting-induced autophagy, the cells natural mechanism for removes unnecessary or dysfunctional components, can greatly extend the lifespan of mice. She believes the triggering of this process might one day help treat diseases such as macular degeneration and Alzheimers.

The specialty of Manuel Serrano, Ph.D., the fourth company cofounder, is cellular senescence and reprogramming and how they relate to degenerative diseases of the lung, kidney, and heart. He isan internationally recognized scientist who has made significant contributions to cancer and aging research and works in the Institute for Research Biomedicine in Barcelona.

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Reversing The Aging Clock With Epigenetic Reprogramming - Bio-IT World

By Nick Antonaccio

The world is changing rapidly. The wine world is changing also rapidly.

As we leave 2020 behind and venture into the uncertainty of 2021, lets focus on the last quarter century a mere speck of sand in the continuum of humankinds presence on this amazing planet.

Over the span of the last 25 years, the global community has witnessed, and been directly affected by, greater advancements in science, medicine, technology, world health, world peace and human longevity than in the cumulative history of humankind.

In 1995, we were primarily tethered to wired phones, receiving much of our information from the Postal Service and broadcast and print media. The internet was just beginning to surface as a consumer tool for information research and shopping.

What a phenomenal journey its been since then: smartphones have largely replaced traditional soft technology sources, not to mention still and video cameras and film, maps, board games, music and music storage on hard media, shopping carts, even face-to-face conversations.

Adults live longer than in 1995 due to advances such as laser surgery, stents, statins, genetic sequencing and MRIs. The level of worldwide poverty is the lowest in history and much of the worlds population lives in relative peace.

In 2021, we can also enjoy life to the fullest (notwithstanding the obvious effects of the pandemic), including indulging in our favorite wines. Allow and indulge me, in the shadow of these momentous changes in our lives, to ruminate on the transformation of the wine world over the last 25 years.

Lets focus on the change in the proliferation and influence of wine producing regions.

New major players. A number of todays major wine-producing countries were not even on the international radar screen 25 years ago. Nowhere has the surge in wine over this period been the greatest than in the United States; all 50 states now produce quality wines. The result of this surge? We have become the largest wine consumers in the world, and 75 percent of what we consume is produced domestically. American cult wines now garner similar respect as a number of esteemed French wines.

Resurgence of Old World producers. After languishing in the world markets for decades, winemakers have revitalized their wineries with bold, exciting new representations of wines and at very affordable prices. In addition to numerous producers in France and Italy, those in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Austria and Switzerland have embraced New World technology, producing quality wines that were subpar 25 years ago.

Eastern Europe has an Old World wine heritage dating back to the early Romans. Virtually non-existent outside of their homelands 25 years ago, high quality/price ratio wines from Croatia, Romania, Czech Republic and Hungary are entering the United States market.

Surge of New World producers. Gallos Barefoot brand has risen from domestic sales of 140,000 cases in 1995 to an industry-leading 18 million today. And dont forget the other New World behemoth, Yellowtail, which is still dominant in the United States market with over 11 million cases sold today. Add to the mix: New Zealand, Chile, Argentina and Canada.

New horizons. This is where it is truly amazing. Today, wine is produced in far-flung regions never thought to be commercially possible, let alone successful, in 1995. Primarily sold in-country, these wines havent hit our shores yet, but they have received acclaim for their high quality. Down the road, look for wines from the Black Sea countries (Russia and Georgia), North Africa (Morocco, even Ethiopia), Israel, Brazil and India. The newest giant entering the market is the United Kingdom, producing acclaimed sparkling wines.

Where is the world market for wine headed? There are a number of wild cards. Experts anticipate significant changes in the wine world in the future, influenced by global warming and the rise of the Chinese market, amongst others.

One thing is certain: Just as consumers and wine lovers everywhere have benefited from historic changes in the last 25 years, so too will we benefit from the ever-evolving world of science and wine production. Enjoy the ride.

Nick Antonacciois a 45-year Pleasantville resident.For over 25 years, he has conducted wine tastings and lectures. Nick is a member and program director of the Wine Media Guild of wine journalists. He also offers personalized wine tastings and wine travel services. Nicks credo: continuous experimenting results in instinctive behavior. You can reachhim at nantonaccio@theexaminernews.com or on Twitter @sharingwine.

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Grapevine: Exploring How the Wine World Changed During the Past 25 Years - The Examiner News

In recent years, the motivation for healthy habits like veggie-heavy diets and regular exercise has shifted from present-day benefits to those more long-term in nature. And were not just interested in extending our lifespan, but our health span, tooaka the length of time we are not only alive but alive and well. Most of us want to die with our boots on, as my grandfather would sayable in both mind and body.

As such, longevity research has become a major focus in the wellness world and this year, we learned quite a bit about how to optimize our daily lives now for the benefit of our future selves. Below, a rundown of the best tips weve accumulated in 2020 for living your healthiest life into your 80s and beyondbecause theres a lot to live well for just ask President-Elect Joe Biden, who is 78!

1. Exercise this many times per week

Its no secret that human beings were designed to be a lot more active than most of us currently are in our modern-day, screen-heavy existences; however, you dont need to give up hope of a long life if youre pressed for tons of time to move each week. This year, a new study published inJAMA Internal Medicinefound that those who engage in moderate or vigorous exercise 150 minutes per weekhad lower all-cause mortality.

That translates to just 22 minutes of moderate-to-intense exercise per day. Those who got these 150 minutes per week showed a lower risk of early death from all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease mortality, and cancer mortality.

Benefits were especially notable in those who tended toward the more rigorous side of the equation, opting for running, High Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) routines, or something equally as taxing. The takeaway there is that if you are doing lower-impact exercises, it might help to throw a few more hardcore (think: quick and dirty) fitness routines into the mix as well. Not sure where to start? Here are nine such workouts you can try now (or January 1, because resolutions).

2. This particular workout format packs the best longevity punch

Any exercise is better than none, so if theres a format you love and that gets you moving, you should one hundred percent stick to it. But if youre open to new things or are already a devotee, research this year shows that HIIT workouts are the most effective form of fitness from a longevity standpoint.

The study looked at the effects of two weekly HIIT workouts per week on 70 to 77 year-olds and found that all-cause mortality was 36 percent lower in that group than in the studys control group (which did whatever kind of exercise they liked). Thirty-six percent!

The specific HIIT routine the studys participants engaged in was the 44 format, which divides each workout into a 10-minute warm-up period followed by four high-intensity intervals. Each interval consists of one to two minutes of extreme exertion, at about 90 percent of maximum heart rate, followed by a three-minute period at about 60 percent of heart rate. The session then concludes with a cool down period. If you want toe try one out, here are four to get you started.

3. If your workouts dont include this one move, they probably should

Technically, research just shows that if you can do this one move easily, that in and of itself is a good indication of longevity: the squat. So while this doesnt necessarily show that doing squats will increase your lifespan, it stands to reason that one way to ensure you can do them easily is to, well, do themand frequently.

One of the reasons its such a good exerciseboth to practice frequently and as a longevity predictor is that its functional, meaning we sort of need to be able to execute squat-like movements regularly in everyday life when, for example, we move from sitting to standing. Plus, we sit too much, and therefore the parts of our bodies, e.g. the glutes, which squats activate do not get nearly the amount of work they were built to take on.

Its critical, howeverfor knee health especiallythat you squat with proper form; heres how.

4. Cardio is not to be overlooked, either

Its not always possible for everyone to engage in high-impact exercise like HIIT or running, but that doesnt mean theyre screwed from a longevity perspective. In some cases, people might want to choose exercises that are gentler on their joints, which is not the same thing as being easy.

According to a cardiologist, there are five types of low-impact cardio thatll work you out hard without irritating aging or injured parts of your body: swimming, walking, cycling, rowing, and elliptical. Or, heres a 25-minute low-impact cardio workout you can try from home today.

5. Overall, your workout routines should include these 3 pillars

Ultimately, the best fitness routines are a mix of a number of different modalities, and exercising for longevity is no different. According toAleksandra Stacha-Fleming, founder of NYCs Longevity Lab, a gym that works with people of all ages to create workouts that help their bodies age properly, your regular workouts should typically include a smattering of the following: cardio, for your heart; strength-training, for your bones; and anything that works your flexibility and mobility, e.g. yoga. Get workout vids for each here.

1. Always keep these 6 foods on hand in your fridge

According to Dan Buettner, longevity expert and author ofThe Blue Zones Kitchen, the longest-living people in the world dont obsess over or restrict what they eat; however, they naturally consume nutrient-dense foods as a way of life. The six such foods Buettner thinks you should stock up on ASAP to follow their lead are nuts, vegetables, fruit, tofu, fish, and alt-milk. Find out more about why here.

You might want to add a jar of canned hearts of palm to your shopping list the next time youre try to stock your fridge, too. The ingredient is nutrient-dense, antioxidant-rich, and packed with minerals like potassium, iron, phosphorus, and zinc. Most importantly, its Blue Zones diet-approved, meaning its a longevity-booster, too. Try these 9 recipes to make use of your next hearts of palm haul.

2. Meanwhile, these 5 foods should go in your freezer

Buettner also has thoughts on what should be found in your freezer if you hope to emulate the worlds centenarians. His top five picks include a lot of the same things you should simultaneously keep fresh in your fridge, like fruits and vegetables, and nuts fall into both categories, too. Additionally, Buettner recommends keeping bread (bless you, Buettner!) and whole grains on ice, too. Get a few recipes made with each ingredient on this Buettners freezer list here.

3. Pack these in your pantry

Buettner even shared what he keeps in his own kitchen specifically when it comes to his pantry. What youll find there includes staples such as beans, legumes, whole grains (specifically steel-cut oats and brown rice), nuts, and seeds. You should keep canned greens in your pantry, too.

4. Herbs and spices are oh-so-important, too

Excess inflammation is an enemy of healthy aging, and plants are packed with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. According to herbalist Rachelle Robinett, nutrient-dense herbs are, therefore, a great supplement for anyone looking to enhance the longevity benefits of their diet. Specifically, she recommends ginger, turmeric, spirulina, chili peppers, and ginsengfind out more on why here.

People in the Blue Zone of Okinawa, Japan, also consume an herb called otani-watari, which can be boiled and added to stir-fries, soups, and salad.

4. This one-pot recipe is a longevity experts favorite go-to meal

Whatever Buettner, whos made his lifes work longevity, is eating regularly, Ill have, too. Fortunately, this year he shared his favorite go-to meal, which just so happens to be a one-pot Ikarian Longevity Stew packed with legumes and superstar veggies. Get the recipe here.

5. Overall, its this popular diet that wins the day with respect to longevity

You may have noticed a theme in the above tips, which is that they heavily emphasize fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes, and whole grains; however, the longest-living people in the world arent necessarily vegans. Instead, they adhere to the Mediterranean Diet, and recent research has strengthened the link between it and longevity.

The study found that the Mediterranean diet may be linked to lowering inflammation markers and increasing both brain function and gut healthand therefore improving the aging process overall.

Essentially, the Mediterranean diet does call for substantial amounts of those aforementioned fruits, veggies, whole grains, and nuts. It also adds olive oil as a key component alongside fish and encourages a reduction in the consumption of red meat and saturated fats.

Need a little help making shifting your eating habits to better reflect this diet? Try the Blue Zones specific daily, weekly, and monthly guide for eating more like the longest-living humans on the planet.

6. To keep it simpler still, follow these golden rules of eating for longevity

If all of the above sounds like a lot, consider this; according to Buettner, there are six golden consumption rules to follow if you want to live longer, and TBH, theyre not very restrictive. The first is to drink wine after 5 p.m., ideally with friends or loved ones and a meal. (Um, twist my arm!) The second is to eat mostly plant-based foods, which at this point feels a bit repetitive, so duh. The third is to forget fad-diet brainwashing and carbo load to your hearts desire, as long as your carbs of choice are derived from grains, greens, tubers, nuts, and beans. The fourth is to eat less meat, as mentioned prior, and the fifth is to stick to just three beveragescoffee, that aforementioned wine (okay, yes), and lots and lots of water. Find out what the lastand least obviousgolden rule is here.

1. Keep a consistent sleep schedule

The Dalai Lama might not be a longevity expert per se, but he is doing pretty well at the spritely age of 85. One of his top six tips for extending your lifespan is to maintain a consistent sleep schedule. And even though he starts his day at 3 a.m., his 7 p.m. bedtime ensures he gets a solid eight hours of sleep per night.

Hobbies

1. Volunteer

One less-easy-to-imitate characteristic of those occupying the worlds Blue Zones is that they retain a sense of purpose throughout their lives. In America, we tend to put older people to pasture, so to speak, and they are less naturally integrated into family and community life, too.

One way to hack a sense of purpose in our (cold, heartless) societynot just when youre older but at any ageis to volunteer. Research shows that helping other people can actually help you to live a longer life. Our results show that volunteerism among older adults doesnt just strengthen communities, but enriches our own lives by strengthening our bonds to others, helping us feel a sense of purpose and well-being, and protecting us from feelings of loneliness, depression, and hopelessness, Eric S. Kim, PhD, research scientist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in a press release about the study. Find out more here, including how to adapt this hashtag-goals habit to pandemic times.

2. Grow a green thumb

According to Buettner, people in the Blue Zones, or longest-living areas of the world, garden well into their 90s and beyond. Gardening is the epitome of a Blue Zone activity because its sort of a nudge: You plant the seeds and youre going to be nudged in the next three to four months to water it, weed it, harvest it, he says. And when youre done, youre going to eat an organic vegetable, which you presumably like because you planted it. Find out more on the research behind this here.

3. Meditate

Not to state the obvious, but the Dalai Lamas longevity routine also includes regular meditation. And while he practices for seven hours a day, research shows that just five minutes per day can reap benefits such as sharpening your mind, reducing stress and, importantly, slowing aging.

4. Practice compassion

The Dalai Lama considers compassion to be one of the keys to happiness, and science says it has pro-social benefits, too. These might help us live longer lives, as humans thrive in the communities many Americans find it more difficult to build than those living in the Blue Zones do. Showing concern, care, and empathy to others can endear you to them and ensure that when the shoe is on the other foot, youve got others to lean on, too. This reciprocal relationship gives you that aforementioned sense of longevity-endowing purpose, too.

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The 17 Best Longevity Tips Experts Taught Us in 2020 - Well+Good

Boost Media Agency

The Top 10 Health & Wellness Brands

New York, New York, Jan. 11, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Our health is arguably the most important part of our well-being and longevity as human beings. In the fast-paced world we live in, it can be incredibly difficult to know exactly what we should be consuming and implementing on a day-to-day basis. Products are marketed to be healthy and good for you, but simply looking at the ingredients and calorie information of the packaged foods we eat just isnt enough. According to Boost Media Agency, choosing the right health products is key to our vitality and living a sustainable life. With so many products on the market, it can be hard to choose - but here we make it easy, sharing with you 10 of the top health and wellness brands to watch out for in 2021.

Organifi @organifi

Organifi brings together the world's most high-quality superfood blends in a way that is delicious, convenient, and easily accessible to all. Over one million people have already felt the impact of Organifi and this is only the beginning for the company. Our goal is to transform the world through community, nutrition, and habit transformation. Were in this together and were just getting started, the brand states. Organifi began with a group of friends seeking to empower themselves through better nutrition and creating powerful new habits to support the former. Realizing that there was no easy way to get the nutrition they needed unless they spent their time chopping, pressing, and juicing, the group sought to make the healthy path easier for all. After 52 iterations, the team found a way to make superior nutrition tasty and without compromising any quality, thus Organifis first Green Juice was born. The brand is committed to supporting organic, sustainable, and regenerative farming practices to rebuild our planet and their blends are Non-GMO and Glyphosate Residue Free. By choosing organic ingredients and processes, Organifi leads the way in creating a positive ripple effect to shift the conventional food system infrastructure. Now with millions of high-quality superfood blends shared and hundreds of thousands of lives changed, Organifi proves that transformation doesnt have to be hard.

Sup Supplements - @sup_supplements

WhatSUP? You may have seen this brand on the shelves of your local grocery store, and if you havent, you should definitely keep an eye out for them! Created by a bunch of Aussievitamin nerds, SUP Supplements are the product of their passion, innovation, and dedication to promoting a healthy and well-balanced lifestyle. We decided to take a 360- degree approach to creating our supplements, the brand states, by choosing to formulate targeted supplements in unique and personalised formats, we are creating products for everyone, no matter how you SUP! With so many of us faced with the mounting pressures of having to keep up with a fast-paced lifestyle, consuming the right vitamins and minerals has never been so important. Whilst we cant always ease up the pressures of life, we can look to nature to have our back, and help improve our general health and wellbeing. The brand makes this easier for us by bringing the fun back into vitamins and supplements through their innovative formats. Now, how exactly can you SUP? The range is available in SHOT SUP health drinks, CHEW SUP gummies, or POP SUP tablets and capsules, found in simple, easy to understand formulations, finally, a supplement brand that speaks our language! SUP is taking a massive step in the mental wellbeing space, with a range of products that improve sleep, contain adaptogens for relieving mild anxiety and nootropics for supporting cognitive function. Focus. Stress Less. Sleep. Repeat.

Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts @maunaloamacnut

Beginning in 1949, at the base of its namesake volcano, Mauna Loa learned to grow and roast macadamias to produce a nutrient-dense nut with a uniquely luscious buttery flavor and satisfying crunchbecoming a Hawaiian icon in the process. With its core line-up of dry-roasted, flavored macadamias, Mauna Loais a favorite forthose who follow Keto and Paleo diets,as macadamiasarenaturally low-carb andhigh in good fats, with thebest omega-3 to omega-6 ratio of any tree nut. Continuing to innovate by harnessing the plant-based power of macadamias, and the vibrant flavors of Hawaii, the brand is launching the first non-dairy, macadamia milk nice cream. With the opportunity to establish Mauna Loa as Hawaiis wellness brand, both on the islands and the mainland, were excited to be the first to bring our mighty macadamia to the frozen dessert segment, shared Ed Schultz, President and CEO of Hawaiian Host Group Mauna Loas parent company. When we trialled our dairy-free ice cream with consumers, they were most excited about its creaminess, which makes the perfect base for a plant-powered treat. Mauna Loas new line of macadamia-based dairy-free ice creamcomes in six flavors: MangoLilikoi, Kona Coffee, Rocky Road to Hana, Vanilla Orchid, Chocolate, and Vanilla Chip. The entirely-vegan line is free from dairy, gluten, and GMOs, and serving as the companys first step towards creating more products with the health and wellness consumer's needs in mind.

The Reserve @fromthereserve

Meet The Reserve, the superfood brand going back to the root of health and wellness. This health and wellness brand incorporate into their powder blends various fibres, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that have been used since the dawn of human civilization to cure and prevent diseases, and also serve to improve your bodys overall balance. After all, the secret to a healthy lifestyle starts with consuming the right food. Making sure to only select the best products, the small team sources ingredients from all around the world, and is always testing their products in third party laboratories to offer their customers only ingredients of the highest quality, non-GMO, free from heavy metals, pesticides, etc. Unlike other brands, the company only stocks very low amounts at a time, to ensure their batches and nutrients always remain as fresh as possible. The brand also places strong emphasis on the connection with their community, taking care to always listen to their wants and needs. During the current pandemic, for example, the team was able to develop a hand sanitizer that not only had antibacterial properties, but included 5 essential oils to nourish and protect the skin. The Reserve always has their customers at the forefront of their minds when creating and developing their nourishing superfood blends, and their blends are definitely ones to get your hands on.

Switch Nutrition - @switch_nutrition

Nothing truly compares to how you feel when your body is at its peak, but sometimes we need a little helping hand to get it there. Our supplements may have been originally intended for purely selfish reasons, the Switch Nutrition team state, in the sense that we wanted these products in our lives on the daily! Created to provide the human body with all it needs to get the most out of each day, the range is also all natural, meaning there are no nasty chemicals, artificial flavours, colours or sweeteners to be found inside. Not only Australian-owned and made, Switch Nutrition conduct multiple studies and beta-testing on their science-based formulas, to ensure they are constantly improving on how their formulas can best affect the well-being, physical and mental performance of both the average person and elite athlete. Switch Nutrition also differs to other brands as they are radically transparent about exactly what ingredients can be found in each supplement, the aim being to not only use the highest quality of ingredients, but to educate their consumers on nutritional science. We want to give people a useful framework of how to think about healthy living in combination to their supplement use, the brand states. So, if youre ready to start kicking ass in both your workouts and in life, dont hesitate a second longer, because Switch Nutrition has got your back, front, and insides too!

Super Shrooms @drink.mushrooms

Sick of coffee crashes and jitters? Then say hello to your new best friend. Desiring to create a much healthier alternative to coffee, Super Shrooms was formed to shine a light on the magnificent potential mushrooms have in delivering a better energising effect. With the added benefits mushrooms have in fuelling brain function, performance and stamina, Super Shrooms blends also support your bodys overall health and vitality. We believe mushrooms are the future, the brand states, they have an enormous medicinal potential for the human race. Their mission to bring mushrooms into the spotlight, and make them easier and more convenient to access, is evident through their range of certified organic superfood latte blends, which draw upon the ancient wisdom of Chinese and Ayurvedic medicines to benefit your mind, body and soul. Their blends make use of an array of powerful mushrooms, for example; Lions Mane to fuel memory and focus, Cordyceps for energy, Chaga for an antioxidant boost and Reishi for a calm mind and immune support (which they also sell separately for you to add to your own food and drinks!). The use of much-loved superfoods (such as Raw Peruvian cacao, masala chai, cinnamon and turmeric), do the heavy lifting in the flavour department, providing us with the drinks that are seriously shaking up Australia's cult coffee culture for the better.

Kynd @kynd.life

Kynd is a brand with a difference. Upon spending many years travelling, Kynd founder, Matt Stenmark, recognised that we live in a world in need. Seeing widespread gaps in nutrition and sustainability, he dreamed up a health brand that not only made a difference to its consumers but spread a positive ripple effect to others and to the planet. As a result, Kynd is Australias first one-for-one supplement brand. That means that for every one Kynd product sold, a Kynd Immunity product is donated to a person in need. As of October 2020, Kynd has donated over 13,000 Immunity products to people in need, including homeless shelters and womens refuges. Not only are Kynd products purpose-driven, but they are sustainably packaged health and beauty supplement products with ingredients based on scientific evidence to empower individuals to show kindness to themselves, to others and to the planet. With the brand centring its values upon the mantra kynd to you, kynd to others, and kynd to the planet, they are definitely one to support and watch out for. (To enable Kynd to reach as many people as possible, Kynd leverages the national distribution network of iNova Pharmaceuticals. Always read the label. Follow the directions for use. If symptoms persist, see your healthcare professional. Supplements may only be of assistance if dietary intake is inadequate.)

Recoop @getrecoop

Stimulants artificially increase stress hormones in the brain, putting your mind and body into overdrive, which can often result in harmful short and long-term health effects. Recoop is on a mission to combat this, through their superior supplements that combine the best of science and sourcing. Whilst they can be highly effective at first, over time our system builds up a tolerance towards stimulants, and we need to consume more to achieve the same effect. Whilst the benefits remain the same, the negative side effects are amplified with an increased dosage. Recoop provides care before, after and during stimulant use, by maintaining healthy cognition and energy levels when taking stimulants, and supporting productivity and wellbeing that may be adversely affected by stimulants. Their Wellness Set works to power an all-natural approach to health and productivity, by reducing the negative side effects of stimulants such as Adderall, Ritalin, Modafinil, Concerta, and caffeine. We believe powerful people, not just patients, can reclaim their health and enhance their cognition for a better life, the brand states, were committed to building wellness systems that dont wait for you to need them. Millions of people struggle with the unwanted side-effects of stimulants, as not taking them simply isn't an option. With Recoop, explore an all-natural approach to compromise-free care.

Pure Oils of Tasmania - @pureoilsoftasmania_

Lets talk about Kunzea. If you havent heard about this miracle oil before, were not at all surprised. Native to Australias island state of Tasmania, this little gem is a godsend for skin irritation. Mother and daughter duo Carey and Josie Badcoe came across this oil when a friend was being treated for terminal cancer. He mentioned that it was the only thing that would help the skin problems he had, which were being exacerbated by chemotherapy and radiation, Carey says. Fascinated, they decided to investigate further what other oils could be sourced and distilled from Tasmania. From their research, Pure Oils of Tasmania was founded in response for the growing need and demand for less chemical products. The brand produces Kunzea, Blue Gum, Manuka and Lavender Tea Tree oils each have their own individual aromas and therapeutic qualities. With their oils wild harvested and batch distilled to capture the pure essence of the Tasmanian bush, the oils antibacterial, antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory qualities have become highly sought-after alternatives to chemical options present. Every day we discover a new way our customers are using the oils for their therapeutic value, to make their homes healthy and beautiful, and for their personal wellbeing, says Josie. The products Pure Oils of Tasmania produces reflects the beautiful surroundings, pure environment and quality of life enjoyed by Tasmanians, which can now be shared with the rest of the world.

Lumen - @lumen.me

Now we understand why you could be mistaken for thinking weve included a vape pen in this list, but the Lumen device is anything but! Once only available to top athletes, in hospitals and clinics, the metabolic testing is now available to all thanks to Lumen. Designed by twin sisters Michal and Merav Mor, both with doctorates in physiology, to prepare themselves for an upcoming Ironman competition. Wanting a way to track their metabolism during training but not having anything available to do so on the market, the Mor sisters invented the small Bluetooth connected device to measure the CO2 concentration in their breath. This then determined whether their bodies were burning fat or carbs. How is this possible we hear you ask? Well essentially a high concentration of CO2 present within the breath indicates that the individual is burning carbs, and a low concentration indicates the person burning fat. Along with its app, Lumen is then able to offer the user daily customised nutrition plans based off their metabolism readings. The app also provides workout optimisation, enabling users to see if they have enough energy before a workout or if they need to re-fuel their bodies. Scientifically validated and endorsed by professional athletes across the globe, Lumen is set to revolutionise the way we approach our nutrition, and it all starts with one breath.

Make sure to follow each of these amazing brands, as they continue to improve the health and wellbeing of people with their incredible products. Each of their Instagram's have been directly linked here. Finally, we would like to thank Boost Media Agency for taking the time to put this article together.

Media DetailsContact: Lewis SchenkCompany: Boost Media AgencyPhone: 3106001787Email: operations@boostmediaofficial.pageWebsite: http://www.boostmediaofficial.page

Original post:
The Top 10 Health & Wellness Brands to Watch in 2021 - GlobeNewswire

Americans are living longer than ever before about 30 years longer, on average, than a century ago according to leading scholars who participated in the Century Summit, a four-day virtual conference convened in December by The Longevity Project and the Stanford Center on Longevity. The conference looked at everything from business innovations to caregiving to new ways for Americans to work and thrive throughout the increasingly long lives they're now living.

"Longevity is ... among the greatest opportunities we have had in human history," Psychologist Laura Carstensen, founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity, said. "Essentially, our ancestors handed us 30 extra years of life with no strings attached. It's up to us to make sure that we use these years to improve quality of life, not just in old age but at every stage in life."

Researcher Susan Golden said adults 50 and older now represent 35% of the nation's population and account for more than 50% of consumer spending and 83% of household wealth.

That huge market of older adults is beginning to attract "A-level entrepreneurs, who could be doing anything," Robert Chess, a biotech entrepreneur and Stanford business lecturer, said.

"They're coming in and reinventing areas that have traditionally been the purview of nonprofits and mom-and-pop businesses," Chess said, citing a startup called Wider Circle focused on alleviating senior loneliness and another called Honor that specializes in the field of home health care.

Even iconic global brands with youthful images have embraced the aging customer base, making "stealth" changes to retain this group, he said.

"You think of BMW, the 'ultimate driving machine,' with 30- and 40-year-old marketing and demographics," Chess said. But the average age of a new BMW owner is actually 56.

The Bavarian auto giant redesigned its dashboard and controls with more color contrast, larger type and bigger knobs, without ever announcing it, Chess said.

"It works really well for older people, but they don't quite know why. It works well for the younger people. But (BMW) is still marketing the same way they always have. It's essentially stealth design," he said.

Similarly, Nike finding it was losing customers as they got into their 50s, 60s and 70s introduced the CruzrOne athletic shoe.

"The marketing is 'athlete forever,' so they're not marketing it toward older people, they're marketing it for cross-generation," Chess said.

"But it has features such as a flexible back heel so it's easier to get in and out of the shoe. It has more stability control; it has more padding because as your feet get older the padding gets thinner all things that are just good for everybody."

Chess said the CruzrOne was inspired by 82-year-old Nike founder Phil Knight, who walks eight miles a day.

Despite its youthful image, eyewear maker Warby Parker has found that its fastest-growing market segment is people 60 and above, Chess said. "So, they provide all the features needed (by older customers, such as progressive lenses) but still keep their young market. What you're seeing is companies that have young brands but are going where the growth is.

"They're doing it by providing product features that work for everybody but are needed by the older people."

In seeking to lead longer and healthier lives, Americans should consider emulating the nation's Latino population, David Hayes-Bautista, a professor of medicine and director of the Center for the Study of Latino Health and Culture at the Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, told participants at the conference.

Latinos in the United States enjoy longer life expectancies and lower death rates from heart disease, cancer and other causes than non-Hispanic whites, said Hayes-Bautista, citing data from the National Center for Health Statistics.

Hayes-Bautista, who's spent 40 years studying the health and culture of Latinos in the United States, said the group can be considered a model for longer, engaged lives. Latinos in the U.S. enjoy nearly 3 1/2 years of longer life expectancy 81.8 years than non-Hispanic whites, at 78.5 years, he said.

"That's surprising because they have less income as a population, less education, lower access to care, but they manage to live 3 1/2 years longer," he said.

Similarly, U.S. Latinos have 30% lower age-adjusted death rates from several leading causes of death, including heart disease and cancer, he added.

The reasons, in part, have to do with "some behaviors, which are counter-intuitive," Hayes-Bautista said. Latinos are about 30% less likely to use tobacco and alcohol and 40% less likely to use drugs, he said.

"This surprises a lot of people because the stereotype is the drunken Mexican, etc., etc.," he said. "And part of this may be due to some dedication to work."

Latinos consistently have a higher rate of labor force participation and a higher rate of household formation than non-Latinos, he said, citing data from the U.S. Census Bureau.

"We don't have to re-invent anything," Hayes-Bautista said. "If we want to increase life expectancy, lower mortality, keep people engaged and have big families, actually Latinos have been doing that ... We just need to understand and appreciate what's under our nose right here in this country."

For more information or recordings of the Century Summit go to longevity.stanford.edu/century-summit.

More:
Americans are living 30 years longer on average and that's a big plus for businesses - Palo Alto Online

The factors responsible for the development of this market are increasing emphasis on stem cell research, increasing demand for cell-based assays in research and development, and increasing geriatric population across the globe.

The globallongevity and anti-senescence therapymarket accounted for US$ 361.6 Million in 2019 and is estimated to be US$ 1397.1 Million by 2029 and is anticipated to register a CAGR of 14.5%. The reportGlobal Longevity and Anti-senescence Therapy Market,By Therapy (Senolytic Drug Therapy, Gene Therapy, Immunotherapy, and Others), By Application (Longevity, Senescence Inhibition, Cardiovascular Diseases, Neural Degenerative Diseases, Ophthalmology Disorders, and Others),andBy Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa) Trends, Analysis and Forecast till 2030.

Key Highlights:

Analyst View:

Growing geriatric population globally

Geriatric population of world continues to grow at an unprecedented rate. According to data published in An Aging World: 2015, the percentage of aging population is expected to jump to nearly 17% of the worlds population by 2050 (1.6 billion). Further, as per the data reported by National Institutes of Health, Americas 65-and-over population is estimated to almost double over the next three decades, from 48 million to 88 million by 2050. The global population of the people aged 80 and older is projected to increase at triple rate between 2015 and 2050, rising from 126.5 million to 446.6 million. The population in countries like Asia and Latin America is projected to quadruple by 2050.

Increasing awareness regarding Antiaging Products among Generation Y and Later Generations

Anti-wrinkle products have formulation well matched to slower the aging process and thus are gaining traction globally. Major causes of wrinkles involves lack of essential nutrients in the body, exposure to UV light and pollution for higher duration, dehydration, smoking, and drugs, along with other genetic factors. Higher importance of appearance and greater aging anxiety are related to greater likelihood of purchasing anti-aging products.

Additionally, rising advancements in anti-senescence technologies and surging level of disposable income are also gaining traction in the target market. Furthermore, surging demand for cell-based assays in research and development and growing prominence on stem cell research is likely to gain significant impetus for the longevity and anti-senescence therapy market share over the forecast period.

Browse 60 market data tables* and 35figures* through 140 slides and in-depth TOC on GlobalLongevity and Anti-senescence TherapyMarket, By Therapy (Senolytic Drug Therapy, Gene Therapy, Immunotherapy, and Others), By Application (Longevity, Senescence Inhibition, Cardiovascular Diseases, Neural Degenerative Diseases, Ophthalmology Disorders, and Others), andBy Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa) Trends, Analysis and Forecast till 2030

Key Market Insights from the report:

The globallongevity and anti-senescence therapymarket accounted for US$ 165.6 Million in 2019 and is estimated to be 857.7 Million by 2029 and is anticipated to register a CAGR of 17.7%. The market report has been segmented on the basis oftherapy, application, and region.

To know the upcoming trends and insights prevalent in this market, click the link below:

https://www.prophecymarketinsights.com/market_insight/Global-Longevity-and-Anti-senescence-Therapy-Market-4210

Competitive Landscape:

The prominent player operating in the global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market includesAcorda Therapeutics, Human Longevity Inc., Calico Life Sciences, Insilico Medicine, Oisin Biotechnology, Recursion Pharmaceuticals, Restorbio, Proteostasis Therapeutics Inc., Senex Biotechnology, and Senolytic Therapeutics

The market provides detailed information regarding industrial base, productivity, strengths, manufacturers, and recent trends which will help companies enlarge the businesses and promote financial growth. Furthermore, the report exhibits dynamic factors including segments, sub-segments, regional marketplaces, competition, dominant key players, and market forecasts. In addition, the market includes recent collaborations, mergers, acquisitions, and partnerships along with regulatory framework across different regions impacting the market trajectory. Recent technological advances and innovations influencing the global market are included into the report.

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Global longevity and anti-senescence therapy market || keyplayer Senex Biotechnology, and Senolytic Therapeutics - FLA News

I called Asselborn to ask him what he thought about all of this. He apologized for his English (I have to speak Luxembourgish in the morning, read the papers in German, talk to diplomats in French and now to you in English. Its a lot.) and was somewhat bemused by the fuss, but agreed to a brief interview. The following transcript has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Anne Applebaum: So what happened?

Jean Asselborn: Nothing, really. The U.S. ambassador in Luxembourg told us that Pompeo has a meeting with [NATO Secretary General] Jens Stoltenberg on the 14th, and that he would like to stop by Luxembourg too. We were waiting to hear details. And then Sunday evening we were told Pompeo will not come.

Applebaum: Do you know why?

Asselborn: Nobody spoke with me, but The New York Times seems to think it was my comments, so that must be the reason. We also heard that in Brussels they were planning to meet with him, but without any press conference or public statement; maybe that bothered him too? I did call Trump Brandstifter, pyromaneI think it means pyromaniac in English. From my side, this is correct, and I will not correct this.

Applebaum: Had you met Pompeo before?

Asselborn: I met him once in Washington and saw him several times in Europe. It was never easy with him.

Applebaum: What does that mean?

Asselborn: I heard Trump twice at the UN General Assembly, both times speaking about this wrong idea of patriotism. It wasughawful. In the 1930s, in Europe, we learned where this wrong patriotism can go. We never understood it. A big majority in the EU never understood it. But Pompeo was always repeating this too.

Applebaum: He was an emissary of Trumpism?

Asselborn: He was somebody who defended the positions of Trump. Very difficult cooperation with him. Pompeo is really one of the last pillars of Trump. In a week, it will be better.

Applebaum: What lasting damage did the Trump administration do?

Asselborn: I am not defending Iran. On human rights, Iran is catastrophic. But we negotiated with them for 13 years, and finally in 2015 we got the deal that Iran could not build nuclear weapons. The idea was to engage and change this regime. I was twice in Iran, in 2015 and 2016young people expected something from the free world; now that is all destroyed. Trump destroyed this. He destroyed solidarity with the Paris climate agreement. He did all of these aggressive things on trade. He left the World Health Organization.

I dont know of one positive thing on foreign policy that has come out of EU-U.S. cooperation during the past four years. I dont see one single positive thing. It would be healthy to have again a president and a secretary of state who understand the past, the history of the European Union, who know that before World War II we had exactly this wrong sort of patriotism, nationalism, racism. The EU was created to help us to overcome this wrong patriotism.

More here:
Europeans Recognize Trumpism for What It Is - The Atlantic

Watching frontline health care workers and other volunteers receive their first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, there is reason to believe after months of uncertainty that this pandemic will indeed end. The challenge now, though, is to keep ourselves safe until enough of us have been inoculated and possess protective immunity.

It will not be easy. As we write this, more than 21 million Americans have been diagnosed with the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, and more than 365,000 have died. Across the nation, hospital intensive care units are at or even beyond capacity. In California, state officials have ordered thousands of additional body bags and refrigerated storage units to serve as portable morgues. San Diego County escaped the worst of the summer COVID-19 surge, but the current situation is not good. Case and mortality rates in the county continue to rise, each day seemingly worse than the last. Our hospitals and health systems are stressed to the breaking point.

We provide this platform for community commentary free of charge. Thank you to all the Union-Tribune subscribers whose support makes our journalism possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider becoming one today.

But we are fortunate that the countys hospitals have a long history of close cooperation and coordination and that they have worked through these difficult times to provide and process lab tests, review predictions for hospital needs and revamp in-patient processes to effectively meet ever-increasing patient loads and needs.

In addition to its strong Health & Human Services Agency, San Diego County enjoys abundant public health expertise at San Diego State University, University of California San Diego and other local institutions. Experts at these institutions have been involved from the beginning in helping predict and map viral spread and supporting county contact tracing efforts, and they have offered guidance and services to other institutions, such as local school systems. The pandemic has strengthened and deepened these inter-institutional partnerships and called on us to find new ways to prioritize the needs and health of those most vulnerable.

But more can be done, and more could be better coordinated, including nationwide public health efforts to provide messaging aimed at reducing transmission through early diagnosis, case investigation and contact tracing. We offer some suggestions on how.

Efforts must shift to prioritizing the rapid identification of cases among those who have symptoms or have known exposures, so they can be isolated and treated if positive. The focus needs to be on making sure that those who have positive tests are quickly informed and appropriate actions taken to prevent further spread of the disease, with contact tracing performed only for cases with a high risk of spread to multiple individuals. Finally, but no less importantly, we must reimagine the public health messages about facial coverings and distancing so that they resonate in a time when we are grappling with frustration and fatigue.

Public health professionals at UCSDs Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science and the SDSU School of Public Health urgently call for a convening of stakeholders to discuss how we can pool and reallocate resources at institutions across San Diego County to meet the current crisis. We must prioritize our needs based on the most acute stresses to systems, institutions and communities. We must come together with tangible offers of available capacity to test, trace and treat our families, friends and neighbors and new, innovative ideas for effective prevention strategies and public health messaging that connects us all.

We can do this. UC San Diego alone has the capacity to conduct at least 10,000 COVID-19 tests per day. It conducts routine testing of thousands of on-campus students and staff every week and, under contract from the county, has traced thousands of COVID-19 contacts. Similarly, SDSU, which has developed exceptional skills in community health worker-led contact tracing and testing through its Communities Fighting COVID! program, could expand it to meet near-term needs throughout the region. Immediate efforts should be directed to reaching positive cases within 24 hours. This may require shifting of staffing priorities to ensure prompt containment of COVID-19. Our local universities have deep knowledge about public health messaging and communication, which could be leveraged to create new connections to populations at greatest risk.

It is critical that we identify and consider possibilities now before we find ourselves overwhelmed. Lets bring our strengths to a virtual table so that we those of us with the most protections and those of us with the least outlast these dark times and reach a brighter future of immunity.

Anderson is dean of the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity at UC San Diego and lives in Del Mar. Madanat is a distinguished professor of public health and interim vice president for research and innovation at SDSU. She lives in Sabre Springs.

Read more here:
Commentary: Health experts and other San Diego leaders must unite to better coordinate pandemic response - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Sow mortality has been making the headlines as producers grapple with rising sow death loss in the U.S. pork industry. Although the topic deserves discussion, some experts believe it is time to focus on gilt retention.

Sow mortality has been scrutinized ad nauseum, but gilt retention hasn't been focused on quite as much. I think it may be the top of the bottleneck when it really comes back to what we can do to improve things downstream in production, said Hyatt Frobose, USA commercial director at Jyga Technologies-Gestal, during a recent webinar.

In a 2003 study published by Ken Stalder at Iowa State University that was reiterated in 2017, it showed on average, replacement females failed to generate a positive return on investment until parity three to four, depending a little on farm size and conditions, Frobose explained.

In general, our females aren't really paying for themselves until they've stayed in the herd for three parities, he said. What's concerning to me is we know that the parity averages for the U.S. sow herd, as represented by Agristats and Swine Management Systems, are only averaging about 2.4 to 2.6. So somewhere, we're not really matching up with when these sows are paying for themselves. It seems to me we're leaving opportunity on the table.

How can we get these animals into their most productive parities?

In North America, most growing gilts are housed in similar housing environments compared to their growing-finishing counterparts. Ad libitum feed access is provided until just prior to breeding, with most gilts receiving diets with marginally elevated levels of amino acids, vitamins and trace minerals. While this rearing strategy is prevalent due to convenience, consistency and availability, recent research suggests it may not necessarily be best for sow longevity. Frobose suggests its time to rethink how gilts are raised and developed.

Limit-Feed GiltsMost of the farms Frobose works with provide ad libitum feed access for gilts from the time they enter the gilt development unit (GDU) until they move into breeding stalls. He said a common issue in commercial GDUs is that gilts grow too fast and are bigger than ideal. Research indicates these gilts are more likely to prematurely exit the herd.

Frobose offered producers two suggestions to help optimize gilts, as they move into breeding.

1. Change feed presentation method. Change feed presentation method to moderately restrict gilts from the end of the nursery period by targeting gains of 1.65 lb/day to1.76 lb/day until flushing two weeks prior to breeding.

2. Change the feed composition. If ad libitum feeding is the only option, add fiber, increase micron size and adjust energy and lysine targets downward by 10% to 15% in order to slow growth rate.

Controlling gilt weight at breeding may also offer downstream diet savings, by moderating mature sow size and reducing annual maintenance costs. Simple math would suggest that reducing gestation feed by as little as 150 g/d could reduce annual feed costs by USD $9/sow/year, Frobose said.

Revisit GDU DesignGDU design is often an afterthought in sow farm design, Frobose said.

It's human nature to lay out your ideal floor plan and equipment and technology. Then, when you get down to the price tag, we try to figure out where we can shave off some dollars and cents to make it more palatable, Frobose said. Unfortunately, in my experience, the GDU becomes a target area that gets the axe on some extra dollars and cents. I think that's unfortunate, because we really should be treating that as the proving ground for the next gilts that are going to be entering the herd.

GDUs are often designed like a grow-finish environment. Frobose said this may be convenient and easier, but he argued it may not be best for the gilt long-term.

Clearly, were getting these gilts to grow fast enough, and we don't really need them to grow any faster than they already are, he said. So, if we're ad lib feeding in the GDU (which I think needs questioned), are wet-dry feeders the right way to go to maximize growth, or would we be better off with a dry feeder that can maybe help us slow down that growth just a little to keep gills from getting too big?

Frobose suggested producers implement these ideas into GDU design.

1. Mimic the environment of the sow farm. Frobose suggested using the same flooring and maintaining the same type of ambient temperature environment and air quality to prepare gilts for moving into the actual sow farm flow. Avoid creating new stresses as they move into the breeding environment.

Waterers are a big thing that Ive seen messed up, Frobose said. Its easy to make the mistake of having a different waterer type in the GDU pens, or even in gestation, than what those gilts will experience in farrowing. I can count too many times where I've seen a gilt that didn't find the water or know how to drink when she got into farrowing. That can really set her on the wrong path as she enters production.

2. Maintain group cohesiveness. If possible, maintain the hierarchy of a group of gilts that were raised together by keeping them together as they move from breeding into pen gestation to minimize aggression and lameness. Research shows grouping gilts or even gilts and P1s separately from older sows can increase farrowing rates and help improve retention of those animals in the herd, he added.

GDUs are continuous flow and that's one of the key differences from most grow-finish environments that are managed all-in, all-out. It's always a challenge of how to optimize stocking density with our different age groups, he said. But its something we've got to continue to think about.

3. Consider precision feeding technology. Most would agree its best to give gilts multiple diets throughout the grow-finish period, Frobose said.

Unfortunately, in my experience, the in-herd nutritionists are usually the last people asked on pen design or barn design for GDUs, and so they end up kind of effectively hamstringed by whatever the construction folks decide is the best thing for the GDU, he added.

Additional feed systems usually require more gilt movement, increasing labor requirements that are already lacking in the GDU. Frobose said blending technologies, however, can enhance pen flexibility and help deliver multiphase diets to a pen of gilts based on their age and weight while reducing diet cost and increasing feed efficiency.

Invest WiselyGilts may have historically been thought of as a cheap investment, but as an industry, we have become accustomed to introducing gilts at an average of 70% to breed at a 55% annual replacement rate, Frobose explained.

In a 2019 study, Derald Holtkamp, Iowa State University, showed that implementing a gilt management program yielded a 10% reduction in annual gilt replacement rate (62% to 52%) on a 2,400-head sow farm and resulted in 829 additional marketed pigs and 222,310 additional pounds of pork produced per year, ultimately yielding a benefit-to-cost ratio of 2.41:1.

Once you account for genetic premiums, overhead costs and the currently low value of cull sows, isnt it worth realigning your gilt development programs to improve herd retention? Frobose asked.

More from Farm Journal's PORK:

A Look at the Unknown Factors in Sow Mortality

No Magic Bullet to Reduce Pre-Wean Mortality in Pigs

Remodeling Facilities: You Have Options

See original here:
Is it Time to Rethink Gilt Development? - Pork Magazine