Category Archives: Human Longevity

I want to start by congratulating Damian [Green] and the whole APPG on the brilliant work youve done to get this issue onto the agenda.

Today is a day for detailed discussion about the proposals in your new Strategy.

But before we get to the policy I want to say a few words about the (small-p) politics.

Among policymakers especially in government our ageing society has traditionally been framed as a problem, a liability.

A source of pressure on public services. An unwelcome modern trend, like cybercrime or falling bee numbers.

But this is looking at things through the wrong end of the telescope.

Because of course its great news were all living longer.

And language matters. The words we use colour perception.

So lets hear less about our ageing society, and more about healthy longevity.

Less about the burden and the pressure and more about the reward of getting this right.

Because our final years should be an act of enjoyment. Not a task of endurance.

That positive framing is important because too often as a society we sweep these issues under the carpet.

We dont like to think about getting older. We dont like to think about our bodies failing. So we dont give healthy ageing the attention it deserves.

Which brings me to the policy question.

For most of the 70 years the NHS has been in existence weve focused on life span.

This has seen extraordinary successes.

Mass-vaccination. The collapse in the adult smoking rate from 45% in the 1970s to 14% today.

But as the NHS enters its eighth decade, it needs to focus more on health span: the number of years a person can expect to live healthily and independently.

In our manifesto we committed to an extra 5 healthy years by 2035. This is the primary long-term clinical goal weve set the NHS.

Both parts are important: extra years and healthy years. Adding years to life, and life to years.

The next question is how do we get there?

Today I want to touch on 3 things.

The first is place and its relationship to people.

Because however you choose to measure the evidence is clear: your chance of a healthy old age is closely tied to where you live.

A man born in Blackpool can expect only 53 years of healthy life, while a man born in Buckingham gets 68.

Thats wrong.

Tackling this postcode inequality matters to this government. Its what we mean when we talk about levelling up.

The underlying factors are a complex interaction between demography and economy.

But because healthcare inequalities are geographically concentrated, it means we can take a targeted approach.

This starts with improving access to healthcare.

50 million more GP appointments. 50,000 more nurses. 40 new hospitals. Its what those flagship commitments are all about.

And we can boost access even further: by using more of our brilliant community pharmacists as a first port of call for people seeking primary care, by using technology to reduce the burden on clinicians, by having everyone in every part of the NHS operating right at the top of their licence.

But having the right NHS services is just one part of building healthier places.

Its about warm, properly insulated homes, low-crime neighbourhoods, and action on the environment like our cross-government work on air quality.

Its the kind of urban design that supports healthy living, more opportunities for walking and cycling bearing down on the 40% of car journeys that are less than 2 miles.

This is something that the Prime Minister is strongly personally committed to, and our announcement yesterday of 250 miles of new cycling routes is another milestone on that journey.

One of the biggest health impacts a place can have is whether it supports good local jobs.

By good jobs I mean jobs that are purposeful and rewarding, not just well paid. Where employers invest in things like mental health or muscular-skeletal support as part and parcel of being a good employer.

And this absolutely includes jobs in the NHS.

As one of the countrys biggest employers, the NHS can have an outsized impact on the opportunities available to local communities.

For example, Im proud of the work were doing with the Princes Trust to get 10,000 school leavers job-ready for roles in the NHS and social care.

The second part of this agenda and closely linked to place is a recognition that healthy longevity is not just the NHS.

Only around a quarter of what leads to longer, healthier lives is the result of what goes on in hospitals.

The rest is down to genetics, the environment, and the lifestyle choices we make.

Yes, we can and we should use the infrastructure of the NHS to help support healthier choices. Measures like dedicated alcohol care teams in hospitals, or targeted anti-smoking interventions aimed at CVD patients.

But increasingly we understand that there are effective, non-clinical approaches to healthier living and ageing.

Look at the use of homeshares to tackle loneliness. Bringing together people with spare rooms and people who are happy to chat and lend a hand around the house in return for affordable accommodation.

Or take the social prescribing revolution.

A growing body of evidence suggests that activities like joining a book group or singing in a choir or learning to play an instrument can have huge health and wellbeing benefits.

Benefits that include everything from sleep quality to reduced anxiety to improved memory.

Over the next few years we want to bring these kinds of treatments to almost a million people.

Weve set up a National Academy for Social Prescribing to aimed at making the NHS a world-leader in this field.

Third, and this wont be a surprise coming from me, is better technology.

More proactive, preventative healthcare depends on a strong data infrastructure. On being able to link disparate datasets from different parts of the system to create a complete narrative about a persons care.

Lets take an example.

We know that atrial fibrillation irregular heartbeat is a common cause of stroke, but the risk varies from person to person.

By analysing lots of different data points for atrial fibrillation patients age, frailty, previous bleeding and so on you can create an individualised risk score.

In turn, this allows GPs to take pre-emptive action, for example prescribing anticoagulants.

In the past assembling all the information needed to produce that score was so time-consuming as to be impractical. It was held on different databases in different formats, often as free text rather than machine-readable code.

But now we can do it with AI.

In fact, a team right here at Kings Dr Dan Bean and Dr Paul Scott have built an AI tool thats able to replicate the analysis of human experts in a fraction of the time.

Adult social care is increasingly a site of healthtech innovation.

Internet-linked devices can help people live at home for longer and stay connected to family and friends.

They can also help providers deliver smarter, more responsive care.

For example, theres a provider up in Warwickshire WCS Care doing great things with acoustic monitoring.

The tech lets the staff hear crying or breathing problems, sending an alert to a monitoring station staffed by a night manager.

It means that staff arent knocking on residents doors every hour and disturbing people.

Everyone sleeps better, and staff estimate that night-time falls have reduced by 34%.

Interestingly, when they analysed the data they found that lots of people were staying awake late into the night.

This led the care home to set up a wide awake club to support night owls and get them back into a healthier rhythm.

I want to spread this kind of innovation far and wide, and Ive set up a dedicated adult social care unit in NHSX.

This will focus on setting technical standards, improving data sharing, enhancing skills and fixing the digital infrastructure.

Like longevity itself, better tech is an opportunity we wholeheartedly embrace.

Ill end where I began, and this is the message I want to leave you with.

Longer life is not a problem to be tackled but a goal to be pursued.

And not just for government, or even the NHS, but for each and every one of us.

Theres a huge prize ahead if we get this right: 5 more years of healthy life. More enjoyment out of life. More time for the things that matter most in life.

Im looking forward to working with you all to make it happen.

More:
Adding years to life and life to years: our plan to increase healthy longevity - GOV.UK

The spread of coronavirus will reduce GDP growth in the first quarter to just 1 percent, down from a previous forecast of 2.2 percent, according to an S&P Global analysis.

"We expect most of the drag on U.S. growth to be in the first quarter, with a smaller hit in the second quarter and a rebound in the latter half," said Beth Ann Bovino, U.S. chief economist at S&P Global.

But the impact could be more or less severe dependingon the longevity and intensity of the outbreak, Bovina added.

Along with the potentially devastating human toll, if the virus spreads further and lasts longer, the impact on virtually every economy could be far worse, the report said.

We will be watching the numbers on the health of the U.S. economy, determining whether, and by how much, the coronavirus infects investment demand and consumer spending, it added.

The outbreak will chip away at growth by unsettling supply lines, disrupting tourism anddecreasing commodity prices.

U.S. officials have maintained that the outbreaks economic harm will be limited and predicted that activity would bounce back after the outbreaks end.

The World Health Organization on Tuesday reported 42,708 confirmed cases of the virus in China and 1,017 fatalities. Another 393 cases have been reported in 24 other countries, with just one fatality.

Read the original:
S&P: Coronavirus will reduce first-quarter GDP growth | TheHill - The Hill

Thirty years have now passed since the Voyager 1 spacecraftsnapped one of the most iconic and memorable pictures in spaceflight history. Knownas the Pale Blue Dot, the heart-rending view shows planet Earth as a single,bright blue pixel in the vastness of space, as seen from the outer reaches ofthe solar system.

Now, NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory have provided anew and improved version, using state of the art image-processing software andtechniques to reprocess the thirty-year-old image. JPL software engineer andimage processor Kevin Gill, whose images we feature often on Universe Today,led the effort.

Im very happy with how it came out and proud to be able toshare it, Gill said. I was incredibly honored to get to work on thesehistoric images.

The original image was obtained on Feb. 14, 1990. Rays ofsunlight scattered within the camera optics stretch across the scene, and oneray dramatically intersects with Earth, making it appear as a mote of dust,as astronomer Carl Sagan phrased it. Sagan was a member of the Voyager imagingteam at the time and had the idea for pointing the spacecraft back to look backtoward home for a final time. Voyager 1s camera snapped a series of 60 imagesthat were used to create the first family portrait of our solar system.

Making the image even more poignant is that it was taken justminutes before Voyager 1s cameras were intentionally powered down to conservepower. NASA also knew that both Voyager 1 and 2 would not make close flybys ofany other objects during their remaining lifetimes. Shutting down instrumentsand other systems on the two Voyager spacecraft has been a gradual and ongoingprocess that has helped enable their longevity.

For the newly reprocessed image, Gill said he consulted withplanetary scientist Candy Hansen and engineer William Kosmann, who both helped processthe original image. Gill processed the images from the raw data rather thanstarting with the already published one.

I dont know how they processed the original images, Gilltold Universe Today, but I used a pipeline that includes custom software, USGSISIS3, Photoshop, and Lightroom. I also handled the color differently than theoriginal. The mission planners took the photo in green, blue, and violet lightso its false color, but I applied a white balancing on the main sunbeam andretained a lot of the ambient light which made smoothing easier.

He added that preventing graininess and allowing largeupscaling were goals for the reprocessing.

At the time the original photo was taken, Voyager 1 wasspeeding out of the solar system beyond Neptune and about 3.7 billion miles(6 billion kilometers) from the Sun.

Thats here. Thats home. Thats us, Sagan wrote in his book, Pale Blue Dot. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.

Read JPLs press release for more information on the new image. See this NASA page for more information about the family portrait of the Solar System.

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The Pale Blue Dot: Now New and Improved - Universe Today

By ELVIS ONDIEKIMore by this Author

The fact: Kenya's second president, Daniel arap Moi, died on Tuesday at a ripe age.

It was 95 on paper, but his son Raymond and Press Secretary Lee Njiru have argued that Mois actual age was more than 100 years.

The circumstances: that Moi was a man who observed a healthy and traditional diet is a well-known fact.

It is also known that his elder brother, Paulo, lived to 104 and his sister, Rebecca, died at 100.

And so a debate ensues: what guarantees longevity? It could be the right genes, a proper diet, exercise, good medication or a combination of all those.

But there is no single clear-cutting factor from the stories of the people who have lived for a century and beyond. We gathered different world-views on the matter.

NUTRITIONIST: Diet is the key to longevity

According to Gladys Mugambi, a nutritionist working with the Ministry of Health, a proper diet is a major determinant of how long a person lives.

I cannot attribute it to vegetarian or meat consumption but to eating variety of foods in the right amounts accompanied by appropriate physical activity, she told Lifestyle.

Mois famous breakfast of tea or porridge with boiled green maize will definitely offer points to ponder for the lot that cherishes wheat products and fried goodies at their breakfast table.

Abraham Kiptanui (then-State House comptroller) would make sure there was tea and green maize, Mois one-time Cabinet Minister Kalonzo Musyoka told Nation in 2014.

Regardless, Moi was not entirely vegetarian. Njiru told documentarist Salim Amin two years ago that the former president ate meat like a lion.

I have heard people say that Moi does not eat meat, but the centrality of Mois food is meat, said Njiru.

Other things like vegetables and ugali are additions. He slaughters an animal every day, mostly merino sheep. His (longevity) is not a matter of food but genetics.

Mugambi advocates for eating from the major food groups, with starchy foods at the centre of the diet.

Asked how smoking and taking alcohol affects a persons lifespan, the nutritionist said the two substances are more harmful to individuals who do not eat well and who are living a stressful life.

One of Kenyas famous centenarians, former Attorney-General Charles Njonjo, said in 2015 that he doesnt entirely keep off alcohol.

I dont drink much, he told Business Daily. If Im to drink, it will be just a bottle of beer and maybe a cider, thats it.

Then there is the case of Nepalese woman Batuli Lamichhane, who may have shown the world that smoking is not a life limiter after all.

She was 112 years old in 2016 when she revealed that she smoked about 30 cigarettes every day.

She told reporters that she smoked leaf rolls made of tobacco. She, however, noted that she was a very active woman, who walked up and down a steep terrain in Nuwakot, Nepal.

We could study these individuals to establish what has kept them surviving with the unhealthy habits of alcohol and smoking. The amount of alcohol taken, the frequency and the speed could be keeping Njonjo going; I do not know, reasoned Mugambi.

Genetics could also contribute. There are people who take a lot of alcohol and they do not get the negative effect, but why should one take a chance with his or her life in trying such bad and addictive habits? She posed.

The principle of eating right was employed by the person captured by Guinness World Records (GWR) as the man who lived longest.

Jiroemon Kimura, a Japanese, died aged 116 years and 54 days in December 2012. Since birth recording began, no man has lived longer than that.

His personal motto was eat light to live long, and he believed the key to his longevity is to be a healthy, small eater, reads his entry on GWR.

EX-CATHOLIC PRIEST: Observing a routine is a good path to longevity

One of the longest-living Catholic priests in history is Fr Jacques Clemens, a Dutch clergyman who died in March 2018 aged 108.

Reuters reported in 2016 that Fr Clemens secret for clocking 100-plus years was the routine he observed.

Every day he rises at 5.30am, and every night he goes to bed by 9.00pm. Fr Clemens manages to stick by his strict regimen regardless of the demands on his schedule, the news agency said.

Writer Peter Economy opined on Inc.com that observing routine is helpful in many ways.

When we have a set time for resting our bodies every day, we are much more likely to have good, consistent control of our bodies homeostasis. Maintaining stability, as we well know, is the way to long-term success in anything. Our health is no exception to this rule, reasoned the writer.

Moi was also known for his strict routine. Njiru told Lifestyle in 2016 that during his 24 years as president, and even after, Moi was an early riser, who did not start his days activities later than 6.30am.

Even after retirement, Njiru noted, Moi would still wake up early, mostly to handle the schools and farms he was running. Under normal circumstances, he does not wake up later than 6am.

PSYCHOLOGIST: Childhood influences determine the length of ones life

Drawing from the story of Moi, developmental psychologist John Oteyo says what happens early in life has an impact on a persons sunset years.

Because Moi was orphaned at an early age and was raised by his elder brother, Oteyo reasoned, a lot of useful values were inculcated in him.

Becoming vice-president, president and handing over power peacefully added to his earlier fulfilment and contentment that he enjoyed in retirement, Oteyo told Lifestyle.

This psychological tranquillity gained from earlier life and with his strict dietary, lifestyle behaviours, good medical care and religious orientation could have contributed to his joyous and long life, added Oteyo, a lecturer at the Psychology Department at Kenyatta University.

The person as an adult depends on experiences he had in early childhood, he noted, citing a poem by William Wordsworth that has a line that says 'the child is father of the man'.

He was, however, quick to note that a lot more factors come into play.

Predictors for longevity include correct dietary behaviour, avoiding sedentary behaviour, which means engaging in physical activity, psychological well-being (emotional; cognitive and mental wellness), spiritual wellness, good medications, genetic predisposition and resilience, said Oteyo.

WORLDS OLDEST PERSON: The secret is religion, routine, and all that jazz

The person recognised by Guinness World Records as the oldest human alive is Kane Tanaka, a Japanese woman who was 117 years and 35 days old when this article was written on Thursday.

Kane was born prematurely on January 2, 1903, the same year the Wright brothers became the first to achieve powered flight! says her entry on GWR.

It adds: She normally wakes up at 6am, and in the afternoon often studies subjects such as maths. One of Kanes favourite pastimes is a game of Othello, and shes become an expert at the classic board game, often beating rest-home staff.

When officials from Guinness World Records visited her to present her the certificate of the oldest person alive in January 2019, she was given a box of chocolates, which she immediately opened and started eating.

Gerontology Wiki, a blog about the worlds documented supercentenarians, says Tanakas favourite foods include chocolate and pop beverages.

She loves to write poetry and she can still remember her trips to the United States. She attributes her longevity to her faith in God, the blog notes.

Guinness World Records says Tanaka has had several operations, including one for cataracts and another for colorectal cancer, but she is still going strong.

AMERICAN CENTENARIAN: Youll live long if you dont marry

Having a spouse is considered a ticket to bliss and an assurance of a shoulder to lean on, but Louise Signore thinks it shortens your life.

As the American woman celebrated her 107th birthday in July 2019, she told CBS New York that she could not have lived that long had she been married.

I never got married. I think thats the secret. My sister says, I wish I never got married, she told the publication.

She noted that she exercised and danced like married people, and so she believed she never missed out on anything couples did. After my lunch, I would play bingo. So I had a full day, she said.

But there appeared to be a matter of genetics at play because Signores younger sister, who had married earlier, was 102 years old then.

Moi never remarried after parting ways with his wife, and Njonjo did not marry until he was 52.

Their stories often feature in discussions about the place of marriage in a man's life.

A number of studies have been done on marriage versus a person's lifespan, with varying results.

According to one study done on 100,000 persons across Europe that was released in 2006, marriage helps husbands to an extra 1.7 years, but it knocks 1.4 years off the average wifes lifespan.

One of the factors singled out in the research headed by a German professor was that marriage brought on women the stress of balancing workplace responsibilities with their home-keeping requirements.

THE PERSON WHO LIVED LONGEST: Being so wealthy as to not need a job could have been a factor

The person listed by Guinness World Records as having lived the longest and with verifiable birth records is Jeanne Louise Calment, a Frenchwoman who was 122 years and 164 days old when she died in 1997.

She was born on February 21, 1875, around 14 years before the Eiffel Tower was constructed, says a post on the GWR website.

One of the distinct features in her life story is that she was married to a wealthy distant cousin and as such, she did not have to work for a living.

That may have played a part in her extraordinary longevity. She was free to swim, play tennis, cycle (she was still cycling until the age of 100) and roller-skate, all of which promoted excellent good health, the post on GWR adds.

Diet was also a key point in Louises life. Her diet was good, too, rich in olive oil (which she also rubbed into her skin), and she restricted herself to a modest glass of wine every now and then. But she also had a sweet tooth, with a particular fondness for chocolate. She ate almost 1kg of it each week, says GWR.

And she loved her cigarettes. Jeanne had smoked from the age of 21 and only quit when she was 117. She was able to walk on her own until she was one month before her 115th birthday, when she fell and fractured her femur. Thereafter, she needed a wheelchair to get around, it adds.

Louise is also said to have had a tranquil state of mind and with a great sense of humour.

She is quoted to have said: If you cant do anything about it, dont worry about it.

With that attitude, Louise lived to exceed the scientifically set limit of human longevity and to set an age record that has not been broken for 23 years.

Originally posted here:
Lifestyle secrets of some of the worlds oldest people - Daily Nation

With Frieze and Felix around the corner, we spoke to four LA galleries and a museum about their must-see shows that will coincide with the fairs. Heres what they had to say:

Lucio Fontana, Ambiente spaziale a luce nera [Spatial Environment in Black Light], 19481949. Image courtesy Hauser & Wirth.

Lucio Fontana, Walking the Space: Spacial Environments, 1948 1968

Hauser & Wirth, 901 East 3rd Street, Los Angeles CA 90013

Fontanas Spatial Environments were radical in their time and in many ways, as we see painting once again a focus in art, they are still quite radical, said Stacen Berg, a partner at Hauser & Wirth Los Angeles. The artist was exploring ways to express color, light, form, and optical experience in his work outside the confines of the picture plane, well before he created the slashed canvases for which he is perhaps better known. He was the first to reverse the formula the first to put the viewer at the center of the visual exchange, but placing them in environments which in 1948 was a truly avant-garde gesture.

Tishan Hsu, Cell, 1987. Courtesy The Hammer Museum.

Tishan Hsu Liquid Circuit

The Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024

This exhibition surveys the prophetic work of Tishan Hsu who since the 1980s has been exploring the impact of technology on the body and human condition, said Sohrab Mohebbi, who curated the show for New Yorks SculptureCenter, where it will travel after its debut at The Hammer. Expect sculptures and paintings that in their construction, dimensionality, palette, and vibration are unlike anything you have ever seen and will adjust your art historical spectacles.

Parker Ito, V550 / Me in the Studio With Red Hat, 2020. Courtesy the artist and Chteau Shatto, Los Angeles. Photograph by Ed Mumford.

Parker Ito Longevity Buns

Chteau Shatto, 1206 S. Maple Ave, Suite 1030, Los Angeles 90015

Previously, Itos output has fallen distinctly between work that is a consequence of the artists intake and fervent expulsion, and work that releases interiority by applying pressure to the things that furnish his surroundings. With Longevity Buns, Ito closes in on the threshold that distinguishes these spaces and pulses between the two, said Olivia Barrett, owner and director of Chteau Shatto. Longevity Buns is an exhibition in which the form of the installation describes as much as the material that fills it. A circuit of sculptures, paintings, videos and connective cords and chains encircle the gallery space. All of the composite parts of the exhibition travel toand throughone another.

Huma Bhabha. Third Voice, 2019. Courtesy David Kordansky Gallery.

Huma Bhabha

David Kordansky Gallery, 5130 W Edgewood Pl, Los Angeles, CA 90019

Our debut show with Huma Bhaba marks her first solo exhibition on the West Coast in over 25 years. Its an incredible opportunity to experience the breadth of her current practice in both three- and two-dimensions: a procession of the figurative presences she summons from cork and Styrofoam and detritus, as well as from photographs, ink, and paint, said Kurt Mueller, a director at Kordansky. In the context of our current political climate, Bhabhas aliens and monsters speak not only to ecological decay and war, but also to the urgency of encountering othernesshopefully with empathy.

Benjamin Asam Kellogg, The Garden Before/After the Fall, 2019. Courtesy Murmurs.

Benjamin Asam Kellogg, House of Hours

Murmurs, 1411 Newton St., Los Angeles, CA 90021

House of Hours is a study of the symbolic dualities of time and ritual using elements of sacred architectural temples and graphic motifs from Medieval illuminated manuscripts, said Allison Littrell, co-founder of Murmurs. Deeper investigations probe the meaning of day and night, light and shadow, animate and inanimate.

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When in LA: Five Los Angeles Shows to See that Coincide with Frieze - Cultured Magazine

A new fad diet making the rounds on wellness influencer Instagram wont actually help you lose weight. And it could cause dehydration, urinary tract infections, kidney stones, organ failure even death.

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

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

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

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

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

I dont recommend it at all, said Dr. Pauline Yi, a physician at UCLA Health Beverly Hills who regularly treats patients in their late teens and early 20s. She said intermittent fasting and other fasting-type diets are a popular topic with patients, and she has no problem with people trying them out.

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

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

Cary Kreutzer, an associate professor at USCs schools of gerontology and medicine whose area of expertise includes nutrition and diet, says digestive systems arent meant to have extended breaks. She likened making your kidneys go without water to letting your cars engine run out of oil. You can basically burn out some parts of the car that youre going to have to get replaced, she said. You dont want those replacement parts to include your vital organs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

But he said hes not aware of any reputable studies about the effects of dry fasting, and said he wouldnt even consider putting one together, also for a simple reason: Its incredibly dangerous.

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

His work has also involved looking at how cultures and religions have engaged with starvation and fasting throughout human history, and says he hasnt heard of any that involved extended fasting without water. The closest is Ramadan, during which observers go without food or water during daylight hours but at most, that lasts for 16 hours, and its preceded and followed by extensive hydration.

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

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

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

Please drink some water.

Go here to read the rest:
What 'dry fasting' is and why you shouldn't do it - Los Angeles Times

Ensuring good health in all stages of life is key to Cubas response to population aging. Photo: Yaim Ravelo

Ensuring that our people live not only longer, but also enjoy healthier lives is at the heart of work by institutions in a society like Cuba's, with 20.4% of its population at 60 years of age or older.

In an effort to contribute to better quality of life for older adults, the Ministry of Public Health is working on training specialized personnel and incorporating elements of geriatrics into other medical specialties, to better serve an aging population in a comprehensive manner.

In this regard, it is worth mentioning the construction of several facilities, including the first unit for the evaluation of physical performance of older adults in Cuba - and one of the few existing in Latin America and the Caribbean -opened on October 1, 2019, taking into consideration the concept of healthy aging, promoted by the World Health Organization.

"This unit makes it possible to evaluate functional capacity based on variables such as walking speed and muscle strength, among other essential aspects. It also supports the diagnosis and rehabilitation of elderly persons with reduced functional capacity and promotes the development of research in key areas of aging and the training of competent human resources," explained Dr. Lilian Rodriguez Rivera, director of the Center for Research on Longevity, Aging and Health.

In previous statements, Dr. Ivn Tpanes Lpez, specialist in Geriatrics and Gerontology, and head of the Centers physical performance unit, reported that the facility has high-tech equipment which allows for better diagnoses and assistance, research and comprehensive assessment from the physical point of view, evaluating the performance of activities like walking and others requiring physical effort and strength.

Similarly, on November 21, last year, the Alzheimers and Cognitive Disorders Center opened in the municipality of Habana Vieja, also the only one of its kind in Cuba, specializing in early diagnosis and treatment of Alzheimer's, support for caregivers, family members and professionals involved in the care of older adults who suffer from this health problem, and research that contributes to improving the care and management of these patients, as well as working with institutions associated with the BioCubaFarma state entrrpise group, according to Dr. Rodriguez.

On the day of its inauguration, Dr. Niurka Casado Barralesuna said that a priority of the institution will be the preparation courses, to contribute to supporting the establishment of memory clinics at the municipal level, for the identification of the most complex cases, she explained.

With services including nursing, geriatrics, social assessment, neuropsychology and group therapy, the center is committed to comprehensive treatment and has computerized systems.

For its part, the Center for Longevity, Aging and Health is developing a training program for the specialty of Gerontology and Geriatrics; a new study plan for Master's degrees in Public Health and Aging; and clinical nutrition and sarcopenia consultation (a term that describes the degenerative loss of skeletal muscle mass and reduction of muscle strength that occurs with aging) have begun as outpatient services.

Likewise, at the Center for Research on Longevity, Aging and Health, 15 protocols for hospital care were updated and others approved for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, malnutrition, and related to the use of anesthesia in elderly patients at high surgical risk, with the goal of implementing these nationwide.

In relation to academia and the importance of lifelong learning, the new study plan for MSc in Public Health and Aging is in the design phase, as well as a professional development course in Gerontology and Geriatrics.

The National Program for the Care of the Elderly, with its three subsystems: community, hospital and institutional, is also in the process of being updated.

The committee and working group for the development of the specialty on the island was created at the Longevity, Aging and Health Center i, and the program for the development of the specialty of geriatrics for the period 2020-2025 is currently in the working phase.

Good health must be an essential component of society's response to the aging population, added Dr. Rodrguez Rivera, who recalled a thought expressed by Comandante en jefe Fidel Castro Ruz, who said, "The most humane thing a society can do is to care for the elderly.

ADRESSING DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS

In addition to these centers, in response to demographic trends, Cuba has continued to prioritize care for the elderly.

With advances made this past year, a total of 53 services in this specialty are now available in Geriatrics, with 1,063 beds destined for these patients, 53 more than at the close of 2018, according to the Minister of Public Health, Jos ngel Portal Miranda, in a review of 2019.

During this period, the number of beds in the 155 nursing homes increased, for a total of 12,419, as well as two new community centers for the elderly, for a total of 295.

More than 973,000 older adults joined grandparents' circles during the year and 29 mental health departments were created, bringing the total to 178 nationwide.

IN CONTEXT

-In 2019, 675 patients were admitted by the Center for Research on Longevity, Aging and Health, a greater number than 2018.

-The occupation rate was 78%.

-The average stay was 7.9 days, 1 day less than in 2018.

-Some 7,579 medical consultations were provided, slightly less than the number reported in 2018.

-Some 401 surgical procedures were performed, higher than reported over the last five years and 123 more than in 2018.

-The clean surgical wound rate was positive, with no infections reported.

-The average preoperative stay was 1.7 days, less than in 2018.

-The introduction of minimally invasive surgery is advancing successfully.

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Cuba working for longer and healthier lives Cuba Granma - Official voice of the PCC - Granma English

By Baohua Jia from Swinburne University of Technology, Australia

Every age in the history of human civilisation has a signature material, from the Stone Age, to the Bronze and Iron Ages. We might even call todays information-driven society the Silicon Age.

Since the 1960s, silicon nanostructures, the building-blocks of microchips, have supercharged the development of electronics, communications, manufacturing, medicine, and more.

How small are these nanostructures? Very, very small you could fit at least 3,000 silicon transistors onto the tip of a human hair. But there is a limit: below about 5 nanometres (5 millionths of a millimetre), it is hard to improve the performance of silicon devices any further.

So if we are about to exhaust the potential of silicon nanomaterials, what will be our next signature material? Thats where atomaterials come in.

Atomaterials is short for atomic materials, so called because their properties depend on the precise configuration of their atoms. It is a new but rapidly developing field.

One example is graphene, which is made of carbon atoms. Unlike diamond, in which the carbon atoms form a rigid three-dimensional structure, graphene is made of single layer of carbon atoms, bonded together in a two-dimensional honeycomb lattice.

Diamonds rigid structure is the reason for its celebrated hardness and longevity, making it the perfect material for high-end drill bits and expensive jewellery. In contrast, the two-dimensional form of carbon atoms in graphene allows electron travelling frictionless at a high speed giving ultrahigh conductivity and the outstanding in plane mechanical strength. Thus, graphene has broad applications in medicines, electronics, energy storage, light processing, and water filtration.

Using lasers, we can fashion these atomic structures into miniaturised devices with exceptional performance.

Using atomaterials, our lab has been working on a range of innovations, at various stages of development. They include:

The film absorbs almost all the sunlight shining on it and converts it into heat. The temperature can be increased to 160 within 30 seconds. This heat can then distil seawater with an efficiency greater than 95%, and the distilled water is cleaner than tapwater. This low-cost technology can be suitable for domestic and industry applications.

Smart sensing film. These flexible atomaterial films can incorporate a wide range of functions including environmental sensing, communication, and energy storage. They have a broad range of applications in healthcare, sports, advanced manufacturing, farming, and others. For example, smart films could monitor soil humidity near plants roots, thus helping to make agriculture more water-efficient.

Ultrathin, ultra-lightweight lenses. The bulkiest part of a mobile phone camera is the lens, because it needs to be made of thick glass with particular optical properties. But lenses made with graphene can be mere millionths of a millimetre thick, and still deliver superb image quality. Such lenses could greatly reduce the weight and cost of everything from phones to space satellites.

Near-instant power supply. We have developed an environmentally friendly supercapacitor from graphene that charges devices in seconds, and has a lifetime of millions of charge cycles. By attaching it to the back of a solar cell, it can store and deliver solar-generated energy whenever and wherever required. You will be free and truly mobile.

It can take years for some of these laboratory technologies to reach fruition. To try and speed up the process, we established the CTAM Global OpenLab to engage with industry, academia, government and the wider community and to promote sharing and collaboration. The lab was launched earlier this month at the International Conference on Nanomaterial and Atomaterial Sciences and Applications (ICNASA2020).

The world is facing pressing challenges, from climate change, to energy and resource scarcity, to our health and well-being.

Material innovation is more vital than ever and needs to be more efficient, design-driven and environmentally friendly. But these challenges can only be solved by joint effort from worldwide researchers, enterprise, industry and government with a sharing and open mindset.

Baohua Jia, Professor, Swinburne University of Technology

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Atom-scale materials are the next tech frontier - Cosmos

Many people dream of becoming their own boss to realize a satisfying career trajectory theyve been unable to find in traditional work environments.

Helping professionals achieve this dream are platforms like Upwork, a platform for independent talent to find quality clients and engagements. With 57 million Americans freelancing or, 35 percent of the U.S. workforce Upwork is helping empower professionals to take control of their careers, giving them the freedom to choose their clients, their workload, and how, when, and where they make a living.

To meet demand of the rising trend, Upwork scaled quickly, but attracting new talent to the companywasnt hard. Like freelancers, its employees want steady career progression and access to opportunities theyre passionate about.

At Upwork, youre enabled to not only have an impact on allowing freelancers to better their lives, but youre also able to work with some of the largest companies today, said Avery Sebastian, a mid-market account executive. That sets off light bulbs in my head on a daily basis.

In just a few years, the Chicago branch has grown from a 25-person WeWork office to its current sprawling, trendy workplace. Bustling with over 200 employees, its turned into the companys largest outpost and a springboard for career advancement.

Everybody has signed up for a job that we understand is going to be a challenge. But thats part of the excitement, said Travis Smith, sales manager, mid-market. When you get a collection of those types of people and continue to hire people that have that mindset, some pretty cool things happen.

No matter the size, maintaining an inclusive and supportive environment has been a constant priority. While many employees keep an entrepreneurial mindset, Upwork ensures that its giving everyone the tools they need to succeed professionally.

After all, Upworks mission is to create economic opportunities so people have better lives.

Erin Thomas often takes her laptop into Upworks kitchen to work. Seated in the social hub, she is surrounded by the sort of chatter that fills any company break room and some thats not. Its not eavesdropping per se, its more her keeping tabs on the pulse of the company.

People kind of sidle up to one another and give advice and support. You can tell its not always a formal management relationship, Thomas said. Everyone is just really game to help each other out.

In late 2019, Thomas took on the newly created role of vice president, head of diversity, inclusion and belonging. With the steady influx of new faces, installing a position like Thomass was a proactive move: Upworks entrepreneurial environment is a big part of its culture but so is its commitment to meeting employees where they are.

My primary focus is making sure that, on a human level, everyone knows and feels like they belong here, Thomas said.

Upwork instills camaraderie right off the bat through new hire cohorts, made up of new hires from all departments. For those new to the company, like Thomas, having an immediate support system was helpful and months later, shes still finding those relationships important.

Given my role, I want to know whats going on in other areas of business. Whats great is that I can ping those folks from my cohort to ask them about whats happening in enterprise sales or what a particular acronym means in the mid-market group, Thomas said. Its really nice because, otherwise, I could get pretty lost.

Finding that natural fit can be hard for some, but strong bonds in the workplace can help employees feel supported and understood. At Upwork, formal and informal mentorship plays a big role in connecting people.

Last year, Sebastian, the mid-market AE, felt confident in his role, but wasnt entirely satisfied he wanted to level up. In a move typical for Upwork employees looking to improve, he reached out to a large enterprise account executive, who was happy to help.

I was able to connect with this rep in formal meetings twice a week, Sebastian said. We would go over current processes and look for ways to constantly improve. He also helped me with some career coaching to help me get to where I am today.

Because the results of mentorship can be so fruitful, Upwork ensures that everyone has access to a more seasoned employee to share tricks and advice with. On day one, new hires are assigned a mentor. This gives them a jumping-off point and an immediate contact who has been through what theyre going through and can help them define their role at Upwork. For those who struggle in asking for help, its a valuable asset.

Instead of being seen as a chore or a partnership limited to the first few weeks, the perception is that mentorship is a mutually beneficial relationship with longevity. For employees who have been with the company for a while, mentoring newer teammates can sharpen their leadership skills.

For example, amember of Smiths team approached him with the hopes of gaining practice in career coaching. She was looking for career growth and knew that a big part of that was being able to lead.

With that goal in mind, Smith helped her find opportunities to do so.

She made huge strides by mentoring people from account management, account executives and BDRs, Smith said. Fast forward to today: She just started her new job as manager.

One benefit of a growing company is that new roles are created much faster than in smaller organizations. When Upwork was a fraction of the size, it wasnt logistically possible to provide the kind of acceleration seen today.

One of the really cool things that weve been able to see is promotion, Smith said. With time, people that have done well have seen career progressions and have moved throughout the organization. Its very rewarding to see.

Sebastian joined Upwork two years ago, when the office was roughly half the size it is now. In that time, hes been promoted three times and now serves as a mid-market account executive. Having an entrepreneurs mindset, he says, has helped him in preparing for the next role.

I communicated with my management team about what my career goals and interests were, and often touched base on those aspirations, Sebastian said. As openings became available, I was able to show the leadership team that I have done the type of work that will enable me to succeed in the next role.

While self-promotion is always encouraged, Upwork understands that thanks to biases and harmful social conditioning, advocating for oneself isnt as easy as leaning in. Thats why it has instituted talent processes that help ensure everyone has a seat at the table even those who arent primed for displaying ambition in traditional ways.

We know that if we only leave it up to self-promotion, only certain folks would get those opportunities. So we buttress that spirit, Thomas said. We work with certain employee groups who we know culturally, because of biases or other barriers, might actually show up in a different way than conventionally expected when they self promote. Leaders take cultural competency and inclusion really seriously and dont position it as supplemental to their day jobs. Its a core part of their leadership expectations.

When assessing performance, Upwork takes a high-level look at how their leadership team is made up to ensure it reflects the diversity seen in the company. A 2019 study on women in the workplace found that promotions are given out disproportionately to men, who are often unconsciously evaluated not entirely on their past performance but on what they could accomplish.

By understanding this behavior, Upwork can reap the benefits of a truly diverse workforce.

We believe in a meritocracy where the best ideas are surfaced to the top. Weve made a very conscious effort to put formal processes in place to make sure everyones voices are heard, Smith said. As weve added people, weve only gotten better not just through the numbers but with the diversity of ideas that float around and now make up the culture, and how we execute our sales process and methodology.

As Upwork continues its upward trajectory, inclusivity and collaboration will remain at the forefront of its growth strategy. Leaders at the company see it as the only path to accomplishing all they want to.

We have some audacious goals, which means more collaboration and solving problems weve never tried to tackle, Thomas said. In order to do well, weve got to keep the fundamentals in place in terms of people being collaborative, being able to empathize, being able to admit mistakes and being open to growth. To us, those are all the underpinnings of an inclusive culture where folks belong.

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There Are 57 Million U.S. Independent Professionals Upwork Wants Them All to Succeed - Built In Chicago

QY Research recently generated a research report titled, Precision Medicine Software Market Report: Company Analysis, History and Future Overview, Global Sales Trends by 2025. The research report represents the potential growth opportunities that prevail in the global market. The report is analyzed on the basis of secondary research methodologies acquired from historic and forecast data. The global Precision Medicine Software market is expected to grow substantially and thrive in terms of volume and value during the forecast period. The report will provide an insight into the growth opportunities and restraints that construct the market. Readers can gain meaningful comprehension about the future of the market.

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The report includes numerous key players and manufacturers operating in the regional and global markets. This section demonstrates the strategies adopted by players in the Precision Medicine Software market to stay ahead in the competition. New trends and its adoption by players help readers understand the dynamics of the industry and how it can be used to their own profit. The readers can also identify the footsteps of players to understand the global market better. Company outlining of the key players such as Syapse Inc., Fabric Genomics Inc., Translational Software Inc., SOPHiA GENETICS SA, N-of-One Inc., Human Longevity Inc., Gene42 Inc., Sunquest Information Systems Inc., PierianDx Inc., LifeOmic, Foundation Medicine Inc. and 2bPrecise LLC.

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Global Precision Medicine Software Market: Drivers and Restraints

This section of the report includes drivers, restraints, and trends that are likely to shape the Precision Medicine Software market. The influence of drivers and restraints affect the market in each region differently. The report offers underlying drivers that compel the consumers to invest in the products and services. This section includes consumer demand and government policies that affect the Precision Medicine Software market. The detailed information assists readers in understanding the needs of consumer demands. The report provides drivers at the local and global levels to help determine the market forces. This information will help readers decide potential strategies that can help them stay ahead in the competitive industry.

Restraints provided in this section of the report contrasts the drivers segment as it explains the factors that can hamper the growth of the Precision Medicine Software market during the forecast period. Restraints play a pivotal role in the global and regional market as it bends the prospective opportunities in the market. Readers can weigh and asses the drivers and restraints before making any investments or strategies.

Global Precision Medicine Software Market: Segment Analysis

The report includes major segments such as product type and end-user that provide an array of components that determine the portfolio of the Precision Medicine Software industry. Each type furnishes information regarding the sales value during the forecast period. The application section also provides sales by volume and consumption during the forecast period. The understanding of the segment directs the readers in recognizing the importance of factors that shape the market growth.

The Market is split into Following segments which are as follows:

By Delivery Mode

Cloud-based

On-premise

By Application

Rare Diseases

Oncology

Pharmacogenomics

By End User

Healthcare Providers

Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Companies

Global Precision Medicine Software Market: Regional Analysis

This section of the report provides detailed information about each region and how numerous factors of that particular region affect the growth of the Precision Medicine Software market. The government policies, weather, politics, and other factors determine the future of the market differently in each region.The major regions covered in the report include North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa, and others.

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Precision Medicine Software Market 2020 Growth Analysis, Share, Demand by Regions, Industry Development and Growth opportunities for Leading Players...