Category Archives: Transhuman News

The gut microbiome is an integral component of the body, but its importance in the human aging process is unclear. ISB researchers and their collaborators have identified distinct signatures in the gut microbiome that are associated with either healthy or unhealthy aging trajectories, which in turn predict survival in a population of older individuals. The work was just published in the journal Nature Metabolism.

The research team analyzed gut microbiome, phenotypic and clinical data from over 9,000 people between the ages of 18 and 101 years old across three independent cohorts. The team focused, in particular, on longitudinal data from a cohort of over 900 community-dwelling older individuals (78-98 years old), allowing them to track health and survival outcomes.

The data showed that gut microbiomes became increasingly unique (i.e. increasingly divergent from others) as individuals aged, starting in mid-to-late adulthood, which corresponded with a steady decline in the abundance of core bacterial genera (e.g. Bacteroides) that tend to be shared across humans.

Strikingly, while microbiomes became increasingly unique to each individual in healthy aging, the metabolic functions the microbiomes were carrying out shared common traits. This gut uniqueness signature was highly correlated with several microbially-derived metabolites in blood plasma, including one tryptophan-derived indole that has previously been shown to extend lifespan in mice. Blood levels of another metabolite phenylacetylglutamine showed the strongest association with uniqueness, and prior work has shown that this metabolite is indeed highly elevated in the blood of centenarians.

This uniqueness signature can predict patient survival in the latest decades of life, said ISB Research Scientist Dr. Tomasz Wilmanski, who led the study. Healthy individuals around 80 years of age showed continued microbial drift toward a unique compositional state, but this drift was absent in less healthy individuals.

Interestingly, this uniqueness pattern appears to start in mid-life 40-50 years old and is associated with a clear blood metabolomic signature, suggesting that these microbiome changes may not simply be diagnostic of healthy aging, but that they may also contribute directly to health as we age, Wilmanski said. For example, indoles are known to reduce inflammation in the gut, and chronic inflammation is thought to be a major driver in the progression of aging-related morbidities.

Prior results in microbiome-aging research appear inconsistent, with some reports showing a decline in core gut genera in centenarian populations, while others show relative stability of the microbiome up until the onset of aging-related declines in health, said microbiome specialist Dr. Sean Gibbons, co-corresponding author of the paper. Our work, which is the first to incorporate a detailed analysis of health and survival, may resolve these inconsistencies. Specifically, we show two distinct aging trajectories: 1) a decline in core microbes and an accompanying rise in uniqueness in healthier individuals, consistent with prior results in community-dwelling centenarians, and 2) the maintenance of core microbes in less healthy individuals.

This analysis highlights the fact that the adult gut microbiome continues to develop with advanced age in healthy individuals, but not in unhealthy ones, and that microbiome compositions associated with health in early-to-mid adulthood may not be compatible with health in late adulthood.

This is exciting work that we think will have major clinical implications for monitoring and modifying gut microbiome health throughout a persons life, said ISB Professor Dr. Nathan Price, co-corresponding author of the paper.

This research project was conducted by ISB and collaborators from Oregon Health and Science University, University of California San Diego, University of Pittsburgh, University of California Davis, Lifestyle Medicine Institute, and University of Washington. It was supported in part by a Catalyst Award in Healthy Longevity from the National Academy of Medicine, and the Longevity Consortium of the National Institute on Aging.

ReferenceWilmanski T, Diener C, Rappaport N, et al. Gut microbiome pattern reflects healthy ageing and predicts survival in humans. Nature Metabolism. Published online 2021. doi:10.1038/s42255-021-00348-0

This article has been republished from the following materials. Note: material may have been edited for length and content. For further information, please contact the cited source.

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Healthy Aging and Longevity Linked to Gut Microbiome - Technology Networks

Life expectancy is largely governed by how effectively we can wield the tools at our disposal. What we choose to put in our body illustrates this point - poor dietary decisions can invite a host of health problems, whereas eating well can provide a barrier against them. Supplements are often met with a healthy dose of scepticism, but evidence suggests that some can extend your lifespan.

One study of over 41,000 metformin users found the drug decreased frailty by 24 percent, decreased cancer risk by six percent, reduced cardiovascular disease risk by 19 percent, and increased overall lifespan by six percent.

In their concluding remarks, the study researchers wrote: The apparent reductions in all-cause mortality and diseases of ageing associated with metformin use suggest that metformin could be extending life and health spans by acting as a neuroprotective agent.

According to Dartnell, another supplement that may extend ones lifespan is NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide).

As he explained Inside the body, NMN is transformed into NAD+ - a critical coenzyme found in every cell in your body.

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The body naturally produces NAD+ but levels decline as we get older.

A key study of NAD-boosting molecules (NMN) found that boosting NAD+ levels in older age can promote health and extend lifespan.

"NMN is thought to boost our longevity genes in a way that mimics the effects of exercise," Dartnell reports.

In their concluding remarks, the study authors wrote: Restoration of NAD+ levels in old or diseased animals can promote health and extend lifespan, prompting a search for safe and efficacious NAD-boosting molecules.

"The good news is, resveratrol is also available in red wine, just in case you dont fancy taking the supplements."

According to research, determining the mechanism(s) by which resveratrol and similar molecules act, and developing methods to improve bioavailability and/or specificity, has enormous potential to benefit human health.

It is thought that resveratrol mimics fasting, said Dartnell.

As he explained, fasting is essential for switching on our longevity genes.

It should be noted that GBS Clinic does not sell any of these supplements and does not necessarily endorse or agree with the findings here. Dartnell just reporting on what the scientific literature has discovered.

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How to live longer: Three supplements linked to a longer lifespan - what to take - Express

CHICAGO, Feb. 24, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Picoma, a division of Zekelman Industries, is celebrating 75 years as a domestic manufacturer of electrical elbows, couplings and nipples (EC&N). Picoma has a long history in the steel industry, dating back to its founding in 1946. Company leadership and employees credit Picoma's longevity in the business to the company's commitment to domestic manufacturing.

"We started out manufacturing in Ohio 75 years ago, and we're still doing it here today," said Steve Camilletti, Picoma's general manager for North America. "The commitment to controlling our own destiny, controlling our service, controlling our quality, and to making an American-made product that's what's really kept us going all these years."

When asked about the company's future, Picoma's leadership says they've made modernization a priority. They're embracing a human-machine co-manufacturing environment that has allowed them to automate without losing their workforce. Picoma is also investing significantly in high-tech equipment, eco-friendly manufacturing practices, and online ordering and inventory management services.

Over the last five years, Picoma has added 35 U.S. jobs and continues to produce 100% American-made EC&N using domestically sourced steel.

Picoma's 75th anniversary comes on the heels of Zekelman Industries' recent "Life Reinforced" campaign launch, which aims to communicate the importance of domestic manufacturing and calls for companies to "make it here."

"When we invest in domestic manufacturing, we invest in local workers and local communities, creating opportunities for generations to come," Zekelman Industries CEO Barry Zekelman said. "Picoma is a part of our family and plays a vital role in our vision for the future. We are proud to help them celebrate 75 years in domestic manufacturing."

About PicomaPicoma, a division of Zekelman Industries, manufactures a complete line of electrical conduit fittings galvanized elbows, couplings and nipples and a complete EC&N package of aluminum, running thread and service meter masts.

About Zekelman Industries Zekelman Industries includes the operating divisions of Atlas Tube, Picoma, Sharon Tube, Wheatland Tube, Western Tube and Z Modular. It is the largest independent manufacturer of hollow structural sections (HSS) and steel pipe, and the top producer of electrical conduit and elbows, couplings and nipples in North America. Zekelman Industries delivers a broad range of pipe and tube solutions that build its customers' success.

SOURCE Zekelman Industries

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Picoma celebrates its 75th anniversary and its place in domestic manufacturing - PRNewswire

Focus on value

After environmental shifts and business model speciation, my third fundamental prediction was about how those business models would group into genera.

Evolutionary theory implied an extreme polarisation of the three ways to create value via either technological innovation, operational efficiency or customer intimacy and hence the emergence of three distinct kinds of business.

The ancestors of these business model genera could already be seen in, for example, Roche, Mylan and Fresenius but in each case we have seen increasing specialisation and, consequently, differentiation. Increasingly, we dont have one industry, we have three.

And just as biological species succeed by uncompromising specialisation, life sciences companies that try to straddle these three genera fail.

We have seen this in the relative demise of Teva, whose leadership thought it could be both innovative and low-cost. Evolution forces choices and despises compromises.

Customer-centric, but for which customer?

As well as predicting speciation by how value is created, Generalised Darwinism also predicted speciation according to the customer for whom that value is created.

Historically, our industrys customer has been institutional healthcare systems and the governments that fund them. But as the healthcare possibilities outstrip the ability of governments to fund them, evolution predicts a habitat in which the patient pays even for advanced, expensive treatments.

And this has come to pass. Whether as co-pays, health- tourism or crowd-funding, were seeing the emergence of a market in which the patient, or his or her family, influences the choice of drugs or devices.At the extremes, we see this in Human Longevity Inc, whose model is unlikely ever to appeal to governments or insurers.

Together with the above-mentioned specialisation by how to create value, specialisation by who to create value for has created a market environment of nine habitats, each driving the evolution of different kinds of business models in the same way that desert, jungle and tundra lead to the emergence of habitat-specific species.

Equally, every failed market access submission is evidence of a business model that has tried to straddle habitats and failed (see Figure 1). In another parallel with biological species, business models reflect the habitat in which they live.

Darwins tangled bank

As I drilled deeper into the complexity of our industry, I could see that even nine business models werent enough to fully describe reality.

Even within each habitat, business models were specialising within specialisation. Technological innovators were choosing to focus on one area of science or to become science integrators for instance, with drugs and companion diagnostics.

Business models that aimed to compete on customer intimacy were polarising between small audiences so called health concierges and mass markets, which is Fitbits emerging model.

Those models that aim to imitate innovators were diverging between those who followed close behind such as biosimilars and those who chose to focus on old science the unbranded generics, for example.

To anyone who has read Darwins Origin of Species, the parallels between this complexity and his description of the tangled bank of an English hedgerow are obvious. If it is possible to improve survivability by specialising, nature will find a way to do so. Equally, if ROI can be improved by speciation, new life sciences business models will emerge.

The result is the complexity we see in our market today and is reflected in Figure 1, which identifies no less than 26 distinct business models. You can read more about this in my June 2016 PME article, Explosive Evolution.

QED

Although built on years of research, the conclusions of my research could only be putative. Evolutionary science isnt like Newtonian physics, in which the future can be perfectly extrapolated from the past.

Nor is it resolvable into simple laws like the physical sciences. It took me 120,000 words to explain my findings in my 2017 book Darwins Medicine. The only way to test my Darwinian predictions was to sit back and watch, which is what Ive done since 2016 and you may have read in my regular PME column named after the book.

By and large, I feel pretty vindicated. The six great shifts I saw emerging in 2016 have each grown into market-shaping fundamentals. The market polarisation into nine habitats has become clear and it is increasingly true to think of the industry as a family of industries.

Within each of these families, business model speciation is evident as they struggle to create value in a changing market environment. Scientists, however, are always interested in the null hypothesis. It is interesting that, for example, firms and their customers have struggled to adopt value-based pricing.

Equally, large firms have been slow to adapt both to new technologies and changing customer needs and have resorted to acquisition over organic evolution.

Both of these phenomena are examples of how evolution is slowed when it involves co-evolution between different species. These peculiarities continue to drive my research without calling into doubt the previous findings of my work.

Marxs dictum

Darwins Medicine was an attempt to explain the world of the life sciences industry. But Im reminded of the words carved on Karl Marxs tomb: The philosophers have only interpreted the world. The point, however, is to change it. Here, I think my research has had a more mixed result.

Ive worked with many companies to apply the findings of Darwins Medicine to the practicalities of their business challenges. The common thread in this work has been that firms can accelerate and direct their own evolution by the equivalent of genetic engineering.

By selectively removing, adding and changing organisational routines those little internal processes that make things happen in a company they can adapt themselves to the changes in the market that would, without adaptation, lead to their extinction.

With some companies, this concept of engineering the Routineome has been seized on with enthusiasm and executed with alacrity. I have been thrilled to see how my theory has been applied in practice to achieve both commercial ends and, necessarily, patient benefits.

With other companies, however, I have led the proverbial horse to the Darwinian water but I have not been able to make them drink.

Sometimes, firms who see the life sciences as central to their success see management sciences as irrelevant to their future. This failure to adapt cant be explained by the individual intelligence of their leaders.

I have not yet met a CEO who isnt very clever. But I think it can be explained by something that might be described as their organisational absorptive capacity. That some firms absorb new ideas better than others is a fact as established as any in management science.

It is a major explanation of why some firms last and others dont. Ultimately, this difference between firms and its consequence was, like much else, foreseen by Darwin himself. As he was paraphrased by Leon Megginson, it is those who are most responsive to change that survive.

A set of all four of the 2016 PME articles describing this work is available from the author at brian.smith@pragmedic.com

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Back to the future - PMLiVE

Ageing is deterioration of the physiological functions in human body, which is associated with several diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, neurological disease, cancer, and other metabolic disorders. It has been reported that oxidative stress and inflammation mainly contribute to the progression of ageing. This is where foods come in which can either help or hinder this process. Studies and experts advise including more ginger and garlic into your meals to help boost longevity.

In a study published in Sift Deck Research Page, the role of garlic and ginger in anti-oxidative and anti-inflammatory effects in ageing was further investigated.

The study noted: Previous studies show that garlic lowers blood pressure, cholesterol, triglycerides, and homocysteine, boost immunity and decreases oxidative stress and inflammation, which are associated with anti-ageing mechanism.

Scientific evidence suggests that garlic and ginger both showed the protective effects against oxidative stress by depleting ROS and inflammation and extending life span.

Garlic and ginger are reported to have many bioactive compounds that exert antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.

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There have been reports of evidence which indicate the health benefits such as anti-ageing and antioxidant effects of garlic.Garlic has been shown to prevent chronic diseases such as ageing, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and Alzheimers disease.

Garlic has been shown to prevent chronic diseases such as aging, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and Alzheimers disease.

Moreover, garlic has been demonstrated for lowering cholesterol, triglycerides, and homocysteine, and decreasing oxidative stress and inflammation.

In addition, garlic treatment was reported to lower blood pressure, boost immunity, increase internal antioxidant like glutathione, and ameliorate fatigue.

Health experts suggest that a garlic rich diet and its supplement in any form provides regular health benefits and help to prevent serious diseases and ageing.

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Gut health also plays a pivotal role in keeping health threats at bay and boosting life expectancy and new research highlights a particular herb for its gut health benefits.

According to findings presented at a research event on ageing well hosted by Yakult in Tokyo, Japan, the popular herb was shown to boost gut health and subsequently extent longevity.

The findings attribute the gut health benefits to the high amounts of natural fibres that are found in garlic, which boosts good bacteria.

These crowd out harmful gut bacteria which are known to contribute to everything from cancer and dementia to obesity and mental illness.

Ginger root is the most commonly used for home remedies like headache, nausea, common cold and emesis.

It possesses various life activities, such as antioxidant, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer activities.

There is some evidence to suggest that ginger can also inhibit and regulate several diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases, heart diseases and metabolic disorders like diabetes mellitus and obesity, and respiratory disorders.

In a study published in the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, the effect of ginger on the lipid levels was investigated.

The study noted: Forty-five patients in the treatment group and 40 patients in the placebo group participated in this study".

There was a significant reduction in triglyceride, cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), very low-density lipoprotein, levels of before and after study separately in each group," it continued.

Mean changes in triglyceride and cholesterol levels of the ginger group were significantly higher than the placebo group.

Mean reduction in LDL level and increase in high density lipoprotein level of ginger group were higher than the placebo group, but in VLDL level of placebo was higher than ginger."

Excerpt from:
How to live longer: Garlic and ginger can reduce cancer risk to boost longevity - Express