Category Archives: Transhuman News

Living to the grand old age of 130 could be possible this century.

The longest-lived person in history so far is Jeanne Calment, a chain-smoking French woman born in 1875 who died aged 122 years and 164 days in 1997.

However it may be possible to outlive her record, a study has found.

Researchers analysed the lifespans of more than 3,800 Italian semi-supercentenarians, who made it beyond the age of 105, and more than 9,800 people who achieved the same longevity in France.

They conclude that beyond the age of 110, when people with poor genes and terrible health have typically died off already, the chances of staying alive are roughly 50/50.

Supercentenarians: Living to the grand old age of 130 could be possible this century, scientists have predicted. The longest-lived person in history so far is Jeanne Calment (pictured), a chain-smoking French woman born in 1875 who died aged 122 years and 164 days in 1997

Jeanne Louise Calment holds theGuinness World Record for the oldest person ever.

Born onFebruary21, 1875, she is reported to have lived to the age of 122 years and 164 days.

She passed away in a nursing home in Arles, in the south of France, on August 4, 1997.

Her unparalleled longevity has been the subject of numerous studies, both before and after her death.

Jeanne enjoyed good health for the majority of her life, having even taken up fencing as a hobby at the age of 85.

Ms Calment also claimed to have met the artist Vincent van Gogh, to whom she sold painting canvasses in her fathers shop as a teenager.

He was ugly as sin, had a vile temper and smelled of booze, she said.

Jeanne Calment, pictured with herGuinness World Record

It means every year beyond someones 110th birthday is a coin-toss as to whether they will survive.

So far, getting heads 20 times in a row, to make it the age of 130, is hugely unlikely the chances are about one in a million.

However, with life expectancy still likely to increase over the years, despite Covid, and improvements in healthcare and lifestyle, the authors say studies suggest someone may reach their 130th birthday this century.

Dr Lo Belzile, the statistician who led the study from HEC Business School in Montreal, said: As the world population keeps increasing, there are more people reaching 100 and more reaching 110.

The more people tossing a coin, with a 50 per cent chance of surviving each year after they turn 110, the more we can expect that someone will have a lucky streak and get to the age of 130.

The study, published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, set out to determine if there is an upper limit on the human lifespan.

If there were such a cut-off age, beyond which no one could survive, a cluster of people would statistically be expected to die at around that age.

But the study of French and Italian super-agers found no such thing.

At the age of 108, the researchers found peoples odds of dying started to stabilise, reaching around 50/50.

The results may have implications for super-rich people like Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who is reportedly investing in age-reversing technology.

Some animals, such as clams, do not age at all and working out why is one of the main aims of gerontology.

Solid empirical understanding of human mortality at extreme age is important as one basis for research aimed at finding a cure for ageing, the researchers write.

If there is no wall, like the age of 130, beyond which people can go, several more decades of life could theoretically be possible.

But it is highly unlikely, with people who are 108 only likely to live around an extra year and three months on average.

Dr Belzile said: People are fascinated by the idea of living forever, but unfortunately very few people reach these very old ages.

In England and Wales, there have been only 157 supercentenarians, over the age of 110, between 1968 and 2017.

Currently, the worlds oldest person and the third longest-lived ever is 118-year-old Kane Tanaka of Japan.

Mrs Calment outlived her husband, who died at 73, smoked two cigarettes a day and only gave up cycling when she was 100. She is pictured aged 20

The Japanese have the highest life expectancy in the world, attributed by experts to a diet high in fish and low in saturates and a good health service.

Mrs Calment had reached the remarkable age of 122 when she died. She outlived her husband, who died at 73, smoked two cigarettes a day and only gave up cycling when she was 100.

Bezos is one of a number of tech billionaires pumping vast amounts of money into technologies aimed to slow or stop the aging process or enable immortality.

His investment company has plowed cash into Unity, a Bay area firm that hopes to stop the aging process.

It is trying to find a way to eject senescent cells which stop cancer cells, but build up over time and go on to cause macular degeneration and arthritis from the body.

A study performed on mice suggests that removing the cells can prevent or delay tissue dysfunction and extend healthspan.

Scientists decoded an enzyme thought to halt ageing in plants, animals and humans as part of a recent breakthrough study.

Unravelling the structure of the complex enzyme, called telomerase, could lead to drugs that slow or block the ageing process, along with new treatments for cancer, researchers reported in the journal Nature in April.

Elated scientists announced the completion of a 20-year quest to map the enzyme thought to forestall ageing by repairing the tips of chromosomes.

It has been a long time coming, lead investigator Kathleen Collins, a molecular biologist at the University of California in Berkeley, said in a statement.

Our findings provide a structural framework for understanding human telomerase disease mutations, and represent an important step towards telomerase-related clinical therapeutics.

Part protein and part RNA (genetic material that relays instructions for building proteins) telomerase acts on microscopic sheaths, known as telomeres, that cover the tips of the chromosomes found inside all cells.

In humans, each cell contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, including one pair of sex chromosomes the X and Y that differ between males and females.

Australian-American biologist Elizabeth Blackburn, who shared the 2009 Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovering telomeres and their protective function in the 1970s, likened them to the tiny plastic caps that keep shoelaces from fraying.

Eventually, however, shoelace tips and telomeres do break down: every time a cell divides the telomeres get worn a little bit more, until the cell stops dividing and dies. This, biologists agree, is probably central to the natural ageing process.

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Human Lifespan: Scientists Predict People Will Live To 130 Within This Century - Todayuknews - Todayuknews

Photo: Stockmagen/iStockPhoto

Scientists at UC San Diego and colleagues have found links between extreme heat and a heightened incidence of stillbirths and preterm births in relatively poor countries.

The study, published Oct. 6 in the journal Environment International, is believed to be the first to link the two phenomena in a global context.

We notably found that experiencing higher maximum temperatures and smaller diurnal temperature range during the last week before birth increased the risk of preterm birth and stillbirth, wrote a research team including first authorSara McElroy, who recently completed a PhD in epidemiologyin the San Diego State University/UC San Diego Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health. This study is the first global assessment of extreme heat events and adverse birth outcomes.

The research, coordinated by climate scientists and epidemiologists at UC San Diegos Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, overcomes a barrier presented by the dearth of daily temperature and health information from economically developing countries. The team used gridded global meteorological data and compared it to available health survey information in 14 low- and middle-income countries compiled by the U.S Agency for International Development.

There have been data collected in relatively affluent countries to indicate links between pregnancy outcomes and environmental extremes such as heat waves, ice storms and wildfires. Other previous studies in high-income countries have established that pregnant women toward the end of the gestational period are especially vulnerable to extreme heat as it affects their ability to stay hydrated and to keep cool through sweating.

Those data, say the researchers, are not necessarily indicative of what is happening in other geographical settings. High levels of poverty in developing countries act not only to make meteorological and health data-gathering rare within their borders but also make pregnant women more vulnerable to weather extremes because they are less likely to benefit from technologies and services such as perinatal health services, air conditioning, and other social determinants of health.

The researchers linked birth-outcome data with weather data in 14 countries such as the Philippines, Nepal, South Africa, and Tajikistan. They evaluated more than 103,000 births and counted nearly 5,900 preterm births and 1,200 stillbirths among them. They found a strong correlation between extreme heat events endured by pregnant women in the last week of their pregnancy and their risk of such adverse birth outcomes.

We brought attention to new evidence on the relationship between extreme heat and adverse birth outcomes in countries where the evidence has been scarce, said McElroy. Our analyses revealed an association between acute exposure to heat and increased risk of preterm birth and stillbirth and suggests differing critical windows of susceptibility to extreme heat for preterm birth and stillbirth.

Authors advocate for improvement or establishment of early-warning weather systems to enable pregnant women and their caregivers to prepare them for extreme heat events such as heat waves.

Due to climate change, extreme heat events have become more frequent, intense, and longer-lasting in recent decadesa trend projected to accelerate in the future, the researchers conclude. Low- to middle-income countries lack the infrastructure to deal with extreme heat and so it is especially important to study how heat affects pregnancy outcomes, as pregnant women are a particularly vulnerable group of the population.

Study co-authors include Tarik Benmarhnia, who holds a joint appointment at UC San Diegos Scripps Oceanography and School of Medicine, Alexander Gershunov, and Anna Dimitrova of Scripps Oceanography, and Sindana Ilango of the University of Washington.

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First Link between Stillbirths, Birth Complications and Excessive Heat in Lower-income Countries - UC San Diego Health

Boston, with its undisputed position as the life sciences capital of the world, owes a large part of its reigning biological status to the computer startup ecosystem that came first. Long before Kendall Square began measuring lab space by the millions of square feet (and measuring lives saved by the millions as well, thanks to Modernas COVID-19 vaccine), Boston had already nurtured a virtuous cycle spanning three essential components: a multitude of world-class research universities developing new breakthroughs, a spectrum of innovative companies driving commercialization and acquisitions, and venture capital willing to take significant risks to achieve outsized rewards. These elements continue to attract and retain the most valuable resource of all: a vibrant community of talented innovators.

However, successful innovation in longevity requires an extra ingredient, owing not only to the complexities of the human body and mind as they age, but also the byzantine and counterintuitive nature of almost every aspect of the care delivery and payment systems. Successful aging-market solutions require an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on expertise in software, medicine, biology, finance, policy, and beyond.

There are still barriers to cementing Bostons role as the worlds longevity innovation hub. First, awareness of the magnitude of the opportunity is still low. For example, the United States spends over $1 trillion annually nearly 5 percent of GDP to care for seniors through a system that has existed largely unchanged for decades. Furthermore, the senior population is the wealthiest in history, with a total net worth of over $40 trillion. Longevity is perhaps the last and largest undisrupted market on the planet.

Second, because so much of the longevity market is administered by federal and state governments, the longevity industry needs to include innovators in administration, regulation, and legislation in our entrepreneurial and investment ecosystem. Many fortunes have been made by using technology to outpace regulation bypassing taxi rules, for example, while enabling strangers to drive each other around for money, or sidestepping hostelry laws while permitting strangers to rent out rooms to each other. Aging, however, is so complex, and the role of government in ensuring safe products and services so all-permeating (and so necessary), that reengineering aging will require a more cooperative, regulation-sensitive approach for example, integrating the informal, family-delivered home care system with the formal system of hospitals, clinicians, and insurance companies by developing data sharing pathways so that a seniors doctor can see exactly how their patient has been eating, sleeping, moving, and managing in between visits.

I recently encountered an example of such cooperation through the state-run MassVentures Start Program. Kinto, the age-tech startup where I am CEO, was awarded major grants from the National Institutes of Health through the Small Business Innovation Research program to develop a digital therapy for families coping with Alzheimers. However, these funds could not be used for sales or marketing expenses, which presented a challenge for us in finding the money to bring our innovations to market. Fortunately, MassVentures developed a grant program specifically for SBIR winners to address this specific gap, while also providing its grantees access to mentorship and advice. As intended, weve been successfully applying those dollars to develop relationships with our local powerhouse health systems and senior care agencies.

The final missing ingredient is a commodity that is paradoxically both plentiful and scarce: money. Despite the recent record levels of venture investment in Boston, disrupting a new market such as longevity requires taking new risks and embracing long timeframes of uncertainty. For all of Bostons many advantages, we still carry the vestiges of our risk-averse puritanical past, and we tend toward conservatism in our investing even when we are bold at everything else.

The longevity market can change that. The pumps are primed and the engine is running. We still need buy-in from innovators in sectors, particularly local and federal government, which have not traditionally participated in early-venture creation. But the talent we need is readily, locally available. So is insight into the complexities of later life. The last, critical accelerant for Bostons longevity innovation hub is a Silicon Valley level of visionary capital.

Major investors must put their money where their future is. Only that will enable longevity innovators to address the challenges, and opportunities, of what is literally the market of a lifetime.

Joseph Chung is cofounder and CEO of Kinto and cofounder and managing director of Redstar Ventures.

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The barriers to innovation - The Boston Globe

Many believe longevity and genetics go hand in hand. But genes are only part of the equation for most. In fact, ageing expert Dr Thomas Perls states that research shows that genes account for less than one-third of a persons chances of surviving to the age of 85. A new study conducted on fruit flies delves into one theory of when you eat rather than what and how this impacts longevity.

The study, which was published in the journal Nature, revealed how intermittent fasting works inside cells to slow the ageing process and points to potential ways to get the health benefits of fasting without the hunger pangs.

Intermittent fasting involves time-restricted feeding which in turn limits food, but not overall calorie intake, to specific hours of the day.

Because intermittent fasting restricts the timing of eating, its been hypothesised that natural biological clocks play a role, said Dr Mimi Shirasu-Hiza, associate professor of genetics & development at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons and an expert in circadian rhythms, who led the study.

READ MORE:High cholesterol: Five signs in your legs you must address

Dr Shirasu-Hizaand Dr MattUlgherait, an associate research scientist in her lab, turned to fruitflies to investigate further.

Fruit flies have similar biological clocks to humans, staying active during daylight and sleeping at night, while also sharing roughly 70 percent of human disease-related genes.

Fruit flies are anexcellent model for ageing,Dr Shirasu-Hizaaddedbecause fruitflies and humans age in similarways, butsincefruit flies only live for two months, ageing experimentsaremore technically feasible.

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For the researchers, therole of time was a big clue to howfastingis linked tolongevity.

Theyfound thatacell-cleaning processkicks in after fasting, but only when fasting occursduring the night.

Scientists call the cell-cleaning process autophagy, andthe process isknown to slow ageing bycleaning up and recycling damaged components of the cell.

Human cells use the same cell-cleaning processes,sothe findings raise the possibility that behaviouralchangesor drugsthat stimulate the cleaning processcouldprovide people with similar health benefits, delayingage-related diseases and extendingthe lifespan.

Intermittent fasting is thought to improve insulin resistance, which can stabilise blood sugar levels.

Findings from a study found that three men all with type 2 diabetes were able to stop taking insulin after losing weight from intermittent fasting.

The diet could also help improve memory as another study showed the switch of eating can increase resistance to stress by optimising brain function and neuroplasticity, or the brains ability to adapt to develop throughout ones life.

Adults who were put on the restricted-calorie diet showed improved verbal memory compared to others who did not follow the restricted-calorie diet.

For an added health benefit, intermittent fasting with high-protein meals and exercise can help to shed unwanted weight further boosting longevity.

Being overweight is linked to many health problems, and shedding some pounds is often presented as the best way to avoid them, no matter your age.

Obese or even merely overweight people who can shed just three percent of their weight and keep it off for the long-term will see significant health benefits from lowering their risk of type 2 diabetes and heart disease, as well as some cancers.

Men who are obese are estimated to be around five times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and 2.5 times more likely to develop high blood pressure.

Women who are obese are estimated to be around 13 times more likely to develop type 2 diabetes and four times more likely to develop high blood pressure than women who are not.

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How to live longer: Way of eating shown to boost cell-cleaning process impacting longevity - Express

As we transition into fall, I often think about the changes that are occurring not just around us in nature, but also the changes happening inside our bodies physically and mentally. Fall is a time of death, decay, and eventually rebirth, and our bodies go through similar transitions with the season.

We tend to feel more tired, wanting to retreat to our dark rooms and beds for rest. We tend to crave heavier foods and nutrients to get us through the cold winter months. And we tend to seek warmth and safety within ourselves and in our environment.

So how can the ancient medicine of Ayurveda help us with this beautiful transition into fall? I turned to herbalist, Ayurvedic wellness counselor, permaculturist, and former northern Kentucky native Jenny Griffith to show us the way.

Jenny Griffith (From her website)

Q: What is Ayurveda?

Ayurveda is a system of healing that is derived from ancient India. It is said to be the oldest healing system in the world. Ayuh means life and Veda means knowledge. It is a medicinal science and its purpose is to maintain the quality and longevity of life. It consists of a daily regimen that has evolved from practical, philosophical, and spiritual illumination. Ayurveda explains that everyone has their own unique constitution, mind, and consciousness that is the foundation of our health and happiness. There is no concept of specialization. Ayurveda treats the whole person, not just the organ or system involved.Q: How is Ayurveda helpful to our health?

Ayurveda is helpful to understand because it shows a different perspective than we are used to here in the west. Ayurveda is comprised of 5 elements that make up all of existence, including human life. The five elements are; water, space, air, fire, and earth. Through a test or Ayurvedic consultation, you can find out how much of each element we have within our bodies. These elements are paired into three constitutions, called doshas. The word doshas actually mean fault or impurity. Air and space is the Vata dosha. Water and fire is Pitta. Lastly, water and earth is the Kapha dosha. When we find out which dosha we are, we can begin to add the opposing elements into our life. For example, if you are primarily the Vata dosha, you would want to reduce air + space by eliminating something like crunchy/dry chips from your diet and adding the opposite element like earth. So you would add more moist and wet foods like avocado and ghee into your diet to ground.

Q: How can we invite Ayurveda into our daily lives?

There are many practices that you can incorporate into your daily life. One of my favorites lately is practicing an oil treatment called abhyanga. Every morning I self massage my face with a medicinal oil to wake myself up, reduce any sleepy/puffy swelling, and bring moisture into all of my facial orifices like nostrils and eyes. I also recommend buying a tongue scraper to remove excess toxins from the tongue each day and night. Lastly, Ayurveda recommends living in unison with the sun and the moon. This means to wake when the sun rises and begin bedtime when the sun is setting. You will feel so much better if you live in conjunction with natures rhythms.

Natalie Deering

Q: What do you recommend for people as they transition into fall?

Fall is a time of heightened Vata dosha. This means we may experience more dry skin, anxiety, insomnia, bloating, gas, spasms, etc. It is best if we begin incorporating more warming and wet into our lifestyle. Examples of this could be reducing cold and dry foods and adding more warm/hot foods with spices like cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger. Warm and slower physical activity is best as well; try a warm yin yoga class or Qi gong in nature to stay grounded. Many people tend to get antsy and overwhelmed during the fall. Make a point to meditate often and take periods of silence throughout the day away from the screen to stay present and calm.

Jenny currently works in addiction recovery at Villa Kali Ma Womens Treatment Center in Carlsbad, CA. She also works with 1:1 with clients, guides groups online, and provides in-person programs about regenerative living and health. She is also in the midst of launching an herbal product line with slow and hand-harvested medicine that she grows herself.To learn more and connect with Jenny, find her on Instagram @jennygracegriffith and on her website http://www.jennygriffith.com.

Natalie Deering is a mental health therapist and owner of ND Wellness Psychological Services in Northern Kentucky.See her website.

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Natalie Deering: What is the ancient medicine of Ayurveda and how can it help with transition to fall? - User-generated content