Anti-aging 1

It's hard to watch people we care about lose some of their abilities, decline as they grow older, and eventually succumb to a disease of old age. But we're all resigned to it because it's inevitable.

Well, actually, not all of us are resigned to it. Some are resolved to fight it. An anti-aging movement has been going on among biomedical researchers for many years. ("Fight Aging!" can be an educational resource for you; start with their FAQ.)

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Damage to our cells that accumulates over the years is the dominant theory to explain why our bodies decline with age. Damaged cells are programmed to self-destruct, a process that produces billions of destroyed cells in our bodies daily. But a small number of damaged cells continue to live on in their damaged state and that causes problems. 

Hope to solve the problem of damaged cells is driving some new start-up businesses. 

from Mind Matters

(cont'd tomorrow)

Anti-aging 3

 Follow up to these posts

Last fall the conference called COSM hosted a discussion about anti-aging technologies. Hopeful CEO's of companies researching these technologies, as well as a neuroscientist, defined their goals. 

They believe it will be possible to mitigate age-related decline, maybe to the point that death could be "elective." 

Here's what drives their work forward:

• They're making "genetic medicines for health and longevity" which disassemble damaged cells when they don't self-destruct as they're supposed to ("senescent").
• "Instead of making a drug and injecting it, we program [the patient's] own cells to produce remedies inside them, trying to build an app store for the human body."

from Mind Matters

Less aging

 Re-post from 2021

It's hard to watch people we care about lose some of their abilities, decline as they grow older, and eventually succumb to a disease of old age. But we're all resigned to it because it's inevitable.

Well, actually, not all of us are resigned to it. Some are resolved to fight it. An anti-aging movement has been going on among biomedical researchers for many years. ("Fight Aging!" can be an educational resource for you; start with their FAQ.)

image

Damage to our cells that accumulates over the years is the dominant theory to explain why our bodies decline with age. Damaged cells are programmed to self-destruct, a process that produces billions of destroyed cells in our bodies daily. But a small number of damaged cells continue to live on in their damaged state and that causes problems. 

Hope to solve the problem of damaged cells is driving some new start-up businesses. 

from Mind Matters

(cont'd tomorrow)

Less aging 3

 from 2021

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

A conference called COSM hosted a discussion about anti-aging technologies. Hopeful CEOs of companies researching these technologies, as well as a neuroscientist, defined their goals.

They think it will be possible to mitigate age-related decline. Here's what drives their work forward:

• They make "genetic medicines for health and longevity" which disassemble damaged cells when they don't self-destruct as they're supposed to (senescence).
• "Instead of making a drug and injecting it, we program [the patient's] own cells to produce remedies inside them, trying to build an app store for the human body."

But it looks like there is something you can do about aging for your own health and longevity without waiting for new medicines: you can fast 17-19+ hours (video made by a Radiation Oncology Therapist). After fasting that long, your body accelerates cleaning up those dysfunctional and senescent cells that can lead to disease, a process known as autophagy.

from Mind Matters

Anti-aging 2

(cont'd from yesterday's post)

Irreversibly damaged cells that somehow escape normal self-destruct mechanisms continue to build up and cause health problems over the years. Oisin Biotechnologies explains it:

"When cells detect that they have been irreversibly damaged, they enter a non-dividing condition [called] senescence . . . Ideally, they should die by the process known as apoptosis, but as we age, more and more frequently they don’t. They become zombie cells – unable to kill themselves or resume normal function.

"Senescent cells secrete molecules that cause inflammation in an effort to attract immune cells that would usually clear them. But for reasons that are not fully known, as we age, persistently senescent cells accumulate, leading to a vast number of age-related diseases."

So their goal is to improve health and lifespan by targeting senescent cells and destroying them. "Significant" success was achieved, so far, in the testing of their therapy on aged mice. 

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