Healthy Lifestyles and Life Expectancy

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Healthy Lifestyles and Life Expectancy

As human life expectancy increases, it’s become clear we can’t just focus on simply extending the human lifespan, but rather extending our healthy lifespan (a concept now commonly referred to as “healthspan”). After all, what good is a long life when its plagued by illnesses for the final 40 years? This study, conducted by researchers at Harvard, included over 100,000 people tracked for more than 20 years, and discusses the effects that diet, exercise, smoking status, and other factors have on extending the healthspan in individuals over 50.

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It's Time to Embrace 21st Century Medicine

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It's Time to Embrace 21st Century Medicine

Cancer, Alzheimers, Cardiovascular diseases… as a scientific community it feels as though we’re always playing catch up. How many more people could be saved, how much more could we extend the healthspan (or healthy human lifespan) if instead we focused on being proactive? This article, written by a doctor at the University of Washington, focuses on the importance of targeting aging when discussing adding years to human life expectancy.

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Porportions of Macronutrients in Prospective anti-Alzheimers Diet

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Porportions of Macronutrients in Prospective anti-Alzheimers Diet

Being careful about what we put into our bodies is vital to maintaining our health, and potentially prolonging our healthy lifespan. Some centenarians have even been found to have taste receptors that gravitate towards healthier foods. We all wish we could find the perfect diet, however our bodies change as we age, thus calling for a change in diet as we get older. The main finding of this study is that lower consumption of protein in the mid-life, and higher consumption for the period of late age may benefit our health and longevity.

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Sleep Apnea May Accelerate Aging

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Sleep Apnea May Accelerate Aging

Millions of people can be classified as having sleep-disordered breathing (SDB). Despite its prevalence however, its affect on aging hasn’t been well studied until recently. A study presented at SLEEP 2019 by researchers at Harvard Medical School has linked SDB with epigenetic age acceleration.

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Effects of Exercise on Grey Matter & Brain Atrophy

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Effects of Exercise on Grey Matter & Brain Atrophy

A recent study by the Mayo Clinic including more than 2,000 people, found that exercise can have an effect on grey matter and total brain volume. Both of which are involved in cognitive decline and aging. According to Mayo Clinic experts, exercise that is good for the heart (such as brisk walking, running and cycling) could also help to slow changes in the brain.

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Longevity and the Arts

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Longevity and the Arts

Viewing art can stimulate thought, evoke emotion, inspire conversation, and is often a social activity. A study published this month by researchers at the University College of London has shown that ‘receptive arts’ engagement could have a protective association with longevity in older adults. Read More ⇩

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New FDA Drug Designation:
 “Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy”

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New FDA Drug Designation:
 “Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy”

Last month (November 2019), we came across a promising report (see below) of a new drug designation created by the FDA: the “Regenerative Medicine Advanced Therapy” (RMAT). This designation was actually announced back in early 2017, but we suspect many readers may not know about it yet, so we’d like to share it here!

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Turning Back Time

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Turning Back Time

Remember when turning 18 or 21 years old felt like an eternity away?  How is that working out for you now?  It’s true that the older we get, the faster we feel time pass us by.  All of us wish we had more time to do the things we love or simply spend time with our loved ones a little longer.  What if you had the chance to get time back, would you do it?  See how Turn Bio is working to make this a real possibility.

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Green Spaces and Mortality

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Green Spaces and Mortality

It’s common knowledge that an animal in the zoo fares better when its enclosure resembles its natural environment. Humans however, are often resistant to the notion that we’re similar in that regard. However a recent World Health Organization funded study underlines the importance of surrounding ourselves with nature and green spaces. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of residential green spaces on all-cause mortality, and the results of these studies found a significant inverse relationship between an increase in surrounding greenness and the risk of all-cause mortality.

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What is #GivingTuesday?

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What is #GivingTuesday?

Giving Tuesday was created in 2012 as a day where donors could take a different approach to filling up an online virtual cart with goods. It has since grown into an international day of charitable giving, where hundreds of millions are donated every year. One of the best ways to get involved this Giving Tuesday is in your community and to causes you deem worthy of support. This year it falls today, December 3rd. So give back, whether it be to the Methuselah Foundation or another charity of your choice. Non-Profits around the world depend on generous donors like you and your ongoing support. Your donations are greatly appreciated!

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Wagging the Dog's Tail Doesn't Make it Happy

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Wagging the Dog's Tail Doesn't Make it Happy

Over the past 10 years, there has been enormous attention given to serum vitamin D level and its association with human health. We therefore found it remarkable that a new study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed no reduction in cancer or cardiovascular mortality with a median of 5 years of supplementation with 2,000 IU of vitamin D and 1 g of fish oil in nearly 17,000 men and women over age 50. This brings us to the dog metaphor in the title of this article…

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Sleep Loss Encourages Spread of Alzheimers Protein

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Sleep Loss Encourages Spread of Alzheimers Protein

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine have determined that sleep deprivation in humans can lead to the spread and aggregation of the Alzheimer inducing protein, Tau. These new findings suggest that Alzheimer’s disease and sleep loss are even more intimately intertwined than previously thought. Hopefully, knowledge of this critical brain process will lead to further research on how the process works and the role it plays in neurological conditions such as Alzheimer's disease.

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Can Inflammation Cause Mental Sluggishness?

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Can Inflammation Cause Mental Sluggishness?

Many people suffering from chronic illnesses also report that they experience ‘brain fog’ or ‘sluggishness’. A recent study done at the University of Birmingham has attributed this sluggishness, (at least in part), to inflammation. Getting a better understanding of the relationships between inflammation and brain function will help us investigate other ways to treat some of these conditions in patients with chronic illnesses.

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Aging of the Carotid Body, Hypoxia & You

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Aging of the Carotid Body, Hypoxia & You

The carotid body is a small organ that plays a role in controlling the breathing rate. In this paper, Di Giulio describes a part of the carotid body that becomes infiltrated with lymphocytes and fibrosis during aging. Much is still unknown about this organ and the effects that it’s aging has on us. As such, we think it is important to monitor scientific literature for data that tells us something we didn’t know, or that contradicts our current understanding of degenerative aging and how we might bring it under complete medical control.

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EPA to Eliminate All Mammal Testing by 2035

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EPA to Eliminate All Mammal Testing by 2035

It can be said that cancer has been cured dozens of times over in mice. Oftentimes though, the results obtained in the lab aren’t translatable to humans with the same conditions. This uncertainty often leads to misleading results, frustration, and a waste of resources. With this in mind, the EPA has recently announced that they will stop conducting or funding studies on mammals by 2035. Read More >

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Can a Local Vitamin C Deficiency in the Skin Cause Atrophy of the Microvasculature?

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Can a Local Vitamin C Deficiency in the Skin Cause Atrophy of the Microvasculature?

We need blood, it delivers nutrients and removes waste. However, there is considerable evidence that during human aging, the network of the smallest blood vessels, microvasculature, atrophy with age. The research group in this paper reported that topical application vitamin C to the skin caused significant regression of senile purpura. For the sake of our mission to Renew the Rivers, we hope to see more research on the aging human microvasculature and what we can do about it. 

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In Aged Mice, NAD+ Replenishment Rescues Age-Related Colon Degeneration

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In Aged Mice, NAD+ Replenishment Rescues Age-Related Colon Degeneration

Nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) has become increasingly popular over the past several years. It’s a metabolite that’s very important in DNA repair and energy production. For whatever reason, it’s concentration is known to decline during human aging by as much as 90%. We hope that NAD restoration in older people can restore biological function in multiple tissues, and the results of this paper are consistent with that hope. 

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