Body Complete Healing Health Medicine Mind Optimum Soul Soul System Vitality

A piece from the LEF Magazine that makes the points about modern medical research that most people don't think about: "the public today tolerates federal and state laws that enable pharmaceutical companies to conduct business as a virtual monopoly. The result is that Americans pay outlandish prices for mediocre drugs that are often laden with side effects. ... Unlike regulated prescription drugs, the cost of dietary supplements has plummeted over the past three decades. ... in a free market environment, technological breakthroughs that occurred in telecommunications will also happen in medicine. ... More frightening is the suffocating effect that regulation has on the discovery of life-saving therapies. Just imagine if advancement in clinical medicine progressed at the same rapid rate as telecommunications. If it did, we would probably have cures for most killer diseases today!" Heavily regulated markets are bloated, slow markets, in which the incentives are so set as to discourage progress. Present regulation is a very real threat to the future of your health and longevity.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2008/sep2008_Would-You-Tolerate-This-Abuse_01.htm
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

Researchers continue to find ways to alter stem cells to produce better therapies: "Adult stem cells resemble couch potatoes if they hang out and divide in a dish for too long. They get fat and lose key surface proteins, which interferes with their movement and reduces their therapeutic potential. Now, via a simple chemical procedure, researchers have found a way to get these cells off the couch and over to their therapeutic target. To do this, they simply added a molecule called SLeX to the surface of the cells. The procedure took just 45 minutes and restored an important biological function. ... Delivery remains one of the biggest hurdles to stem cell therapy. The blood stream offers a natural delivery vehicle, but stem cells don't move through blood vessels normally after being expanded in culture. Our procedure promises to overcome this obstacle. ... Karp cautions that his lab's discovery must be validated in animals, before doctors can apply it in the clinic. He's collaborating with another lab to test the homing ability of the SLeX-dotted cells in mice."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2008-10/hms-scp102908.php
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

Following up on a recent Fight Aging! post, more on the role of IGF-1 in longevity: "Using a mouse model relevant for humans, we showed that lifespan can be significantly extended by reducing the signaling selectively of a protein called IGF-I in the central nervous system. ... This caused growth retardation, smaller adult size, and metabolic alterations, and led to delayed mortality and longer mean lifespan. Thus, early changes in neuroendocrine development can durably modify the life trajectory in mammals. The underlying mechanism appears to be an adaptive plasticity of somatotropic functions allowing individuals to decelerate growth and preserve resources, and thereby improve fitness in challenging environments. ... continuously low IGF-I and low growth hormone levels favor extended lifespan and postpone age-related mortality. ... our results further challenge the view that administration of GH can prevent, or even counteract human aging. This knowledge is important since growth hormone is often prescribed to elderly people in an attempt to compensate the unwanted effects of aging."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0060254
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

From Ouroboros: researchers "suggest that mitochondrial uncoupling is an effective mimic of [calorie restriction (CR)]. In mitochondria, the electron transport chain uses electrons from glucose and lipids to pump protons across a membrane. This proton gradient can be used to make energy in the form of ATP through oxidative phosphorylation. The process is kind of like generating hydropower. Uncouplers work by putting a leak in the dam, which lets water through without going to the generator. They 'uncouple' the electron transport chain from oxidative phosphorylation, thus reducing the efficiency of energy production. Although animals have uncoupling proteins (these proteins are important for thermogenesis, especially during hibernation), so far there are no known agonists. The researchers instead used low doses of the mitochondria uncoupler DNP. ... The DNP treated mice ate the same amount of food as control mice but had lower body mass [and] showed many phenotypes observed in calorie restricted mice. Like CR mice, DNP treated mice had higher rates of respiration with lower production of ROS. ... Most importantly, DNP treated mice showed an extended lifespan. This study suggests that mitochondrial uncouplers are an effective mimic of calorie restriction and might be a realistic therapeutic intervention for delaying aging and extending lifespan."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://ouroboros.wordpress.com/2008/10/30/mitochondrial-uncouplers-mimic-the-effects-of-calorie-restriction/
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

While consuming antioxidants doesn't seem to do much good, the state of your internal antioxidant systems is very important to health and longevity. "In aerobic organisms, oxygen is essential for efficient energy production but paradoxically, produces chronic toxic stress in cells. Diverse protective systems must exist to enable adaptation to oxidative environments. Oxidative stress (OS) results when production of reactive oxidative species (ROS) exceeds the capacity of cellular antioxidant defenses to remove these toxic species. Epidemiological and clinical studies have linked environmental factors such as diet and lifestyle to cancer, diabetes, atherosclerosis, and neurodegenerative disorders. All of these conditions, as well as the aging process, are associated with OS due to elevation of ROS or insufficient ROS detoxification." You might recall that enhancing or replicating the effect of these internal systems has successfully extended mouse life spans.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://pmid.us/18955158
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/