DailyDirt: Aging Gracefully
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
The topic of aging is a widely-studied one -- presumably because everyone ages and it's one of the leading causes of death. There's no cure for aging just yet, but scientists are collecting more information on the process of aging. Once the process is understood more thoroughly, there might be ways to treat it and extend human lifespans. Here are just a few more links on the subject of aging and possible ways to prevent it.- Generally, people are born with about 20,000 hematopoietic stem cells to generate blood cells. When Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper died at the age of 115, she apparently had only two active stem cells -- and researchers are investigating how stem cells might provide an upper limit to aging and extending the human lifespan. [url]
- Syndrome X is the name of the disorder that Brooke Greenberg was diagnosed to have in 2009, but since then, other people have also been found to have similar symptoms that seem to halt the normal aging process. Gabby Williams, Mackenzee Wittke, and another girl are having their entire genome sequences analyzed to try to gain some further understanding of the aging process and how these girls' bodies have altered it. [url]
- Longevity entrepreneurs from silicon valley are looking into the problem of aging and the biotech solutions that might be available. According to Human Longevity Inc (HLI), "aging is the single biggest risk factor for virtually every significant human disease." [url]
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Filed Under: aging, biotech, brooke greenberg, death, health, hendrikje van andel-schipper, hli, lifespan, longevity, stem cells, syndrome x
Companies: human longevity inc
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Syndrome X
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the power of a bad headline
This syndrome may tell us a lot about development and gene regulation, but the people who refer to it as "the key to halting the aging process" seem to be indulging in pure wishful thinking.
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syndrome x
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Cholesterol is the basis of the synthesis of steroid hormones such as estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, etc -- all necessary for sexuality and reproduction. That is just to get your attention, as cholesterol also forms the basis for a great many other processes. It is totally necessary for animal life as we know it.
The journey to understand the atherosclerotic process has been an interesting one over my lifespan. First total cholesterol was seen as the villain, and margarine in stick form was seen as the saviour. But after decades of adhering to the replacement of butter by stick margarine, it was discovered that the trans-fats present in solid margarines were often more dangerous that the cholesterol in butter.
Cholesterol, an insoluble waxy notched crystal, itself has been discovered to be present in a number of forms so that it can be carried in the bloodstream. It came to be known that cholesterol was carried as chylomicrons, VLDL, IDL, LDL and HDL. Over the years the cholesterol transported by the lighter lipoproteins (LDL in particular) came to be known as "bad cholesterol," and HDL is known as "good cholesterol."
More recent work has studied the fractionation of what was known as "good cholesterol" or HDL. Not all the fractions are protective as has been recently thought. There is dysfunctional HDL that is not "good." HDL fractionation is new enough, and still so poorly understood, that it is not available for most clinical purposes.
What all this means is that atherosclerosis as a result of cholesterol levels is a heck of a lot more complicated than anyone thought 30 years ago. I suspect that 30 years from now, today's understanding will be deemed as trivial.
Is this a license to eat bacon by the sow belly? Unfortunately no. Half of all deaths from heart attacks are the result of excess cholesterol levels that can be easily controlled. But we are no where near a true understanding of the role that cholesterol alone plays in cardiac disease, and there are many other factors involved in the development of atherosclerosis.
I have discussed just one slice of one form of aging. It is an incredibly complex process that has no simple answers. A mystery that will yield its secrets only with great research, patience and time.
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who pays for all the old people
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Re: who pays for all the old people
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Re: who pays for all the old people
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I also hope that I got the better side of his genes.
While the average lifespan has increased markedly, the average age at death if someone has already lived past 40 hasn't changed all that much. Prior to the industrial revolution two out of three children died prior to the age of five. After the industrial revolution and the initiation of public health that changed to 1 in three. In 2012 in the US it was 7 out of a thousand. Big impact on the averages.
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Only because they think there's no chance that their own 94th birthdays would approach such a level of awesome.
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