I’m excited to break the news that RealSelf.com announces its official launch today. Here’s the press release that went out this morning.

Gone are the days in which you need to embark blindly into the unknown for the sake of beauty. Now your investment in yourself may no longer require guesswork, as the RealSelf.com community does the footwork. You can discover personal insights shared in reviews, expert answers and invaluable information on everything from Lipodissolve and laser treatments  to natural skincare and acne treatment.

There are copious amounts of information about anti-aging and cosmetic treatments floating around cyberspace and the media, some which is downright deceptive. RealSelf.com is the first place where a community generates the content. It’s authentic and honest, and I find it reveals insights that are relevant to me such as, Which skin care product ingredients should I avoid?

I have been a blogger for RealSelf.com for over a year, and this experience has introduced me to amazing people with fascinating stories. For me, going through the pages of RealSelf.com is like finding a village of people in my make-up bag who have been there, done that, and are waiting to clue me in on the latest beauty news.

The defeat of cancer is an important part of any comprehensive approach to repair the damage of aging. Ultimately, we'd all like perfect cancer prevention, but it may be that comprehensive and effective cancer cures will be enough to sustain the first few additional decades of the longevity revolution. That would put us at around 2040, entering "sky's the limit" territory with biomedicine and molecular nanotechnology. Cancer will go the way of smallpox shortly after that.

With regard to cancer cures, two of the most interesting lines of research at present involve engineered viruses and dendrimer-based therapies, both of which I've noted in past months:

• Cancer Cells are Different, So Target the Differences
• Stomping on Cancer With Viruses

Forced to pick the most promising technology base, I would have chosen dendrimers - they offer comparative efficiency in the process of producing new therapies because many components can be attached to a single dendrimer. Complex theraputic concepts - such as seeker molecules or two-stage toxins triggered by biochemicals specific to cancer cells - can be developed in isolation by specialists and the end results combined or built upon by other groups.

A virus doesn't have to be a one-trick pony, however. Engineered viruses that can do more than one job are examined in a recent Wired article:

Researchers at Stanford University and Jennerex Biotherapeutics have tweaked the cancer-killing vaccinia virus JX-963 so that it also stimulates the body to generate cancer-fighting white blood cells. The company intends to take the virus into clinical trials based on a promising animal study.

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Scientists claim to have made recent progress targeting cancer cells with modded cold, herpes and smallpox viruses. These viruses infect and kill cancer cells while leaving healthy cells alone.
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With the new JX-963 therapy, the virus doesn't have to do the work alone -- it elicits the body's own defenses to mop up cancer cells. The chemical that the virus secretes, granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor, or GM-CSF, is a protein that stimulates the production of white blood cells.

Interesting stuff. In theory, a virus could be altered to produce a range of useful proteins once it has access to the cellular environment - that might be good enough to give dendrimer therapies a run for their money if widely used engineered virus platforms emerge in the near future.

The existence of multiple competing technologies is one of the most promising signs of progress in any field. Competition turns the wheel, and it's good to see it here - that cancer with your name on it isn't getting any further away in time.

If you have a long memory, you'll recall I discussed work claiming a link between solar radiation and human longevity at the end of last year:

The assumed general mechanism in biology is good, whatever you might think of the rest of the theory; it's essentially covered by the reliability theory of aging - biochemical damage, caused by radiation or otherwise, lowers remaining life expectancy by reducing or destroying the functionality of component parts in the machine that is you.

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Some interesting studies are quoted in the article on solar radiation, but it looks very much like a case of having a hammer and seeing nails in everything. It is logical to suppose that demonstrated variations in human longevity and disease by location of birth date in solar and seasonal cycles have something to do with the sun at root - but that certainly doesn't mean that the sun is the direct cause of the biochemical damage that leads to such variations. It might be solar radiation, or it might be one or more differences in other systems caused by variations in solar radiation - diet, weather, hormonal changes, behaviors ... just to rattle off a few. There are certainly many more.

I noticed a new paper from the same researchers today, and I thought I'd point your attention in that direction.

The light of life: Evidence that the sun modulates human lifespan:

This paper reinforces the findings of others regarding the seasonality of various diseases and that there are factors occurring early in utero that increase susceptibility to diseases later in life. The authors use the vital statistics of 320,247 Maine citizens over a 29-year period to show that those born in 3-year peaks of 11-year solar cycles live an average of 1.5 years (CL 1.3-1.7) less than those born in non-peak years. Males are more sensitive than females to this phenomenon, which is statistically demonstrable well into adult life, showing the effect of probable UVR on the early human embryo despite superimposed adult lifetime hazards.

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This study also supports the reliability theory of aging which suggests that events affecting the genome early after conception are important in the expression of adult diseases.

Nice to see them giving the nod to reliability theory in this latest work, but it doesn't look like the authors are any closer to demonstrating likelihood of any one mechanism over another.

In response to RealSelf community questions, we have had several new additions in the past week.

   L.A. hair guru Romi Cortier just contributed his first video tip!  Listen as Romi explains what to look for in shampoos, conditioners, and color maintenance and styling products to make your hair look its best.   Your hair will thank you.

   For more happy hair moments on RealSelf, check out answers from new site expert and Redken educator David Stanko.  David answered a whopping 16 questions for the RealSelf community about everything from covering gray to color-enhancing shampoos.

Plus:

   Dr. David Goldberg filled us in on filling smoker lines and also added some new before-and-after photos of his work with Titan skin tightening treatment and laser hair removal.  Also look for new laser hair removal before-and-after photos from American Laser Centers.

   Makeup artist extraordinaire Maria Verel offered insight into celebrity lip color.

   Drs. Julius Few, Renato Saltz, and Ira Papel, spokesperson physicians for the Injectable Safety Campaign, shared how to ensure your cosmetic injection experience is safe, and more.

   New from the U.K. this week are Spa Director Clare Rogers of the Treatment Rooms and Dentist Ken Spektor of the London Centre for Cosmetic Dentistry. 

There’s no doubting the prevalence of pumpkins as the holiday season approaches. I buy two pumpkin pies each year… one for my family to share, and one I eat all by myself. I consider pumpkin pie a health food, and I devour a warm piece every morning for breakfast as long as the pie lasts. But this year, I may throw one in my own face too, as pumpkins have qualities that make them spectacular for skin care.

The vitamin A inherent in pumpkin softens skin, and because this agent is soothing as well, even those with sensitive skin can turn to this orange giant to aid their complexion.

We all know that the beauty world jumps on every bandwagon available to sell products, and you can bet the bulbs in your vanity mirror that you’ll start seeing pumpkin inspired skin care cropping up everywhere soon, to herald in the Thanksgiving season.

One age-defying pumpkin based product that caught my eye is the Pumpkin Lift Face Mask by Sumbody. It sounds good enough to eat with the following description:

High in age-defying anti-oxidants, exfoliating enzymes and nourishing Vitamins E and C, pumpkin stimulates circulation, promotes clarity and restores damaged skin to a healthy, balanced state. We add skin-softening milk, hydrating honey, warming cinnamon and firming egg to the mix for a truly decadent skin-loving treat.

So go ahead and carve, eat and wear your pumpkins this season!