Should longevity science be a priority?

Humanity faces many challenges this century. There are three important considerations that can help us distinguish between the challenges that are truly the biggest problems from those that are less pressing. The first is the magnitute of the harms in question. Second, is their certainty of happening. Last, is the likelihood that we could do something about them. Aging scores very high on all three of these issues.

The sheer number of humans that will suffer the diseases of aging this century is staggering and unprecedented. Aging scores very high on the magnitude of the harm criterion. Secondly, aging scores high on the certainty factor. The scientific consensus is in, senescence causes disease and death. Thirdly, we must ask what is the likelihood that we could actually do something to remedy the situation. The greater the likelihood that we could successfully mitigate the harms in questions, the stronger the case for taking action. We know that aging is not immutable, and thus longevity science could provide us with effective and efficient strategies for dealing with the many problems that the aging populations face.

A great many people within the scientific community do in fact share this view - the most important present debates are over the strategies by which progress is made. What is efficient, what is plausible, how will funds be raised and research prioritized? Meanwhile, outside the scientific community, a great deal of work remains to be done in education and raising awareness: the assignment of resources to specific research goals depends upon a broad base of popular support and understanding. Think of cancer science, for example, or Alzheimer's research. That level of public understanding, appreciation for what is a plausible rate of progress, and support for funding of longevity science is a good goal to aim for.

Is resveratrol the key to unlocking longevity?

KYLE JENSEN: A lot of headlines have been coming out of NIH studies that you’ve been involved in that state resveratrol improves health in mice but not longevity. Do you think there is a chance that resveratrol can increase human longevity?

LEONARD GUARENTE: Absolutely. I think we aren’t going to know that for a very, very long time. In mice so many things have been [improved] by sirtuin activators, and the fact that longevity hasn’t been observed yet I think it just a matter of time before one has the right strain.

...

KYLE JENSEN: Now do you think this approach, going after drugs like resveratrol, will hold the key to defeating age-related disease and increasing lifespan?

LEONARD GUARENTE: I don’t think we will defeat them, but I think we have a chance to hold them at bay longer and increase the period when we are healthy and disease free. Perhaps as much by a decade. Which, you know, will make a huge difference.

Supporters of drug-based metabolic manipulation will spend staggering sums of money over the next two decades pushing various drugs through the present hideously inefficient system of medical regulation. These are all aimed at slowing aging by inducing metabolic changes discovered in biochemistry of calorie restriction, exercise, and the like. This is the grand, slow, inefficient way forward. Slowing the rate at which age-related damage accumulates does nothing for the old.

It is frustrating at times to see the research community just as close to truly impressive methods of completely repairing specific types of age-related damage as it is to more metabolism-tweaking drugs that can only slow that damage down - and yet all the resources are going to the slower path of drug development that will in all likelihood produce less effective therapies in the end.

Tanda Regenerate is an anti-aging repair device, using light therapy.

It combines proven light therapy and botanically based, light-optimized topicals to provide natural, non-invasive, scientifically proven solutions for common unwanted skin conditions. A 660nm Red light LED treatment encourages collagen production to help repair skin texture, color, and tone while diminishing the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

I have been trying this out for quite some time. I like the way that this head is much bigger than other light treatments that I have used. I will admit that while I have used it for a few months, my use of it is far from regular. I am going to dedicate a time for this everyday to see what happens. I have a few friends who have tried this and other LED light therapy systems and they have told me that they see results in only a few weeks when using the device for 15 - 20 minutes, twice a day. Not twice a week like I have been using it.

Check Tanda out at Sephora, and let me know if you have tried any of the at-home light treatments. Hopefully I will get back to you in the next month or so with some better results from using my Tanda a bit more on schedule.

image credit: Sephora.com

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I find it very strange that apparently intelligent people can field this sort of argument. Replace working anti-aging medicine with, say, working heart transplants, or working kidney dialysis and see how far you get in trying to convince people that suppliers in the developed world are keeping such technologies out of the hands of others, or that we must stop using medicine that is not universally available. Quite aside from the glaring failure to understand simple economics, it is deeply depressing that we live in a world in which people argue for the enforcement of large-scale, preventable suffering and death.

...

Creating "equality" by taking from the successful ruins the creation of wealth - very much a non-zero sum game - for all. It takes away the vital incentives and rewards for success. At the end of the process, as demonstrated by all that transpired in the Soviet Union, you are left with the same old inequalities, but now taking place amongst ruins, starvation and disease.

In any case, I thought you'd be interested to see the fundament of the equalitarian position turned to support research into ending aging and extending healthy life for a change. Consider this another installment in seeing how mainstream pro-longevity bioethicists think:

Why should the aged have a much greater risk of cancer, heart disease, diabetes, AD, infection and death? The aged do not deserve the cellular and molecular damage that accrues over time; and thus we should seek to mitigate these vulnerabilities. And so I think the aspiration to retard human aging is actually a requirement, not violation, of equality. And this is what I argue at greater length in my paper "Equality and the Duty to Retard Human Aging"

The trouble with radical equality is that the "right" to possess more than you presently own - be it possessions, resources, or young cells - is what's known as a positive right.

Within the philosophy of human rights, some philosophers and political scientists make a distinction between negative and positive rights. According to this view, one's positive right imposes an obligation on another to do something for someone, while a negative right obliges others to refrain from doing something to someone.

A positive right for one person always implies enforced servitude for another person: where do the labor and resources to supply that positive right come from, after all? A system of government that grants positive rights is a system that must be backed up by coercion - taxes, public service, prison, police, and guns. Just try suggesting that you won't supply labor and materials for the postive rights written into law by those who will benefit from them, and see what happens. That is never ethical ... unless you happen to be one of the silent majority who believe it is acceptable to force other people to do what you want them to do. Sadly, if you look outside, you will probably find you live under such a government.

Anyway. It is interesting to see the emergence of attempts to restructure various restrictive philosophies of life to be in favor of engineered longevity, now that the prospect of actually engineering greater human longevity is more plausible. That in and of itself is a sign of progress, I think. Follow the incentives: when people think that they could possibly benefit from a future of rejuvenation therapies, then they will work on the roadblocks they know best. Articles like the one quoted above are a form of vote of confidence in longevity science.

The Radiant Facial from La Mer is a two-part system that works together - in just eight minutes - to reveal more clear, luminous and bright skin.

In the kit are eight treatments along with a pure cotton mask that actually helps to drive the ingredients quickly and evenly into the skin.

At the heart of this express system is an exclusive White Sea Ferment with the power to visibly transform the skin. The treatment includes The Radiant Primer which utilizes an anti-irritant marine complex to calm and sooth the skin. The Radiant Mask immerses skin in a triptych of activity: super brightening action, super anti-oxidants and super anti-irritants, delivering unprecedented benefits.

So, after hearing about this facial, would you spend this amount on an at-home treatment or take the money and indulge in a spa facial (or two!)?

image credit: LaMer

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The better known life extension mechanisms in lesser animals are all driven by changes in autophagy - or so say the autophagy specialists. It's true that the various hyperspecialized communities of modern biology are overly cloistered and ignorant of one another's research, but the autophagy researchers are assembling compelling evidence for this position.

Some of the most interesting work has been published this year and last. If you want a primer on why autophagy is important, and why it is that some damaged cellular components take a heavy toll of life and health, then look back in the Fight Aging! archives :

• On Autophagy
• Autophagy Required For Calorie Restriction Benefits?
• The Prospects for Enhancing Autophagy to Combat Age-Related Degeneration
• All Roads Lead to Autophagy?

What should I find today while meandering through PubMed but another longevity mechanism tied to increased autophagy. You might recall that researchers are achieving impressive results in mice by manipulating p53 - even managing to break the link between cancer protection and aging to give both added longevity and added cancer protection, not one at the cost of the other. In the paper I noticed today, we see that manipulating p53 is another way of manipulating autophagy for beneficial results on health and longevity:

The effects of p53 on whole organism longevity are mediated by autophagy:

The tumor suppressor protein p53 has a major impact on organismal aging. Recently it has become clear that p53 not only controls DNA damage responses, senescence and apoptosis but also plays a major role in the control of autophagy. Thus, deletion, depletion, or inhibition of p53 induces autophagy in human, mouse and nematode cells.

We therefore tested the hypothesis that the mutation of the p53 orthologue CEP-1 might increase the life span of Caenorhabditis elegans through an increase in baseline autophagy. For this, we evaluated the survival of nematodes lacking cep-1, alone or in combination with RNA interference with the autophagy gene bec-1 (which encodes the orthologue of Atg6/Beclin 1).

cep-1 mutants exhibited a prolonged life span. While BEC-1 depletion during adult life did not cause significant modification of the life expectancy of wild type controls, it did reduce the increased life span of cep-1 mutants down to approximately normal levels. These results indicate that the life span-extending effect of the cep-1 mutation is mediated by autophagy. These results lend support to the hypothesis that autophagy has a broad positive impact on organismal aging.

Given the level of funding and interest in calorie restriction mimetics, I imagine that the development of autophagy-enhancing drugs will proceed in the much the same way over the next few years.

The following winners were chosen randomly:

Meredith Peters
Lori Williams
Diana Hogle

Congratulations ladies. If you have not responded as of yet, please send me your full mailing address as soon as possible to teri.cosenzi@b5media.com.

Look for more great contests here on Aging Fabulous later this month.

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Unique Lancôme technology targets damaged surface cells to reduce the appearance of dark spots, while a combination of Vitamin CG and botanical extracts helps even out and brighten the complexion.

This creamy serum is easy to use. A tiny bit is all that is needed. I squeeze out a tiny dot onto my age spot(s) and rub in until dissolved into my skin. After using this treatment twice a day for the last week, I am definitely noticing some of my hated age spot on my hands diminishing. I purposely started using this on my hands first to gauge how much I need to use and I really wanted to put it to the test. I am select treating some of the spots, and by leaving some alone, I am noticing a difference already. I am going to start treating all of my dark spots now, and move onto my face.

You can try this Correcting Serum out at your Lancôme counter, where the tube sells for $90.00. This one comes highly recommended from yours truly.

image credit: lancome.com

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I'm often appalled at the attitudes of others toward the general idea of life extension and toward serious thought, research and development given to technologies that may grant us not years but centuries to live. It is surprising how many among us would not want to live forever. It is their opinion that added years cheapen life by robbing it of what they claim gives it meaning - death. It is my opinion that only a life already and profoundly cheapened in one's own mind is further cheapened by added years.

Their's is, primarily, love of death, not life.

Such individuals seem even more opposed to granting liberty to others to pursue technologies to enable themselves longer lifespans. "How can you dilute the meaning of life", they say. To them, longer life somehow means a life devoid of wonder or surprise.

It is my belief a life loved authentically and completely can only be increased in its wonders if given more time. There is far, far more to be experienced, loved and created than the breadth and depth of the present average lifespan allows. If one's passions are shallow and short-lived, perhaps a short life suits you. However, if one's passions seem to have no limit, additional life can mean only more time to express those passions and to discover new ones.

I'm always pleased to see such sentiments springing up out there in the world. Incremental growth in the community of people who think this way is a necessary foundation for effective activism, advocacy, and fundraising for serious longevity research. As more voices are raised in support for engineered longevity and the defeat of age-related degeneration, more scientists and funding institutions will be persuaded to join the cause - all progress starts with people deciding that they want to see progress.

The kit contains three products plus measuring spoon and sponges to get the job done in three steps - Polish, Strip and Comfort. 
You start by measuring out the Almond Polish and gently apply and rub over the face and neck. It is abrasive, so if you do not like the feeling of an abrasive scrub on your face, then this is not for you. It smells divine and feels a bit rough as it sloughs away skin. My skin burned just a bit as I came close to circling it over my skin for about two minutes, and my face was red when I removed it with water. I could already see a difference though, and went onto the peel.

The peel portion is called the Lemon Strip. Again, I used the spoon to scoop out this gel and applied over my face. It is thick and had a very fresh scent. It didn’t burn at all, which surprised me as it contains orange and lemon extracts along with lactic, glycolic and aspartic acid. I left it on for about three minutes and moved onto the final step.

For the last step, you leave on the Lemon Strip and then apply the Chamomile Comfort to make a mask. Scooping out the perfect amount with the spoon, I applied this very thick cream, which felt a bit clay based but with more of a mud mask feeling. I don’t know why this happened now, but my face really started to burn. Not too uncomfortable, but it did get very warm and more than tingly. I actually sat in front of a fan for a few minutes until it started to cool down. I honesty don’t know if this is supposed to happen at this point because I thought that the Chamomile was the soothing part of the treatment. Either way, it cooled down within the first five minutes as it began to tighten and dry for about thirty minutes.

Removing took a bit of effort but was easy nonetheless. A natural sponge is included (looks like paper, forms into a sponge when wet) to help remove. I had to rinse the sponge a lot to remove all of the mask. As I did remove it though, I could not believe my skin. It looked so even and refreshed and seriously - 100% better after the treatment. I waited a few hours before I did my night cream as my skin felt so smooth and moisturized.

This Micro/Mini Peel System is definitely making it’s way into my regular routine, as I plan to use it once a week. This kit costs $95, is available at sephora.com and on the Ole website as well. I would guess that there is enough in this kit to use a good 8 - 10 times.

image credit: OleHenriksen

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I consider it to be unfortunate that the bulk of the pro-longevity aging research camp is focused on an inefficient path forward that will in the end lead to lesser benefits. It is their belief that this is the only practical way ahead: a laborious slog towards complete understanding of aging and metabolism, followed by an even more complex navigation through re-engineering that metabolism to age more slowly. The sheer scale and difficulty of that task is why many scientists feel that meaningful engineered longevity - more healthy years through science - is a long way away indeed.

Fortunately there is a fast boat in addition to the slow boat described above:

It is likely to be easier and less costly to produce rejuvenation therapies than to produce a reliable and significant slowing of aging. A rejuvenation therapy doesn't require a whole new metabolism to be engineered, tested, and understood - it requires that we revert clearly identified changes to return to a metabolic model that we know works, as it's used by a few billion young people already. Those rejuvenation therapies will be far more effective than slowing aging in terms of additional years gained, since you can keep coming back to use them again and again. They will also help the aged, who are not helped at all by a therapy that merely slows aging.

Today, let me point you to another manifestation of the "we can do no better than slow aging by metabolic manipulation" viewpoint:

The extreme arrogance of anti-aging medicine:

The anti-aging medicine movement proposes to alter the human body in order to achieve extreme longevity. To do this it has to reverse or by-pass the multiple causes of human aging. These include a large number of age-associated pathologies, each of which is being studied in great detail in research laboratories around the world. The protagonists of anti-aging medicine claim that it will be far more successful than the combined efforts of the innumerable scientists carrying out this research. Aging has an extremely long evolutionary history, and the anatomical structure and physiology of animals is directly related to their finite lifespan. The anti-aging movement proposes in a few decades to reverse what has been the result of millions of years of evolution.

The above abstract is wrong-headed, to say the least, but it is an output of the sort of worldview described above: a) that aging can only be slowed, b) that doing so requires the day to day operation of human biochemistry to be changed in non-trivial ways, and c) that this is a very tall order indeed for the medical science of the forseeable future.

So, to point out the errors. Firstly, the causes of aging are not the pathologies of aging. Pathologies are end results - if dry rot is a cause, then failing wooden structural beams are the pathology. Today's prospective longevity engineers talk about causes, about the comparatively few types of biochemical damage that build up in our tissues to create many, many different forms of pathology. Dry rot can make a wooden structure fall apart in any one of a hundred distinct ways - but all are still caused by dry rot.

If you want to tackle aging efficiently - and make no mistake, this whole debate is about efficiency - then pathology is the wrong place to start. If you work on patching up pathologies, then you are Canute against the tide. By failing to stem the underlying cause, your efforts are doomed to inefficiency and ultimate failure. Present day gerontological medicine is largely playing the role of Canute because that has historically been the best medical science can do: throw a huge level of resources at treating the consequences of aging and gain little by it. That little was better than nothing for billions, but it was still little in the grand scheme of things.

We stand in the 21st century now, amidst the early years of a revolution in the capabilities of biotechnology. Scientists can move beyond the historical focus of medical technology on patching end results and instead work on prevention and repair of root causes. Taking a different, more efficient path is why new approaches to longevity engineering will succeed in greatly extending the healthy human life span where decades of scientists and vast expenditures have only slightly raised the bar. Holding out the past as an example of the future is a terrible thing to do. You are rarely going to be right, as the future will be accomplished in a different, usually better way.

I predict that the last sentence in the abstact I quoted above - "reverse what has been the result of millions of years of evolution" - will come back to haunt the author for a good many years. No-one wants to be on record as saying something as bone-headed as that. In the past few decades medical science has reversed any number of evolutionary consequences, some of which have billions of years behind them. As if the number of years a feature took to evolve has any bearing upon the development medicine that acts upon it!

The preceeding point on the structure of living beings, however, is very illustrative of the metabolic manipulation viewpoint: hammering home again that biochemistry will be very hard to re-engineer for greater longevity through slower aging. This is absolutely true, and it would be astoundingly hard to follow though that path to developing longevity therapies. Every biochemical component in our metabolism is a part of many different complex evolved systems - evolution loves reuse and interacting, linked feedback systems. You can't change a thing without having to worry about profound side-effects in every connected process, and the processes important to aging are right in the middle of the engines of life.

But the modern longevity engineers, the heretical minority in the aging research community, are not taking that path forward. Rather, they use the metabolism we have when we are young as the ideal reference model, and seek to reverse all changes away from that reference model that occur with age. No re-engineering, no worrying about how change A affects systems B, C, and D - this is a straightforward repair and restoration strategy. The objective is to restore the metabolism we know works, not create some new metabolism that must be extensively tested and understood.

That is efficiency, and the nature of efficiency in longevity research is the most important debate within the life sciences today, for all that most people know nothing of it. The result of this debate will determine how long we all live in good health.

Dozens of beauty products have hit the market, but do any of them truly deliver? WebMD asks the experts to separate the science from the hype.

Wanting to look young is not exactly a new idea — the search for the fountain of youth has been going on for centuries. And while this past year didn’t deliver the perfect elixir, the year did introduce some scientifically solid, significant advances in anti-aging skin care. To home in on what can truly make a difference in your skin, WebMD asked medical experts to evaluate the cream of the crop.

Antiaging Breakthrough No. 1: Fractional CO2 Laser Skin Resurfacing

The antiaging breakthrough of the decade, according to many doctors, is a skin-resurfacing treatment known as CO2 fractional laser therapy. Combining the effectiveness of traditional carbon dioxide lasers — long thought to be the gold standard in wrinkle removal — with a new application technique, it delivers powerful results without the traditionally harsh side effects.

“Essentially, you are getting all the benefits of laser resurfacing, still the best way to remove wrinkles, but you’re getting it without the downtime and without the horrendous complication rate,” says David Goldberg, MD, director of Skin Laser and Surgery Specialists of New York and New Jersey and clinical professor of dermatology at the Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

(more…)

• 35.2% of women 30-39 year olds are experiencing acne
• 26.3% of 40-49 year old women are experiencing acne
• 15.3% of age 50 and older women are also experiencing acne

I am a lucky one, as I barely had a pimple or two in my teen years, and only had a small irritating breakout on my forehead after I had my first baby. Thankfully that was quickly resolved, because if I had to deal with acne on top of all of my other aging skin care woes, I don’t know what I would do. Well, maybe I do know. I think I would try these new treatment pads called Ab Acne Free.

AB Acne Free treatment pads are ideal for us aging women, as they help fight acne and the signs of aging. The treatment pads contain medical grade glycolic and salicylic acid to help improve the appearance of fine lines and hyperpigmentation, exfoliate and prep the skin, reduce the size of pores, and eliminate breakouts.

If you are dealing with acne, I would suggest giving these a try. And if any of you have tried these pads or do, please let me know how they work out for you.

AB Acne Free pads retails online with the rest of the AB anti-aging product line at ABSkincare.com.

image credit: abskincare

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• 35.2% of women 30-39 year olds are experiencing acne
• 26.3% of 40-49 year old women are experiencing acne
• 15.3% of age 50 and older women are also experiencing acne

I am a lucky one, as I barely had a pimple or two in my teen years, and only had a small irritating breakout on my forehead after I had my first baby. Thankfully that was quickly resolved, because if I had to deal with acne on top of all of my other aging skin care woes, I don’t know what I would do. Well, maybe I do know. I think I would try these new treatment pads called Ab Acne Free.

AB Acne Free treatment pads are ideal for us aging women, as they help fight acne and the signs of aging. The treatment pads contain medical grade glycolic and salicylic acid to help improve the appearance of fine lines and hyperpigmentation, exfoliate and prep the skin, reduce the size of pores, and eliminate breakouts.

If you are dealing with acne, I would suggest giving these a try. And if any of you have tried these pads or do, please let me know how they work out for you.

AB Acne Free pads retails online with the rest of the AB anti-aging product line at ABSkincare.com.

image credit: abskincare

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Seeing how many of you who left comments on the Comfort Zone giveaway, it is apparent that many of you like facials, microdermabrasion, masks, peels, etc. As there is much interest in this, I thought now is the perfect time to write about all of the latest in at-home skin care treatments.

I have been testing out some of the best at-home treatments on the market today. Masks and peels are quickly becoming my favorites and my skin is loving it. I have been subjecting my face and neck to 3 or 4 new treatments a week, while testing out a new Laser system as well.

I can’t wait to share all of my reviews with you. If there is a particular product that you would like to learn more about, leave me a quick comment and I will do what I can to get more information on the product and maybe even get a sample to test out myself.

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Seeing how many of you who left comments on the Comfort Zone giveaway, it is apparent that many of you like facials, microdermabrasion, masks, peels, etc. As there is much interest in this, I thought now is the perfect time to write about all of the latest in at-home skin care treatments.

I have been testing out some of the best at-home treatments on the market today. Masks and peels are quickly becoming my favorites and my skin is loving it. I have been subjecting my face and neck to 3 or 4 new treatments a week, while testing out a new Laser system as well.

I can’t wait to share all of my reviews with you. If there is a particular product that you would like to learn more about, leave me a quick comment and I will do what I can to get more information on the product and maybe even get a sample to test out myself.

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I have been using the cleansing milk and toner, along with one of their masks (more on that later) for the past few days, and I must say I love them. My skin feels so soft and nourished - even before slathering on all my serums, lotions and creams. It is so fun to get to know a new brand, and I know you will want to give this one a try too.

I hope everyone has a fabulous Labor Day weekend. I can’t believe that is marks the official end of Summer. I am so not ready - Summer was just too short. In a way, I need 6 hours a day to myself with the kids going back to school, but I am so not ready for all of the routines/homework/schedules. Ugh.

Enjoy! I will be back on Monday night announcing the winner.

image credit: comfortzone

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I consider it to be unfortunate that the bulk of the pro-longevity aging research camp is focused on an inefficient path forward that will in the end lead to lesser benefits. It is their belief that this is the only practical way ahead: a laborious slog towards complete understanding of aging and metabolism, followed by an even more complex navigation through re-engineering that metabolism to age more slowly. The sheer scale and difficulty of that task is why many scientists feel that meaningful engineered longevity - more healthy years through science - is a long way away indeed.

Fortunately there is a fast boat in addition to the slow boat described above:

It is likely to be easier and less costly to produce rejuvenation therapies than to produce a reliable and significant slowing of aging. A rejuvenation therapy doesn't require a whole new metabolism to be engineered, tested, and understood - it requires that we revert clearly identified changes to return to a metabolic model that we know works, as it's used by a few billion young people already. Those rejuvenation therapies will be far more effective that slowing aging in terms of additional years gained, since you can keep coming back to use them again and again. They will also help the aged, who are not helped at all by a therapy that merely slows aging.

Today, let me point you to another manifestation of the "we can do no better than slow aging by metabolic manipulation" viewpoint:

The extreme arrogance of anti-aging medicine:

The anti-aging medicine movement proposes to alter the human body in order to achieve extreme longevity. To do this it has to reverse or by-pass the multiple causes of human aging. These include a large number of age-associated pathologies, each of which is being studied in great detail in research laboratories around the world. The protagonists of anti-aging medicine claim that it will be far more successful than the combined efforts of the innumerable scientists carrying out this research. Aging has an extremely long evolutionary history, and the anatomical structure and physiology of animals is directly related to their finite lifespan. The anti-aging movement proposes in a few decades to reverse what has been the result of millions of years of evolution.

The above abstract is wrong-headed, to say the least, but it is an output of the sort of worldview described above: a) that aging can only be slowed, b) that doing so requires the day to day operation of human biochemistry to be changed in non-trivial ways, and c) that this is a very tall order indeed for the medical science of the forseeable future.

So, to point out the errors. Firstly, the causes of aging are not the pathologies of aging. Pathologies are end results - if dry rot is a cause, then failing wooden structural beams are the pathology. Today's prospective longevity engineers talk about causes, about the comparatively few types of biochemical damage that build up in our tissues to create many, many different forms of pathology. Dry rot can make a wooden structure fall apart in any one of a hundred distinct ways - but all are still caused by dry rot.

If you want to tackle aging efficiently - and make no mistake, this whole debate is about efficiency - then pathology is the wrong place to start. If you work on patching up pathologies, then you are Canute against the tide. By failing to stem the underlying cause, your efforts are doomed to inefficiency and ultimate failure. Present day gerontological medicine is largely playing the role of Canute because that has historically been the best medical science can do: throw a huge level of resources at treating the consequences of aging and gain little by it. That little was better than nothing for billions, but it was still little in the grand scheme of things.

We stand in the 21st century now, amidst the early years of a revolution in the capabilities of biotechnology. We can do better by not focusing medical technology on patching end results and instead working on prevention and repair of root causes. Taking a different, more efficient path is why new approaches to longevity engineering will succeed in greatly extending the healthy human life span where decades of scientists and vast expenditures have only slightly raised the bar. Holding out the past as an example of the future is a terrible thing to do. You are rarely going to be right, as the future will be accomplished in a different, usually better way.

I predict that the last sentence in the abstact I quoted above - "reverse what has been the result of millions of years of evolution" - will come back to haunt the author for a good many years. No-one wants to be on record as saying something as bone-headed as that. In the past few decades medical science has reversed any number of evolutionary consequences, some of which have billions of years behind them. As if the number of years a feature took to evolve has any bearing upon the development medicine that acts upon it!

The preceeding point on the structure of living beings, however, is very illustrative of the metabolic manipulation viewpoint: hammering home again that biochemistry will be very hard to re-engineer for greater longevity through slower aging. This is absolutely true, and it would be astoundingly hard to follow though that path to developing longevity therapies. Every biochemical component in our metabolism is a part of many different complex evolved systems - evolution loves reuse and interacting, linked feedback systems. You can't change a thing without having to worry about profound side-effects in every connected process, and the processes important to aging are right in the middle of the engines of life.

But the modern longevity engineers, the heretical minority in the aging research community, are not taking that path forward. Rather, they use the metabolism we have when we are young as the ideal reference model, and seek to reverse all changes away from that reference model that occur with age. No re-engineering, no worrying about how change A affects systems B, C, and D - this is a straightforward repair and restoration strategy. The objective is to restore the metabolism we know works, not create some new metabolism that must be extensively tested and understood.

That is efficiency, and the nature of efficiency in longevity research is the most important debate within the life sciences today, for all that most people know nothing of it. The result of this debate will determine how long we all live in good health.

We're inviting you to come together to share ideas for projects that could make a difference in the world. Then it's up to you to support, and ultimately vote on, which projects get $2.5 million in funding from American Express.

As you no doubt know, the Methuselah Foundation volunteers have a well-formed longevity science proposal in the running:

Create a program that utilizes college undergraduates to perform research in a variety of scientific venues surrounding fighting age related diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Heart Disease and Cancer and overall extension of healthy human life. Hiring researchers is exceedingly expensive. By outsourcing projects to undergraduate students, laboratory use and labor costs are negligible, and the students receive college credit for their work.

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People who believe that one day they will peacefully die in their sleep are living in ignorance. The vast majority of age related deaths are a slow, painful, and degrading process over many years of later life. Watching my beloved grandmother die as a result of an age related disease and seeing our adored family friend fall prey to cancer has inspired me to learn more about death and aging pathology, and more importantly, to do something about it.

This is a well-planned project, sized to the funds available. With the backing of the Methuselah Foundation, already very involved in organizing undergraduate and graduate research volunteers, it would do well if victorious. As the vote counts ramp up in the final days of selecting the top 25 projects, it's up to us to help keep longevity science in the spotlight. It is by far the most discussed project, but it needs more votes. Tell your friends!

You don't have to be an Amex cardholder, but you do have to be a US resident in order to register and vote. Some instructions via the Methuselah Foundation blog:

1. Go to this website: http://www.membersproject.com/

2.a. If you are not an Amex Card Member: Click on "Guest Members Log In" in the upper right corner of the screen. Then click on "Guest Members Sign Up Here" at the bottom of the next screen.

2.b. If you are an Amex Card Member: Click on "Cardmembers Log In" on the right side of the screen. If you don't already have an online login click on "Create a Log In" in the next screen.

3. Complete the Registration Form which will give you your Login ID.

4. Once you are logged in on the home page, you can either a) Enter 'Undergrads Fighting Age Related Disease' in the Search box or b) click on 'Health' then 'Diseases and Disorders' at the bottom right of the home page, and scroll down to 'Undergrads Fighting Age Related Disease'. Alternately, here is a direct link to the project page:

http://www.membersproject.com/project/view/BVVE2C

5. Click on the project and then click on the 'Nominate this Project' button. Then click on 'Post Your Comments' at the bottom of the screen to have your say, as discussion board activity counts towards the nomination of the top 25 projects.

Opportunities to take a few minutes to step in and help secure funds for research don't come along every day for most of us. Take advantage here and know that you made a difference!

By walking, I mean walking for exercise. My nightly walk used to consist of me wearing a pair of backless Keds. They gave me no support, but I hate sneakers. Hate them, hate them, hate them. SO, Keds it was. UNTIL NOW!!! I love these FitFlops.

FitFlops are made for walking and comfort, while giving you the best benefits.

7 reasons why everybody is wearing FitFlops, from the FitFlop website:

1. FitFlop midsoles incorporate patent-pending micro-wobbleboard^TM technology, to give you a workout while you walk. Developed by Darren James and Dr David Cook at LSBU, the FitFlop’s unique safely -tapered midsole places varying densities of EVA under your feet each time you step, to challenge the support and balance muscles of the foot and leg.
2. They challenge hard to reach muscles more. FitFlops are engineered with a multi-density midsole that stimulates your muscles more while you’re wearing them. In independent University testing, FitFlops have been shown to trigger increase gluteal muscle response, increased hamstring response, increase rectus femoris (thigh) response and increased calf muscle response .
3. Every step you take in your FitFlops helps tone and trim your legs: Studies at Salford University by Dr. Philip Graham-Smith and Richard Jones have shown that the FitFlop midsole extends the amount of time that the slow twitch* muscles are engaged during each step (by approximately 10-12%). So just by wearing a pair of FitFlops you’ll get more exercise while doing just exactly what you’re normally doing. (*slow twitch muscles produce energy by converting fats into energy aerobically)
4. FitFlops work your bum muscles more. FitFlops have been proven to increase the amount of time that the gluteus maximus muscle is ‘activated’ during every single step.
5. FitFlops have been shown to have a significant effect on the toning muscles of your thighs: The rectus femoris muscle (one of the large muscles in the group of muscles in your thigh) is activated for a longer period of time while walking in FitFlops than while normally shod or barefoot .
6. Walking in FitFlops is like walking barefoot, but a little bit better. According to a study done at the University of Salford in Manchester, UK, the FitFlop wearer’s gait is very similar to that of a barefoot walker, but the added cushion provided by the EVA midsole helps reduce joint strain and absorb shock. In fact, several FitFlop wearers have already reported relief from back pain after a few days of wearing them.
7. FitFlops make it easier to stay in shape. Just throw them on while you’re running errands, walking to work, or working around your house. Most first-time FitFlop wearers report feeling their muscles working more, while ‘fitter’ wearers feedback has been more toward great comfort and cushion. One woman reported feeling like she’d had a ‘bum-blasting’ workout after a half an hour of FitFlop-shod walking.

I’ll say it again - my walking routine has not been the same. I love walking in my FitFlops. They are so comfortable while giving me the support needed. I swear that my walking seems effortless now, and I am actually walking faster and farther because of these innovative shoes.

I am wearing the FitFlop WalkStar model that retails for $49.99. You can find FitFlops online at Macy’s.com, BathandBodyWorks.com, Bliss.com, VictoriasSecret.com amongst other specialty shoe retailers. You can locate a retailer right online through this retail locator.

Are there any FitFlop devotees out there?

image credit: FitFlops.com

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Aging, Stem Cells, and Mammalian Target of Rapamycin: A Prospect of Pharmacologic Rejuvenation of Aging Stem Cells

What is the relationship between stem cell aging and organismal aging? Does stem cell aging cause organismal aging or vice versa? Will stem cell aging aggravate age-related diseases? And what is stem cell aging?

As suggested herein, hyperstimulation of signal transduction pathways can render cells compensatorily irresponsive. And the hallmark of stem cell aging is poor responsiveness to activating stimuli. On the basis of the hypothesis that insensitivity to stimuli is in part due to hyperactivation of the target of rapamycin (TOR), this article suggests a means of pharmacologic rejuvenation of stem cells and wound-healing cells.

This is a useful way of looking at the issue of aging stem cells. I'm not sold on the specific details - the focus on TOR - but the general strategy of exploration and experimentation with stem cell response sounds good. If the cells are still good to go, a great deal of good might be accomplished with some comparatively simple targeted manipulations.

By way of an aside, you might recall that TOR is associated with the biomechanisms of calorie restriction, but then it's one of the pathways associated with everything of importance in the realm of metabolism.

Host Cell Mobilization for In Situ Tissue Regeneration

The goal of the present study was to investigate whether host biologic resources and environmental conditions could be used for in situ tissue regeneration, which may eliminate the need for donor cell procurement and subsequent in vitro cell manipulation. To address this aim, we implanted a common biomaterial into mice and characterized the infiltrating cells to determine their regenerative potential.

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the infiltrating cells are capable of differentiating into multiple cell lineages, including osteogenic, myogenic, adipogenic, and endothelial lineages, if appropriate conditions are provided. These results suggest that it is possible to recruit a predominance of cells with multilineage potential into a biomaterial scaffold. Therefore, it may be possible to enrich the infiltrate with such cell types and control their fate, provided the proper substrate-mediated signaling can be imparted into the scaffold for in situ tissue regeneration.

Which is a rather long-winded way of saying that suitably designed nanostructures and control over stem cell signaling should be able to replace first generation cell delivery therapies in many situations. In theory, medical science could move the apparatus of programming and activating stem cells entirely inside the body - no need to pull cells out for culturing and manipulation or find transplant sources. It's a promising vision.

This cream is the answer I needed. It is thick and rich, and smells delightful. Not a strong smell, just a fresh and clean, yet soft scent. The cream itself is made up of Shea Butter, Coconut Milk and Vitamin E. For the feet, it really cannot get any better.

The cream is greasy until dry, so I like to put my feet up for ten to fifteen minutes after I massage them with the cream, just to be sure I don’t slip around on my wood floors. I suppose you could immediately cover them with socks to lock in the moisture, and I think I will try that method as an overnight treatment this winter.

Just writing this makes me want to treat my tootsies again right now. Heaven!

image credit: curel.com

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This true in a way: extension of healthy life will be a long time coming if metabolic manipulation is the only path taken by the research community. Fortunately, metabolic re-engineering is not the only way ahead. It's not the most efficient way ahead either. The better path is to refrain from changing the way in which our metabolic processes work. Instead we should indentify the biochemical differences between an old, damaged metabolism and a young, healthy metabolism - and then repair them, thus reversing aging.

It is likely to be easier and less costly to produce rejuvenation therapies than to produce a reliable and significant slowing of aging. A rejuvenation therapy doesn't require a whole new metabolism to be engineered, tested, and understood - it requires that we revert clearly identified changes to return to a metabolic model that we know works, as it's used by a few billion young people already. Those rejuvenation therapies will be far more effective that slowing aging in terms of additional years gained, since you can keep coming back to use them again and again. They will also help the aged, who are not helped at all by a therapy that merely slows aging.

All that said, I noticed that Pure Pedantry is commenting today on an analysis by researchers Jan Vijg and Judith Campisi. It's a view from the metabolic re-engineering camp, dug in for the long, slow haul:

All in all, this a very good review that I recommend reading in its entirety. They strike a note of cautious optimism that I think is right on: we are learning more about this field but there is no justification for irrational exuberance.

Not on that path, in any case. It's hard to be hugely overwhelmed by progress that might, maybe, do a little good for young people fifty years from now. What is needed today is a determined effort to do good for the aged people of twenty to thirty years from now.

Linking Telomere Shortening and Mitochondrial Damage?

We know that mitochondrial damage is tied to aging via mechanisms such as the production of damaging free radicals such as [reactive oxygen species] - and that some researchers are working on solutions, such as the ability to replace all mitochondrial DNA in the body via protofection. We also know that progessive telomere shortening is tied to aging and age-related disease, and a number of different groups are working on strategies to safely lengthen telomeres.

There is strong evidence to believe that "tied to aging" in this context means "contributes to aging as a cause." Remember that aging is no more than an accumulation of damage in biochemical systems; when we look at these changes that take place with aging, we are looking at damage. This paper offers the possibility that if we repair or prevent the progressive accumulation of mitochondrial degeneration and damage, then the telomeres will take care of themselves - if the results are replicated, of course.

More On Telomere Shortening and Mitochondrial Dysfunction

So, poorly functioning mitochondria lead to telomere shortening, and telomerase somehow improves mitochondrial function to prevent that shortening. This is in place of the more expected path of undoing ongoing telomere shortening by adding extra repeat sequences to the end of the telomeres - that being the better understood function of telomerase.

As I said back then, this cries out for more research - which seems to be taking place. A recent paper pulls the antioxidant catalase into the mix:

Telomerase deficiency promotes oxidative stress by reducing catalase activity:

We used cultured mouse embryonic fibroblasts (MEF) isolated from mice lacking telomerase activity (Terc(-/-)) to analyze the redox balance and the functional consequences promoted by telomerase deficiency.

...

6-month-old Terc(-/-) [mice] showed higher oxidant capacity, lower catalase activity, greater oxidative damage, and higher TGF-beta1 and fibronectin levels ... In summary, telomerase deficiency reduces catalase activity, determining a redox imbalance that promotes overexpression of TGF-beta1 and extracellular matrix proteins.

Back a few years, researchers demonstrated that pouring extra catalase onto the mitochondria - via a genetic mutation to target the chemical to where it was needed - extends healthy life span. Catalase soaks up some fraction of damaging free radicals before they can degrade the mitochondria that produce them, and slowing mitochondrial damage is very beneficial to health and longevity. Is catalase level the mechanism by which telomerase helps out the mitochondria? Stay tuned: the more we know, the easier it will be to develop repair technologies that can set things back to the way they were when we were young.

Philosophy “is a lifestyle brand that celebrates feeling well and living joyously.” The star products of the brand are it’s skin care products, inspired by years of medical research that have changed the way plastic surgeons, leading dermatologists and customers treat their skin. The company believes in heath and wellness rather than health in beauty - saying that “only when you feel good, can you truly be the best that you can be”. The company tag line -Philosophy: the best cosmetic is great looking skin.

Best known for Hope in A Jar, as it was named by Oprah in the mid 1990’s as one of her favorite things. The brand, and the hope, took off from there.

 
Hope is what Philosophy brings to the market. If Hope in a Jar original formula is not for you, there is hope, as there is the perfect formula for your skin care needs.

Hope in a Jar SPF 20

This is the original high-performance moisturizer with the added benefit of a must-have for daytime, SPF 20. This light cream hydrates the skin, provides a gentle exfoliation, and helps improve the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles, texture, and tone.

Hope in a Jar Therapeutic Moisturizer for Dry, Sensitive Skin

 
This is a more rich, high performance moisturizer with antioxidants to help reduce environmental damage. The additional ingredient of rice bran oil, is an excellent source of vitamin E, as well as vitamin A for softening skin, increasing elasticity and preventing thickening of skin.

When Hope is Not Enough

This facial firming serum contains a powerful blend of potent ingredients to revitalize and firm the skin, while working to reduce the signs of premature aging.

Hope in a Tube Eye & Lip Cream

This is a spot treatment aging skin around the eyes and lips. It works wonders on skin that is dehydrated and showing signs of environmental stress.

Hope in a Bottle

 
This bottle contains a formula for more problematic, oily, or acne prone skin. It is a daily oil-free moisturizer that contains microencapsulated salicylic acid to help correct then enhance the skins texture and appearance.

When Hope is Not Enough Replenishing Night Cream

 
This is the richest cream of them all, but is a non-greasy formula. The cream not only works on it’s own, it works with your other night time treatment products to help seal in the benefits for the optimal results. This cream is full of important antioxidants, to help smooth and soothe the skin while building up the skins defenses.

You can learn more about Philosophy online at philosophy.com You will also see them on QVC regularly and in a huge section of Sephora and Nordstrom.

My philosophy - there is hope for us all!

images credit: philosophy.com

This post is part of a group writing project going on over at problogger.net. Take a few and check out some of the other wonderful posts that have been submitted to the project.

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Over the last few weeks, I have spent a lot of time at the beach, and while I do use a sunscreen and apply it over and over, and spend most of my time under an umbrella, a real tan is peeking through. It is more golden than the olive tone I get from my self-tanners, and I want to make this color last.

I found my way to making this color last with Clarins Self Tanning Milk SPF6. I am so thrilled about the SPF element in this self-tanner. It glides onto my skin and sinks in almost immediately. I wish I had used this Self-Tanning Milk from the beginning of the season, especially on my legs. The golden glow is so natural, long-lasting and gorgeous!