Groundbreaking research highlights myriad health benefits of flavanol-rich cocoa

Groundbreaking research highlights myriad health benefits of flavanol-rich cocoa: "Newly published research on the circulatory benefits of flavanol-rich cocoa, including the first observed brain and cardiovascular blood flow improvements, are highlighted in the latest issue of the Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, in a supplement that focuses on the potential health benefits of flavanol-rich cocoa."

A Gentle Introduction to Telomeres, Aging and Promising Cancer Research

A Gentle Introduction to Telomeres, Aging and Promising Cancer Research: "The Telegraph recently delivered an introductory popular science article on the implications and near future of telomere research: Within each and every one of your trillions of cells sits a molecular hour-glass. The time when each and every cell must stop dividing comes closer with every grain of sand that drops through this tiny clock. The grains are letters of DNA code that fall off these cellular timepieces. Scientists call them telomeres and there is good evidence that they go wrong in cancer so that, by fixing them, tumours could be made to expire on schedule. Earlier this month, a team in California managed to inhibit the spread of melanoma skin cancer by exploiting this mechanism. Longer life for your cells is not necessarily a good thing - cancer cells are an immortal machinery run amok, for example; an ultimately fatal hazard to finely tuned biochemistry that depends on cellular turnover and lifecycles. The melanoma research mentioned above is worth further reading if you are interested in seeing a facet of telomere research in action: In the st"

LysoSENS Is Recruiting

LysoSENS Is Recruiting: "As researcher John Schloendorn notes over at the Immortality Institute, the portion of the LysoSENS research program based in Tempe is actively recruiting: 'We offer: the opportunity to truly make a difference and bring SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) research forward. Flexible conditions: Your responsibilities will reflect your qualifications; apply to come for weeks, months or permanently. Cutting edge working environment and a reputable entry on your CV. Research credits for a degree at Arizona State, if you are pursuing one. If elsewhere, you can probably get this work accredited, too. Enabling financial support, but no competitive salary. We want: The motivation to make personal sacrifices in order to help with curing aging and experience in molecular biology.' It is good to see growth in the first SENS research project funded by Methuselah Foundation donors.

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.imminst.org/forum/index.php?act=ST&f=173&t=11698
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/"

New source of multipotent adult stem cells discovered in human hair follicles

New source of multipotent adult stem cells discovered in human hair follicles: "Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have isolated a new source of adult stem cells that appear to have the potential to differentiate into several cell types. Their approach could one day provide the tissue needed by an individual for treating a host of disorders, including peripheral nerve disease, Parkinson's disease, and spinal cord injury."

On Aging Theories

On Aging Theories: "This PDF-format paper looks at varying aging theories and what they might mean for the prospects of developing medical technologies to halt or reverse age-related degeneration. 'The feasibility of developing any such treatment depends on the existence of common factors involved in causing many or most of the manifestations. Further, in order to be 'treatable' a factor would need to be sufficiently independent of any function that we need to live happily in order that altering the factor did not cause significant adverse effects. Few would want an anti-aging treatment that resulted in blindness or some other major side-effect. The potential for the existence of treatable common factors is highly dependent on aging theories. Depending on which theory you believe, the likelihood of finding such factors ranges from 'impossible' to 'very probable'.'

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.azinet.com/aging/anti-aging_medicine.pdf
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/"

Aubrey de Grey's SENS Stands Up to Lively Debate

Aubrey de Grey's SENS Stands Up to Lively Debate: "I strongly encourage anyone with an interest in gerontology or life extension science to visit the lively debate at Technology Review concerning the 'SENS Challenge', with a prize of US $20,000 at stake. The challenge was issued a year ago, with the $20,000 prize offered to anyone who could prove that SENS was 'unworthy of learned debate.'

Technology Review has provided links to the entire debate (scroll down). Most of the entries failed to approach the level of serious consideration by the challenge judges, however one entry by Preston Estep was considered well enough argued to be awarded a $10,000 grant, which had nothing to do with the prize money for the challenge.

Links from other challengers are also provided on the TR SENS Challenge page, along with Aubrey de Grey's rebuttals, and the counter-rebuttals by the challengers. Finally, Preston Estep posted a strong protest to the judges' decision.

At the MPrize website, the editors correctly proclaim that SENS has withstood the challenges so far, and the $20,000"

A Chapter on Reliability Theory

A Chapter on Reliability Theory: "A PDF of the first chapter of the Handbook of the Biology of Aging is freely available. It discusses the reliability theory of aging and longevity: 'Empirical observations on aging have become so abundant that a special four-volume encyclopedia, The Encyclopedia of Aging (1,591 pages), is now required for even partial coverage of the accumulated facts. To transform these numerous and diverse observations into a comprehensive body of knowledge a general theory of species aging and longevity is required. ... A reliability-engineering approach to biological aging is appealing because it provides a common scientific language (general framework) for scientists working in different areas of aging research, helping to overcome disruptive specialization and allowing researchers to understand each other. Specifically, reliability theory helps researchers define more clearly what is aging. In reliability theory, aging is defined as a phenomenon of increasing risk of failure with the passage of time (age).'

View the Article Under Discussion: http://v5.books.elsevier.com/bookscat/samples/0120883872/0120883872.pdf
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Infections link with diabetes, suggests biggest study yet

Infections link with diabetes, suggests biggest study yet: "A major study has added weight to the theory that environmental factors such as common infections may be a trigger for diabetes in children and young adults. The study analysed information from a register of over 4,000 people aged 0-29 years old diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes over a 25-year period."

Reading Up On Sarcopenia

Reading Up On Sarcopenia: "From the Journal of Endocrinology, a good preprint review paper (with full PDF available) on what scientists know about the biochemistry of sarcopenia: 'This review describes the major hormonal factors that determine the balance between human skeletal muscle anabolism and catabolism in health and disease, with specific reference to age-related muscle loss (sarcopenia). The molecular mechanisms associated with muscle hypertrophy are described, and the central role of the satellite [stem] cell highlighted. ... The increasingly recognised role of myostatin, a negative regulator of muscle function, is described, as well as its potential as a therapeutic target. Strategies to counter age-related sarcopenia thus represent an exciting field of future investigation.'

View the Article Under Discussion: http://journals.endocrinology.org/joe/fca/JOE06837.htm
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/"

Progeria and the Brittle Nucleus

Progeria and the Brittle Nucleus: "(From EurekAlert!) Scientists continue to forge ahead in their understanding of the lamin biochemistry of progeria [HGPS], and the application of this knowledge to damage caused by 'normal' aging. 'The nucleus in all three trillion cells of the human body contains the DNA genome, which is wrapped with a stiff protein shell called the nuclear lamina. Children with HGPS have a mutation in one of the proteins of the lamina shell. ... the lamina shell in HGPS patients is stiffer than normal. However, stiffer isn't necessarily better. The stiffer lamina did protect the HGPS nucleus from some forces, but under excessive force the HGPS lamina was more brittle and eventually fractured. ... Once we understand what causes the lamina to stiffen, we can try to reverse or stop the problem. ... Our NIH collaborators have also found that the normal aged nuclei show the same structural changes as HGPS.'

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-06/cmu-cmr062806.php
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/"

The Cost of Diabetes

The Cost of Diabetes: "Is it effective - in terms of making people pay attention and take action to support research - to speak of the cost of an age-related disease in terms of years? Does this strategy work for aging in general, in support of SENS research, for example? Via WebMD: 'in general, people with diabetes have a risk for heart disease (such as heart attack), stroke, and death from any cause similar to someone more than a decade older but without the disease. Those with diabetes tended to be 15 years younger than people without diabetes when they developed risk factors putting them at high risk for heart attacks and strokes. For men with diabetes, the average age for the transition from moderate to high risk was 48. For women it was 54. ... men diagnosed with type 2 diabetes at age 40 die, on average, 11 to 18 years earlier than men without the disease. Women diagnosed at the same age die 14 to 22 years earlier than women without diabetes.' Remember that type 2 - age-related - diabetes is largely preventable.

View the Article Under Discussion"

Bioengineered tissue implants regenerate damaged knee cartilage

Bioengineered tissue implants regenerate damaged knee cartilage: "Knee cartilage injuries can be effectively repaired by tissue engineering and osteoarthritis does not stop the regeneration process concludes research led by scientists at the University of Bristol."