Category Archives: aging
The Science of Wisdom
If you set out to learn a foreign language along with your kid, get ready for a provocative lesson about brain aging: At some point, you’re likely to find yourself falling ever farther behind, laboriously struggling to implant new words in your plainly decayed memory while your youngster absorbs them like animal crackers. But the [...]
Also posted in Cognitive aging, Happiness and Aging, Life Span, Psychology of aging, Wisdom of aging Tagged aging, longevity, wisdom Comments closed
On Calorie Restriction, Monkeys, Magic and Medicine
Since 1935, scientists have known that putting rodents on very low calorie diets extends their lifespans. Scores of studies since then have shown that such calorie restriction (CR) can extend lifespan across species in a way suggesting it delays the onset of diseases of aging, extending healthspans (the proportion of life spent in good health) [...]
Also posted in Calorie restriction, Diet and aging, Genetics of aging, Life Span, Monkeys and aging Tagged aging, anti-aging, calorie restriction, lifespan, longevity, monkeys Comments closed
Rapamycin’s Anti-Aging Promise: Mirage or Not?
The first strong evidence that a drug could slow aging in mammals came out in 2009 when scientists reported that chronically feeding doses of rapamycin to mice significantly extended their average and maximum lifespans. Yet rapamycin, a drug used to help prevent rejection of transplanted organs, causes multiple side effects in people, including elevated triglycerides [...]
Also posted in Diet and aging, Life Span, Obesity and aging, Rapamycin, TOR and aging Tagged aging, anti-aging, Blagosklonny, lifespan, longevity, mTOR, rapamycin Comments closed
Did a Gerontogene Halt Peter Pan’s Sexual Development?
It’s not every day that scientists base a study on an idea behind the story of Peter Pan. But as the research showed, the notion that slow development goes with longer life—which in the immortal Peter’s case meant completely arrested development along with no aging—has implications that reach far beyond Neverland: Led by Rong Yuan [...]
Also posted in David Sinclair, Genetics of aging, Life Span, Obesity and aging, Resveratrol Tagged aging, gerontogenes, longevity Comments closed
A New Study On High-Speed Aging
Several people emailed me recently for my reaction to media stories on a University of Pittsburgh study in which the short lifespans of mice with a severe form of progeria (accelerated aging) were extended by injections of stem-cell-like muscle cells from young mice. So I took a look at the study and some related research, [...]
Vitamin Pills and Aging — Part II
When I recently speculated that taking vitamin pills may contribute to unhealthy choices because many people assume the pills shield them from the choices’ ill effects, I figured there was no way to support my hunch. But I was mistaken: A recent Taiwanese study demonstrated that taking multivitamins does indeed make people feel protected against [...]
Scientific American on TOR and Aging
If you follow aging science—and my guess is that you’re one of those mortal, aging types who do—you might want to take a look at the latest issue of Scientific American (the January 2012 issue), which has a cover story I wrote for the magazine about research on target of rapamycin (TOR) and its implications [...]
Also posted in Drugs and aging, Genetics of aging, Life Span, TOR and aging Tagged aging, anti-aging, longevity, mTOR, Scientific American, Youth Pill Comments closed
Yes, Red Wine May Hold Some Answers. Recheck Dosage.
If you’ve tuned into the resveratrol story over the past five years, you’ve probably heard that you’d need to take giant doses of the red-wine ingredient to do any good. That idea was based on mouse studies in 2006 that showed massive doses of the compound blocked bad effects of eating too much fat. A [...]
Also posted in Diet and aging, Drugs and aging, Genetics of aging, Life Span, Obesity and aging, Resveratrol, Sirtuins Tagged aging, Hypertension, lifespan, longevity, red wine, SIRT1, Sirtuins Comments closed
Sirtuin News For Mammals
The negative buzz about sirtuins recently grew louder when Science ran a lengthy news piece on Dec. 2 titled, “Aging Genes: The Sirtuin Story Unravels.” The article played up studies in lower organisms casting doubt on earlier high-profile reports that sirtuin enzmes play major roles in aging, which in turn challenged the idea that they [...]
Also posted in David Sinclair, Drugs and aging, Genetics of aging, Life Span, Obesity and aging, Resveratrol, Sirtuins Tagged aging, anti-aging, GlaxoSmithKline, lifespan, longevity, Pfizer, Resveratrol, Sinclair, SIRT1, Sirtuins Comments closed
Resveratrol Controversy Clarified