Lifeboat Foundation

Microbes are often seen as pathogens that cause disease and antibiotics have been used successfully to combat these foreign invaders. In reality, the picture is more complex. Most of the time we live in harmony with our commensal gut microbiota, which is the collection of microorganisms colonizing the healthy gut. Commensal bacteria regulate host biological functions, including skeletal health. Researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) studying osteoimmunology, the interface of the skeletal and immune systems, have examined the impact of disrupting the healthy gut microbiome with antibiotics on post-pubertal skeletal development. Their results, published online on the January 16, 2019 in the American Journal of Pathology, showed that antibiotic disruption of the gut microbiota induced a pro-inflammatory response that led to increased activity of osteoclasts.

“This report introduces antibiotics as a critical exogenous modulator of gut microbiota osteoimmune response during post-pubertal skeletal development,” says Chad M. Novince, D.D.S., Ph.D., assistant professor in both the Colleges of Medicine and Dental Medicine who studies the impact of the microbiome on osteoimmunology and skeletal development. “People have shown that antibiotics perturb the microbiota, but this is the first known study evaluating how that has downstream effects on immune cells that regulate bone cells and the overall skeletal phenotype. This work brings the whole story together.”

The post-pubertal phase of development is a critical window of plasticity that supports the accrual of approximately 40 percent of our peak bone-mass. Recent work by the Novince lab and others has shown that the gut microbiota contributes to skeletal health. To determine the impact of antibiotic perturbation of the gut microbiota in post-pubertal skeletal development, Novince worked with team members at MUSC and treated mice with a cocktail of three antibiotics. In collaboration with microbiome scientist Alexander V. Alekseyenko, Ph.D., associate professor in the Biomedical Informatics Center and founding director of the MUSC Program for Human Microbiome Research, they were able to show that antibiotic treatment led to major alterations in the gut microbiota, resulting in specific changes to large groups of bacteria.

The researchers also demonstrated that it is possible to grow functioning human blood vessels in another species.

Antibiotics are still massively overprescribed, a new study shows. With no new drugs in sight, some scientists are turning to Crispr for a reboot.

As soon as you’re born, they can predict when you’re likely to die.

They just need to look at 12 parts of your genome.

The breakthrough engineering technology, outlined in a new study published today in Nature, dramatically advances research of vascular diseases like diabetes, identifying a key pathway to potentially prevent changes to blood vessels — a major cause of death and morbidity among those with diabetes.

An organoid is a three-dimensional structure grown from stem cells that mimics an organ and can be used to study aspects of that organ in a petri dish.

“Being able to build human blood vessels as organoids from stem cells is a game changer,” said the study’s senior author Josef Penninger, the Canada 150 Research Chair in Functional Genetics, director of the Life Sciences Institute at UBC and founding director of the Institute for Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences (IMBA).

LEAF writer Nicola Bagalà recounts meeting an old lady on the street and considers what might have happened in a world free from age-related diseases.

I would like to share a story about an encounter I had a couple of years back, when I was nearing the end of my university studies. At the time, I lived in a student apartment pretty much on the outskirts of Helsinki, Finland. Like most of Finland, this area is beautiful and brimming with green everywhere in the summer, but at the end of March— which is when the story takes place—it still looks like a barren, icy desert, and during a late evening like the one on which I had my encounter, it can be very cold and dark.

That evening, my girlfriend and I were coming back from the nearby supermarket, carrying two or three heavy bags full of groceries and looking forward to being home. We were talking about something I can’t recall when we passed right next to another person whose figure I could not make out very well. I had a feeling that it was a woman, but that’s all I could tell. As we walked away from her, I thought I could hear a voice calling—maybe it was her, but I told myself that she was probably talking on the phone or something. I heard her calling again, at which point I turned around to check if she was actually trying to catch our attention.

Continue reading “A Tale of Senility” »

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10dFgrjdfqY

I posed a wide array of questions for inventor, futurist, and Singularitarian Dr. Ray Kurzweil on September 21, 2018, at RAAD Fest 2018 in San Diego, California. Topics discussed include advances in robotics and the potential for household robots, artificial intelligence and overcoming the pitfalls of AI bias, the importance of philosophy, culture, and politics in ensuring that humankind realizes the best possible future, how emerging technologies can protect privacy and verify the truthfulness of information being analyzed by algorithms, as well as insights that can assist in the attainment of longevity and the preservation of good health – including a brief foray into how Ray Kurzweil overcame his Type 2 Diabetes.

“Aging is a complicated process with multiple modulations occurring at many levels, from the molecular to the cells. Ginseng, an ancient Chinese herb widely used in Eastern medicine, has been studied for its anti-aging properties., and has been shown to have beneficial effects with regards to anti-inflammation, anti-oxidation, cardiovascular regulation, neurological improvement, anti-tumor, skin protection and immune modulation. The evidence on the life-prolonging effects of ginseng remains inadequate, and further studies are recommended. Investigations integrating science and technology will be needed to further explore the effects of ginseng on the human body to fully understand its potential.” Low-tech life extension I have taken safely for decades.

Aging is an irreversible physiological process that affects all humans. Numerous theories have been proposed to regarding the process from a Western medicine perspective; however, ancient Chinese medicine practices and theories have increasingly gained attention, particularly ginseng, a grass that has been studied for the anti-aging properties of its active constituents. This review seeks to analyze current data on ginseng and its anti-aging properties. The plant species, characteristics, and active ingredients will be introduced. The main part of this review is focused on ginseng and its active components with regards to their effects on prolonging lifespan, the regulation of multiple organ systems including cardiovascular, nervous, immune, and skin, as well as the anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory properties. The molecular mechanisms of these properties elucidated via various studies are summarized as further evidence of the anti-aging effects of ginseng.

Keywords: Ginseng, Anti-aging, pharmacology, molecular mechanism.

Continue reading “Ginseng: An Nonnegligible Natural Remedy for Healthy Aging” »

For a child, recovering from a broken bone is typically a short-lived, albeit painful, convalescence. But for older adults, it can be a protracted and potentially life-threatening process.

Finding ways to speed bone repair is a public health priority that could save both lives and health care expense. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that more than 800,000 patients a year are hospitalized because of fall injuries, including broken hips, and these hospitalizations cost an average of $30,000.

“Delayed fracture healing is a major health issue in aging, and strategies to improve the pace of repair and prevent the need for additional surgeries to achieve healing substantially improve patient outcomes,” said senior author Benjamin Alman, M.D., chair of the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Duke.

Continue reading “Scientists identify ‘youth factor’ in blood cells that speeds fracture repair” »