Lifeboat Foundation

A right for all people and a service providing the highest standard of care — can universal health care do both or will politics stand in the way? CNBC’s Tom Chitty explains.

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Manipulating mitochondrial networks inside cells may increase lifespan and promote health, according to a new study.

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ProPublica has been documenting the many ways health care dollars are being wasted. We’ve shown how hospitals throw out brand new supplies, nursing homes flush tons of unexpired medication and drug companies concoct costly combinations of cheap medication. Recently we described how arbitrary drug expiration dates cause us to toss safe and potent medicine.

Often, large swaths of the medical and pharmaceutical communities know about this waste — even about solutions to it — but do nothing. Those who end up paying the bill, in one way or another, are consumers.

Continue reading “Drug Companies Make Eyedrops Too Big — And You Pay for the Waste” »

If scientists could precisely regulate gene expression, they could turn off the genes responsible for illness and disease and turn on those that enhance health and the immune system.

“This is why controlling gene expression is so fundamental,” said Northwestern University’s Julius Lucks. “Once you get a good handle on it, you can do anything.”

For Lucks, having a “good” handle on gene expression might be an understatement. He and his team have developed a powerful and versatile tool that achieves gene activation thousands of times better than nature.

Exercise is a sensible part of any personal health strategy, and a new study suggests that even low levels of walking are associated with lower mortality compared to inactivity[1].

U.S. public health guidelines recommend that adults engage in at least 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of intense exercise per week. However, surveys show that only half of U.S. adults actually reach this ideal target level of activity. Worse than that, older adults are even less likely to reach these recommendations, with only 42% of people between the ages of 65 and 74 and 28% of people age 75 or over meeting this goal.

Walking is a great choice for exercise, as it is low impact, convenient, free to do, and requires no special equipment. It is the most common kind of physical activity and is associated with a lower risk of heart disease and diabetes. While there are many studies that have focused on moderate to intense physical activity and mortality, there are considerably fewer studies looking at walking.

AI machines injected into our bodies could give us superhuman strength and let us control gadgets using the power of THOUGHT within 20 years…

Humans could be ‘melded’ to machines, giving us huge advancements in brain power, experts told peers at the House of Lords Artificial Intelligence Committee (pictured, stock)

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Does an out of whack microbiome cause inflammaging?

Does our microbiome cause inflammaging, the low-level chronic inflammation that plagues our bodies as we get older? A new research paper examines the question, and their findings just might surprise you.

Many people still regard bacteria and other microorganisms as mere disease-causing germs. However, it’s a lot more complicated than that. In fact, it has become increasingly clear that a healthy human body is teeming with microbes, which play a role in our immune system. We are not just an organism; we are a super-organism and the millions of microbes both within and without our bodies.

Continue reading “Does Our Microbiome Cause Inflammaging? Can We Trust Our Gut?” »

ellagic acid, lignans, flavonoids, glucosinolates, curcumin, resveratrol and other bioactive compounds – are natural substances found in plants. Research has shown that these natural compounds help to prevent stroke, cancer, type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and premature death.

What Are Phytonutrients?

Whole plants contain thousands of natural compounds, called phytonutrients and phytochemicals. Deriving their name from phyto, the Greek word for plant, the terms are used interchangeably used to describe the health-promoting compounds found in all whole plants. While plants produce these chemicals to protect themselves from insects, germs, and fungi. Along with fiber, phytonutrients in our diet are the reason that fruits and vegetables help to prevent chronic diseases like cancer, stroke, heart disease, and premature death.

I join this 30 min panel with scientists and a mother with a down syndrome child on Turkish national television to debate genetic editing. I adovcate for allowing genetic editing to improve the human race, despite fears:

Better, stronger, disease-free humans. Editing human DNA could save lives and enhance them. But should we be playing god?
Genes determine our health, looks, the way we function. They’re the ingredients for life. The idea that we could one day change them is an exciting prospect, but also an ethical minefield. As science moves closer towards gene editing, the concern is that it could go too far and even create a new elite group of enhanced humans.

Continue reading “Roundtable: Is human gene editing ethical?” »