Lifeboat Foundation

What does it feel like when you know your doctor can’t really help you?

Some time ago, I noticed a stock photo of an old lady seeing her geriatrician, who was a much younger woman. Nothing special was happening in the picture, which showed just two people talking; however, it made me wonder what it must feel like to be an elderly person consulting a geriatrician.

One initial assumption could be that it isn’t much different than seeing a GP, but that seems unlikely. If you are seeing a GP, the odds are your disease or ailment is not debilitating, let alone life-threatening. Whatever it might be, you went to see your doctor knowing that, most likely, he or she would be able to cure you; especially if you are young, it’s probable that just taking a medicine for some time, or doing physical therapy, will make you better. You know that you will recover, and the discomfort or the suffering you’re going through is destined to go away. You will get back to your life as it used to be, healthy as ever.

Continue reading “From Within Your Own Failing Shell” »

Lowell interviews the always fascinating Professor George Church in this new podcast series about aging research. Lifespan.io will be appearing on the show soon too so watch this space bigsmile

Harvard & MIT Professor, author of Regenesis, methods for 1st genome sequence (1994) & 10M-fold improvements (NGS, nanopore), genome editing, writing and recording. In this episode, we get to talk about Genghis Khan, Woolly Mammoth, storing data in DNA, advice for people getting started, and more all in under one hour!

George is one of the most interesting and down to earth people you’ll read about (might be from the future or an alien, but cannot confirm). He is always working to make all of our lives better. Anytime you are looking for inspiration, do what I do, and learn about what he and his team are working on. I always feel like I can do anything after reading or listening to the current things he is working on. I hope to one day contribute like he does! As a side note: I am working on something that was inspired from our discussion, so we shall see how that goes. If anyone is inspired after listening to him talk, please email me and let me know. We can start a fan group around George and scientists in general. Scientists are the unsung superheros of our society! Also, scroll down to the bottom to see the breadth of his work. I felt like it should be put here in it’s entirety. Hyperlinked show notes will go up tonight for this episode and the previous ones that are lacking them!

Continue reading “Dr. George Church and I Discuss the Woolly Mammoth, Human Aging, DNA Data Storage, and Other Amazing Projects Coming Out of His Lab with Advice for People Getting Started” »

Today, we want to point out a new publication that dives into the world of senolytics, which are drugs or therapies that seek and destroy harmful non-dividing cells that resist the programmed cell death known as apoptosis.

These cells linger in the body, and, as we age, more and more of them accumulate and contribute to the chronic age-related inflammation known as “inflammaging” while reducing tissue regeneration and repair and contributing to the development of various age-related diseases.

One approach to dealing with these problem cells is to tip them over the edge and cause them to self-destruct, thus removing them and the inflammation they cause. A new class of drugs known as senolytics was discovered a few years ago, and the interest in developing them to potentially combat age-related diseases has been growing rapidly.

Continue reading “A Review of Cellular Senescence and Senolytics” »

An in depth print cover story out on life extension by Forbes Africa—probably destined to become one of the main go-to articles for people on the continent seeking info on the topic. Myself, Aubrey de Grey, and others are featured in it. Excited to see #Africa join the race to overcome death and disease:

Science is pumping in billions searching for solutions that will help humans live longer – and better – and one day even indefinitely.

Los Angeles County officials launched a program Wednesday to help locate people with autism, Alzheimer’s disease or dementia who may wander off and go missing.

The program, called L.A. Found, will make use of bracelets that can be tracked through radio frequency by sheriff’s deputies. It will also create a new office, housed within the department of Workforce Development, Aging and Community Services, to coordinate a countywide response when somebody goes missing.

“If you get lost, we will help find you,” county Supervisor Janice Hahn, who championed the initiative, said at a news conference.

Continue reading “L.A. County Launches Tracking Program to Locate People With Dementia, Others Who Wander” »

An interview with Methuselah Foundation’s founder David Gobel.

David Gobel is an inventor, philanthropist, futurist, and passionate rejuvenation advocate and supporter; he’s known for co-founding Methuselah Foundation with Dr. Aubrey de Grey and for proposing the intriguing concept of “longevity escape velocity”, but his achievements and successes extend far beyond that. David has kindly granted LEAF a most interesting and detailed interview.

If you’re not familiar with the Methuselah Foundation, it is possibly the oldest organization active in the field of rejuvenation advocacy and support; it also works as an incubator for startups working in rejuvenation research and has helped kickstart many of the projects we talk so much about on our website. If you like, you can find more information on Methuselah Foundation in our older article.

Continue reading “An Interview With David Gobel” »

Science is advancing rapidly, and the field of aging research is no exception. Our understanding of aging has grown a great deal in the last decade, and we are now reaching the point at which the first therapies that target aging are starting to arrive. Unlike the snake oil of previous years, some of these might actually work; today, we are going to have a look at NAD+ repletion, one such promising therapy.

In the near term, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) is showing potential for addressing some of the aging processes. NAD+ levels decline significantly during aging in both humans and animals, and studies on old mice have shown that restoring NAD+ levels causes them to look and act like younger mice while increasing their lifespan.

As technology advances, prospects for increasing the human life span are seemingly everywhere.

But is there a limit to how long humans can live? According to a new study, published today (June 28) in the journal Science, the answer to that question is no. What’s more, the researchers argue that after age 105, the risk of dying each year remains the same.

In 1825, British actuary Benjamin Gompertz proposed that the risk of dying exponentially increases by age, such that a person at age 70 would be at a much higher risk of dying than a 30-year-old. [Extending Life: 7 Ways to Live Past 100].

In my life as a human, I see clues that evolution on Earth and elsewhere in the cosmos at large is not being pushed from behind in entropic randomness but being pulled forward by complexification, natural selection and other evolutionary forces orchestrated by a strange unseen teleological attractor, in McKenna’s words “the Transcendental Object” at the end of time. One may see significant overlapping ideas between the transhumanist Technological Singularity and the Teilhardian Omega Point. The coming Technological Singularity could unravel one of the deepest mysteries of fractal hyperreality: consciousness alternating from pluralities to singularities and from singularities back to pluralities. We are already immortal, but the forthcoming Syntellect Emergence when your mind is digitized, will preserve some of your organic memories if you so desire, and most importantly, will ensure the continuity of your subjectivity into the higher realms of existence. #LifeboatFoundation

By Alex Vikoulov.

Continue reading “The Omega Point Cosmo-Teleology: Our Forgotten Future (The Origins of Us, Part III)” »