Lifeboat Foundation

There are many benefits to exercise and how it can reduce the impact of the aging process. We have previously talked about how even a moderate amount of gentle exercise, such as walking, dancing, and strength training, can improve health and reduce mortality.

New research suggests that even moderate levels of physical activity can reduce glaucoma, one of the leading causes of blindness in the United States, and which is most prevalent among the elderly.

The data presented by UCLA researchers at the 121st Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology showed that the most physically active people involved in a recent study have a 73 percent reduced risk of developing glaucoma compared to the least active.

Continue reading “Exercise May Help to Protect Your Eyesight” »

Every so often when talking about aging and eradicating age-related diseases someone will say there are other more important things that must be solved before we earn the right to live healthy and longer lives.

When you discuss any major issue, sooner or later someone will say it: there are more urgent issues than whatever it is you’re advocating for. Sometimes it may be true; other times, and probably most of the time, it’s a logical fallacy known as appeal to worse problems (or “not as bad as”, or even “fallacy of relative privation”).

For example, say you’ve got two issues, A and B, that cannot possibly be both dealt with at the same time; if A is life-threatening and B isn’t, well, then I think it’d make sense to reply “there are more urgent issues” to whoever suggests B should be taken care of first. However, all too often, this answer is abused to play down the importance of a problem that doesn’t happen to be one’s personal favourite—and yes, I’ve seen this happen with rejuvenation therapies.

How far off is age reversal?

The simple answer is, I don’t know. Probably we’ll see the first dog trials in the next year or two. If that works, human trials are another two years away, and eight years before they’re done. Once you get a few going and succeeding it’s a positive feedback loop.

George Church Will Make Virus-Resistant Organisms, Transplant Pig Organs to Humans, and Reverse Aging An interview with one of the most prolific scientists on earth in his lab at Harvard Medical School Photography by Maciek Jasik.

Continue reading “George Church Will Make Virus-Proof Organisms, Transplant Pig Organs to Humans, and Reverse Aging” »

A compound in dark chocolate and red wine could help rejuvenate cells, according to a scientific breakthrough.

Researchers from the Universities of Exeter and Brighton have made the sizeable breakthrough on ageing and discovered a way to rejuvenate inactive senescent cells.

They found that they could make the cells both look and behave like younger cells.

Continue reading “Eating chocolate and drinking red wine could help prevent ageing, according to a study” »

There is no doubt that the arrival of rejuvenation biotechnology will not only change how we age but also how society works. Eradicating age-related diseases will lead to challenges for our society but we should be positive about change and a healthier future.

A very useful skill you get from the study of mathematics is the ability to skim details off a special case of a concept and get to the general case, which is the essence common to all special cases. This skill, far from being useful only in maths and science, can be applied to a variety of situations, including—perhaps surprisingly—rejuvenation advocacy.

Think about common objections to rejuvenation: won’t it cause overpopulation? Won’t it make it impossible to pay the pensions? Won’t it make it harder for the young to find a job? Won’t it change our perception of older people and our idea of family?

Continue reading “Breaking the System – Rejuvenation and Social Change” »

Can growth hormone (HGH) boosting gene therapy rejuvenate our bodies without side effects? One man has already started self-experimenting with a novel gene therapy to boost his flagging levels of HGH.

Summary: HGH (human growth hormone) promises to be easily boosted by plasmid-based gene therapy. Moreover, implanting cells which generate growth hormone releasing hormone (GHRH) mimics the bodies natural processes of producing HGH and thus may rejuvenate our bodies without side effects. One man is already self-experimenting and using gene therapy to boost his flagging HGH levels. This article first appeared on LongevityFacts.com. Follow us on Google+ | Facebook | Reddit. Author: Brady Hartman.

Can human growth hormone (HGH) boosting gene therapy rejuvenate our bodies without side effects?

Continue reading “Can We Rejuvenate Our Bodies with HGH Boosting Gene Therapy?” »

#genetherapy #protein #biology #ageing

“Scientists create a chemical that can restore hair and give youthful energy,” the Daily Mail reports. FOXO4-DRI, a modified protein, has been successfully used to remove “broken ageing” cells. However, the research thus far has only been used with mice.

This study examined cells that have stopped dividing, called senescent cells. Senescent cells are believed to be responsible for ageing, along with age related diseases such as arthritis.

Giving Tuesday is two weeks away, on November 28th. As manufactured celebrations go, I think we could do far worse than a holiday that encourages philanthropy. While most people are basically well-meaning, and I think would agree in principle that support for medical research is to the common good, we all lead busy lives and need prompting.

So here is a prompt, to remind you that we are all still aging, that aging causes an enormous toll of suffering and death, and that, absent progress, you too will be one of the victims. To offer material support to the research groups that are working to treat the causes of aging is not just the most compassionate thing you can do for the millions suffering today, it is also in your self-interest for tomorrow. If you are organized enough to save for retirement, because it will make your life easier decades from now, then you should also be organized enough to help establish the new medical technologies that will reduce or eliminate the age-related disease that also lies ahead, waiting.

The most effective way to help make progress through charitable contributions is to give to the SENS Research Foundation or their allies such as the Methuselah Foundation. This year we have put out a call for SENS Patrons, people willing to pledge a monthly contribution to the SENS Research Foundation. Josh Triplett, Christophe and Dominique Cornuejols, and Fight Aging! have put up a $36,000 challenge fund to encourage new supporters, and we will match the next full year of your donations if you sign up before the end of 2017.

Continue reading “Giving Tuesday Approaches: Help us to Fund SENS Rejuvenation Research” »

With the recent surge of enthusiastic support for LEAF/Lifespan.io and the idea of defeating aging, I really shouldn’t be complaining about the lingering holdouts opposing the idea of living healthy and longer lives for whatever reason. Nonetheless, I feel compelled to point out the jarring contradiction of a species whose members are constantly on the lookout to avoid danger, yet need to be reassured that at some point they will die and that science is by no means trying to prevent that.

Fear of life extension

This curious phenomenon was pointed out earlier this year by James Goodwin in the journal of the Gerontological Society of America[1]. In his article “Fear of life extension”, he argues that the commandment of geriatrics is “quality, not quantity” because policymakers fear a future in which longer life means overpopulation of nursing homes, and as a consequence, researchers working on interventions on aging need to clearly state that their goal is just making our final years a little better—but making us live longer? God forbid, no! We only want to live in perfect health for about 80 or 90 years, then magically drop dead for no apparent reason.