Dr. Ian Rogers at the Mount Sinai Hospital is dedicated in finding ways to replace the worn-out pancreas causing Type 1 diabetes, thereby re-stabilizing the generation of insulin. Moreover, Dr. Rita Kandel is even examining the possibility to re-grow knee joints and hips.

The current goal according to Rogers is to re-grow tissues that would last for a year or two. This would help people to treat their Type 1 Diabetes. Parents are happy with such breakthroughs as they are currently required to perform regular checkups to analyse glucose and insulin levels for their children suffering from Type 1 Diabetes. Taking a rest for a year could soon be achieved as re-growing tissues are becoming a reality.

Currently, pancreas is being produced from a surgical sponge, which is a three dimensional structure having insulin-generating islet cells. The potential treatment is to grow pancreas in the laboratory and then place them beneath the skin of individual suffering from Type 1 diabetes. This is expected to re-stabilize the insulin level in the human body.

Rogers highlighted that creating pancreas is extremely difficult. Currently, the most advanced research in his laboratory is only capable of completing easier tasks such as regenerating blood vessels, which help people with Type 2 diabetes. In other words, people who might face damaged toes or fingers do not necessarily have to undergo amputation.

Dr. Andras Nagy says that in theory any damaged cell can be repaired. Even brain cells related to Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease, heart damage to insulin-producing cells in diabetes can be re-grown. The secret to succeed lies in stem cells therapies created from blood, embryos or skin cells.

According to Nagy, if a potential way to restore cell back to their initial state is found then cells could circumvent dangerous effects resulting from diseases.

As up to June 2010, stem cell-based therapies were approved for two U.S companies, which have been applying it to 18 spinal cord patients.

Dr. Rita Kandel from Samuel Lunenfeld Research Institute is already working on re-growing knee joints and hips. This is being done with white pieces of cartilage expanded from bone substitute which behaves like a type of scaffold for these cells.

Kandel’s goal is to establish a complete biological join replacement therapy preventing pain and assuring mobility for people.

The far-reaching vision of Kandel is to cure aging and reap the fountain of youth. However, she acknowledges that there is still a long way to go.

Currently, most of these re-growing therapies are only in a test tube stage, like as it is in Toronto as well as several other laboratories across the world.

Source: CBC News and the Longevity Meme

Anti Aging, Stem cells

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A study conducted by Prof. Charalambos P. Kyriacou of the University of Leicester and Dr. Rachel Ben-Shlomo of the University of Haifa-Oranim propose that a single “pulse” of an artificial light during the night can negatively affect our circadian cell division.

According to Dr. Ben-Shlomo, damage to cell division is a common feature of cancer. It is thus essential to understand the precursors for this particular damage.

The study was conducted by placing lab mice in a predefined environment where their exposure to light was regulated. They had 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of light. However, one group was given one hour of artificial light during the dark hours. This triggered a modification in the gene expression of the rodents’ brain cells.

Previous studies conducted by Dr. Ben-Shlomo had already proven that cells’ biological clock is influenced by artificial light exposure. However, the current research showed that the cell division as well as various gene transcriptions are affected. She noted that several of these genes affected are associated with both the genes fighting against cancer and those involved in developing cancer.

In other words, the lost of sleep during one night can negatively lead to cellular pathways that affect tissues, cause DNA damage or inflammation. The body views lack of sleep as stress, and we know that stress can lead to the inducement of fatal chemicals. The deprivation of sleep during a single day can significantly impair your physical and mental functions. However, one night is singular but during several days of lacking sleep the effect becomes cumulative.

Clinical studies involving brain scans have proven that sleep deprivation can induce stress, irrationality; mood swings, blood pressure, energy disorder, impair memory and mental abilities. The most dramatic thing is that it is hard to admit or notice that sleep is the cause of all these cumulative deteriorations of overall health.

It is even certain that insufficient sleep is a precursor for diabetes, weak immune system, obesity, high blood pressure, depression, stroke and heart disease. Those who sleep for only 4 to 6 hours can suffer from cumbersomeness in thinking. It can even cause psychiatric disorder, as most people who lack sleep suffer from similar symptoms.

To reduce the aging effect, adequate sleep is important. These various negative effects of sleep deprivation should be enough for you to increase your hours of quality sleep. If not, note that lack of sleep can even make you a less dynamic lover.

Quality sleep is defined as undisturbed sleep which usually last for 7 to 8 hours at night. There are some people who require more while other needs less time to experience the same health benefits.

How to try to assure a rejuvenating sleep:

• Sleep on regulated time schedules
• Sleep early and wake up early.
• Do regularly exercise but not just before bed time.
• Do drink tea or coffee during the day and not in the evening
• Assure that the room you are sleeping is noise free.
• Make sure that the bedroom is dark.
• Stop drinking liquids late if you do regulated wake up to urinate during the night – assure to go to the toilet before bed time as well.
• Avoid alcohol at night as it tends to affect your sleep cycle.
• A warm bath is appropriate before going to sleep.
• Assure that the bedroom is at a temperature below 70 degrees F.
• Relax yourself one hour before sleeping, so stop work early
• Listen to relaxing music or practice some relaxation techniques.
• There are various medications or supplements that can help you to sleep such as melatonin; herbs helping to sleep like chamomile, kava valerian or ziziphus spinosa, calcium citrate tablets of 200 to 500 mg as well as 200 to 400 mgs of magnesium citrate.

Source: max life by David Kekich

Anti Aging, Health And Aging

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Rest assured that all these nutrients and elements from the food we are eating make it into the tiniest reaches of our system. Without them we would not survive so they have an obvious impact on our being. The nutrients that we ingest establish the makeup of our cellular membrane covering, our bone marrow, blood and even our hormones. When you think that an average person sheds approximately three hundred billion cells every single day to age progression and needs to replace these, it becomes apparent this process is complex. This complexity is derived from the fact that our body is actually produced based on the food we are giving it to survive.

This fact makes it so crucial that we must take the utmost care in what we are supplying our bodies – also why consuming clean food should be a vital precedence. We can no longer tolerate the consumption of junk food since we know it is far from harmless. If our body is made up from what we are feeding it, we must be sure that food is “clean”.

Prior to 1993, any list documenting the major causes of mortality in America would have included heart disease, cancer and strokes. In this same year, several medical doctors shifted the standards when they released in print a report called “Actual Causes of Death in the United States” to the Journal of American Medical Association looking at what was at the root of these diseases.

Their results showed that entirely half of the yearly mortality rate of almost one million were early onset and might have been avoided for a time by altering certain behaviors such as smoking, their food intake and amount of physical activity, alcohol use, firearms usage, sexual permissiveness, automobile accidents and illegal use of drugs. Just smoking, lousy diets and poor exercise commitment made up about seven hundred thousand early onset deaths in the year 1990.

Scientists working with the Center for Disease Control [CDC] in 2004 once again looked at the Medical Association report from the Journal and revealed an identical outcome. There was a difference that stood out this time around; deaths from poor diets had increased mainly due to a spike in the amount of obesity and diabetes that was prevalent.

 A year ago in the summer of 2009, the CDC science community released a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine evaluating case work of better than twenty three thousand German citizens, all adults who were signed on to the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition research or [EPIC] and looked into four behaviors: Were they eating properly? Were they a healthy weight? Did they get enough physical activity? Did they smoke?

Those contributors who rated four good answers [proper diet, body mass index under thirty, physically active, non smokers] versus the people with four negative answers [all opposites], had an eighty percent reduced risk of developing any major prolonged illnesses. Think of the impact if there was an available medication that reduced our risk of dying early for any reason by eighty percent!

I am sure the phrase nature versus nurture – or genetics versus environment – is not new to most but these studies have clearly displayed that our lifestyle choices are very influential where they can be used to cultivate nature or command our genes. Numerous research studies have revealed this to be so, Researcher r. Dean Ornish and his associates have compiled evidence that is the most persuasive to this point. They prepared a program for men diagnosed with prostate cancer a clean living strategy that incorporated a healthy, plant based meal plan; consistent exercise and a program for managing their stress levels, all of which displayed an obvious decrease in gene reaction that ordinarily would encourage prostate cancer progression and at the same time elevating the genes that are able to have power over it.

 It is that type of power and assurance we derive from clean eating so it is useful to understand its definition. It is not necessarily organic. There is some food that is organic but not very nutritious, or even nutritious while not being organic, for instance broccoli produced by conventional manners. Organic is no doubt good for us but it is not an altogether final definition of “clean.”

When food is considered clean, it has been refined or processed as little as possible and it comes straight from nature’s source. These are whole foods that are additive free with no coloring, flavoring, sweeteners or hormones. Better are those foods that have singular word ingredients such as almonds, spinach, blueberries, lentils and salmon. If the included list of ingredients is shorter, all the better, since it leaves little space for production waywardness by adding other substances and chemicals like sugar, salt, hazardous oils and any useless calories. If you see this long and hard to understand labeling, turn your back and start walking away quickly!

Evidence exists that, in general, the more natural the food that you eat is, and the lesser quantity of calories you will require to feel full. The grounds for this fact is due to heavily processed foods having low fiber and water content, higher rates of calories versus nutrients and an amalgam of tastes ranging from sugar to salt and other flavoring that are meant to trigger your appetite region in the hypothalamus portion of your brain.

Clean foods do just the reverse: they contain plenty of fiber and liquid, a high rate of nutrients over calories with no additional flavors – the combination of which drives indicators to satiate your brain prior to you overloading on calories. A fir instance would be considering the number of raw almonds you would consume before halting, now think about if they were honey coated almonds. It is the honey laden exterior that propels you to eat more than you require or perhaps even want. When you practice “clean eating”, you will be able to manage your weight all the time with no feeling of being disadvantaged by hunger pangs or a constant hankering for more.
 
Therefore we need to have a final look at clean eating and why it is so important to you. Our physical bodies are busy replenishing so many billions of cells on a daily basis as they utilize the food we provide as the root of this cell rebuilding enterprise. When we eat properly we achieve a piece of the blueprint that might well modify our chances of contracting any of the serious and eventual age related illnesses and diseases by eighty percent and actually accomplish inner health at the genetic molecular level.

The scientific community has proven how critical every piece of food is that we put into our bodies. Little did we realize back in the day when our mother said “you are what you eat” that she really did know what she was talking about. When we choose to eat clean food, we are choosing life, longevity and good health for ourselves and what can be better than that!

Anti Aging Theories, Health And Aging, Lifestyle, Longevity

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Brain training can in fact lead to an enhancement, but solely in the particular ability it is targeted at

With time, as human beings age, our pace of thinking tend to get slower and as a result it becomes harder for us to continuously learn new things. In spite of this many people attempt to stay mentally healthy by, for instance, doing crossword puzzles or learning a novel language. Computer games that have objective to keep the brain active are also becoming more and more popular.

The Institute’s Director, Professor Peter Sawick explains that by engaging in exercises like trying to find symbols on a monitor as quickly as possible can in fact enhance a person’s reaction time. However, scientific studies have demonstrated that by training the brain merely leads to an improvement in the particular ability that it is targeted at. Therefore, if a person is able to spot out symbols rather quickly, it does not imply that the person will be capable of remembering names better too.

It is not necessary that people push themselves to engage in brain training if they do not really take pleasure in it

Up to now research has not been able to show that brain training can in fact keep up or boost people’s mental abilities in general. In accordance to Sawicki, there is therefore no need to feel awful if one does not enjoy brain training; there are no apparent health reasons for engaging in it. However, if you are among those people who think that brain training exercises are fun you can attempt different kinds of such games. For instance, trying to complete sequences of letters can enhance one’s logic skills. Moreover, by practising word association techniques, one can remember things better.

Source: ScienceDaily

Health And Aging

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You alone are responsible for how healthy and fit you are. It is your sole decision making that has landed you where you are today in terms of general health and fitness. You cannot blame your family or friends, your physician or even personal trainer if you are fortunate enough to have one. The responsibility for your health and wellness rests solely on you.

These folks who surround you are only there as trusted advisors and motivators, available to prescribe and direct your training so the other people mentioned, your family and friends, will have the benefit of your presence in their lives for years to come. You need to understand that any level of fitness and health you attain at any given time is a result of the choices you make.

Your health and well being now and in the future is not something that happens through any source of luck or probability, but by outcomes that you have predetermined because of action or inaction on your part. Were you aware of the fact that choices such as smoking, improper diet and not exercising will lower your average life span by as much as ten years? Simply not getting any physical activity or doing calisthenics for about a half hour daily will decrease your average life span by roughly five years.

By choosing to smoke, consuming a lousy diet and choosing not to get any exercise, you are choosing to perish ten years sooner than you normally would. Think about all you would be missing out on in those ten years, perhaps grandchildren, maybe their graduations or even your own child’s wedding day. Therefore, simply choosing not to smoke tobacco, choosing to eat healthier food and by getting a half hour of exercise each day, you will be choosing to live a decade longer.

Think of it as depositing money in a 401k plan, you do what is responsible today so that you can live a better life when you are older. You will accumulate savings for your retirement years and all the while you will be living your life today knowing that the small sacrifice you are making – healthier choices – will be accumulating for your benefit years down the road.

The choices we make for better health and fitness are never going to be easy, they take dedication and some work. But quitting smoking will be worth the effort as will any exercise you start getting now. The impact of everything you do to enhance your health and fitness levels will be felt immediately and will be displayed in many ways through a healthier you. In your mind’s eye you can see what may happen to you if you continue living with the poor life choices you are currently making, your conscious will see to that and guilt will reveal an unpleasant picture.

It is when this kind of negative thinking regarding your lifestyle choices begins occurring that you can more easily make the responsible choices to alter your lifestyle. Knowing full well as you get older and continue on the destructive and irresponsible health path your life will be shortened dramatically and only you have the power to change that inevitable outcome. Remember it is no one else’s fault that you are in the place you are at today where your health and wellness are concerned. You are where you want to be until you make the changes necessary to change it. YOU are responsible.

Now I will show you how your irresponsibility makes you weak and how you can become empowered by taking up the challenge of responsibility for your health and fitness.

Admitting to a lack of responsibility for your health and fitness steals these to most precious life enhancers from you and yet so many people can be heard joking about their poor dietary choices, lack of fitness when they get winded doing simple activities. Of course, conversely, when responsibility is accepted for these deficiencies you immediately feel committed to changing the situation. You are empowering yourself.

Not taking responsibility for better health and fitness is denying yourself from your power over these life choices. When you state that “I am overweight because of my metabolism” or “my parents were fat as were there parents, so it’s a genetic thing”. You certainly cannot argue with genetics or metabolism, right? You have no authority over these physical aspects of your life so you are giving away any chance of responsibility acceptance and the future is dire indeed, right? The world is a bad and scary place and your place in it is quite tenuous.

Of course on the contrary, if you stated “genetics and metabolism only influence me and the definitive responsibility for my health and fitness rests with me”, you are reclaiming your strength and authority. Suddenly the world around you is brighter and far less foreboding, allowing you much more freedom to choose your path and where you are going along with a capability to achieve!

It is not difficult to see the people who have firmly grasped responsibility for their personal health and fitness. These people are the star athletes and sports players that many look up to. They are the people who are fit and that everyone seems to take notice of and think highly of. Each one of these folks has learned how to take personal responsibility for their own health and fitness.
When you are finally able to seize responsibility for your own health and fitness, finally able to work around those outside influences such as genetics and metabolism, old sports injury from junior high or an illness that lingers, it is time to make that leap.

What leap is that you ask?

I am talking about beginning to acquire the knowledge and education you will require to attain health and fitness. The majority of us had our last bit of health and fitness instruction when we were in high school or college. In reality you should never stop learning about things affecting your health and fitness. Once again, rather than laying responsibility for your health and fitness education on outsiders, pick up the challenge yourself and continue your fitness and health instruction.

Learn what it takes to become healthy again and to stay that way from now on. Learn how why the foods you are currently eating are going to kill you. Understand why a lack of exercise will mean a huge risk of heart disease. This tutoring for health and longevity is the easy part. Learning a little at a time throughout your life is all it takes to understand is importance and impact ON your life. We are surrounded by resources thanks to the media and the internet. Offline and online resources for health and fitness are everywhere so start reading and learning. Once you make a conscious decision to learn more, you are well on your way to remembering and applying what you learn to your own life. We are creatures of habit so make a habit of reading and then re reading each bit of health and fitness text you find interesting. The result will be stimulating to say the least!

Do not be frightened by the incredible amount of information available and whether or not it is all reliable. You will soon find your knowledge increasing as will your development of radar for the truth. You have the ability to change the person you are today. It is never too late to take responsibility for your health and fitness. Start by taking that first step and begin to get educated about health and fitness and do so like your life depended on it, your longevity certainly does.

Health And Aging, Lifestyle, Longevity

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There exist highly advanced mathematical models that tend to calculate the value of infinite time. If you were given the chance of choosing whether you would prefer to be given a dollar today or that same dollar in a year, you would probably opt for the $1 dollar today. In this same wavelength, it is more important to be alive for the current year than the subsequent year and henceforth. The value of money can be compared to its future value.

However, such decisions cannot be made when we talk about life. To be alive in the future we need to be alive in the present. This is why surviving today, is primordial in increasing the chance of one living longer. In mathematical terms, if we consider that being alive in 2005 is 98 percent as important as it was to be alive in 2004. The value of immortality is thus calculated as follows:

The sum of N from zero to infinity for: (0.98)N=1÷(1-0.98)=50.

The value that one gives to immortality, based on the figures given above is, that one values immortality 50 times as much as being alive to another year. This seems extremely high and unconceivable. However, think about it, being alive to another year at the age of 100, is it as important to you as being alive to another year when you are of the age of a thousand or a million. In common sense the events in the unconceivable future must be rated less important than current events.

Achieving immortal is by reason beyond theoretical conception. Let’s say that you would know that you would be destroyed at the age of one million years would that be worse than death at ten million or a trillion. However, even after ten quadrillion years we would never know whether we have successfully achieved immortality, as to solve that puzzle it would take an eternity.

Let say that you had a sum of a million dollars, and you used all that money to ensure that you would live for a given year. The chance of surviving for that year would practically be very high but for the subsequent year it would be rather low.

In other words, if you would be allocated only $1 per year, you would probably struggle to survive for the first year, without shelter and medicine. This means that if you allocate more money, the potential chance of living another year keeps on increasing. This simple analogy of money and longevity can be expanded to evaluate the probability of survival.

Whether physical immortality is possible or not is still a scientific question. The very fact that our current survival is at the edge of peril, makes us think twice about it.

Cryonic arrangements are certainly one of the most potential promises to assure maximum life span extension. However, this will only be possible when a solution has been given to death caused by fatal accidents, cancer or cardiovascular disease. If we would be over-concentrating on cryonics, we would practically forego the precursors for death.

Confronting death is also dangerous. For instance, Frank Cole who was studying anti-aging medicine and did follow calorie restriction principles was responsible for cryonics arrangements as an Alcor cryonics transport technician. But he was unfortunately murdered in North Africa due to his desire to supersede death with immortality. Therefore, current safety is something that we must consider of paramount importance.

Another serious issue with immortalism is that it affronts theological beliefs. In literal term, it is not an affront to religion when we talk about extending life to 100 or 1,000 years. The biblical character Methuselah has been recorded to have had lived to the age of 969 years. Thus, ignoring a life span of 1,000 years would practically be an insult to God. However, a thousand years or a million years is still nothing compared to eternity.

Solution for Immortality

In case, medical advancement would assure that death from senescence, and disease eliminated then people would only die from homicide, suicide or accidents. Taking such conditions into account than a 12-years old child would have a median life span of 1,200 years while a maximum life span of 25,000 years. There would practically be only one person out of a billion who would reach the maximum life span of 25,000 years, taking into account the actual rate of accidents, homicide and suicide.

A reasonable goal would thus be to live to a thousand. It should also be noticed that anti-aging science or cryonics are not confronting religion, they are rather mere extensions of medicine.

Cryonicists should consider themselves as life-extensionists as they are not immortalists. However, it is essential that cryonics is accepted by society. This will help cryonicists to better research into the matter. Several questions related to immortality might remain unsolved due to facts such as the extinction of the sun or universe. In practical term, these questions are theoretically uninteresting in our current state of survival. Our current key aim should be to stay alive and preferably as long as possible.

The demise of aging and diseases are vital for longevity to really revolutionize. If ever we would be able to solve these issues, then we would have thousands of years to solve other threats that are at our peril. However, if we are unable to solve our limited lifespan problems than the other problems would be futile to tackle.

In simple, terms if you will be able to celebrate your 200-year anniversary in a youthful condition then you know that aging has been solved. It will be relatively easy to extend that to 800 years afterward.

Our goal today should be to “live long enough to benefit from aging reversal” or to “see technology replacing our brain”. These are all things that are likely to happen within half a century or even less.

This means if you live longer than 50 years your only obstacle will be death-by-accident or murder. But the risk of losing our “self” is also a problem that might occur through computational and biological re-engineering. These are risks deemed to be affronted.

However, being an immortalist might be futile but a life extensionists is much more in our reach. Let’s be one and live to a thousand.

Reference: Adapted from: The Scientific conquest of Death
1. Ben Best., (2004) The scientific conquest of Death, Imminst.org

Immortality

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These experts were assembled by a nonprofit organization, LifeStar Institute. This institute does educate and create awareness of problems associated with global aging. They do also encourage medical research aimed at both preventing and curing aging diseases. This was reported in July 14 issue of the Journal Science Translational Medicine.

The cost of the aging process is highly burdensome. There is medical and social cost that keeps on escalating for elders as they age year by year. The panel recommends that the U.S as well as other countries should start to take anticipatory initiatives that will change laboratory findings into a new form of aging medicine. This could be the sole solution to escape the advent of “a global aging crisis.”

The panel suggested that countries should start using their public health agencies to create awareness related to better lifestyles; encouraging longevity and healthy lives. The panel also stated that it is necessary to develop regenerative medicine and therapies that would restore the function and youthful structure in older people. Regenerative Medicine must have features to neutralize and repair cellular damage that occurs through aging.

Dr. Vijg says that there is a general misunderstanding associated to aging, people believe it is something that cannot be influenced just like the weather. However, what is fascinating is that during the recent 10 years the lifespan of different animals have been influenced; life span has been increased and healthiness as well. Adopting similar testing intervention in humans would be a good idea. It would make economic and medical sense.

Source: Science Daily

Anti Aging

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Humans have long considered the prospects of longevity. There was a time only several hundred years ago when people prayed and hoped they would live long enough to see their children grow up. These days so many people are witnessing the fourth generation of their immediate clan being born. There have been stories and fairytales that centered on extreme longevity for centuries and there are more recent actual accounts of people living for extreme periods of time.

In the Bible – under Genesis – they talk about Adam and Eve living in Eden and when Eve ate that apple all bets were off for any chance at immortality; both of them being banished to an earthly existence. There is Ponce de Leon and his maddening quest for the Fountain of Youth, actually a small spring in Florida by all accounts – sorry Ponce! How about the Holy Grail, it is said that this chalice that Jesus and his apostles sipped from during the last supper would give anyone who imbibed from it an incredibly extended life.

Finally there was Gilgamesh, a ruler of Babylon who also headed out in search of immortality. His plan to remain awake for seven days and nights did not work out and his immortality was seized from him. Greek mythology is chock full of stories about immortal gods and their many escapades. Yes, there are fairy tales, fables and even scripture but in recent times we have some living legends of our own.

 The region of Abkhazia located in the south of Russia in the Caucasus Mountains, it is claimed that people here have lived for up to one hundred fifty years of age. Hey, it could happen! There have been marriages reported at the age of one hundred ten years and it has been said that fatherhood was achieved at the age of one hundred thirty six years…those crazy Russians, right? I mean the Soviets have actually said that one of the citizens of this area by the name of Shirali Muslimov lived to ripe old age of one hundred sixty eight years young! They must be kidding, right?

More recently there have been observers actually living with a population of tribe’s people known as the Hunza’s, in the Hunza Valley of rural Pakistan. These folks claimed to see people living quite healthy lives well past the century mark. It is not uncommon to see elders aged ninety years to one hundred twenty years of age actively participating in village life. Their diet is one of fruits, grains and vegetables, all of which they grow on their own and harvest for everyone’s benefit.

There is an increase in awareness concerning longevity. More physicians than ever are promoting therapies, drugs and services that claim to assist in life extension and healthy longevity. Some medical personnel have gone out on a limb to spread the word about the amazing properties of red wine, green tea and other herbs in pill form – all claiming to increase longevity and health in general. When all the promotion ceases and media reports die down for the latest anti aging breakthroughs, all things revert back to the things we ALL have known for some time. If we want to live a longer healthier life we need to practice the basics, alter our lifestyle if necessary, get more physical activity, decrease our stress and eat a better diet.

 Of all of these, the most important thing you can do to increase your longevity is to get more adequate exercise. If until now you have lived a sedentary lifestyle, change that up and start to gradually get more active. By starting to slowly build your level of activity you are more likely to continue it long term rather than jumping right into a heavy workout regimen. While you are at it, start taking some mature student courses at a local college. Better yet, commit to completing the higher education you never finished. There is evidence that shows better educated people tend to outlive those without a high school education.

Going back to school will also help you meet more people and get you active in a social setting. This has also been proven to aid in longevity when people are socially active and spend time networking with others. So get smarter and meet new people while you are at it. Having close relationships with a few people is really beneficial according to experts. Strong familial ties as you age are vital and failing that, cultivate a few really close friendships of people you can trust and confide in. This is a way of thwarting any potential depression.

Try and stabilize your sleep patterns. Getting adequate sleep each night is critical to good health and longevity but aim for the same pattern and quantity each night as well. Your body at any age requires time to restore itself and to heal. Water, water, water! You need to drink plenty of fresh, filtered water to detoxify contaminates from your system. Our bodies are over seventy percent water so it makes perfect sense to drink lots of water and not beer! If you smoke, quit now. This is a no brainer and not easy to do, but find something to motivate yourself and give up the habit.

Everyone should have a yearly physical exam. This is good preventative maintenance for your body. Sadly, people take better care of their cars than they do themselves in this regard. Men in particular are sensitive to getting checked out regularly by a physician – the rubber glove syndrome! Many women have been trained early in the need to have a yearly check up and men must learn from their example. Leaving the doctor’s office with a clean bill of health is worth the anxiety.

As you get older it is said you begin to get wiser – if only this were true! You need to start being more careful in life. That means taking the time to think before you act. If you want to truly appreciate healthy longevity, use your head. It amazes me how every year I read and hear the same news reports of snowmobilers crashing through thin ice and perishing. Do these people not read or hear the same reports every year that I do? Having fun is important certainly, being dumb about it is another thing altogether. Longevity is a gift and we all too often kick that horse in the mouth.

I remember talking to a little old neighbor lady who was in her late nineties and she said she never over did it with anything, always in moderation. She said she did it all – not just all at once! What great advice. So many things are hazardous to your health and body. The same things that will heal you can also kill you when you over do it. Same thing goes for food so practice moderation with your diet and it will sustain you for many years, over eating the good tasting stuff and it can kill you. Frequently discuss your medications with your physician and discuss whether you can safely cut back. Drink lots of tea and limit the alcohol. No more than one glass of wine a day and make it red. Eat some chocolate if you like; just make sure it is the dark variety.

No matter how well you control your diet and try and eat healthy, you will still be lacking in certain nutrients. This is why you should supplement your diet with vitamins and minerals. A good dietary supplement will help you get all the essential vitamins you need. [“Essential” means the nutrients your body cannot manufacture on its own]. Minerals specifically are tough to retain. You can barely absorb ten percent of the minerals your body consumes naturally. They need to be constantly replenished. By keeping your vitamin and mineral count current you are aiding your body in its battle against toxicity. Try and purchase a superior liquid vitamin supplement since it will be absorbed more easily, providing you with a little added health assurance.

You can do more to ensure your longevity by doing things like splashing on the sun block, even if you are the type that does not burn. If you are in the direct sunlight for any more than fifteen minutes each day you are at risk of serious damage by UVA and UVB rays. Individuals who keep their minds as active as their bodies are also ahead of the longevity game. People who read more live longer and are more apt to avoid dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Optimism is particularly vital as you age, so work at keeping a positive mental attitude as you get older.

Finally, keep working at what you love, be it your present career or perhaps volunteering your time to teach what you are good at. Your objective should be to acquire longevity with a soul that has achieved satisfaction from a life well lived. Do not be afraid to try new things; just make sure you avoid snowmobiles in the springtime!

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The research has collected data from previous national health surveys dated from 1971 and onwards. The data covers hundreds of thousands of people. The researchers of the study estimated how obesity and smoking influenced the life span of people between 1990 and 2005. The rates calculated were extrapolated forward up to year 2020. The analysis suggests that obesity in 2020 will reduce the lifespan of an 18-year-old individual by 260 days (0.71 years) and prevent 332 days (0.91 years) of quality of life.

In more details, the life span increased by an average of 0.31 years, if one did not smoke while the harm of overweight was 1.02 years. The research paper predicted that American would not stop to smoke and start to regulate their weight by year 2020. Yet, generally, the average lifespan will augment with 3.76 years together with 5.16 quality years.

The Lead author Susan Steward who is an expert on aging at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts says that “We don’t want to be alarmist,” but smoking is, in reality, worse than obesity. Smoking can cause various severe health issues while obesity will only slowly harm the body.

The study that was published in The New England Journal of Medicine, are claiming that the problem is that more people are increasing in weight compare to the numbers of individuals reducing on smoking. So on national perspective things are worsening.

The research does not expect lifespan to decrease in its pure terms. In the future medical advancement will allow obese people to live longer than today. The fact is that obese people could survive even longer if they regulated their weight.

According to Steward the research will help health officials and doctors to decide how to invest money to save more lives. Yet, some public health experts see the study as being subjective. David Williamson, who is an epidemiologist at Emory University at Atlanta, considers that the study uses some uncommon statistical indicators and that there is a potential risk for margins of errors. He doesn’t “know how seriously to take it.”

The 15 year trend line was also questioned by Williamson. For instance, the national health surveys give various harms for obesity. However, more recent data are proposing that overweight is less harmful than what doctors previously thought. People who are a little overweight are living longer than people of normal weight. Steward and Cutler did re-calculate the average lifespan by using a trend line of only 5 years and the result was significantly different. The new trend line suggested that obesity would only cause a decrease in lifespan by 37 days and 62 quality-adjusted days for an individual of 18-years-old.

Nevertheless, whether the figures are different when taking a 15 or 5 years trend line, Cutler and Steward claimed that the trend does not change. An increase in obesity will definitely overshadow the positive aspect of smoking less in the future. This remains for sure, even if the rate of obesity will augment by a tiny 0.15 percent per annum for the coming 15 years.

Source: Science Magazine and The New England Journal of Medicine

Anti Aging, Health And Aging, Longevity

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That is a few million years of trying to avoid death and during that time; man has done almost everything he could to hasten the grim reaper, even inventing new ways to die. Luckily, while pursuing ways not to die, he was also looking into methods of at least not dying too early. Still, the search to slow aging has gone on for nearly as long as that quest for immortality. Both are ancient stories.

These old stories have taken on new levels of pursuit in the last several decades. The quest to slow the aging process has made more of an immediate impact than the race to immortality. The simple fact is that it is easier to look and feel younger than to stop an evolutionary and biological certainty. Some strides have been made in the anti aging business for instance cosmetic surgery procedures, anti wrinkle serums, healthier diets, exercise regimens and supplements that keep us fit and healthy.

All lead gradually to greater longevity and yet we still have such a long way to go. So much still needs to be understood about aging and what factors control it. So many things have influence over the process of aging like ecological issues such as pollution and environmental contaminants, economic circumstances, lifestyle choices and behavioral factors, some beyond our control. Genetics plays a role, though not as large a part as once thought. Then there is just plain blind luck of the draw.

The average United States citizen these days can expect to live well into their upper seventies or lower eighties and women as a rule have better longevity than men. This is quite a jump from the days when America was still a colony! In the colonial years the average American lived until age forty five and luck had a whole lot to do with that benchmark.
 
Longevity is a phenomenon of modern times, according to S. Jay Olshansky, a biologist and demographic expert from Chicago and the University of Illinois. He says the largest number of humans ever born perished prior to the age of ten, usually due to infectious diseases. Now that is at once a frightening and astounding statement.

The survival rate has been increased in significant ways, and specifically for the younger people, by improving sanitation and discovering new medicines like penicillin to fight off infections. Childhood vaccinations for numerous diseases have assisted the drop in mortality dramatically. The thing is it just is not that simple to add another seventy or eighty years onto the life of a seventy or eighty year old individual, according to Olshansky.

Though there have been some considerable gains in life span in the last hundred or so years, novel work being done on the advance of aging to what is considered the ceiling limit of one hundred twenty years old probably will not occur in the near future. There is some promise though and there is a lot of money being spent so anything is possible, just not too likely anytime soon. Here is what we have for fighting aging at this point:

Hormone Treatment and Vitamins
 
The anti aging business in America is very big business indeed with sales recorded at better than fifty billion dollars per annum, mostly due to purchases of dieting supplements, hormones, vitamins and minerals.

Antioxidants are also making up a good deal of the popular vitamin supplement trend these days with sales of vitamin C and E doing well. Antioxidants are said to be capable combatants against free radicals, essentially these are unbalanced molecules thriving within our bodies that can be very damaging when left unchallenged. Antioxidants challenge these invaders. Left unchecked, free radicals will cause rapid aging, cellular deterioration, and organ harm, eventually leading to cancer and other deadly diseases.

More research needs to be completed on antioxidant effectiveness as does study involving the effective capability of hormone treatments such as testosterone, estrogen, DHEA and HGH or human growth hormone. Many medical practitioners prescribe these to their patients in their declining years as a means of warding off the effects of aging and for treating age related illness and conditions and modest successes have been observed. The problem that exists is more research is required – with the likes of the American Medical Association stating that hormone supplementation is risky, lacking evidence of success and perhaps hazardous to the health of the recipient.

Restricting Caloric Intake

Since the 1930’s, researchers have understood that a nutritious but limited diet will increase the longevity of certain living organisms, specifically lab rodents, some monkey species right down to the most minuscule yeast life form. This has been documented but it still remains a mystery whether or not this restriction of calories will have the same effect on humans. Various University research teams across the United States are in the midst of carrying out a new investigation to gather some practical data to evaluate its effectiveness in people.

Those involved in the study as participants are going to consume one quarter less food than they would eat normally and it will be calculated in calories for a period of two years. Investigators will closely observe the contributors to establish if the lower calorie diets are responsible for any actual health advantages that could be linked to an extended life. It will also be interesting to see if these study volunteers can actually remain on such a rigid and limited diet for any length of time, most are guessing the majority will not be able to.

Hyperbaric Treatments

This concept of anti aging involves maintaining a routine of turns inside a chamber that has various levels of pressurized oxygen that is suppose to energize and revitalize the body while it enhances healing and gets rid of toxicity within the body responsible for accelerated aging.

More commonly utilized as a treatment for healing wounds due to reduced circulation of blood, it has also proven effective as a means of treating carbon monoxide poisoning victims. The effectiveness of hyperbaric therapy as a way of fighting the effects of aging is at best, uncertain and worst, a waste of time. Some experts believe that the reverse may be true and it could literally speed the course of aging by rallying the formation of free radical amalgams.

Resveratrol

An innate substance found in certain plants and their fruits, resveratrol has been hyped and promoted to no end by the media and medical mouthpieces as the next great cure all. No doubt that it has some amazing properties but enough already with the overhyped successes and cures for this and that disease or condition. Resveratrol is found in red wine in larger amounts than white and those who sing its praises say it negates age associated issues in animals, but there is a fly in the ointment. Once again while it has shown its effectiveness in worms, fruit flies and even fish, it has been less successful in lab rodents. As for humans, many of the healthful advantages of resveratrol have yet to be verified.

Further Anti Aging Options

There are other things we can do to see that we have a happier, more satisfying life and revel in it with some longevity while we are at it. Unfortunately there is no simple anti aging pill we can take on the horizon but we do not have to have a snooze inside an oxygen chamber either. You may even know some of these methods as sage advice based on firsthand experience: You can start eating more nutritiously, get enough physical activity, manage your stress better and get adequate sleep. There is no need to burn yourself out with exercise but raising your heart rate for twenty or thirty minutes a day will do wonders for your health, well being and anti aging efforts.

Numerous investigations have revealed that people, who have a higher education, astonishingly live longer than those people with less learned knowledge. Education is more of a positive longevity factor than both race and income level. Therefore, the better educated you are, the longer you will be around to put it into good practice.

It has also been verified that keeping up your personal associations with others both for socializing, employment and for worship can aid your longevity. Those folks who have plenty of likeminded friends or remain active within social network environments are just inclined to last longer than those who are disconnected and anti social. The former are also presumably experiencing more joy and satisfaction while they actively participate in their extended life and superior health.

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