Free Republic

The onset of wrinkles, muscle wasting and cataracts has been delayed and even eliminated in mice, say researchers in the US.It was done by "flushing out" retired cells that had stopped dividing. They accumulate naturally with age. The scientists believe their findings could eventually "really have an impact" in the care of the elderly. Experts said the results were "fascinating", but should be taken with a bit of caution. The study, published in Nature, focused on what are known as "senescent cells". They stop dividing into new cells and have an important role in preventing tumours from progressing. These cells...

Baby boomers face of what used to be called the retirement age are offering 70 million members strong market for the legions of companies, entrepreneurs and plastic surgeons willing to take advantage of their “forever young” mode think, either through wrinkle creams, face lifts or training schemes. That adds to the potential bonanza. Market research firm Global Industry Analysts projects that fuel the boom in consumer base, “seeking to keep the dreaded signs of aging at bay,” will drive the U.S. market anti-aging products for about $ 80 million today to more than $ 114 billion by 2015. The baby...

Children of God for Life announced today that Neocutis, a bio-pharmaceutical company focused on dermatology and skin care is using aborted fetal cell lines to produce several of their anti-aging skin creams. "It is absolutely deplorable that Neocutis would resort to exploiting the remains of a deliberately slaughtered baby for nothing other than pure vanity and financial gain," stated Executive Director Debi Vinnedge. "There is simply no moral justification for this." ...

The American Medical Association is taking on a segment of the $50 billion "anti-aging" industry that promotes the use of hormones as a treatment for consumers to slow or reverse the aging process. In a report presented Sunday in Chicago to a committee of the AMA's 543-member policymaking House of Delegates, the AMA Council on Science and Public Health calls into question claims made by for-profit Web sites, anti-aging clinics and other businesses promoting hormones as anti-aging treatments. "Despite the widespread promotion of hormones as anti-aging agents by for-profit Web sites, anti-aging clinics and compounding pharmacies, the scientific evidence to...

It's good news that we are living longer, but bad news that the longer we live, the better our odds of developing late-onset Alzheimer's disease. Many Alzheimer's researchers have long touted fish oil, by pill or diet, as an accessible and inexpensive "weapon" that may delay or prevent this debilitating disease. Now, UCLA scientists have confirmed that fish oil is indeed a deterrent against Alzheimer's, and they have identified the reasons why. Greg Cole, professor of medicine and neurology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and associate director of UCLA's Alzheimer Disease Research Center, and his colleagues...

Ming the clam is 'oldest animal' Shakespeare was writing plays when the clam was a juvenile A clam dredged up off the coast of Iceland is thought to have been the longest-lived creature discovered. Scientists said the mollusc, an ocean quahog clam, was aged between 405 and 410 years and could offer insights into the secrets of longevity. Researchers from Bangor University in Wales said they calculated the clam's age by counting rings on its shell. According to the Guinness Book of Records, the longest-lived animal was an Arctica clam found in 1982 aged 220. They are like tiny tape-recorders......

ABOUT a week ago, I was swimming in my pool when I had serious difficulty breathing. “Uh-oh,” I said to myself, “now I am about to die.” My wife was upstairs reading, way out of earshot and, anyway, if I were about to have a lethal heart attack, I wouldn’t be able to scream. It turned out to be a nasty but short-lived bronchitis, and as I was lying in bed recovering, I thought, “I will die someday, and before I do, I would like to share with you the best possible thoughts I can, in gratitude for the many...

The fountain of youth apparently does not yet come in a pill. Widely used DHEA supplements and testosterone patches failed to deliver their touted anti-aging benefits in one of the first rigorous studies to test such claims in older men and women. The substances did not improve the participants' strength, their physical performance, or certain other measures of health. "I don't think there's any case for administering these" to elderly people, said Dr. K. Sreekumaran Nair of the Mayo Clinic, lead author of the study, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. DHEA, a steroid that is a precursor...

Drinking fruit or vegetable juice several times a week could help protect against Alzheimer's disease, according to a study in the September issue of The American Journal of Medicine. The nine-year study involving nearly 2,000 people, led by Professor Qi Dai of Tennessee's Vanderbilt University, showed that the risk of developing Alzheimer's - a degenerative brain disease that affects a person's memory, thinking and mood - was cut by 76 percent among those who drank fruit or vegetable juice more than three times a week. Among those who drank juice once a week, the risk was reduced by 16 percent....

SEOUL. June 12, 2006. KAZINFORM - A team of South Korean scientists on Sunday claimed to have created a ``cellular fountain of youth,’’ or a small molecule, which enables human cells to avoid aging and dying. The team, headed by Prof. Kim Tae-kook at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, argued the newly-synthesized molecule, named CGK733, can even make cells younger; KAZINFORM quotes The Korea Times. The findings were featured by the Britain-based Nature Chemical Biology online early today and will be printed as a cover story in the journal’s offline edition early next month. ``All cells face...

Immortality is within our grasp . . . In Fantastic Voyage, high-tech visionary Ray Kurzweil teams up with life-extension expert Terry Grossman, M.D., to consider the awesome benefits to human health and longevity promised by the leading edge of medical science--and what you can do today to take full advantage of these startling advances. Citing extensive research findings that sound as radical as the most speculative science fiction, Kurzweil and Grossman offer a program designed to slow aging and disease processes to such a degree that you should be in good health and good spirits when the more extreme...

The latest from the wacky world of anti-senescence therapy DEATH is a fact of life—at least it has been so far. Humans grow old. From early adulthood, performance starts to wane. Muscles become progressively weaker, cognition fails. But the point at which age turns to ill health and, ultimately, death is shifting—that is, people are remaining healthier for longer. And that raises the question of how death might be postponed, and whether it might be postponed indefinitely. Humans are certainly living longer. An American child born in 1970 could expect to live 70.8 years. By 2000, that had increased to...

The first person to live to age 1,000 probably will turn 60 in 2006. Within 20 years or so, we'll have treatments for aging. Medicine will repair the damage that already has occurred in people who are in their 80s. They'll live on and on with healthy bodies and sharp minds.  

Controversial theorist Aubrey de Grey insists that we are within reach of an engineered cure for aging. Are you prepared to live forever? On this glorious spring day in Cambridge, England, the heraldic flags are flying from the stone towers, and I feel like I could be in the 17th century—or, as I pop into the Eagle Pub to meet University of Cambridge longevity theorist Aubrey de Grey, the 1950s. It was in this pub, after all, that James Watson and Francis Crick met regularly for lunch while they were divining the structure of DNA and where, in February 1953,...

Life expectancy is increasing in the developed world. But Cambridge University geneticist Aubrey de Grey believes it will soon extend dramatically to 1,000. Here, he explains why. Ageing is a physical phenomenon happening to our bodies, so at some point in the future, as medicine becomes more and more powerful, we will inevitably be able to address ageing just as effectively as we address many diseases today. I claim that we are close to that point because of the SENS (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) project to prevent and cure ageing. It is not just an idea: it's a very...

Engineering's reliability theory explains human agingCHILDHOOD IS A SPECIAL TIME INDEED. If only we could maintain our body functions as they are at age 10, we could expect to live about 5000 years on average. Unfortunately, from age 11 on, it's all downhill! The problem is that our bodies deteriorate with age. For most of our lives, the risk of death is increasing exponentially, doubling every eight years. So, why do we fall apart, and what can we do about it?Many scientists now believe that, for the first time in human history, we have developed a sophisticated enough understanding of...

It must be every drinker's dream and it has now become a reality, at least if you believe the manufacturer. The new beer is said to strengthen the immune system Keep young and beautiful by drinking beer - that is what Bavarian entrepreneur Helmut Fricher is promising. Anti-ageing beer was presented to the world at a German agricultural fair this week - a drink which the brewer says will bring body and soul into harmony. But the new wonder drink may fall foul of Germany's oldest valid law, the Beer Purity Regulation. The anti-ageing beer that Mr Fricher presented to...

If you're one of the millions of Americans who enjoy and benefit from anti-aging supplements such as DHEA and pregnenolone, you have reason to be concerned. Certain members of Congress are intent on taking them away from you and placing you under arrest if you possess them! Sound far-fetched? It's frighteningly real, yet almost no one in the anti-aging/life-extension community is aware of the threat. By Patrick Arnold The villain is the so-called "Anti-Andro Bill" -H.R. 207- introduced last October in the House by U.S. Representatives Sweeney and Osborne. Purporting to address the use of muscle-building "andro" supplements by teens,...