Free Republic

A south Arkansas woman celebrated her 116th birthday Friday with cake, a party and a new title — she's now officially the oldest confirmed living American and second-oldest person in the world, the Gerontology Research Group said. Gertrude Weaver spent her birthday at home at Silver Oaks Health and Rehabilitation in Camden, about 100 miles southwest of Little Rock. This year's festivities included the new award from the Gerontology Research Group, which analyzed U.S. Census records to determine that Weaver is the oldest living American, rather than 115-year-old Jeralean Talley, who was born in 1899. The research group, which consults...

Chadd Bunker says his friends and relatives tell him he drives like an old man. Roll through a stop sign? He would never do that. Exceed the speed limit? Not on your life. He makes three right turns to avoid a left. He can be annoying. But Mr. Bunker, who is only 48 years old, is no ordinary driver. He recently became one of the proud, lucky few to reach the delivery driver equivalent of Eagle Scout—the United Parcel Service Inc. UPS +0.12% 's Circle of Honor. The award goes to those who manage to drive their big brown trucks...

Pensioners will be given estimates of how long they have left to live to help them manage their savings, a minister has disclosed. Steve Webb said that the Government wants to provide pensioners with a rough life expectancy when they reach retirement to allow them to make better financial decisions. Experts will take into account factors including gender, where a pensioner lives or whether they smoke, the pensions minister said. Life expectancy should be part of “guidance” given to help people decide how much to save. In last month’s Budget, George Osborne announced the scrapping of rules that force most...

If you're 60 and older, every additional hour a day you spend sitting is linked to doubling the risk of being disabled -- regardless of how much moderate exercise you get, reports a new Northwestern Medicine® study. The study is the first to show sedentary behavior is its own risk factor for disability, separate from lack of moderate vigorous physical activity. In fact, sedentary behavior is almost as strong a risk factor for disability as lack of moderate exercise. If there are two 65-year-old women, one sedentary for 12 hours a day and another sedentary for 13 hours a day,...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (CBSDC) – Accelerated aging and a greater likelihood of suffering from an age-related illness at a younger age are two consequences being linked to African-American men who have experienced high-levels of racism throughout their lives. A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine finds that African-American men who reported high levels of racial discrimination, or who have internalized anti-black attitudes, have an increased risk of premature death and chronic disease than white people. Previous research has documented African-Americans’ shorter life expectancy and greater risk of chronic diseases, but this new study is the first to...

To date, we know of only two things that can reverse the effects of aging: caloric restriction and extensive exercise. But in a recent experiment, researchers applied a new compound to 2-year old mice, causing their muscles to regenerate to 6-month old levels. Incredibly, human trials may start next year. The new compound, nicotinamide mono nucleotide (NMN), worked surprisingly quickly when tested on mice. When administered early enough in the aging process, it was found to work within one week; the muscles of older 2-year old mice were "indistinguishable" from the younger 6-month old animals. It improved muscle wastage, restored...

There is nothing quite as difficult to predict as the future. In my lifetime I have already lived through an “inevitable” ice age that never materialized and “inevitable” mass starvation (through overpopulation) that also never happened. When I was in Central America I remember reading a book called Inevitable Revolutions by the historian Walter LaFeber, but more than a quarter of a century later the inevitable still had not taken place. By now, according to predictions, most of us should have been dead from AIDS, that is if variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or Ebola virus had not got us first. The...

Research published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research found those who did not consume any alcohol appeared to have a higher mortality rate, regardless of whether they were former heavy drinkers or not, than those who drank heavily. Instead, “moderate” drinking, defined as one to three drinks per day, was associated with the lowest mortality rate. …

HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. — THIS fall Google announced that it would venture into territory far removed from Internet search. Through a new company, Calico, it will be “tackling” the “challenge” of aging. (snip) Even if anti-aging research could give us radically longer lives someday, though, should we even be seeking them? Regardless of what science makes possible, or what individual people want, aging is a public issue with social consequences, and these must be thought through. (snip) We may properly hope that scientific advances help ensure, with ever greater reliability, that young people manage to become old people. We are not,...

Life expectancy in the U.S. has risen in the past few decades. While in 1970 life expectancy at birth was 70.9 years, it rose to 78.7 year by 2011. However, most of the developed world is improving faster than this country. And despite the fact that the U.S. spends vastly more per capita on health care than any other country, Americans’ life expectancy is only 26th highest. Earlier this month, the Organizations for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) released a report highlighting the latest life expectancy figures for its 34 member nations as well as several other developed nations. According...

Yesterday I heard a quack health foods doc on the radio repeat something we hear a great deal, only he claimed to have a source for it, namely that the U.S. is down the list in life expectancy among developed nations. Supposedly this was a study from the Journal of the American Medical Association. I have some ideas as to why this may be (if indeed true) but I'd like some Freepers involved in medicine/insurance or other health-related fields to weigh in. What would account for the US having shorter life spans than, say, places such as Denmark or France?

Google has launched a healthcare company to attack some of the most difficult scientific problems in diseases related to ageing, marking the biggest step yet beyond its core internet business. Larry Page, chief executive, unveiled the venture, called Calico, with a characteristically ambitious and vague claim that “with some longer term, moonshot thinking around healthcare and biotechnology, I believe we can improve millions of lives”. While outlining a highly ambitious overall goal for the new company, however, Google did not disclose any information about how much it would invest in the venture, which areas of healthcare science the spin-off company...

The world’s oldest man, a 112-year-old self-taught musician, coal miner and gin rummy aficionado from western New York, has died. He was 112. Salustiano Sanchez-Blazquez died Friday at a nursing home in Grand Island, according to Robert Young, senior gerontology consultant with Guinness World Records. Sanchez-Blazquez became the world’s oldest man when Jiroemon Kimura died June 12 at age 116. …

An international team of researchers reporting in the journal Current Biology has found evidence that ageing works through a special set of genes that everyone has – the rDNA genes.Studies in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, shown here, over the past two decades have found a connection between rDNA genes and lifespan. “This work is exciting because it shows that rDNA instability is a new factor in ageing,” said study co-author Dr Austen Ganley from Massey University, New Zealand. Dr Ganley and his colleagues from Japan found that by improving the stability of the rDNA genes they could extend the lifespan...

Chemical 'fingerprint' in the blood could provide clues to health later in life Metabolites indicate future lung function, bone density, and blood pressure Could pave the way for new treatments for age related conditionsA revolutionary new blood test could tell you how long you will live, and how quickly you will age. Scientists have discovered a chemical ‘fingerprint’ in the blood that may provide clues to an infant's health and rate of ageing near the end of life. The discovery raises the prospect of a simple test at birth that could help doctors stave off the ravages of disease in...

Japan's Jiroemon Kimura, who was born in 1897, died in hospital early Wednesday morning, Kyodo News cited the local government as saying. Mr Kimura, from Kyotango in Kyoto Prefecture, was recognised by Guinness World Records as the world's oldest living person in December 2012 when a woman from the United States died at the age of 115.

Sheikh Awad left behind 24 sons and daughters from various wivesSaudi Arabia’s oldest man died at the age of 120 years, leaving behind 447 children, grand children and great grand children, including his 98-year-old eldest son. Sheikh Awad bin Abdul Aziz bin Saifi Al Qarni died of old age at his house in the central village of Al Badadha although he was in a good health just before his demise. The chief of his tribe for most of his life, Sheikh Awad left behind 24 sons and daughters from various wives, including his eldest son, 98, youngest 22-year-old son and...

This article was posted on 04/01/2013 Russian billionaire’s plan for immortality by 2045 includes turning us into cyborgs Technology may be advancing, but it doesn’t change the fact that the human body is limited. Eventually, human beings die.  Maybe immortality sounds like science fiction, especially when thinking about cyborgs, avatars, and robots, but for one Russian man, living forever in a machine’s body is the future, and it’s not so far away. After Dmitry Itskov made a fortune as founder of a web publishing company, New Media Stars, he began thinking about the meaning of life and consciousness. Last February, Itskov gathered...

If you love sausages, hot dogs, and brats, you might be in for a shorter life, a new study suggests. The study analyzed data from half a million men and women, as a part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition. It was published in the journal BMC Medicine [PDF]. They found a link between "processed" meat — which includes all meat products, including ham, bacon, sausages; small part of minced meat that has been bought as a ready-to-eat product — and cardiovascular disease and cancer, they report. Also, they found that the more processed meat you eat...

Older people who look on the darker side of life tend to live longer than optimists, who in turn face an increased risk of illness and mortality, a new study by a German research institute found on Thursday. Researchers in Germany and Switzerland found that older people who believe their life satisfaction will be above average in future face a 10-percent higher mortality risk or are more likely to develop physical health problems, the DIW think-tank said. “It is possible that a pessimistic outlook leads elderly people to look after themselves and their health better and take greater precautions against...