activism and education to defeat aging
Home Search Take Action! Articles Daily News Newsletter Fight Aging! Blog Press Room Resources About Contact
Hot Topics: Activism - Anti-Aging - Calorie Restriction - Cryonics - Negligible Senescence - Our Community - Research Prizes - Stem Cells
Start Here!
Are you new to healthy life extension? Click here to find out more about living a longer, healthier life. More >>
Our Community
The healthy life extension community is extensive, fun and friendly - click here to see where you fit in. More >>
Fight Aging!
Click here to read the "Fight Aging!" weblog: daily reports, news and views on science and aging. More >>
Stem Cell Research
Regenerative medicine from stem cell research (coupled with cancer therapies) will extend our lives. More >>
Ending Aging
Aubrey de Grey explains how to develop biotechnology capable of repairing aging. Read the book! More >>
   Help to Create a Longer, Healthier Future!         
You can help to make longevity medicine and longer, healthier lives a reality. Take the first steps here.

Dig Dirt For LysoSENS Research

Learn More: Read "Ending Aging"

Join the Three Hundred for Longevity Research

Join Our Folding@Home Team

Click here for more information >>

Our Message

Live Healthily
Stop damaging your health! A good diet and better lifestyle will improve and lengthen your natural life span. You'll feel better, you'll feel better for longer, and you'll be in good shape to take advantage of future advances in healthy life extension medicine.

Fight Aging!
Millions suffer and tens of thousands die each and every day from age-related conditions, while research suffers from a lack of funding and awareness. Support and promote real anti-aging research! Join the life extension community to raise awareness, spread the word, and help people to live longer, healthier lives.

Extend Your Life
Make the choice to live a longer, healthier, active life. Choose to fight for more research funding and better anti-aging medicine. Take the decision to speak out, stay healthy and live longer. It's well worth it!

   Daily News             

Metabolic Rate and Longevity
July 18 2008   |   Permanent Link
As an addendum to prior discussions of the plasma membrane theory of longevity and related metabolic rate correlations: "Metabolism is a defining feature of all living organisms, with the metabolic process resulting in the production of free radicals that can cause permanent damage to DNA and other molecules. Surprisingly, birds, bats and other organisms with high metabolic rates have some of the slowest rates of senescence begging the question whether species with high metabolic rates also have evolved mechanisms to cope with damage induced by metabolism. To test whether species with the highest metabolic rates also lived the longest I determined the relationship between relative longevity (maximum lifespan), after adjusting for annual adult survival rate, body mass and sampling effort, and mass-specific field metabolic rate (FMR) in 35 species of birds. There was a strongly positive relationship between relative longevity and FMR, consistent with the hypothesis. This conclusion was robust to statistical control for effects of potentially confounding variables such as age at first reproduction, latitude and migration distance, and similarity in phenotype among species because of common phylogenetic descent. Therefore, species of birds with high metabolic rates senesce more slowly than species with low metabolic rates."

Complicating Alzheimer's Disease
July 18 2008   |   Permanent Link
Researchers have demonstrated an Alzheimer's therapy that removes amyloid plaque, but that doesn't halt or reverse neurodegeneration: "The theory was that dementia could be slowed or reversed once the plaques were cleared, and experiments in animals have shown that removing these plaques improves brain function. ... long-term follow-up of Alzheimer's patients treated with [the therapy] did show, 'a reduction in the number of plaques in the brains of patients -- in some cases there was a virtually complete removal of plaques. Crucially, there was no evidence that the patients benefited by the removal of plaques and even those subjects with virtually complete removal continued to deteriorate and had severe end-stage dementia prior to their death.' ... [researchers now believe] that removing plaques - at least by this method - is unlikely to make a significant difference to the clinical outcome of patients with established Alzheimer's disease ... it strongly suggests that plaques are not sufficient on their own to account for disease progression."

On Predicting Longevity
July 17 2008   |   Permanent Link
For all the obvious reasons, actuaries would love to be able to predict human longevity with accuracy. But is that possible with present or near-future tools, even setting aside considerations of rapid progress in biotechnologies of rejuvenation? Researcher Leonid Gavrilov here excerpts some of a recent paper on that subject: "Who has a better chance to become a centenarian - a taller or a shorter person? Is it better to be slender or stout? We know that most centenarians are both short and slender in their body build, but these measurements made at older ages could be misleading because they might only reflect body shrinkage as a result of aging. We were also intrigued by other possible predictors of long life. Is it better to be a farmer or an actuary in order to survive to 100? Does the number of children a person has affect their chances to celebrate their 100th birthday? Is it better to have dark eyes or light eyes? All these personal characteristics could be useful for actuaries if a strong association between them and exceptional longevity were to be established."

Click here for more news...