Aging & evolutionary biology
Josh Mitteldorf is best known for promoting the theory that aging is not “wearing out” but rather an evolved program that limits lifespan. The surprising fact that our bodies are genetically programmed to age and to die offers an enormous opportunity for medical intervention. He began blogging about aging on this site in 2012. His guidance for a long life is at AgingAdvice.org. His two books on aging are available at Amazon and elsewhere.
Mitteldorf’s PhD is in astrophysics. Since about 2020, he has taken up a new challenge as curator and critic of science on the fringe, writing about promising science that the science establishment has unjustly neglected.
In other areas of life, Mitteldorf’s two daughters were among the first girls to be adopted from China in the 1980s. He has taught a weekly yoga class for fifty years. He is an avid amateur musician, playing piano in chamber groups, French horn in community orchestras. Follow his other writing at mitteldorf.substack.com, and listen to his poetry on YouTube.
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The brain does its work with electrical signals through a network of neurons. The information is passed to every cell in the body with chemical signals, hormones, RNAs and proteins that are dissolved in the blood.
Jun 12, 2015
The body adjusts its rate of aging in response to environmental cues. Most influential is diet.
Jun 4, 2015
May 26, 2015
A research report from Novartis may temper our excitement about GDF11, which was a runner-up for Science Magazine's 2014 Breakthrough Of the Year.
May 24, 2015
Review of The Vital Question by Nick Lane, Part 2 of 3 Last week, I covered the fundamentals, the outline of the history of life on earth, including some unexpected findings and downright mysteries.
May 21, 2015
I have a new article at Pterostilbene.com. The bottom line is that pterostilbene may be a "better resveratrol". It is better absorbed, stays in the blood stream longer, and has a stronger effect on insulin metabolism and SIRT-1 than resveratrol.
May 19, 2015
The Vital Question, by Nick Lane, 352 pp, Profile Books, April, 2015 Life has been on earth about 4 billion years.
May 12, 2015
Are Short Telomeres a Cause of Aging or Just a Marker of Aging?
Apr 29, 2015
The idea that lengthening telomeres poses a danger of cancer took a life of its own, based on marginal experimental data and firm grounding in a theory that is fundamentally flawed.
Apr 22, 2015
Supplementing with magnesium should be the easiest decision to make, because there are substantial potential benefits and no downside.
Apr 13, 2015
PRLS I study evolution of aging because I think it is a scientific conundrum. But frequently, people tell me that the evolution of aging is easy to understand.
Mar 30, 2015
For people who have a few hundred thousand dollars to spend and are willing to take on the risks of an “early adopter” and travel to South America, options are now becoming available that were inconceivable just a few years ago.
Mar 18, 2015
