Health
Osteo Options
How do you tell if an osteoporosis treatment is working? Stress-testing your femur until it breaks is not an option most patients would accept.
Jul 30, 2013
Column
Josh Mitteldorf
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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Life
Evolution of Evolution, and Evolution of Death
Evolution has bootstrapped its own process, creating the conditions that lead to more efficient evolution.
Jul 22, 2013
Life
E squared – the Evolution of Evolution
It may not surprise you to hear that for all standard computer languages, this procedure won’t work at all.
Jul 16, 2013
Health
Cell phones and cancer
In the 21st Century, we live in a sea of radio waves. No one wants to think that this might have consequences for our health - there are enough things to worry about that are more within our power to change.
Jul 8, 2013
Health
The Demographic Theory of Aging
Aging destroys fitness. How could aging have evolved? Below is my answer to this question.
Jul 1, 2013
Health
Breaking News! Exciting Discovery of a 2,000-year-old Tibetan Root
Last month, a group of geneticists from UC Irvine published an article about Rhodiola root, confirming that feeding it to fruit flies makes them live 20%…
Jun 24, 2013
Health
Dietary Salt: Medical Science Corrects a Long-Standing Error
The Federal Center for Disease Control (CDC) commissioned a review of the health benefits of reducing salt intake, and a draft of the final report is available on line.
Jun 17, 2013
Health
How to be skinny
We know that cutting calories has multiple health benefits and makes you thinner.
Jun 9, 2013
Health
Short Takes from the 2013 AGE meeting, Baltimore June 1-3
I’ve been at the annual meeting of the American Aging Association this weekend. Here are some brief take-home messages from the presentations I’ve attended.
Jun 3, 2013
Health
Why “Natural Anti-Aging” is an Oxymoron
May 20, 2013
Health
Could cutting this one nutrient make you live longer?
Eating less helps you live longer, but eating less is hard. One line of experiment suggests that eating less of just one protein component, methionine, is sufficient to extend life span, perhaps as effectively as though less calories were being consumed.
May 13, 2013
Health
Role of the Nervous System in deciding How Long we Live
A new report this week about signals from hypothalamus reminds us that some of the biggest influences on longevity are mediated through the nervous system.
May 5, 2013