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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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
Aging destroys fitness. How could aging have evolved? Below is my answer to this question.
Jul 1, 2013
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
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
We know that cutting calories has multiple health benefits and makes you thinner.
Jun 9, 2013
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
May 20, 2013
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
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
Eating less is the best-tested and surest way to a younger body and an increased life span.
Apr 30, 2013
Last week we talked about a wrong turn taken by 20th Century evolutionary theory.
Apr 22, 2013
Darwin’s legacy, his gift to science is the idea of a creative competition that selects the strong, the robust, the fertile, and thereby ratchets the complexity of life.
Apr 15, 2013
