Aging Matters
One of the things that happens to our immune systems with age is that a preponderance of naïve B-cells (in youth) gives way to a diverse body of memory B-cells (in older adults), each trained to respond to a specific pathogen from the past. (Valter Longo claims that fasting eliminates some of the memory B-cells, which are … Read more
A new approach to methylation clocks from Morgan Levine uses massive computer resources and sophisticated mathematics. I am enthusiastic about it, not just because it produces better results than previous methods, but because I suspect it is better aligned with the way that biological systems actually work. The Clockmaker’s Dilemma Your goal is a robust … Read more
The Pfizer vaccine is on a fast track for FDA approval, hearings possible today according to the NYTimes. I suspect the political pressures are enormous. Still, how can approval be possible when the safety record of this vaccine is far worse than any vaccine in the past, including many that were pulled from the market? Efficacy … Read more
I struggled since childhood with night terrors, about death as an eternal void. My csreer as aging scientist helped me to crack that open, then gain insight through meditation practice. Fear is not helpful. It is the worst motivation for life extension. Joyful living is the best. Fear is just a chenical programmed by evolution … Read more
A new study has appeared to support an old idea: Aging is inevitable and immutable, so anti-aging research is doomed in advance to failure. In 1957, George Williams wrote This conclusion banishes the “fountain of youth” to the limbo of scientific impossibilities where other human aspirations, like the perpetual motion machine and Laplace’s “superman” have … Read more
Long before NAC saved the life of someone dear to me, it was a staple of my supplement stack. I notice that now N-Acetyl Cysteine has become my favorite supplement, the one I reach for 3 or 4 times a day when I pass the kitchen cabinet. It’s been such a gradual process, that I … Read more
This essay is inspired by Dr Mercola’s announcement last week that (reading between the lines) his life and his family’s have been threatened if he doesn’t remove from his web site a peer-reviewed study demonstrating the benefits of vitamin D and zinc in prevention of the worst COVID outcomes. In the present Orwellian era, where propaganda and … Read more
The paradox: In animal models there is a consistent relationship between eating less and living longer. But studies in humans find that people who are a little overweight live longest. Last week, I introduced this paradox and offered evidence, both that lab animals live longer when they are underfed, and that humans live longer when … Read more
Caloric restriction is the gold standard life extension strategy, validated over thousands of experiments in many animal species. How can we reconcile this with consistent findings that people who are slightly overweight live longer than normal or underweight folks? The one fact that everyone in the field of aging agrees on is that animals fed … Read more
A new methylation clock works in 128 different mammal species, using the same methylation signals. This is the latest evidence that at least some of the mechanisms of aging have been conserved by evolution—strong evidence that aging has a useful function in ecology, so that natural selection actually prefers a finite, defined lifespan. Einstein taught … Read more