Smoking risks

From MedGadget: "Also before lunch was the science of aging pair up with Aubrey de Grey, CSO of the SENS Foundation, and David Sinclair, professor at Harvard Medical School. If you've not heard of these gentlemen before, both view aging as a disease but both are approaching aging in very different ways. Aubrey spoke first and has a more futuristic view of aging. His mantra is that aging is metabolism caused cellular damage that leads to organism pathology, and the human body, just like cars, can be made to run longer with adequate maintenance and repair. He views age related problems as belonging to seven types and in order to tackle aging, all seven cellular and molecular problems need to be cured. Aubrey also coined the idea of a Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV), which is the point of life span where progress in aging science is occurring faster than the degradation of the body itself. He believes that if someone is able to live to 150 years old, then by that point the progress in the ability to keep them alive will be faster than their rate of death, thus they will live into their 1000s. Still focused on the same target, but shooting from a different angle was David Sinclair, who focuses his research on a set of proteins called sirtuins."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2009/10/tedmed_2009_day_2.html
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

Will it be possible to use patient-derived cell transplants to heal the brain in much the same way as can be done with other organs? From EurekAlert!: researchers have "found that using an animal's own brain cells (autologous transplant) to replace degenerated neurons in select brain areas of donor primates with simulated but asymptomatic Parkinson's disease and previously in a motor cortex lesion model, provides a degree of brain protection and may be useful in repairing brain lesions and restoring function. ... We aimed at determining whether autografted cells derived from cortical gray matter, cultured for one month and re-implanted in the caudate nucleus of dopamine depleted primates, effectively survived and migrated. The autologous, re-implanted cells survived at an impressively high rate of 50 percent for four months post-implantation ... Researchers found that the cultured cells migrated, re-implanted into the right caudate nucleus, and migrated through the corpus callosum to the contralateral striatum. Most of the cells were found in the most dopamine depleted region of the caudate nucleus. This study replicated in primates the success the research team had previously reported using laboratory mice."

View the Article Under Discussion: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-10/ctco-rfb102809.php
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary: http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/

Oslo - Norway had as of Thursday registered a higher number of swine flu cases and fatalities than its Nordic neighbours, sparking speculation of a possible mutation of the A(H1N1) virus. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health reported Norway has r...

Taipei - A Taiwan student has consumed cow dung in protest against the government's decision to renew US beef imports, local television reported Thursday. The student, Chu Cheng-chi, of the National Taiwan University's PhD programme in sociology, was...

Rabat, Morocco - Eighty-two cases of the H1N1 influenza have been diagnosed in Morocco in a single day, press reports said Thursday. The cases were discovered in the cities of Casablanca, Fes, Meknes, Kenintra and Rabat on October 28, Health Minister...