Lifeboat Foundation

Fair to say that we all assume that aging is inevitable. In reality however, there is no biological law that says we must age. Over the years we’ve seen a variety of theories proposed to explain why we age including the accumulation of damage to our DNA, the damaging effects of chemicals called “free radicals, changes in the function of our mitochondria, and so many others.

Our guest today, Dr. David Sinclair, believes that aging is related to a breakdown of information. Specifically, he describes how, with time, our epigenome accumulates changes that have powerful downstream effects on the way our DNA functions. Reducing these changes to the epigenome is achievable and in fact, even taking it further, his research now reveals that the epigenome can be reprogrammed back to a youthful state.

Continue reading “The Empowering Neurologist — David Perlmutter M.D., and Dr. David Sinclair” »

A team of scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) inGermany, Givskud Zoo–Zootopia in Denmark and the University of Milan in Italy succeeded in producing the very first African lionin-vitroembryos after the vitrification of immature oocytes. For this specific method of cryopreservation, oocytes are collected directly after an animal is castrated or deceased and immediately frozen at-196°C in liquid nitrogen. This technique allows the storage of oocytes of valuable animals for an unlimited time, so that they can be used to produce offspring with the help of assisted reproduction techniques. The aim is to further improve and apply these methods to save highly endangered species such as the Asiatic lion from extinction. The current research on African lions as a model species is an important step in this direction. The results are reported in the scientific journal Cryobiology.

Lion oocytes are presumed to be very sensitive to chilling due to their high lipid content, resulting in poor revival following slow cooling. Vitrification can circumvent this problem, as the cells are frozen at ultra-fast speeds in solutions with a very high concentration of cryoprotective agents. This method prevents the formation of ice crystals in the cells, which could destroy them, and enables them to remain intact for an unlimited time to allow their use later on.

For the present research, the scientists collected oocytes from four African lionesses from Givskud Zoo—Zootopia after the animals had been euthanised for the purpose of population management. Half of the oocytes (60) were vitrified instantly. After six days of storage in liquid nitrogen, the vitrified oocytes were thawed and subjected toin-vitromaturation in an incubator at 39°C for a total of 32–34 hours. The other half (59) were used as control group and directly subjected toin-vitromaturation without a step of vitrification. Mature oocytes of both groups were then fertilized with frozen-thawed sperm from African lion males. “We could demonstrate a high proportion of surviving and matured oocytes in the group of vitrified oocytes. Almost 50% of them had matured, a proportion similar to that in the control group,” says Jennifer Zahmel, scientist at the Department of Reproduction Biology at the Leibniz-IZW.

It is true. From its effect on biomarkers such as heat shock proteins and Fox 03, through to real world impacts on cardiovascular health, to improving mood, helping you live longer healthier and reducing your chance of dying before your time. I think we all know saunas are really great for you, but this will give you all the scientific reasons why… Taking it easy and relaxing for half an hour… Is not just wasting your time… Changes today will make tomorrow better. #saunas

I am going to give you the best reasons in the world to sit back and take it easy in a nice warm environment, and to just forget the troubles of the world.
Maybe play some music, or a podcast, or listen to a book, or just meditate, just relax and take it easy.
It is for your own health after all!!

Continue reading “Sauna Exercise Mimetic — The Science Of The Amazing Health & Longevity Benefits” »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syFLnFSa6tg&feature=youtu.be

Oneskin — the first skin cream that destroys senescent cells:

Longevity, Health, Long Lifespans, and Halthspans, Psychology, Spirituality — I and Carolina Reis Oliveira talk about all these things in relation to the skin. Find out how you can have very healthy skin with OneSkin!

Continue reading “Healthy skin with OneSkin -- Interview//Presentation with Carolina Reis Oliveira” »

NOT curing aging is immoral.

El libro de José Luis Cordeiro y David Wood, “La Muerte de la Muerte”, cuya publicación en español cubrimos en su día, se ha presentado ahora en francés. Los autores han hecho esta presentación en inglés para promocionarlo.

Continue reading “Presentación de ‘La Mort de la Mort’ (inglés)” »

The maximal reduction for biological age when using the biological age calculator, Phenotypic Age, is ~20 years. In other words, if I’m 80 years old and my biomarkers are all reflective of youth, the lowest possible biological age will be ~60 years old. One reason for that is the inclusion of chronological age in the prediction of biological age, which adds strength to the correlation while simultaneously limiting the maximal biological age reduction.

To account for the possibility that youthful biomarkers at an older chronological age can yield a biological age that is more than 20 years younger, it’s important to quantify biological age using a tool that doesn’t include chronological age in its calculation. Aging.ai fits that criterion, and in the video I present biological age data with use of aging.ai for 24 blood tests since 2009.

A new study shows that humans express a powerful hormone during exercise and that treating mice with the hormone improves physical performance, capacity and fitness. Researchers say the findings present new possibilities for addressing age-related physical decline.

The research, published on Wednesday in Nature Communications, reveals a detailed look at how the mitochondrial genome encodes instructions for regulating physical capacity, performance and metabolism during aging and may be able to increase healthy lifespan.

Continue reading “‘Exercise protein’ doubles running capacity, restores function and extends healthy lifespans in older mice” »

Scientists in Beijing may be one step closer to having the answer to living longer and reversing the effects of ageing. A group of biologists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences say they have developed a world-first new gene therapy and have been running tests on mice. It involved screening around 10000 genes in search of particularly strong drivers of cellular ageing. They identified 100 genes in that pool, but the one that really stood out was the kat7. They then inactivated that kat7 gene in the livers of mice, Professor Qu Jing explained some of their findings: “These mice show after six to eight months, they show overall improved appearance and grip strength and most importantly they have extended lifespan for about 25%.” Kat7 is one of tens of thousands of genes found in the cells of mammals. The scientists also tested the function of the gene in human stem cells, human liver cells and more. So far there have been no side effects of cellular toxicity. Despite this, the method still has a long way to go from being ready for human trials and will require a lot of funding and much more research. “In the end we do hope that we can find a way to delay ageing even by a very minor percentage we want to delay the human ageing in the future.” For now, there’s no final answer to cheating death, but the scientists plan on testing the function of kat7 in other cell types of humans and other organs of mice.

Whereas cellular senescence is known to promote aging, many of the mechanisms controlling this process remain poorly understood. Using human mesenchymal precursor cells (hMPCs) carrying pathogenic mutations of the premature aging diseases Werner syndrome and Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome, the authors conducted a genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9–based screen to identify genes that could affect cellular senescence. They identified KAT7, a histone acetyltransferase gene, as a driver of senescence. Inactivation of Kat7 in mice aging normally and in prematurely aging progeroid mice extended their life span. Although KAT7 requires further study in other cell types, these experiments highlight the utility of genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screens and shed further light on mechanisms controlling senescence.

Understanding the genetic and epigenetic bases of cellular senescence is instrumental in developing interventions to slow aging. We performed genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9–based screens using two types of human mesenchymal precursor cells (hMPCs) exhibiting accelerated senescence. The hMPCs were derived from human embryonic stem cells carrying the pathogenic mutations that cause the accelerated aging diseases Werner syndrome and Hutchinson-Gilford progeria syndrome. Genes whose deficiency alleviated cellular senescence were identified, including KAT7, a histone acetyltransferase, which ranked as a top hit in both progeroid hMPC models. Inactivation of KAT7 decreased histone H3 lysine 14 acetylation, repressed p15^INK4b transcription, and alleviated hMPC senescence.