Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: biotech/medical – Page 2,527

Would someone who is 80 benefit from SENS therapies or is it too old to rejuvenate them?

I wonder, if you can turn a 65 year old into a 40 year old, could you not turn around and give that 40 year old another treatment so they rejuvenate to an even younger state?

It is an interesting question because I might be getting near there myself! Anyway, let’s assume we develop sufficiently robust rejuvenation therapies within 20 years that they can effectively reset the clock by say 25 years with the result that a person who is chronologically 65 could be restored to a point where biologically they are 40 it begs the question could an 80 year old be effectively restored to the physiology of a 55 year old? My feeling is that the first generation treatments will in all probability be quite aggressive and invasive involving stem cell therapies, gene therapies and possibly surgical interventions to replace organs created through tissue engineering. So my concern is that whilst a 65 year old or even a fit 70 year old might easily withstand the rigours of these interventions I can’t see this applying to the average person in their 80s, whilst we are not yet at the stage where we have developed all the comprehensive therapies needed we should nevertheless keep in mind we are close and some are already approaching implementation see Suicide of aging cells prolongs life span in mice and also the video below from a few weeks back and it’s clear we are moving fast and might only be 10 to 15 years out if we keep up the current pace.

My concern is that with the senescent cell clearance a large percentage of cells in an 80 year old will be senescent so complete removal were it possible could kill them.

My thought is we might need to consider whether a less comprehensive and aggressive SENS therapy which perhaps for the sake of argument we could call MiniSENS might be useful to pull octogenarians back from the edge, perhaps by say by 10 years at which point they might be strong enough after a period of time to recover that they could handle a more intensive treatment which would yield further long term health benefits. It is just a thought but it might be something we need to think about because it would extend the age range of the people who could benefit from SENS strategies.

What do the people of the world die from?

In some countries, progress has not always been smooth. Disease, epidemics and unexpected events are a reminder that ever-longer lives are not a given.

Meanwhile, the deaths that may preoccupy us — from terrorism, war and natural disasters — make up less than 0.5% of all deaths combined.

It will happen to all of us, but how and when we die speaks volumes about who we are and where we live.

Harvard Scientists Have Discovered The DNA Switch That Controls Whole-Body Regeneration

Humans have long envied animals that are able to regenerate parts of their bodies. Arms, legs, tails, even whole chunks of the organism. Yet despite all the technology and best efforts, humans don’t have this ability. However, this could all change. Harvard University uncovered the DNA switch that controls genes for whole body regeneration. This means that one day, humans may be able to grow back lost limbs!

Many people know that certain animals are able to achieve extraordinary feats of repair, such as salamanders which grow back legs, or geckos which can shed their tails to escape predators and then form new ones in just two months. It doesn’t stop there either. Planarian worms, jellyfish, and sea anemones take this regeneration to a whole new level and can actually regenerate their entire bodies after being cut in half.

Wild Axolotl Salamander

DNA reveals that local men were replaced in Iberian gene pool thousands of years ago

“The modern people of Basque Country, in northern Spain, are genetically similar to the Iberian Iron Age people with ancestry from the Russian steppe. While people around them mixed with different groups and changed, the Basques held on to their heritage.”

Ancient DNA is uncovering the secrets of the unique populations of what are now Portugal and Spain. Two studies published this week include unexpected findings from the DNA of people who lived thousands of years ago on the Iberian Peninsula.

The rugged peninsula is positioned between North Africa, Europe and the Mediterranean on the westernmost edge of the continent, so the DNA of its ancient population shows how it was affected by migration over time.

Iberia was also relatively warm during the last Ice Age, between 18,000 and 24,000 years ago, presenting a more welcoming climate for animals and people who retreated from the rest of Europe.

An Immune System Clock to Predict Health and Longevity

A new clock that analyzes the age of the immune system may be the next big thing in aging biomarkers.

Measuring the age of your immune system

As we age, our immune systems begin to decline due to many factors, including the thymus shrinking and producing ever-fewer T cells, the ever-increasing chronic inflammation called “inflammaging”, dysfunctional immune cells doing more harm than good, and a lifetime of microbial burden taking its toll. This gradual decline of the immune system is known as immunosenescence.

The Nobel Prize

Today’s Daily Dose of Science Tu Youyou won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine with her groundbreaking anti-malarial drug research, saving millions of lives. #womenshistorymonth

Born: 30 December 1930, Zhejiang Ningbo, China

Affiliation at the time of the award: China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing, China

Prize motivation: “for her discoveries concerning a novel therapy against Malaria.”

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