interfere with PAH activation and/or binding to DNA, thereby reducing the amount of DNA damage done. Rate and accuracy of repair of ultraviolet (UV) light damage to DNA in seven mammalian species’ cultured fibroblasts correlates with maximum species life span. Repair of damage to DNA plays a vital role in retarding aging, although the importance […]
Read more Factors Which Correlate with Natural Longevity III
Jupiter had Prometheus chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where a vulture preyed on his liver, which was renewed as fast as devoured. —Greek mythology The blueprints for every part of our body are stored on our DNA. We each developed from a fertilized egg that slowly unfolded to the complex beings we now […]
When some tissues are injured, cells may become de-differentiated, a reversal of differentiation. The de-differentiated cells form a mass of cells called a blastema, which, as healing proceeds, becomes once again differentiated into the type of cells which originally formed it. In order for regeneration of a limb or organ to take place, some of […]
I don’t mean to deny that the evidence is in some ways very strongly in favor of your theory. I only wish to point out that there are other theories possible. —Sherlock Holmes, Adventure of the Norwood Builder The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanation of complex facts. We are apt to […]
… Spontaneous mutations, cancer, and aging can be looked upon as a result of continuous “internal radiation” while these same processes produced by external radiation are largely the result of an increment in the amount of total “radiation” to which the organism is exposed. —Dr. Denham Harman, originator of the free radical theory of aging […]
As mentioned earlier, Dr. W. Donner Denckla thinks he has discovered a death clock in the pituitary gland of the brain. If he removes this gland from mice and supplies them with the pituitary’s growth hormone and thyroid hormone (which would normally be produced and released in response to pituitary hormonal messages), the animals live […]
Although male pattern balding isnot necessarily tied to old age, it is very definitely due to a clock. If you transplant hairs from the balding area onto another part of the head, these hairs fall out right on schedule with the others remaining in the balding area. If you transplant hairs from nonbalding areas to […]
Everyone is familiar with the so-called “annual” plants which live only a few months, from the time when they sprout, until, after the production of seed, death comes to them naturally. … Natural death can be postponed if the plant be prevented from seeding. —Elie Metchnikoff, The Prolongation of Life (1908) Do DNA genetic clocks […]
Old people often suffer from a deficiency of serotonin, an important inhibitory neurotransmitter that initiates sleep. Inhibitory neurotransmitters reduce neuron activity, in contrast to the above-mentioned neurotransmitters, which usually increase activity. Sleep disorders are common in old age, including difficulties in falling and staying asleep. Irritability and bedtime flights of ideas may occur. Tryptophan, an […]
Read more The Decline of Your Brain’s Chemical Messengers VI
A very dramatic story about the effects of L-Dopa on twenty patients with severe Parkinson’s disease is contained in Oliver W. Sack’s book Awakenings. Between 1916 and 1927, nearly five million people fell victim to encephalitis lethargica (sleeping sickness). A third of those affected died either in a coma or in a profound state of […]