Selenium, a mineral, is an important trace element in immune system function. It has been found in experimental animals to act as an anti-carcinogen and anti-mutagen (can prevent DNA mutations—undesired alterations of your DNA master blueprint in the presence of some mutagenic agents). Selenium is an essential part of your enzyme called glutathione peroxidase, which […]
One of the most important factors leading to immune system decline is the greatly reduced rate of release of growth hormone by the brain as we age. This hormone, produced by the pituitary gland, begins to fall off in quantity after your teens. Since the thymus gland requires growth hormone to function properly, this decrease […]
… just as the pigment of the hair is destroyed by phagocytes, so also the atrophy of other organs of the body, in old age, is very frequently due to the action of devouring cells which I have called macrophages. —Elie Metchnikoff, The Prolongation of Life (1908) Instead of preventing diseases only by protecting the […]
Most vitamins are soluble in either the watery or the fatty tissues of our bodies, but not in both. Vitamins C and B are water soluble; vitamins A, E, D, and K are fat soluble. Both types of vitamins are necessary for health and long life. We have different storage capacities for different vitamins. For […]
Read more Molecules of Life and Life Extension: An Introduction to the Cast II
… all diseases may by sure means be prevented or cured, not excepting that of old age, and our lives lengthened at pleasure even beyond the antediluvian standard. —Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to English chemist Joseph Priestley The same molecules that serve us well by keeping us alive and healthy can, if they fail […]
Read more Molecules of Life and Life Extension: An Introduction to the Cast I
The production of slightly different versions of enzymes and hormones might also lead to autoimmune disease, since the immune system might identify some of these versions as foreign proteins and subsequently launch a self-destructive attack on the body’s own cells which produce them. Dr. W. Donner Denckla thinks that part of the death genes’ process […]
Old age must be resisted and its deficiencies supplied. —Cicero We know that as we grow older, our chances of continued survival decline. How does aging kill us? The answers to this question lead directly to the big payoff—how to slow or partially reverse these deadly processes. The accumulated result of the unrepaired or imperfectly […]
We cannot retard senescence or reverse its direction, unless we know the nature of the mechanisms which are the substratum of duration [basis of longevity]. —Alexis Carrel, Man the Unknown, 1935 In this set of posts, we take an overall view of what we are up against in the way of aging mechanisms. There are […]
Progress in control of aging was very slow in the early years of gerontological research, a few decades ago. Research ers did not understand why various procedures (such as dietary restriction in young rats) or substances (like RNA) prolonged animal life spans. The discoveries of several mechanisms of aging have vastly accelerated the rate of […]
Read more The Blind Men and the Elephant; or, The Many Mechanisms of Aging III
“’Tis clear enough the Elephant Is very like a tree!” The Fifth, who chanced to touch the ear, Said, “E’en the blindest man Can tell what this resembles most; Deny the fact who can: This marvel of an Elephant Is very like a fan!” The Sixth no sooner had begun About the beast to grope […]
Read more The Blind Men and the Elephant; or, The Many Mechanisms of Aging II