For each neurochemical there is an optimal amount which differs for every individual. Above or below this amount, mental function will not improve markedly or will even decrease. Drug effects may be subtle at first, requiring a period of learning for full realization of its benefits. The schematic diagram here shows how neurotransmitters carry messages […]
The mind so strongly depends on temperament and the disposition of bodily organs, that if it is possible to find some means which will make men generally more wise and more clever than they have been till now, I believe that it is in medicine one should seek it. . . . It is true […]
… 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 […]
With accurate experiment and observation to work upon, imagination becomes the architect of physical theory. —John Tyndall If you didn’t carry out the garbage, you would soon be buried in waste. If you were only able to dispose-of some of your garbage, it would take longer, but eventually you would suffer the same fate. Do […]
Mutations to your DNA caused by free radicals are a major cause of cancer. Free radicals can make blood clot abnormally in our arteries by destroying our body’s ability to make PGI, (prostacyclin), a natural anti-clot hormone found in healthy arteries. Free radicals are also implicated in arthritis. Most of the brain damage caused by […]
Skin is a visible organ which suffers cross-linking damage. However, unlike other tissues, skin is exposed to considerable ultraviolet light (UV) energy from sunlight. Ultraviolet light is a major cause of skin cross-linking. This type of damage can be prevented or retarded by staying out of sunlight or using sun-block preparations containing esters of PABA […]
Read more Cross-linked Molecules and Aging in Skin, Arteries, and Other Tissues IV
Empiricism may serve to accumulate facts, but it will never build science. The experimenter who does not know what he is looking for will not understand what he finds. —Claude Bernard, 1813-1878 When your skin wrinkles, or arteries or bread hardens, or rubber becomes brittle, or old Jell-O® stiffens, we are seeing examples of the […]
Read more Cross-linked Molecules and Aging in Skin, Arteries, and Other Tissues I
… 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
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