Longevity

posts about #longevity more →
A Drug That Can Extend Life as Effectively As Dieting
Can Food Prevent Age-Related Dementia?
Find Out How Old Your Body Is: Scientists Can Measure Your Actual Molecular Age
Chart Shows All the Technologies That Could Help You Live Forever
Treatment Could Make Women Live 30 Percent Longer, and Stay Fertile Too
Longlived, Cancer-Free Rodents Offer Possible Cures for Human Aging
A Protein That Helps Create Immortal Cells
They're Putting Anti-Aging Enzymes in the Water
An Anti-Stress Pill that Prevents Your Body from Aging
Life Expectancy Going Down in the United States

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Dirk Anger
10/02/09

In reply to A Drug That Can Extend Life as Effectively As Dieting
HMMMM.... a population formed by tons of obese 100 year olds. That's going to be so cheap
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twDarkflame
10/02/09

In reply to A Drug That Can Extend Life as Effectively As Dieting
More on life extension here folks;
[www.sens.org]

There was a ted talk awhile back too.

I'm all for it, but any significant extension has to be;

a) Tied to a no-child-if-you-have-the-treatment-polic.... (or purhapes simply only childless people above 40 are able too have it).

b) Has to be done together with anti-cancer research. Living longer and encouraging regeneration of the body is strongly linked to increaseing cancer likelyhood. (ie, the more your cells regenerate the more chance they will go wrong).
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Louis Wang
10/02/09

@twDarkflame: Why the no child policy? If you're going to limit reproduction, shouldn't it be based on something like genetic value? IE, stronger, smarter, etc?

As it is most of the world happens to be seeing a population crunch in our lifetime. [en.wikipedia.org]
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damndirtyape
10/02/09

@Louis Wang: Exactly.. First world populations are ALL decreasing. Population limits are the last thing they need.

Unlikely that poor people around the world are going to be spending money on optional life extension drugs over basic necessities.

As for cancer concerns.. sure people are working on cancer solutions but it has nothing to do with anti-aging per se. Besides from what I've read, animals that live longer via SIRT1 (and other genes) have enhanced immune systems that do not spur cancer production.
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Dirk Anger promoted this comment Edited by damndirtyape at 10/02/09 4:40 AM damndirtyape was starred damndirtyape was unstarred

Dirk Anger
10/02/09

@damndirtyape: I'm sorry, but we don't need more old people for demographic reasons, we need more YOUNG people. There's no point in having twice the old population if you have the same workforce paying for their health care.

And... eermm... I maybe wrong, but I think cancer has nothing to do with the inmune system
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damndirtyape
10/02/09

@Dirk Anger: Well I'm guessing that if people are living to 100+ on a regular basis then the age of retirement will be set at 85 + thus adding more taxpaying years for each person.

The way that CR works its not like you age normally to 80 then from 80 to 120 you'd be old and weak. At 80 you'd be as vigorous as people in their 50s now.
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Mark 2000
10/01/09

In reply to A Drug That Can Extend Life as Effectively As Dieting
You ever notice in Star Trek TNG that they never avoid the actual harm, they just have a pill that will fix it. Like they don't wear radiation suits, they just take radiation drugs.

Hey, Riker, instead of taking a regimen of drugs for the rest of your extended life, why don't you just pass on the morning cream puff, dude.
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twDarkflame
10/02/09

@Mark 2000: Actualy, there IS effective radiation drugs. Its to remove the radiation from your system, and works fairly well.

There was recent major radiation drug that had massively successfull (monkey based) trails.
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strideo
10/02/09

@twDarkflame: Regardless you'd still want to avoid harmful radiation in the first place rather than rely on a drug to clean it up after the fact.
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RandomFrequentFlierDent
10/02/09

@Mark 2000: Hahaha Riker was a cream puff. Dude was looking seriously doughy for awhile.
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Edited by RandomFrequentFlierDent at 10/02/09 6:51 AM

solOptimus
10/01/09

In reply to A Drug That Can Extend Life as Effectively As Dieting
What I see as amazing about this is that it seems like the type of thing that health insurance companies would love. You would have less problems later in life, which is where they get hit the hardest.
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Anekanta - Go Play!
10/01/09

@solOptimus: They might start mandating that everybody take the drug... but something will go horribly wrong, and that's how Corvus-Corax's Zombie scenario will come to pass!
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brentbent: C.O.C.K.R.O.A.C.H. )for all the queer super villians out there(
10/01/09

@solOptimus: Well if we got 20% longer lifespans that'd make the average age of death for a woman 91 from 76, which would mean 15 more years of covering costs so I doubt insurers would mandate it unless it significantly reduced overall outlays for treating issues.
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twDarkflame
10/02/09

@solOptimus: (most)health insurance companies wont last that long.
Scare mongering aside, people are starting to see how mad the current system is.

I dought it will have much support left in 10 years.

Efficiency for a insurance company means paying out the least, while having the most people ""covered"". Its one of the few clear examples of capitalist/competition not working at all for the benefit of consumers.

Sorry to get political, but if we want a hope of most of us living longer without us all going bankrupt, we need patent free mass produced drugs and care to go with it.
Any extension in life massively increases cancer chances too, remember.
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Corvus-Corax
10/01/09

In reply to A Drug That Can Extend Life as Effectively As Dieting
They will invent it, but the side effect will be zombies.
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OW-Holmes:Bringer of Fear
10/01/09

@Corvus-Corax: Zombie mice?

Super runaway!
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simonbarsinister
10/01/09

In reply to A Drug That Can Extend Life as Effectively As Dieting
I sit here reading io9 with a bowl of ice-cream in front of me, thinking about how I should go on a calorie-restricted diet to extend my lifespan. *sigh*
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Dirk Anger
10/02/09

@simonbarsinister: think about how with these drugs you'll extend it the same eating what you want instead
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
10/01/09

In reply to A Drug That Can Extend Life as Effectively As Dieting
Want. Nao.

It'll be the greatest boon ever to the donut industry.

Providing, of course, it works in people and not just inbred lab mice.
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Mathmos
10/01/09

In reply to A Drug That Can Extend Life as Effectively As Dieting
Another drug that apparently prolongs life is clioquinol, though there is an unexplained incident of neurotoxicity that may be attributable to it.
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Pope John Peeps II
10/01/09

@Mathmos: Neurotoxicity sounds like the worst kind of toxicity.
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pir8m1k3y
10/01/09

In reply to A Drug That Can Extend Life as Effectively As Dieting
that's the active ingredient in reservatrol, from memory..
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Dirk Anger
10/02/09

@pir8m1k3y: I don't get a single word that's being said here, can you all please get back to physics?
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jcous
10/01/09

In reply to A Drug That Can Extend Life as Effectively As Dieting
develop an aging "cure" before i'm 30, plz - kthxbai
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Anekanta - Go Play!
10/01/09

@jcous: No way dude, you gotta age just like the rest of us old farts!
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twDarkflame
10/02/09

@jcous: [www.sens.org] might interest you. (yes, its serious and not a scam, theres a good ted-talk on it a few weeks back)
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AshThePirate
10/01/09

In reply to A Drug That Can Extend Life as Effectively As Dieting
It is wrong that as soon as I read adiposity I thought of the Adipose Babies?
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
10/01/09

@AshThePirate: Not on this site.

Mouse adipose babies must be adorable!
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OW-Holmes:Bringer of Fear
07/09/09

In reply to Can Food Prevent Age-Related Dementia?
My generation does not wish to live for extended period of times, but instead prefers to pass away before old age.
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Anekanta - Go Play!
07/09/09

In reply to Can Food Prevent Age-Related Dementia?
Curses! Now I want sushi. There's no sushi place where I live, and I live for sushi!

I'll have to wait until I travel to the big city, or learn how to make it myself by: a) using locally available seafood (which ain't much), and b) overcoming my incredible laziness--and Jebus knows that ain't happening...
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bookwench
07/09/09

In reply to Can Food Prevent Age-Related Dementia?
Meh. I love my ice cream. And sushi. And lasagna. And bacon-blue cheese cheeseburgers. It's not the length of life, it's the quality; if you live a hundred years but most of them are boring and suck because you're hungry, I don't see the improvement.
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Hamslicer
07/09/09

In reply to Can Food Prevent Age-Related Dementia?
Be hungry longer!
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