For the most part, we know how to mitigate the chronic diseases that plague people in their older years–eat healthily from early on, and get plenty of exercise. But this knowledge hasn’t translated into better health for society at large, and medical systems all around the world are straining increasingly under the weight of aging…
(Continued from part I) Most people who’ve meet cancer on the battlefield of treatment, doctors or patients, come away with the impression of a robust and formidable foe that can only be defeated with the most terrible weapons. But this impression is somewhat misleading. The cancers that come to our attention are selected for being…
Last week when we heard from Dr. Ristow, he turned the outdated notion of the “free radical theory of aging” on its head, and demonstrated that antioxidants like vitamin A and vitamin C aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. But if those supplements can’t help us, what can? Perhaps, says Ristow, the answer can…
A menacing shadow looms large over the body. Lessons we’ve learned from the eternal struggle of organism against cell are etched into the farthest corners of the genome, patches on top of patches, shoring up our weaknesses for the next time the conflict erupts. And yet, even with a standing army dedicated to repairing DNA,…
Dr. Michael Ristow, a professor of energy metabolism at ETH Zurich, bases much of his research into aging on a premise that many of us will find surprising: the free radicals that our cells produce while making energy are not only not harmful, but can even slow the body’s aging down. But while that might…
Someday soon we may be able to replace tissues or entire organs with those grown from a patients’ own stem cells… but just how soon? What challenges do stem cell therapies face on the path of development, as they progress from the lab to the commercial world? James Peyer, investor and former stem cell biologist, answers below…
“Aging” isn’t a disease as recognized by the FDA–not yet anyway. But then how will the companies trialing anti-aging drugs ever get regulatory approval? It’s simple: just choose a “primary indication” to test your drug with. Of course, that choice itself is rather difficult when you’re considering a geroprotector. Here’s how investors think about it…
Part III of III in a series on the evolution of aging. (Part I, Part II) Part IPart II If all you had to go on was our genomes, you’d surely conclude that humans and rodents were nearly the same animal, with roughly 92% overlap. And luckily for the species that does science, the other…
Ever hear about an exciting discovery in the biomedical world, then later wonder why it seemingly dropped off the face of the Earth? In fact, it’s par for the course for potential therapeutics to fail before they ever get off the ground, guided unwittingly by their enthusiastic champions straight into a boneyard strewn with the…
Part of a series on the Hallmarks of Aging. Proteins don’t do everything in your body, but it’s fair to say they control everything. What they don’t do directly, they catalyze. Proteins handle everything from copying DNA, to stabilizing a neuron’s physical structure, to turning starch into sugar. If something goes wrong in the body,