Monthly Archives: August 2009

It is pretty clear to most people when they are in pain and when they have a bothersome itch, and if you want to live a long life you don’t want either as a chronic condition.  However, the neurological events … Continue reading →

It is summertime and I needed a little break from heavy-duty research today.  So, this time I picked an easy subject – folk remedies.  I do not know if any of the cures I list here really work and don’t … Continue reading →

Readers of this blog are likely to take the value of antioxidants for granted.  And indeed, a part of my overall anti-aging regimen is the firewall against oxidative damage which includes a number of antioxidants.  Research studies supporting the value of … Continue reading →

This is a long and important blog entry, going to the heart of “What is aging and what can be done about it?” Stem cell research, churning along at a ferocious rate, is revealing a new view of aging from … Continue reading →

In the human body, of course everything is connected to everything else.  But some of these connections are intelligent and keep body parts working well together.  In particular, there are certain systems that detect problems such as the presence of … Continue reading →

This morning, several news items appeared in the world press on a study relating the impact of mental exercises to the incidence of dementia in the elderly.  The new study, reported the Aug. 4 issue of the journal Neurology, involved … Continue reading →

The brain contains white matter, grey matter and black matter.  “White matter is composed of bundles of myelinated nerve cell processes (or axons), which connect various grey matter areas (the locations of nerve cell bodies) of the brain to each … Continue reading →

The previous blog post pointed out how defects in two genes, Fas and FasL are implicated in a number of diseases and may cause such diseases or increase susceptibility to them.  It left open the question of what can be … Continue reading →

This is going to be a rather technical post about the Fas and FasL  cell surface receptors and what happens when the genes that produce them are defective.  I offer it because Fas is so often mentioned in research studies … Continue reading →