Category Archives: Uncategorized

More telomerase tidbits

More telomerase tidbits When I started following telomere/telomerase-related research 15 years ago, this was an arcane subject. Research publications related to it were extremely far-between and only a few far-out thinkers saw it as having a lot to do with … Continue reading

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Can you think yourself into longevity?

I can’t say that you can.  But I also can’t say that you can’t.  Actually everything that you think and feel can change your biochemical makeup and could affect your longevity.  That is one message of the previous post on … Continue reading

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Epigenetics, Epigenomics and Aging

Human traits and gene expression are affected by signals that can result from interaction with our environment, including what a mother eats and the social conditioning received by a young child.  Imagine a control system of biomolecular switches that can … Continue reading

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Protein origami and aging

If I were to add a 15th theory of aging to this Anti-Aging Firewalls treatise, it would possibly be Misfoldings of proteins.  The basic notion is that stress often leads to the misfolding of proteins, a process that can accelerate … Continue reading

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Animal models of aging – the African naked mole rat

Animals which live extraordinary long lives can provide insight regarding the various theories of aging.  The longevity of the African naked mole rat seems to fly in the face of the the oxidative damage theory of aging, for example(ref).  This little … Continue reading

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Consistency – “The hobgoblin of small minds?”

A recently reported research study seems to throw the whole the the oxidative damage theory of aging into question, at least for C. elegans, a nematode roundworm.  The researchers created a mutant species by individually knocking out five genes in … Continue reading

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Updated discussion of the Telomere shortening theory of aging

Since I first drafted the Anti-Aging Firewalls treatise in May of 2008 my perspective on the Telomere shortening theory of aging has become considerably more sophisticated.  Today, in a fairly major update of the treatise I have rewritten much of … Continue reading

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Thoughts of a lucky soldier – or is it just luck?

I often feel like a lucky soldier participating in a long and deadly battle, a soldier whose closest comrades and friends are constantly being wounded or killed.  The battle, of course, is against the ravages of old age and the … Continue reading

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Re-creating Neanderthals among us

This news item is retro rather than forward looking, being concerned with life re-creation rather than life extension.  Life-extension may pose ethical problems, but how about bringing an extinct near-human species back to life?  German scientists have finished identifying the … Continue reading

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Oxidative damage and mitochondrial health

A well-written article relating mitochondrial health to the use of antioxidants and can be found here.  Mitochondria are particularly susceptible to oxidative damage and such damage is implicated in many debilitating conditions including  cardiovascular disease, stroke, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease, … Continue reading

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