A grande-sized reason to drink coffee: Live longer!

Coffee helps you live longer and fight diseaseAn epidemiological study of more than 400,000 aging Americans showed that men who consume 2-3 cups of coffee each day had a 10% lower death rate than their non-coffee drinking brethren. Women that drank the same amount had a higher longevity rate: They were 13% less likely to die.

While it isn’t clear why the peppy black beverage extends longevity, the correlation is worth noting.

Other research also shows that consumption of about three to four cups each day is linked to a reduction in a variety of diseases including type 2 diabetes, basal cell carcinoma skin cancer, prostate cancer, oral cancer and the recurrence of breast cancer.

Animal studies show that caffeine — the active substance in coffee that perks you up – might impact brain chemistry to delay the onset of dementia.

In 2012, scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign discovered when lab mice are briefly starved of oxygen, they lose the ability to form memories. Half of the mice then received caffeine equivalent to a few cups of coffee. Those lucky mice bounced back 33% faster those mice that did not get caffeine.

It turns out caffeine disrupts the ill effects of adenosine, the substance in cells that usually provides energy but is damaging when cells are distressed. Adenosine might cause a biochemical reaction that leads to inflammation, and impairs brain cells. It might possibly contribute to brain damage including the process that results in dementia.

So we say: Drink your coffee! And live longer.

Why men live longer in marriage and how their wives can too

Little MissW ife

Kay Svela, who writes the homemaking blog Little Miss Wife, chimes in on the inequity between the genders on living longer in marriage. She explains why men live longer when they are married and how their wives can too.

Read more: Why men do better when they are married

Can cannabis cure cancer? Evidence shows it might help the fight

Have a can of cannabis and cure your cancer. Sounds far fetched doesn’t it?

And yet there’s some evidence that the controversial plant has cancer curative properties. And it can be consumed in a liquid form and without the “high” associated with the psychoactive plant.

Read on…

Researchers found that the compound, called cannabidiol, has the capability to turn off the gene responsible for metastasis in an aggressive form of breast cancer. Incidently the cannabidiol does not produce the psychoactive properties of the cannabis plant. Meaning: You can’t get high from it.

Five years ago, a team from the California Pacific Medical Center, in San Francisco, discovered it stopped the growth of human breast cancer cells in the lab. The team said the cannabis compound CBD could provide a non-toxic alternative to chemotherapy for cancer treatments. Previous research shows the compound can block human brain cancers, and 2007 lab experiments have showed it can also block breast cancer.

A separate team led by Madrid-based Dr Manuel Guzmon attempted to prevent a form of cancer (glioblastoma multiforme) from growing by stopping  its blood supply. Glioblastoma multiforme is one of the hardest cancers to treat. It rarely responds medical therapies, especially conventional methods which kill cells through radiotherapy, chemotherapy and surgery.

Cannabis compounds can be used to fight cancer

Mice were given cancer similar to human brain cancer (glioblastoma multiforme). The rodents were then treated with cannabinoids and their genes were examined. Genes associated with blood vessel growth in tumors via the production of a chemical called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) had their activity reduced.

Cannabinoids stop VEGF production by creating Ceramide, which controls cell death.
Guzmon said: “This is the first report showing that ceramide depresses VEGF pathway by interfering with VEGF production.”

Researchers decided to test the process on humans. They worked with two patients who had glioblastoma multiforme and failed to respond to chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery. Samples were taken from them before and after treating them with a cannabinoids solution by  injecting it into the tumor. Both patients experienced reduced VEGF levels in the tumor.

CBD (Cannabidiol), one of the main constituents of the cannabis plant has been proven medically as therapies for many diseases including the inhibition of cancer cell growth. Cannabinoids can prevent cancer, reduce heart attacks by 66% and insulin dependent diabetes by 58%.

Drink your cannabis

Cannabis clinician Dr. William Courtney recommends drinking 4 – 8 ounces of raw flower and leaf juice from any Hemp plant, 5 mg of Cannabidiol (CBD) per kg of body weight, a salad of Hemp seed sprouts and 50 mg of THC taken in 5 daily doses.

“If you heat the plant, you will decarboxylate THC-acid and you will get high, you’ll get your 10 mg. If you don’t heat it, you can go up to five or six hundred milligrams and use it as a Dietary Cannabis…and push it up to the anti-oxidant and neuro-protective levels which come into play at hundreds of milligrams,” said Courtney.

The Endocannabinoid System (ECS) maintains our biological systems by regulating each cell tissue. It uses Arachadonic acid/Omega 6 to make Endo-Cannabinoids: fatty molecules that communicate harm between cells. Dietary Cannabis mimics the ECS by providing Cannabinoids when there is an Arachadonic acid deficiency or Clinical Cannabinoid Deficiency. Patients suffering from end stage Cancer need to eat buds whole.

More info links:

This Baby Will Live to be 120: National Geographic Jumps on Longevity Bandwagon

 

“Our genes harbor many secrets to a long and healthy life. And now scientists are beginning to uncover them.”

IN A FIELD historically marred by exaggerated claims and dubious entrepreneurs hawking unproven elixirs, scientists studying longevity have begun using powerful genomic technologies, basic molecular research, and, most important, data on small, genetically isolated communities of people to gain increased insight into the maladies of old age and how they might be avoided. In Calabria, Ecuador, Hawaii, and even in the Bronx, studies are turning up molecules and chemical pathways that may ultimately help everyone reach an advanced age in good, even vibrant, health.”

National Geographic’s May 2013 issue contains one of the most thoroughly researched and interesting articles on longevity ever published.

We highly recommend you read this article

Also, because National Geographic’s editors couldn’t decide what race of baby to put on the cover and ended up publishing several versions, they also created a FACEBOOK app that lets you put your own face on a National Geographic cover. We tried it out and it works great! (see below)

If you’d like to try this, click here

Antibiotics treatments in mice leads to breakthroughs in extending life

Researchers in Switzerland have discovered the impact of a longevity gene in mice which is crucial in unveiling the secrets of aging. Their findings led to an experiment that extended the life-span of worms by 60% through use of basic antibiotics.

The goal of the research (which appeared  in the scientific journal Nature) was to find out why some members of the same species live much longer than others.

Our lab has been using a complex genetic reference population of mice, which mimics the human population to study aging, explained John Auwerx, head of the team at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL).

The scientists examined the mice’s mitochondria, the power plant of a cell. They determined how a group of three genes impacted the rodent’s life-span by how fast they operate.

Mice who had genes that were 50% slower lived 30% longer than an average mouse lifespan.

The researchers validated the learnings experimentally in a worm which resulted in a 60% increase in the worm’s life-span. Because mitochondria are bacteria living inside cells, the scientists used antibiotics to target bacteria.  The treatment mimicked genetic effects resulting in longer life.

Mitochondria process nutrients into proteins. Several studies show they may be the driving force behind aging.

The scientists cautioned that more studies are needed to discover if antibiotics can be employed to slow aging in mammals.

Antibiotics treatments in mice leads to breakthroughs in extending life

Why men live longer in marriage and how their wives can too

Kay Svela, who writes the homemaking blog Little Miss Wife, chimes in on the inequity between the genders on living longer in marriage. She explains why men live longer when they are married and how their wives can too. Read more: Why men do better when they are married

Can cannabis cure cancer? Evidence shows it might help the fight

Have a can of cannabis and cure your cancer. Sounds far fetched doesn’t it? And yet there’s some evidence that the controversial plant has cancer curative properties. And it can be consumed in a liquid form and without the “high” associated with the psychoactive plant.

This Baby Will Live to be 120: National Geographic Jumps on Longevity Bandwagon

  “Our genes harbor many secrets to a long and healthy life. And now scientists are beginning to uncover them.” IN A FIELD historically marred by exaggerated claims and dubious entrepreneurs hawking unproven elixirs, scientists studying longevity have begun using powerful genomic technologies, basic molecular research, and, most important, data on small, genetically isolated communities …