>>A Blog About the Science and Technology of Living Forever

If you are a man and you want to live longer the answer, it seems, is simple.  A recent study by German experts revealed that men who marry younger women enhance their chances of longevity. So, if you are a man go ahead and shack up with a woman 15-17 years less your senior.  It my mean a longer lifespan and healthier future for you! The analysis was conducted by a research group at Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany. The researchers looked at the deaths of the entire population of Denmark between 1990 and 2005. Danish men who marry women much younger than them live longer. WHY? One hypothesis that explains the increased rate of longevity is natural selection. It is possible that younger women choose healthier, better maintained older men as their marriage mates. Therefore, it is these types of men who are naturally taking care of their health and as such have a better chance of living longer. A second idea presents the notion that many men with considerably younger wives are rich. Because of their financial means, these men enjoy a more comfortable lifestyle than average men, i.e. they have no worries about money, better access to regular medical checks, health cures, leisure, etc. All these factors contribute to a long life span. Another theory, suggested by Sven Drefahl of the Max Planck Institute, points to the fact that a younger woman will care for a man better and therefore he will live longer. A younger spouse may also have a beneficial psychological effect on the older partner and provide them with better care in old age. What about women? The funny thing is the same results bode useless to our female friends.  Women who marry men...

“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...

Researchers have succeeded in building a functioning kidney built from newborn rat cells.
And it’s being called is a major step towards personalized transplant organs for humans.

Want to live a very long long time? Do what the Okinawans do. Have a look at this infographic from Best MHA Programs to learn which these islanders from Japan live the longest. Longevity secrets learned from them and other centenarians include: Eat less Laugh Avoid stress Stay positive Engage your mind   Image compliments of Best MHA...

When blood-generating stem cells lose their potency as humans age, disease factors increase. But that can be reversed using a gene linked to to the aging process.

Two papers published in international journals show that a controversial gene can fight aging and related diseases.

A new study has found that shorter men live about 2 years longer than taller men.

by Cheryl Poirier Of course, it’s a little more complicated than that but Thomas Kirkwood, director of the Institute for Aging and Health, Newcastle University, penned an interesting article in Scientific American, October 2010 — “Why Women Live Longer.” Women out live men by 5-6 yrs and people have all kinds of theories as to why. Stress, was once postulated as the reason men die first but with gender equality one would have expected the mortality gap to decrease or vanish all together. It hasn’t. Some say women adopt healthier lifestyle habits. Sadly, the number of women who smoke has increased and if anyone has ever seen a group of women out for a “Girl’s Night”, you know they certainly haven’t stopped drinking. So, why do women, despite living hard and fast, still continue to live longer than men? Well, Mr. Kirkwood wrote a great article about it but the bottom line…Women propagate the species and their bodies repair themselves better because of it. See really, men are disposable and women rule. But read the article to get the...

The benefits of exercise are attributed to several mechanisms, many which highlight its neuroprotective role via actions that enhance neurogenesis, neuronal morphology and/or neurotrophin release. However, the brain is also composed of glial and vascular elements, and comparatively less is known regarding the effects of exercise on these components in the aging brain. Here, we show that aerobic exercise at mid-age [also] counters several well-established glial markers of brain aging. Similarly, we show that age-related changes in neurovascular morphology and function were reduced with exercise. Thus, our results show that exercise can potentially mitigate progressive age-related changes in several key non-neuronal elements of the brain. Further, we show that these brain processes are still highly responsive to exercise in the midlife age range, consistent with studies showing that cognitive function can benefit from exercise even if initiated at later ages. Continue reading...

By Julie Steenhuysen CHICAGO | Fri Jan 20, 2012 8:39am EST (Reuters) – The U.S. government has set a deadline of 2025 for finding an effective way to treat or prevent Alzheimer’s disease, an ambitious target considering there is no cure on the horizon and one that sets a firm deadline unlike previous campaigns against cancer or AIDS. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oF7iD0B8jWU A panel of Alzheimer’s experts this week has been fleshing out the first comprehensive plan by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to fight Alzheimer’s disease, an effort mandated by the National Alzheimer’s Project Act signed into law by President Barack Obama last year. The law called for the government to create a blueprint to beat Alzheimer’s but provided no new money for the effort. More than 5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer’s, a brain disease that causes dementia and affects primarily elderly people. Some experts estimate the disease costs the United States more than $170 billion annually to treat. click here to read the rest of this article.  ...

The following is a short excerpt from David Brin’s brilliant essay, “Do We Really Want Immortality?” A number of eminent writers like Robert Heinlein, Greg Bear, Kim Stanley Robinson and Gregory Benford have speculated on possible consequences, should Mister G. Reaper ever be forced to hang up his scythe and seek other employment. For example, if the Death Barrier comes crashing down, will we be able to keep shoehorning new humans into a world already crowded with earlier generations? Or else, as envisioned by author John Varley, might such a breakthrough demand draconian population-control measures, limiting each person to one direct heir per lifespan? What if overcoming death proves expensive? Shall we return to the ancient belief, common in some cultures, that immortality is reserved for the rich and mighty? Nancy Kress has written books that vividly foresee a time when the teeming poor resent rich immortals. In contrast, author Joe Haldeman suggested simple rules of social engineering that may help keep such a prize within reach by all. More people could wind up dying by violence and accidents than old age. Might we then start to hunker down in our homes, preserving our long-but-frail lives by avoiding all risk? Or would ennui drive the long-lived to seek new thrills, like extreme sports, bringing death back out of retirement in order to add spice to an otherwise-dull eternity? To read Brin’s essay, click here. David Brin, a scientist and best-selling author whose future-oriented novels include Earth, The Postman, and Hugo Award winners Startide Rising and The Uplift War, is a 2010 Fellow of the IEET. Brin is known as a leading commentator on modern technological, social, and political trends. His nonfiction book The Transparent Society won the Freedom of Speech Award from the American Library Association. Brin’s most recent novel, Kiln People, explores...

It seems like every year another country’s lifestyle is touted as the new magic bullet to cure us of obesity, heart disease, and premature death: For an unclogged heart, herd goats and down olive oil like a Mediterranean. Avoid breast cancer and live to 100 by dining on tofu Japanese-style. Stay as happy as Norwegians by hunting elk and foraging for cowberries. The places we’re usually told to emulate are known as Blue Zones or Cold Spots. Blue Zones were pinpointed by explorer Dan Buettner and a team of longevity researchers and are described in his book “The Blue Zones: Lessons for Living Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest.” They’re areas in Italy, Japan, Greece, California, and Costa Rica where the people have traditionally stayed healthy and active to age 100 or older. Similarly, Cold Spots, as identified by integrative medicine physician Daphne Miller, M.D., author of “The Jungle Effect,” are five areas in Mexico, Iceland, Japan, Greece, and Cameroon with low rates of “Western” ailments like heart disease, depression, and certain cancers. To read the rest of this article, click...

A Swedish study of more than 4,000 obese people treated at 500 health care centers and surgery departments found that those who had weight-loss surgery were less likely to subsequently suffer a heart attack than those treated with routine care such as advice on lifestyle changes. About half the patients had bariatric or weight-loss surgeries, most often stomach stapling. “Compared with usual care, bariatric surgery was associated with reduced number of cardiovascular deaths and lower incidence of cardiovascular events in obese adults,” wrote lead researcher Lars Sjostrom at the University of Gothenburg. The patents were followed for more than a decade, on average. Among the findings, researchers found that following surgery, patients were 30 percent less likely to have a first-time heart attack or stroke than non-surgery patients. And they were half as likely to die from it. You can read more about this study by clicking...

PITTSBURGH, Jan. 3 – Mice bred to age too quickly seemed to have sipped from the fountain of youth after scientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine injected them with stem cell-like progenitor cells derived from the muscle of young, healthy animals. Instead of becoming infirm and dying early as untreated mice did, animals that got the stem/progenitor cells improved their health and lived two to three times longer than expected, according to findings published in the Jan. 3 edition of Nature Communications. Previous research has revealed stem cell dysfunction, such as poor replication and differentiation, in a variety of tissues in old age, but it’s not been clear whether that loss of function contributed to the aging process or was a result of it, explained senior investigators Johnny Huard, Ph.D., and Laura Niedernhofer, M.D., Ph.D. Dr. Huard is professor in the Departments of Orthopaedic Surgery and of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, Pitt School of Medicine, and director of the Stem Cell Research Center at Pitt and Children’s Hospital of PIttsburgh of UPMC. Dr. Niedernhofer is associate professor in Pitt’s Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics and the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute (UPCI). “Our experiments showed that mice that have progeria, a disorder of premature aging, were healthier and lived longer after an injection of stem cells from young, healthy animals,” Dr. Niedernhofer said. “That tells us that stem cell dysfunction is a cause of the changes we see with aging.” Their team examined a stem/progenitor cell population derived from the muscle of progeria mice and found that compared to those from normal rodents, the cells were fewer in number, did not replicate as often, didn’t differentiate as readily into specialized cells and were impaired in their ability to regenerate damaged muscle....

http://vimeo.com/32160447 The Methuselah Generation is a 3D documentary about the science, philosophy, and implications of the coming age of extremely long-lived humans. It profiles the lives and work of scientists who are attempting to create new technologies that can bring about a new age in humanity, and explores their motivations and personal beliefs. The film will ask (and attempt to answer) profound questions about longevity as it pertains to humanity, the environment and economics. And even if you don’t believe that life extension is possible, the stories and the people involved in the science will fascinate you in this great cinematic treat. This film is being Produced and Directed by Jason Sussberg and David Alvarado, two recent graduates from Stanford University’s Documentary MFA program. David and Jason both have a strong interest in science and a sharp inclination towards character-driven films. To learn more about this film and how you can get involved (they need donations to finish it) click...

http://youtu.be/mi3ppVeGE2o