Fight Aging! Newsletter, September 7th 2020
In conclusion, using a large cohort with rich health and DNA methylation data, we provide the first comparison of six major epigenetic measures of biological ageing with respect to their associations with leading causes of mortality and disease burden. DNAm GrimAge outperformed the other measures in its associations with disease data and associated clinical traits. This may suggest that predicting mortality, rather than age or homeostatic characteristics, may be more informative for common disease prediction. Thus, proteomic-based methods (as utilised by DNAm GrimAge) using large, physiologically diverse protein sets for p...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 6, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A Bidirectional Relationship Between the Gut Microbiome and Aging
The gut microbiome is influential on health over the long term, possible as much so as exercise. That said, research related to aging in this part of the field is comparatively recent, and consequently is far less developed than the long-standing evidence for the effects of exercise on mortality and risk of age-related disease. It seems fairly clear that the gut microbiome changes in characteristic ways with age, becoming less helpful and more harmful. Species that produce beneficial metabolites decline in number and activity, while inflammatory microbial populations grow in size, contributing the state of chronic inflamma...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 2, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Colorectal cancer screening: colonoscopy vs. Cologuard
When COVID-19 hit, routine cancer screenings nearly came to a halt. Now those postponed appointments and overdue tests will likely result in delayed cancer diagnoses. Now more than ever it ’s an opportune time to educate the community about the importance of regular cancer screenings. While we have powerful treatments for those diagnosed with cancer, nothing […]Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - September 2, 2020 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/hoag-memorial-hospital-presbyterian" rel="tag" > Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian < /a > < /span > Tags: Conditions Gastroenterology Oncology/Hematology Source Type: blogs
Colon Explorer for Automatic Imaging and Biopsying of Polyps
Millions of colonoscopies are performed every year to spot cancer as early as possible. The routine nature of these procedures and the constant need for them to be performed has led researchers at University of Colorado Boulder to develop a robotic tank-like device for traversing, imaging, and even biopsying the colon and maybe even much of the rest of the GI tract.
There are ingestable electronic pills that can take pictures of the gut as they travel from one end of the digestive system to the other. However, these are fairly limited devices and can’t pause to look over a suspect lesion, move to change their poin...
Source: Medgadget - August 27, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Medgadget Editors Tags: GI Source Type: blogs
What has colon cancer screening got to do with self-driving cars?
An excerpt from Scope Forward: The Future of Gastroenterology Is Now in Your Hands. Over a decade ago, many of us still used landline phones, watched cable TV, rented DVDs, called for taxis, took photos using cameras, and drove over to Borders to browse and buy books. During the past 10 years, we watched each […]Find jobs at Careers by KevinMD.com. Search thousands of physician, PA, NP, and CRNA jobs now. Learn more. (Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog)
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - August 26, 2020 Category: General Medicine Authors: < span itemprop="author" > < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/praveen-suthrum" rel="tag" > Praveen Suthrum < /a > < /span > Tags: Tech Gastroenterology Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 17th 2020
In this study, we sought to elucidate the role of VRK-1 in regulation of adult life span in C. elegans. We found that overexpression of VRK-1::GFP (green fluorescent protein), which was detected in the nuclei of cells in multiple somatic tissues, including the intestine, increased life span. Conversely, genetic inhibition of vrk-1 decreased life span. We further showed that vrk-1 was essential for the increased life span of mitochondrial respiratory mutants. We demonstrated that VRK-1 was responsible for increasing the level of active and phosphorylated form of AMPK, thus promoting longevity.
A Fisetin Variant, C...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 16, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Reviewing Associations Between Physical Activity and Loss of Average Telomere Length with Age
Telomeres are repeated DNA sequences at the ends of chromosomes. With each cell division a little telomere length is lost, and this is an important part of the countdown mechanism that limits replication of somatic cells. Somatic cells with short telomeres become senescent or self-destruct. Stem cells, on the other hand, use telomerase to lengthen their telomeres, and thus produce daughter somatic cells with long telomeres throughout a lifetime. This two-tier system of privileged stem cells and limited somatic cells, present in near all animals, keeps the risk of cancer low enough for evolutionary success, while still allo...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 13, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 15th 2020
In this study, we used markers to monitor the formation of SGs in Caenorhabditis elegans. We found that, in addition to acute heat stress, SG formation could also be triggered by dietary changes, such as starvation and dietary restriction (DR). We found that HSF-1 is required for the SG formation in response to acute heat shock and starvation but not DR, whereas the AMPK-eEF2K signaling is required for starvation and DR-induced SG formation but not heat shock. Moreover, our data suggest that this AMPK-eEF2K pathway-mediated SG formation is required for lifespan extension by DR, but dispensable for the longevity by reduced ...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 14, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Should Your Parent Risk an Anesthesia Disaster or Forego Surgery?
Photo credit Prion Guillaume
Just last week a reader asked me whether she should try to sway her mother, who had colon cancer, toward surgery. Her mother, 87, was diagnosed with colon cancer and given the choice of surgery and chemotherapy or letting it alone. If she chose not to have surgery, she could still have chemotherapy and radiation, though she was told that treatment wasn't apt to help a great deal. As expected, the daughter was distraught. She was seeking help in determining what her responsibility to her mother is.
Continue reading on Agingcare for more about the balance of risk vs. benefit whe...
Source: Minding Our Elders - June 11, 2020 Category: Geriatrics Authors: Carol Bradley Bursack Source Type: blogs
Some healthcare can safely wait (and some can ’t)
Among the many remarkable things that have happened since the COVID-19 pandemic began is that a lot of our usual medical care has simply stopped.
According to a recent study, routine testing for cervical cancer, cholesterol, and blood sugar is down nearly 70% across the country. Elective surgeries, routine physical examinations, and other screening tests have been canceled or rescheduled so that people can stay at home, avoid being around others who might be sick, and avoid unknowingly spreading the virus. Many clinics, hospitals, and doctors’ offices have been closed for weeks except for emergencies. Even if these facil...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - May 20, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Robert H. Shmerling, MD Tags: Health Health care Healthy Aging Men's Health Women's Health Source Type: blogs
Testing Won ’ t Get Us Where We Need to Go
Conclusions
Testing is important to track the trajectory of an epidemic in a community to guide local or national efforts at mitigationThe tests we currently have for COVID have limited accuracy for the individual patientAntibody testing suggests that the fatality rate for COVID may be low in certain communities, but data from New York suggests there is the potential for significant death and morbidity in any major metropolitan areaContact tracing enabled by smart phone technology is likely unable to be effective because they do not overcome the inherent limitations of COVID testing, require widespread adoption, and may...
Source: The Health Care Blog - May 19, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Christina Liu Tags: COVID-19 Health Policy Anish Koka COVID-19 testing Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 18th 2020
This study provides direct evidence for the contribution of gut microbiota to the cognitive decline during normal aging and suggests that restoring microbiota homeostasis in the elderly may improve cognitive function.
On Nutraceutical Senolytics
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2020/05/on-nutraceutical-senolytics/
Nutraceuticals are compounds derived from foods, usually plants. In principle one can find useful therapies in the natural world, taking the approach of identifying interesting molecules and refining them to a greater potency than naturally occurs in order to produce a usefully large therap...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 17, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
CDC Failures: Mission Sprawl Is One Problem
Chris EdwardsThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)says that it “has a unique mission—to save lives by deploying effective, proven strategies to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to disease outbreaks at their source.”But the CDCwas slow to recognize the size of the COVID-19 threat and it fumbled the ball in numerous ways.CDC DirectorRobert Redfieldtweeted January 14 that “there is no confirmed person‐to‐person spread” of the illness, and on January 28 heemailed CDC colleagues that “the virus is not spreading in the U.S. at this time. ”A ProPublicaanalysis found, “Internal Emails...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - May 13, 2020 Category: American Health Authors: Chris Edwards Source Type: blogs
Physical Activity Slows the Consequences of Aging
We live in a world in which most people do not undertake anywhere near the level of physical activity that is optimal. Thus adding greater physical activity as a lifestyle choice appears very beneficial. There is a great deficiency, one that has serious consequences to health, and fixing that deficiency is touted as a successful intervention. But in reality, the situation is one in which most people harm their long term health through a form of self-neglect. This era of cheap calories and comfort is a time of vast benefits for humanity - but it has a few downsides, and this is one of them.
This meta-analysis showe...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 12, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
11 Health ’s Free Virtual Support Platform for Chronic Digestive Disease Patients During COVID Pandemic: Interview with Michael Seres, Founder and CEO
11 Health, a medtech company based in the UK and California, has offered 12 weeks of free access to the Alfred SmartCare Platform, which allows for virtual peer and nursing support for patients with severe chronic digestive disorders, such as inflammatory bowel disease, Crohn’s disease, and colorectal cancer. The offer is the company’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has meant that many patients are self-isolating and now have to focus more on managing their conditions at home.
Healthcare systems around the world are straining under the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic. Not only are many hospitals ...
Source: Medgadget - April 27, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Conn Hastings Tags: Exclusive GI Public Health Telemedicine Source Type: blogs
