Autoimmune lung disease: Early recognition and treatment helps
A man who was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) five years ago sees his rheumatologist for a follow-up visit. Fortunately, his arthritis is well controlled through medication. He can walk and do all his daily activities without pain. But over the past six months, he’s been feeling short of breath when climbing stairs. He has an annoying dry cough, too. COVID-19? That’s ruled out quickly. But a CT scan of his chest reveals early fibrosis (scarring) of the lungs, most likely related to rheumatoid arthritis. “I can finally walk normally, and now I can’t breathe when I walk!” says the frustrated patient, whose...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - June 24, 2020 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Paul F. Dellaripa, MD Tags: Arthritis Autoimmune diseases Health Inflammation Lung disease Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, February 10th 2020
In conclusion, the concept of an epigenetic clock is compelling, but caution should be taken in interpreting associations with age acceleration. Association tests of age acceleration should include age as a covariate.
A Discussion of Recent Work on Allotopic Expression of Mitochondrial Genes at the SENS Research Foundation
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2020/02/a-discussion-of-recent-work-on-allotopic-expression-of-mitochondrial-genes-at-the-sens-research-foundation/
A paper published last month outlines recent progress on allotopic expression of mitochondrial genes carried out by the SENS Research...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 9, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
A Mechanism by which Chronic Inflammation Spurs Cancer Metastasis
Chronic inflammation is a risk factor for cancer and cancer mortality. There are numerous reasons as to why this might be the case, some much more proven and settled than others, but the research here is focused on metastasis, the spread of cancerous cells throughout the body. Since cancer mortality is largely determined by whether or not a tumor progresses to the point of metastasis, we should not be surprised that researchers can identify mechanisms linking inflammation with metastasis.
Dysregulated inflammation is recognized as one of the hallmarks of cancer and is involved in tumor initiation, progression, an...
Source: Fight Aging! - February 5, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, January 6th 2020
Conclusion
A great deal of progress is being made in the matter of treating aging: in advocacy, in funding, in the research and development. It can never be enough, and it can never be fast enough, given the enormous cost in suffering and lost lives. The longevity industry is really only just getting started in the grand scheme of things: it looks vast to those of us who followed the slow, halting progress in aging research that was the state of things a decade or two ago. But it is still tiny compared to the rest of the medical industry, and it remains the case that there is a great deal of work yet to be done at all...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 5, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Better Characterizing the Clonal Expansion of Somatic Mutations in Aging Tissues
Mutational damage to nuclear DNA occurs constantly in all cells, and not all of it is successfully repaired. Setting aside recent evidence for cycles of damage and repair to cause epigenetic changes characteristic of aging, most unrepaired mutational damage has no meaningful consequence. It occurs in somatic cells that have few cell divisions left, so will not spread, and these cells will die or become senescent and be destroyed once they reach the Hayflick limit. It occurs in genes that are not active in the tissue in question, so even in long-lived somatic cells that do not replicate, such as those of the central nervous...
Source: Fight Aging! - January 2, 2020 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
The Dangers of Alcohol
The dangers of alcohol begin at the first sip of the first drink. Although most responsible drinking habits shouldn’t be cause for major concern, everyone who drinks runs the risk of encountering the negative effects of alcohol.
The Dietary Guidelines for Americans defines moderate drinking as up to 1 drink per day for women and up to 2 drinks per day for men. A single drink is considered as:
12 ounces of beer (5% alcohol content)
8 ounces of malt liquor (7% alcohol content)
5 ounces of wine (12% alcohol content)
1.5 ounces of 80-proof (40% alcohol content) distilled spirits or liquor (e.g., gin, rum, vodka, whiskey)...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - December 27, 2019 Category: Addiction Authors: Jaclyn Uloth Tags: Alcohol Alcohol Rehab Information Alcoholism alcohol abuse alcohol dependence alcohol dependency alcohol detox alcohol treatment alcohol treatment center alcohol treatment facility Alcoholics Anonymous Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, December 16th 2019
This study shows that CA are released from periventricular and subpial regions to the cerebrospinal fluid and are present in the cervical lymph nodes, into which cerebrospinal fluid drains through the meningeal lymphatic system. We also show that CA can be phagocytosed by macrophages. We conclude that CA can act as containers that remove waste products from the brain and may be involved in a mechanism that cleans the brain. Moreover, we postulate that CA may contribute in some autoimmune brain diseases, exporting brain substances that interact with the immune system, and hypothesize that CA may contain brain markers that m...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 15, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
All About Blood Alcohol Levels
Blood alcohol levels, also known as blood alcohol content, is a way to measure an individual’s level of alcohol intoxication. It represents the percentage of alcohol that is concentrated in the bloodstream. Blood alcohol levels are used for legal purposes, such as measuring individuals for drunk driving incidents, and for medical purposes, such as testing patients who enter the hospital for alcohol-related health issues.
What Are The Different Blood Alcohol Levels?
There are many factors that influence a person’s blood alcohol levels. They can include body weight, gender, genetics, tolerance to alcohol, drinking patte...
Source: Cliffside Malibu - December 11, 2019 Category: Addiction Authors: Jaclyn Uloth Tags: Addiction Alcohol Alcoholism alcohol abuse alcohol dependence alcohol dependency alcohol detox alcohol treatment alcohol treatment center alcohol treatment facility alcohol use Alcoholics Anonymous Source Type: blogs
Cancer Survivors have Double the Risk of Suffering a Later Stroke
We present a contemporary analysis of risk of fatal stroke among more than 7.5 million cancer patients and report that stroke risk varies as a function of disease site, age, gender, marital status, and time after diagnosis. The risk of stroke among cancer patients is two times that of the general population and rises with longer follow-up time. The relative risk of fatal stroke, versus the general population, is highest in those with cancers of the brain and gastrointestinal tract. The plurality of strokes occurs in patients older than 40 years of age with cancers of the prostate, breast, and colorectum. Patients of any ag...
Source: Fight Aging! - December 9, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Psoriasis and cancer: What ’s the link?
This study does not go into detail about the extent to which these comorbidities may influence the increased risk of cancer in psoriasis patients.
People with severe psoriasis often do not get enough relief with topical therapies (ones applied to the skin), such as topical corticosteroids and vitamin D analogues. They may then be started on medications that target specific immune cells and proteins. Some of these medications increase the risk of infections. Previous studies have found little to no increased risk of cancer in patients receiving these therapies. Other treatments, such as phototherapy (light therapy), are kno...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - December 5, 2019 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Dominic Wu, MD Tags: Cancer Skin and Hair Care Source Type: blogs
The Digital Health Future of Oncology
It’s in the early morning of April 15th, 2030 that when looking at your smart mirror, the latter beeps a warning notification: that new mole on your chin should be checked by your dermatologist. That was to be expected. After all your genetic test revealed that you possess a mutation in the CDKN2A gene. But you also get the recommendation to have your esophagus and stomach checked as your connected smart scale registered a noticeable drop in weight and this mutation also carries an increased risk of gastrointestinal (GI) tract cancer.
With such increased awareness and early stage diagnosis methods, will the cancer de...
Source: The Medical Futurist - November 26, 2019 Category: Information Technology Authors: Prans Tags: Future of Medicine Personalized Medicine cancer digital health cancer treatment digital technology oncology cancer research cancer care digital health technologies Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, November 4th 2019
In this study, we hypothesized that moderately and chronically reducing ACh could attenuate the deleterious effects of aging on NMJs and skeletal muscles. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed NMJs and muscle fibers from heterozygous transgenic mice with reduced expression of the vesicular ACh transporter (VAChT), VKDHet mice, which present with approximately 30% less synaptic ACh compared to control mice.
Because ACh is constitutively decreased in VKDHet, we first analyzed developing NMJs and muscle fibers. We found no obvious morphological or molecular differences between NMJs and muscle fibers of VKDHet and contro...
Source: Fight Aging! - November 3, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Evidence for Human Cell Division Rates to Decrease with Age
We humans exhibit a peak cancer incidence in old age, around the early 80s, after which cancer rates decline from that peak. If aging is the continual accumulation of damage, then why do we observe this pattern of cancer incidence with age rather than a continual increase over time? It does not occur in mice, after all. Researchers here provide evidence for the explanation to involve reduced rates of cell division in later life, which may be one of many evolutionary adaptations connected to the unusual longevity of our species when compared with other similarly sized mammals, and particularly other primates. If there is le...
Source: Fight Aging! - October 29, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 29th 2019
In this study we show, for the first time, significant alterations in cholesterol efflux capacity in adolescents throughout the range of BMI, a relationship between six circulating adipocyte-derived EVs microRNAs targeting ABCA1 and cholesterol efflux capacity, and in vitro alterations of cholesterol efflux in macrophages exposed to visceral adipose tissue adipocyte-derived EVs acquired from human subjects. These results suggest that adipocyte-derived EVs, and their microRNA content, may play a critical role in the early pathological development of ASCVD.
Commentary on the Developing UK Government Position on Hea...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 28, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Reversing Somatic Mosaicism in Aged Tissue
In this study, we focused on p53 mutations because these are the most enriched during malignant transformation. p53 is mutated in 5%-10% of normal EE but in almost all esophageal squamous cell carcinomas (ESCCs). This argues that ESCC emerges from the p53 mutant cell population in normal epithelium and that mutation of p53 is required for cancer development.
We speculated that altering the selective pressure on mutant cell populations may cause them to expand or contract. We tested this hypothesis by examining the effect of oxidative stress from low-dose ionizing radiation (LDIR) on wild-type and p53 mutant cells in...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 26, 2019 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
