Metformin use and the risk of B 12 deficiency
(Source: Notes from Dr. RW)
Source: Notes from Dr. RW - June 14, 2018 Category: Internal Medicine Tags: endocrinology hematology pharmacology Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 4th 2018
Fight Aging! provides a weekly digest of news and commentary for thousands of subscribers interested in the latest longevity science: progress towards the medical control of aging in order to prevent age-related frailty, suffering, and disease, as well as improvements in the present understanding of what works and what doesn't work when it comes to extending healthy life. Expect to see summaries of recent advances in medical research, news from the scientific community, advocacy and fundraising initiatives to help speed work on the repair and reversal of aging, links to online resources, and much more.
This content is...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 3, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Support for Longevity Science is the Most Effective Form of Philanthropy
The members of the effective altruism community are interested in rationally identifying the most cost-effective ways to make the world a better place, involving both the usual metrics by which we might judge "better," but also an analysis of whether or not those usual metrics are in fact helpful. Tear it all down and build it up again from first principles. Particularly at the large scale, a great deal of the status quo in philanthropy is wasted effort, virtue signaling, or even actively counterproductive. There are many ostensibly charitable organizations that, at best, do no good, and at worst exacerbate the problems th...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 28, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Activism, Advocacy and Education Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 47-year-old man with hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and obstructive sleep apnea
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 47-year-old man is evaluated during a follow-up examination. He is obese and has hypertension, type 2 diabetes mellitus, and obstructive sleep apnea. He reports that he has always has been overweight, and over the years, his weight has gradually increased to 123 kg (271 lb). During the past 2 years, he has tried several commercial diets; a dietician-monitored, calorie-restricted diet; increased physical activity; orlistat; and a combination of these interventions, all without achieving sustained weight loss. M...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - May 26, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > Tags: Conditions Primary Care Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 7th 2018
The objective here is a set of tests that (a) match up to the expected outcome based on human trials of mitochondrially targeted antioxidants, and (b) that anyone can run without the need to involve a physician, as that always adds significant time and expense. These tests are focused on the cardiovascular system, particularly measures influenced by vascular stiffness, and some consideration given to parameters relevant to oxidative stress and the development of atherosclerosis.
A standard blood test, with inflammatory markers.
An oxidized LDL cholesterol assessment.
Resting heart rate and blood pressure.
Heart r...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 6, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
What Can be Achieved if the Epigenetic Clock is an Accurate Reflection of Aging?
The difference between having and not having an accurate, rapid, low-cost measure of biological age is night and day. If such a thing did exist, then it is immediately the case that a good few dozen interventions could be rapidly tested in humans, taking a month or two between before and after measurements. The cost is low enough that volunteer groups and philanthropy could manage it. Look at what Betterhumans is doing in trials of cheap senolytic compounds, for example, and then add a robust assessment to that in order to definitively say whether or not rejuvenation occurred. I expect that only a few of the obvious candid...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 30, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, April 30th 2018
In conclusion, in the Framingham Heart Study population, in the last 30 years, disease duration in persons with dementia has decreased. However, age-adjusted mortality risk has slightly decreased after 1977-1983. Consequences of such trends on dementia prevalence should be investigated.
Recent Research on the Benefits of Exercise in Later Life
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2018/04/recent-research-on-the-benefits-of-exercise-in-later-life/
A sizable body of work points to the ability of older individuals to continue to obtain benefits through regular physical activity, and particularly in the case...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 29, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Another Example of a Marginal Senolytic Drug Candidate
Today, let us consider what happens when a new area of medical development arises, attracts a great deal of research funding, and then and one or more companies raise even larger amounts of venture funding to take the first therapies to the clinic. This is the case for senolytics, the development of therapies - mostly pharmaceuticals - that can selectively destroy senescent cells. Good evidence for these cells to be a root cause of aging has existed for decades, but it wasn't until 2011 that research and scientific funding institutions were presented with animal study data that they couldn't continue to ignore. The years s...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 26, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 62-year-old man is evaluated during a routine visit
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 62-year-old man is evaluated during a routine visit. He is asymptomatic and walks 1 mile most days of the week. Medical history is significant for aortic stenosis, type 2 diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia. Medications are aspirin, metformin, lisinopril, metoprolol, and rosuvastatin.
On physical examination, the patient is afebrile, blood pressure is 130/66 mm Hg, pulse rate is 68/min, and respiration rate is 14/min. BMI is 29. Cardiac examination reveals a grade 2/6 early-peaking systolic mur...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 21, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > Tags: Conditions Cardiology Diabetes Source Type: blogs
Take 2 broccoli and call me in the morning
We live in a pill-popping society. The first line treatment for many of the medical problems that walk through our doors is a medication. Have heartburn? Forget about avoiding the foods that cause your symptoms — just take a pill. New diagnosis of diabetes? We give lip service to lifestyle modifications and then start patients on Metformin. Hypertension? Diuretics, ACE inhibitors, ARBs, beta blockers — take your pick, and I guess make the obligatory mention of weight loss.
I fully realize that there is a time and a place for medication. There are varied medical problems that can only be treated ...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - April 10, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/the-fit-physician" rel="tag" > The Fit Physician < /a > Tags: Physician Primary Care Source Type: blogs
Seroquel, Atypical Antipsychotics for Insomnia, Dementia?
I’m a little dumb-founded whenever I run across a prescribing trend that goes against all of the available empirical evidence for common sense use of a medication. Nowhere is this more evident than with the prescription of atypical antipsychotic medications. It wouldn’t be too far a stretch to suggest that such prescriptions have become like Prozac prescriptions in the 1990s, the latest medication fad.
But atypical antipsychotics, like Seroquel (quetiapine fumarate), are far more complex with far more problematic side effects than drugs like Prozac, and should only be prescribed for on-label use.
The Washingto...
Source: World of Psychology - April 7, 2018 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: John M. Grohol, Psy.D. Tags: Antipsychotic General Medications Policy and Advocacy Adverse Effects Atypical Antipsychotic Bipolar Disorder Insomnia movement disorder Seroquel side effects Weight Gain Source Type: blogs
Notes from WIRED Health 2018 at Francis Crick Institute
Set in its new home of the Francis Crick Institute, WIRED Health 2018 brought together world leaders and change-makers in cancer, aging, artificial intelligence, government, medical devices, and pharmaceuticals, to name but a few. Alongside the main event, cutting-edge medtech companies demonstrated their new technologies, and budding start-ups pitched for the chance to be crowned WIRED Health start-up of the year.
Bruce Levine from the University of Pennsylvania opened the day by setting the challenge of how to treat a condition like cancer, which is fundamentally the result of “our own bodies gone awry.” Bruce intro...
Source: Medgadget - March 16, 2018 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tom Peach Tags: Exclusive Source Type: blogs
Funding More Work on Deep Learning for Drug Discovery to Treat Aging
Recently Y Combinator announced their intent to fund companies working on treatments for aging. It is one of the many signs of a growing interest in this area of development in the venture community. One of the early results appears to be more funding for computational methods of improving drug discovery, with therapies for aging as the rallying cry, after the established Insilico Medicine model. It makes sense that a primarily software-focused part of the venture community would move into a new area, biotechnology, by funding ventures that apply computational technology to the space. That says nothing about the effectiven...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 6, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
MKSAP: 67-year-old woman with degenerative joint disease
Test your medicine knowledge with the MKSAP challenge, in partnership with the American College of Physicians.
A 67-year-old woman is evaluated during a routine examination. She has a history of hip and knee pain related to degenerative joint disease. The joint pain is now well controlled with diclofenac, which was started 3 months ago. A previous trial of high-dose acetaminophen was not effective. She does not have any gastrointestinal symptoms, and she takes the diclofenac with food most of the time. Her medical history is otherwise notable for type 2 diabetes mellitus, hyperlipidemia, and hypertension. Her parents bot...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - March 3, 2018 Category: General Medicine Authors: < a href="https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/post-author/mksap" rel="tag" > mksap < /a > Tags: Conditions Gastroenterology Source Type: blogs
A Three Part Discussion of Mitochondrial Hormesis as an Approach to Slow Aging
This three part interview covers the induction of greater numbers of free radicals in tissues as an approach to slow aging. I can't say as I think this is a way to obtain large gains in health and longevity, much greater than those possible through exercise and calorie restriction. Both of those approaches essentially work in a similar way, being beneficial stress responses that include free radical signaling among their mechanisms. Little of the work on recreating these responses via pharmaceutical or genetic means does all that much better in terms of extended healthy life. The background is quite interesting, however.
...
Source: Fight Aging! - March 1, 2018 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Healthy Life Extension Community Source Type: blogs
