Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 11th 2016
In conclusion, hTERT expression strictly limits telomerase activation in most of somatic cells, whereas mTERT expression is detectable in most of mouse tissue cells. The interspecies differences between human and mice suggest an improved mouse line, in which both telomerase regulation and telomere length controls are humanized, would considerably benefit the studies of human aging and cancer using mouse models.
ON CELLULAR REPROGRAMMING AND CELLULAR REJUVENATION
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2016/07/on-cellular-reprogramming-and-cellular-rejuvenation/
The commentary linked below takes a look at some re...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 10, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
On Cellular Reprogramming and Cellular Rejuvenation
The commentary linked below takes a look at some recent work on the topic of cellular reprogramming and the rejuvenation it appears to cause inside cells. In the grand scheme of things, it really hasn't been that long since researchers first discovered how to reprogram somatic cells into induced pluripotent stem cells. These artificially altered cell populations have the same characteristics as embryonic stem cells, able to generate any type of cell in the body given the right stimulus and environment. Reprogramming is so easy to carry out that it swept through the research community with great rapidity, and the improvemen...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 8, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Activism, Advocacy and Education Source Type: blogs
Patients are blindfolded to charges and cost
As she adjusts her sunglasses, Mary squints to protect her sensitive eyes from the sun. Four years ago when lymphoma threatened her life, doctors gave her a 5 percent chance of survival.
“I really should be dead right now,” she states casually. A bone marrow transplant gave this patient a new lease on life, allowing for the treasured opportunity to mother her 8-year-old son. The transplant has been successful, but her body is riddled with graft versus host (GVH) disease, a reaction that has attacked her skin and eyes, resulting in pain and disfigurement.
Mary has survived the grueling experience with not only her lif...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 5, 2016 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Aida Cerundolo, MD Tags: Physician Emergency Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, June 20th 2016
We examined the engraftment and differentiation of alkaline phosphatase-positive NSCs expanded from the postnatal subventricular zone (SVZ), 3 months after grafting into the intact young or aged rat hippocampus. Graft-derived cells engrafted robustly into both young and aged hippocampi. Although most graft-derived cells pervasively migrated into different hippocampal layers, the graft cores endured and contained graft-derived neurons.
The results demonstrate that advanced age of the host at the time of grafting has no major adverse effects on engraftment, migration, and differentiation of grafted subventricular zone...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 19, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Generating New Pituitary Tissue in Mice
Researchers have announced another step forward in the development of methods of regeneration that should one day encompass all tissue types and organs in the body. This time the pituitary gland is the target, and the approach used here well illustrates the point that engineered replacements do not have to be in any way similar to the organ they are replacing. They just have to carry out the same functions.
Researchers have successfully used human stem cells to generate functional pituitary tissue that secretes hormones important for the body's stress response as well as for its growth and reproductive functions. ...
Source: Fight Aging! - June 15, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
More Tissue Engineering and Cell Therapy aimed at Regeneration of the Thymus
A number of different research groups are working on ways to restore function of the thymus in old individuals, with methods ranging from the introduction of cells with youthful characteristics to the engineering of thymus tissue for transplantation. Promising results have been produced in mice. The thymus is where the immune cells known as T cells mature, and it atrophies fairly early in adult life, reducing the supply of new immune cells to a trickle. That the supply of new cells is so small across most of the life span is one of the factors contributing to the age-related decline of the immune system, and so opening the...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 19, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, May 9th 2016
This report is comprehensive and interested readers are encouraged to review. The authors provided projections on organ donation and transplantation rates, quality-adjusted life years and life years saved, health risks to patients, living organ donation, cross-border exchange, and health inequalities. Their most favorable scenario projected health benefits including transplanting up to 21,000 more organs annually in the EU, which would save 230,000 life years or gain 219,000 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs). For social impacts, it was predicted that increasing organ transplantation will have a positive effect on quality...
Source: Fight Aging! - May 8, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, April 4th 2016
This study shows for the first time that increasing arterial stiffness is detrimental to the brain, and that increasing stiffness and brain injury begin in early middle life, before we commonly think of prevalent diseases such as atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease or stroke having an impact."
The study also noted that elevated arterial stiffness is the earliest manifestation of systolic hypertension. The large study involved approximately 1,900 diverse participants in the Framingham Heart Study, who underwent brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), as well as arterial tonometry. The tests measured the force of art...
Source: Fight Aging! - April 3, 2016 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Should Fluoro be Your New Go-To?
Part Three in a Three-Part Series
This is the third and final part of our series on foreign bodies and fluoroscopy. Click here for part one and here for part two.
This month, we walk you through a step-by-step guide with bonus video footage to aid in your technique. This progressive procedure is absolutely significant to your practice, and we hope you all get a chance to try it.
The Approach
n Identification of foreign body on plain film or ultrasound
n Saphenous or posterior tibial nerve block
n Enlargement of the wound or entrance site using incision...
Source: The Procedural Pause - January 4, 2016 Category: Emergency Medicine Tags: Blog Posts Source Type: blogs
When Great Healthcare Is Served With A Large Helping Of Unnecessary Mental Anguish
Better Health first ran the post below on August 5.
I watched helplessly as a dear friend went through the emotional meat grinder of a new cancer diagnosis. Her husband was found to have melanoma on a recent skin biopsy, and she knew that this was a dangerous disease. Because she is exceptionally intelligent and diligent, she set out to optimize his outcome with good information and the best care possible. Without much help from me, she located the finest specialists for her husband, and ultimately he received appropriate and state-of-the-art treatment. But along with his excellent care came substantial (and avoidable) e...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - August 11, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Consumer Health Care Patients Quality Source Type: blogs
When Great Healthcare Is Served With A Large Helping Of Unnecessary Mental Anguish
A wrist graft similar to what my friend's husband required.
I watched helplessly as a dear friend went through the emotional meat grinder of a new cancer diagnosis. Her husband was found to have melanoma on a recent skin biopsy, and she knew that this was a dangerous disease. Because she is exceptionally intelligent and diligent, she set out to optimize his outcome with good information and the best care possible. Without much help from me, she located the finest specialists for her husband, and ultimately he received appropriate and state-of-the-art treatment. But along with his excellent care came substantial (and ...
Source: Better Health - August 5, 2015 Category: American Health Authors: Dr. Val Jones Tags: True Stories Anxiety Bedside Manner Genetic Testing Healthcare Quality Oncology Source Type: blogs
A plastic surgeon goes to Nepal. What he found surprised him.
Sitting in a rickety jeep rumbling through treacherous mountainous terrain, on winding unpaved roads full of blind curves and teetering on the edge of cliffs recently ravaged by an earthquake, I began to question my decision to go along on this trip. We were about 3 hours outside Kathmandu, Nepal heading to a small village along the banks of the Melamchi River. The driver, who could not have been any older than my teenage son, reassured us that we were almost there. It would be another hour before “there” became “here”!
Our destination on this day was a school devastated by the recent earthqua...
Source: Kevin, M.D. - Medical Weblog - July 16, 2015 Category: Journals (General) Authors: Bhupesh Vasisht, MD Tags: Physician Surgery Source Type: blogs
Thymus Organoids Restore Immune Function in Mice
Researchers here demonstrate restoration of immune function in mice via transplant of tissue engineered thymus-like organoids, one of a number of lines of research that aims to restore thymic function to boost the aging immune system. A sizable part of the age-related decline of the adaptive immune system arises from a problem of supply: there are no longer enough naive T cells to mount an effective response to new threats.
Some potential approaches to solving this problem involve dealing with issues that reduce the naive T cell population, while others focus on increasing the supply of new T cells. The thymus plays a vit...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 10, 2015 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Let Freedom Ring
The following post ran on May 3 on Regina Holliday’s Medical Advocacy Blog.
This winter was hard for me. Winter always is. In my mind, I walk through yesteryears and live through the months I lost my husband Fred.
I had a bad cough in January and February just like I had in 2009. My cough was pertussis this time, not a chest cold. This time it was my ribs that broke from explosive coughs, instead from metastasis as Fred’s had.
This winter I felt I had to finish my memoir, so while coughed I wrote. I tied together the story that I have been working on for five years. This past week it became available on A...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - July 1, 2015 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: dw at disruptivewomen.net Tags: Access Advocacy Choice Consumer Health Care Innovation Policy Electronic health record Health information technology Source Type: blogs
