Calls to Ban Anonymous Social Media Accounts Are Misguided
Matthew FeeneyDuringa recent interview on Sky News,UK Home Secretary Priti Patel declined to rule out banning anonymous social media accounts. The interview came only days after themurder of Sir David Amess MP, which has prompted calls for a“David’s Law” banning anonymous social media accounts. Such a proposal should concern everyone who values civil liberties. Unpleasant and criminal actors use anonymous social media accounts, but this fact should not blind lawmakers to the value of anonymous speech.Calls for an end to anonymous social media accounts arenotnew. Earlier this year, someBritish commentators e...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - October 19, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: Matthew Feeney Source Type: blogs
More on Freedumb
I think that in the present political climate, a small history lesson may be in order. The first safe and effective vaccination was discovered by the English physician Edward Jenner in 1796. It depended on the lucky coincidence that infection with the cowpox virus, which causes only mild disease in humans, confers cross-immunity to smallpox, a terrible scourge which had afflicted humanity for thousands of years. (That ' s why we call it vaccination, by the way, from the Latin vacca for cow. Modern vaccination used killed virus and caused no disease.) Nobody knew at the time what a virus was or why this worked, so it would ...
Source: Stayin' Alive - October 9, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, October 4th 2021
In conclusion, premature thymic involution and chronic inflammation greatly contribute to increased morbidity and mortality in CKD patients. Mechanisms are likely to be multiple and interlinked. Even when the quest to fountain of youth is a pipe dream, there are many scientific opportunities to prevent or to, at least in part, reverse CKD-related immune senescence. Further studies should precisely define most important pathways driving premature immune ageing in CKD patients and best therapeutic options to control them.
Extending Life Without Extending Health: Vast Effort Directed to the Wrong Goals
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Source: Fight Aging! - October 3, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
Aubrey de Grey on Choosing the Right Research and Development Projects in the Treatment of Aging
There are many different potential approaches to the treatment of aging as a medical condition. It is a sad truth, however, that funding the wrong type of project will almost certainly fail to move the needle on human aging. Further, it is almost certainly the case that most present effort in research and development is going towards the wrong type of project. A majority of the projects that could lead towards treatments for aging are focused on upregulation of the cellular stress response mechanisms triggered by exercise, calorie restriction, hypoxia, heat, and the like. We have a good idea as to the likely outcome of suc...
Source: Fight Aging! - September 28, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Activism, Advocacy and Education Source Type: blogs
The Power of Imagination: A Lesson From David Yonggi Cho
I have been writing about personal effectiveness since 2006. Over time, I have learned more and more about the factors that can help you live a fulfilling life. Recently, one thing that has caught my attention is the power of imagination.
You see, the more I study those who have gone far in their lives, the more I see how imagination plays a role. It’s not the only factor, of course, but it’s often a starting point. When you imagine a future you believe in, that belief will get stronger and will drive actions in that direction. Not only that but also the belief can help you get through a lot of obstacles. You will h...
Source: Life Optimizer - September 17, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Donald Latumahina Tags: Purpose Thinking Source Type: blogs
High Prices, Competition, and the Biden Administration
David BoazAn article in the Washington Post on the Biden administration ’s plans to “do something” about high prices seems to me to be full of myths, so I thought I ’d give it an old‐fashioned “fisking. ” The article begins:Senior Biden administration officials, alarmed by the rising costs of consumer staples, are ramping up efforts to police corporate monopolies and alleged collusion by big companies, arguing a crackdown on corporate malfeasance will translate into cheaper goods.Current price increases may be a result of Federal Reserve money creation. They may be a result of the pande...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - August 31, 2021 Category: American Health Authors: David Boaz Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, August 16th 2021
In conclusion, cancer survivors, especially older individuals, demonstrate greater odds of and accelerated functional decline, suggesting that cancer and/or its treatment may alter aging trajectories.
Linking Particulate Air Pollution and Dementia in a Small Region of the US
https://www.fightaging.org/archives/2021/08/linking-particulate-air-pollution-and-dementia-in-a-small-region-of-the-us/
It is fairly settled that evident particulate air pollution, such as daily exposure to smoke from wood-fueled cooking fires, has a strongly detrimental effect on long-term health. The mechanisms involved are inflam...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 15, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
More on Measuring the Burden of Cellular Senescence via Urine Samples
This study investigated whether senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP) and immune defense factors in EVs of urine could serve as biomarkers in elderly individuals with and without a comorbidity. Urine samples from young adults and elderly individuals with and without Parkinson's disease (PD) were collected and stored. Urine EVs were separated from a drop-through solution and confirmed by verifying CD9, CD63, CD81, and syntenin expression.
The EVs and drop-through solution were subjected to measurement of SASP cytokines and defense factors. Many SASP cytokines and defense factors could be detected in urinar...
Source: Fight Aging! - August 13, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Fight Aging! Newsletter, July 19th 2021
In this study, we developed the first epigenetic clock for domesticated sheep (Ovis aries), which can predict chronological age with a median absolute error of 5.1 months. We have discovered that castrated male sheep have a decelerated aging rate compared to intact males, mediated at least in part by the removal of androgens.
Furthermore, we identified several androgen-sensitive CpG dinucleotides that become progressively hypomethylated with age in intact males, but remain stable in castrated males and females. Comparable sex-specific methylation differences in MKLN1 also exist in bat skin and a range of mouse tissu...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 18, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Newsletters Source Type: blogs
It is Easy to Produce Omics Data, Harder to Achieve Useful Progress Based on that Data
The enormous reduction in cost and increase in capacity for analysis of living biochemistry over the past 20 years has led to vast warehouses of omics data: information on genomes, epigenomes, expression of transcripts and proteins, and more. Making something of this data in a reliable way is a more challenging proposition, and remains a work in progress. More data is almost always good in the long run, but the goal of science is understanding, not implementation. The data revolution in biotechnology may not greatly change the nature of the fastest path to human rejuvenation, which is to implement the SENS proposals for da...
Source: Fight Aging! - July 16, 2021 Category: Research Authors: Reason Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs
Physics?
Before I get to today ' s post, an administrative note. The reason Mojrim gets his comments published, even though we don ' t always agree, is that he is not a moron. To get your comments published, you don ' t have to agree with me, you need to have something intelligent and interesting to say. -- C.I have actually never taken a single physics course, in high school or college, which I believe does not make me exceptional. But I ' ve had a subscription to Scientific American since I was 13 and I ' m curious, so I try to understand that stuff as best I can. Modern physics is completely mathematical, however, so qualitative...
Source: Stayin' Alive - June 22, 2021 Category: American Health Source Type: blogs
Growing backlash against the FDA approval of unproven Alzheimer ’s treatment Aduhelm, by Biogen
ICER Issues Statement on the FDA’s Approval of Aducanumab for Alzheimer’s Disease (Institute for Clinical and Economic Review):
The Institute for Clinical and Economic Review (ICER) believes that the FDA, in approving aducanumab (Aduhelm™, Biogen) for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, has failed in its responsibility to protect patients and families from unproven treatments with known harms.
Our review of the evidence was concordant with that of many independent experts: current evidence is insufficient to demonstrate that aducanumab benefits patients. The avenue forward has seemed clear: another study would be...
Source: SharpBrains - June 14, 2021 Category: Neuroscience Authors: SharpBrains Tags: Brain/ Mental Health aducanumab Aduhelm Alzheimer’s Disease Alzheimer’s disease treatment amyloid amyloid plaques amyloid-related imaging abnormalities ARIA Biogen brain swelling clinical benefit FDA ICER Janet Woodcock N Source Type: blogs
Stamina, Not Just Competence: A Key to Winning in Life
A while back, I found a quote that got me thinking: “Amateurs think about tactics. But professionals think about logistics.”
I first heard it in an episode of Hardcore History podcast. It talks about how logistics is often the determining factor in wars. You might have superior troops and tactics, but without good logistics, you wouldn’t be able to achieve your objectives.
This, for instance, is what happened in Operation Barbarossa when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union. Here is an excerpt from Wikipedia:
Four weeks into the campaign, the Germans realized they had grossly underestimated Soviet strength. The Germ...
Source: Life Optimizer - May 26, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Donald Latumahina Tags: Attitude Productivity Source Type: blogs
PROP ’s Disproportionate Influence on U.S. Opioid Policy: The Harms of Intended Consequences
ConclusionDespite being turned back from an effort to bluntly reduce opioid prescribing by the FDA in 2013 based on a lack of scientific evidence for its position (17,18), PROP has had a disproportionate effect on opioid policy in the Untied States for almost a decade. PROP found a willing federal regulatory partner in the CDC, and while PROP may not have “secretly written” the 2016 CDC Pain Guidelines (75), they certainly enjoyed disproportionate representation on CDC’s review panels and Core Expert Group (23-25) in a process that lacked transparency (22, 23, 26, 27). When the CDC admitted that its Pain Guideline ha...
Source: Pallimed: A Hospice and Palliative Medicine Blog - May 3, 2021 Category: Palliative Care Tags: CDC health policy kollas opioids pain prop Source Type: blogs
