The Habits That are Proven to Help You Cheat Death

By Christina Stiehl

Dying young isn't on most people's to-do lists. Sure, with age comes lots of joint pain, gray hair, and an overall decline of aesthetic appeal, but living for several more decades means getting to experience brain microchips, robot butlers, and maybe even paying off your student loans.

To be a healthy octogenarian and beyond, scientists have basically cracked the code on what most sprightly old people have in common, aside from increased hearing loss and a collective disdain for "kids these days." These lifestyle habits are pretty common sense, but they've been proven by study after study, and carry benefits that will last you well into your golden years. So put down the beer (but not for too long), take some notes, and start saving for that futuristic BMW -- here's your guide to living longer.

Indulging in your coffee addiction

Coffee tends to inspire militant opinions. People who believe it's the lifeblood of all human existence, and the monsters who want to take that joy away from the world because "caffeine is a drug," or something.

If you fall into the first camp, you're in luck -- java does help people live longer, even the decaf crap. It's all-natural, calorie-free, and makes you a somewhat tolerable human in the morning. Feel no guilt over your coffee addiction. In fact, use it as proof that you're helping your future self grow to a ripe old age. 

Not freaking the fuck out

Life is hard, and it's how you handle everyday stress and major life events that can literally make or break you. People with chronic stress have a higher risk for obesity, inflammation, and mental illness.

The Grant and Glueck studies out of Harvard, which assessed the same group of men for 75 years, found that how well people adapted to aging and all the shitty life challenges that come with it impacted how long they lived. The participants who didn't cope with stress well ended up with unhealthy habits, including smoking and alcohol abuse. Learning how to roll with the punches, whether that's internally or with the help of a professional, will impact your mental well-being -- and your lifespan -- tremendously. 

Picking up a book

It's hard to remember a time before you were able to stream your favorite shows whenever you wanted. The problem is that in the time you're spending watching TV, you could be reading, which is something that will actually help you live longer. 

Education is also vital to a longer life, as the Grant and Glueck studies proved -- the participants who graduated college lived longer than the ones who didn't. And learning something new well after your college years is important, too; stimulating your brain could help lower your risk of Alzheimer's. Try and trade in a couple hours spent in front of the TV for a couple hours reading some typed words, preferably about a new subject. Or you can watch every good show and die young. No one's making you do anything, really. 

Hitting the sack at a reasonable hour (and not overdoing it)

If you live by the philosophy "I'll sleep when I'm dead," then you may get your shut-eye much sooner than you bargained for. But sleeping too much can also have negative effects on long-term health. Finding that sweet spot -- between seven and nine hours a night -- can really impact how long you'll live.

Better sleep is also linked to lower weight, less chronic disease, and even safer driving. All of these factors are related to growing old, and all of this is to say: stop depriving yourself of those much-needed Zzzs! 

Getting your ass off the couch

Exercise has so many health benefits. Seriously, aside from helping you lose weight, working out has proven to extend your life. Over and over again. What is wrong with you, why do you keep arguing against exercise?! There's no need to continue harping on this subject, except to say that, well, sitting down too much will also kill you. Just get moving; aim for 150 minutes a week, and make it a regular habit.

Keeping your weight in check

Being obese -- considered a BMI of 30 or more -- generally (though not always) means putting yourself at risk for life-threatening diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and even cancer. Morbid obesity is where things get really risky. Come on, they put "morbid" in there for a reason.

The good news with this one is that you can get some extra time on the clock. If you're overweight and lose some pounds, that could actually add years on to your life.  

On the flip side, overweight (a BMI of 25-29) people have been proven to have a longer mortality compared to average-weight or obese people. So although it's important to maintain a healthy weight, if your body naturally holds on to a few extra pounds, that could actually be a good thing. To sum it up: obesity = bad, morbid obesity = really bad, normal weight = good, and being slightly overweight = also good. Science, man. 

Not going full rockstar with the booze and drugs

It's pretty obvious that abusing hard drugs is a slippery slope that can lead to overdose and an early death. Hate to break it to you, but drinking too much alcohol falls in that camp, too. It doesn't matter if everyone else in your band is doing it! You're not them!  

That same Harvard study (75 years is a long-ass time to follow people, you learn some things) found that alcoholism was the biggest contributor to early death among the participants, and even moderate drinking can impact lifespan. Drinking is fine, but drinking heavily can result in a younger death than non-drinkers. So cutting back on binge drinking isn't such a bad idea. And don't do drugs. 

Eating your damn vegetables, duh

Reality check: it's time to grow up and realize that mac & cheese out of a box isn't a real dinner. The more you incorporate actual whole foods into your diet, mainly fruits and vegetables, the better chance you have at living longer. Cutting back on processed meat will make a big impact, too; it's been labeled a carcinogen by the World Health Organization, which means too many pepperonis could be just as bad as cigarettes. But come on, even Bears fans have known that one for a long time. 

A Mediterranean diet, which focuses mostly on fruits, vegetables, and healthy fats, with little meat, has been proven time and time again to boost longevity. No wonder Greek people age so well. 

Not smoking, obviously

It's no surprise that regular smokers don't live as long as those who quit, or who never took it up in the first place. You know this. Your parents know this. Generations to come will know this. There's not much more to it. 

Hanging out with people you actually enjoy

Seems like this should be easy, but it's definitely not! The key to a long and happy life isn't slaving away at the gym or eating kale every day; it's actually putting yourself out there and having a social life. People who have strong social relationships live longer than people who are isolated, even independent of other physical health issues. Yet another excuse to blow off your responsibilities and hang with your buddies; you're looking out for your long-term health.  

And before you think of this as the scientific affirmation that will indefinitely prolong your swingin' 20s, where romances come and go but TRUE FRIENDS ARE 4EVER (that's how millennials act/talk, right?), healthy marriages might be the best of all. People in happy marriages live longer than those who are divorced or in unhappy marriages, and in general, married men tend to live to an older age. 

Whether that's because they have a partner to look out for their well-being, or they're emotionally fulfilled with their spouse is unclear, but it doesn't really matter; being in love is good for the heart in more ways than one. 

Best Foods for Anti-Aging Diet

By Irene Michaels

Diet is a necessary component in both physical and mental health. It is what determines how physically and mentally fit you are for coping with the daily challenges of life. All of us want to feel (and look) young forever. While that may not be exactly possible, these age-defying foods will help you preserve energy levels and look younger.

Olive Oil:
Almost four decades ago, a group of researchers from Seven Countries Study stated that the monounsaturated fats found in olive oils were extremely beneficial for individuals suffering from heart diseases and cancer. Today, it is widely known that olive oil is a rich source of power antioxidants, polyphenols, that prevent age-related diseases and make you feel young and healthy.

Lemons:
The Vitamin C found in lemons is great for your skin, it promotes healing and nourishes the skin. When lemon juice is applied to the skin, it has a bleaching effect that reduces age spots, freckles, and wrinkles. It is also a wonderful alternative to skincare products such as cleansers and toners.

Blueberries:
As small as they may be, blueberries are packed with antioxidants and nutrients that are essential for the skin. The little fruits are rich in flavonols, anthocyanins, and vitamin C that reduce the aging process of skin cells. Daily consumption of blueberries also boosts memory and prevents the skin from wrinkling. It is important to mention here that the darker the color of the blueberries, the more beneficial they are. This is because the highest concentration of antioxidants is found in the darkest colored berries. My personal favorite...I love add to a yogurt shake or steel cut oatmeal.

Leafy Greens:
This is fairly obvious, green vegetables are wonderful for your physical and mental health. The dark leafy greens such as kale and spinach contain lutein and zeaxanthin, two powerful antioxidants that counter the negative effects of ultraviolet rays (from the sun) on the skin. When you go out in the sun, the ultraviolet rays cause inflammation, epidermal DNA damage, suppression of T-cell mediated immunity, and oxidative stress. This increases the risk of skin cancer and promotes aging. A higher intake of green vegetables, particular leafy ones, can reduce these adverse effects.

Tomatoes:
Tomatoes and watermelons have high amounts of lycopene that acts as a natural sunscreen for the skin. It protects the skin against the harmful UV radiation and prevents aging of the skin. It also diminishes sun spots and ageing spots. The Vitamin C in the tomatoes boosts collagen production that makes the skin firm and healthy.

Avocado:
A scrumptious fruit that is filled with fatty acids that are healthy for the skin. The fruit is well-known for its anti-aging properties. The vitamins, nutrients, and unsaturated fats in the fruit provide the skin with the nourishment it needs. An avocado a day will help you attain a natural glow to your skin while reducing the signs of aging at the same time.

Whole grains:
Daily intake of whole grains such as oats, barley, wheat, brown rice, and quinoa lowers the chance of heart diseases and type 2 diabetes. These whole grains are rich in fiber and help regulate the digestive system as well. Whole grains are an essential for any anti-aging diet because of their health benefits.

Yogurt:
It was reported in the 1970s that Soviet Georgia had the highest number of centenarians per capita than every other country in the world. Studies showed that the reason behind the long lives was yogurt. While there are no scientific evidences to support the anti-aging properties of yogurt, the food is rich in calcium. Calcium helps maintain strong bone health and improves gut health preventing several age-related illnesses (such as weak bones and intestinal diseases.

Dark Chocolate:
High quality, dark cocoa is rich in flavanols, a powerful antioxidant that reduces inflammation and improves blood circulation. It also promotes the skin’s ability to retain moisture making it less prone to wrinkles and other age-related skin deformations.

Try to incorporate these great foods to fight the aging process naturally...check back next month for more healthy living tips.

The ethics of transhumanism

by Christoffer O. Hernces



When I was growing up, my father often told me that Andy Warhol once said that he wanted to be a machine, and that it would be a lot easier to be a machine — if something broke, you could just replace it.

Even though small wounds and injuries heal, this has not been the case for humans. If something were inherently broken, it would stay broken the rest of our lives. Which relates to another common saying: The only two things in this world that are certain are death and taxes.

For the transhumanist movement, this is not the case. Transhumanists believe that humankind can evolve beyond its current physical and mental limitations to become “superhuman” and, eventually, immortal. One of the most prominent members of the movement is Zoltan Istvan, founder of the Transhumanist Party and 2016 third-party presidential candidate. 

For Istvan, aging and death are the biggest plague of our time. The party is proposing a transhumanist bill of rights that states that it should be illegal to stop research on longevity and eternal rights based on religious and ethical reasons.

Many of today’s well-known faces in the tech world accompany the movement. Peter Thiel has, like a modern-day King Gilgamesh, stated that it is against human nature not to fight death, and is investing heavily in companies like the Methuselah Foundation. He is joined by Larry Ellison, who finds accepting mortality “incomprehensible.” Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, as well as Mark Zuckerberg, are also investing in ways to extend human life.

The concept of eternal or even extended life would challenge several constructs of today’s society, ranging from healthcare and social services to pensions and insurance, as well as the labor market, just to name a few. Eternal life also poses a series of ethical and moral dilemmas, such as how to make room for the next generation, or whether eternal or prolonged life would be reserved for those privileged few.

Will this create a new class divide, where an elite class emerges through both physical and mental upgrades?

One of the proposed solutions to achieve immortality comes from Ray Kurzweil, who believes that we can transfer our consciousness to machines to achieve digital immortality within three decades.
However, by the time it is predicted we achieve digital immortality, it is also likely that we would have developed human-like artificial intelligence. Elon Musk believes that humans need to add digital implants in the form of a neural lace to their brains to be able to compete with artificial intelligence.

For those who wish to start with something simpler than brain implants, you can order a DIY kit to implant RFID or NFC chips in your hand. The founder of the site has completely stopped using keys and passwords, and states that implants like these should be considered a natural next step of human evolution. Earlier this year Andreas Sjöström got some attention through a YouTube video, showing how he boarded a flight by tapping his left hand on an NFC reader.

While implants are one form of augmentation for the transhuman age, prosthetics are becoming more advanced and there are already projects in development that enable limbs to be controlled by the mind and linked directly to the nervous system. 

Advances in 3D printing are also entering the world of prosthetics and organ transplants. We will soon be able to create custom replacement parts for both limbs and organs. Imagine a future where you will be able to replace different limbs to suit different tasks, with bionic body parts specifically engineered to perform specialized tasks much better than our own arms and legs that are generally good at most things.

There are even those who claim that in a transhuman world, the disabled will be the ones without prosthetic limbs or other forms of bionic enhancements. This opens up another ethical debate. When is it OK to replace healthy human limbs with artificial (and in the future, superior) ones?
For those who prefer to stay biological, but still look to enhance performance, biohacking is another field within the transhumanist movement. For $199, you can get your DNA analyzed by the company 23andMe to test various health conditions based on genetic and hereditary conditions. Researchers are even browsing DNA data to look for clues that let us understand depression. The most well-known initiative in this field is the Human Genome Project, which from the very beginning foresaw that human genomic research would raise ethical, legal and social issues. Indeed, there are already cases of genetic discrimination in the insurance industry.

However, understanding genetics is only the first step. CRISPR is a technology that allows scientists to edit genomes with unprecedented precision, efficiency and flexibility. Chinese scientists will become the first in the world to inject people with cells modified using gene-editing technology CRISPR Cas9 in an attempt to cure cancer.


Genome editing raises some complex issues, and critics warn about the social dangers of creating genetically modified humans, and also state that gene editing challenges the view of what it means to be human.

Whether superhuman performance, longevity or even immortality is achieved through ridding ourselves of our biological body, augmentations or biohacking, an important question arises: Who gets to be transhuman? Will this create a new class divide, where an elite class emerges through both physical and mental upgrades? A robotic heart for instance, currently costs around $200,000.
While many of the ideas of transhumanism are noble, the field is accused of sharing traits with eugenics. I am not even going to try to answer the many ethical, moral and existential questions raised by transhumanism. The only thing I know is that it is inevitable that advances in robotics, bionics, artificial intelligence and genetics will affect the next phase of human evolution, and we should not underestimate the ethical and social implications.

The Healthy Truth: Everything you need to know about aging (based on science)

By Emily Lunardo

Dear Friend,
Aging is inevitable, this much we know. But then why does it seem like some people never look a year older while others look 10 years their senior? Aging is something that is frequently discussed but not very well understood, and the anti-aging business is always prospering. Every company suggests that they have found the fountain of youth with a new cream, serum, injection, or pill, and yet we all aren’t looking that much younger.

Aging is complicated. We know we are getting older, and yet we still keep trying to cheat aging. We want to look younger and we want to feel younger, so we’ll do anything in our power to get there. But the problem is, because we don’t really understand what aging is, the approach we’re taking to slow it down is wrong.

Based on science, aging is actually a metabolic dysfunction. Metabolism consists of the billions of actions taken by your cells to turn fuel into energy and put together complex compounds in order for your body to function.

With age, your metabolism becomes less efficient. All that stress your body has endured, including toxins, junk food, and other poor lifestyle choices, takes a nasty toll on your metabolism, hindering its abilities to perform as well as it did even five years ago.

 Unfortunately, even though the scientists have figured out what aging is, they haven’t quite figured out how to stop it (which means the anti-aging beauty industry hasn’t figured it out either).

The good news is, science has found some ways to slow down aging – which don’t involve spending hundreds of dollars in the beauty aisle.

There is a strong body of research demonstrating that a Mediterranean diet may help slow down aging. The Mediterranean diet consists of healthy fats like olive oil, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, and fish. On the other hand, the intake of red meat is small and the intake of sugar is minimal.

Another diet trick to slow down the aging is calorie restriction. Although the word “restriction” may sound limiting, it really means avoid overeating, which is indeed a big problem in North America. Our meals are larger, buffets are everywhere, and many of us eat even when we aren’t hungry. By eating at times when you are actually hungry and stopping when you’re full – and no cheating in-between – you can bring your calorie count into a healthier range.

Lastly – and coming as no surprise really – science vouches for regular exercise. I know, no one actually enjoys exercise, but as much as you may dread physical activity and breaking a sweat, all that movement will actually have you looking younger and feeling better than many creams and other fad anti-aging products. Numerous research studies have shown that exercise slows down the major hallmarks of aging.

Of course, the mystery we call aging is yet to be solved. And more research is required to gauge into just what exactly is happening to us with time and, most importantly, what we can do about it.
In the meantime, I would suggest you follow science on this one if you want to be forever young. Eat well and exercise – it’s that simple! Treat your body right and in return it’ll give you a few more years of your life to enjoy – with fewer wrinkles, too!

3 Ways To Boost Male Life Expectancy: Closing The Gap So Men Can Live As Long As Women

By Lizette Borreli

Women all around the world can rejoice about one survival advantage: they outlive men. In the United States, the survival rate for females is 81.2 years compared to 76.4 years for males, despite being afflicted by health conditions as they age. So, why do women outlive men, and is there anything men can do to boost their life expectancy?

In SciShow's latest video, "Why Do Women Live Longer Than Men?" host Michael Aranda explains there are a few theories that rely on social and biological differences to distinguish between biosex females and males, or those who have XX or XY chromosomes.

Theories from the 1970s or earlier suggest men are more likely to have work-related injuries and stress, which can lead to heart disease; or men tend to do more unhealthy things, like smoke cigarettes or drink heavily. However, these social trends vary across cultures, and don't explain everything. It's hard to study male and female longevity in animal models, because other mammals, such as primates or mice, don't always show the same trends as humans.

Therefore, scientists think it might have more to do with biological differences. One possibility is that genes on the X chromosome may affect longevity, but they have so many other biological effects that it's hard to tell. For example, chromosomes come in pairs, and whereas women have two X chromosomes, men have an X and a Y chromosome. Having two X chromosomes means women keep double copies of every gene, so there’s a spare if one is faulty. Men don’t have that back-up, which could put men at a greater risk for disease.

Other theories include the influence of sex hormones on longevity. Two small studies — one looked at longevity records in 16th to 19th century Korean Royal Courts, and the other examined records from a 20th century U.S. mental hospital — found people who were born male and had their testicles removed lived longer lifespans than other males.

Although adult women do live longer, they tend to to have worse health as they age, especially bone and joint issues. It's believed these later-in-life health issues, combined with different hormones, give women a paradoxical advantage — their health problems might activate immune responses, which protect those joint tissues, and that could ultimately lead to a longer life.

This biological mystery does exist, but scientists still need to do a lot more research on people of all sexes and ages to solve the puzzle.

In the meantime, men should target the biggest killers, including high blood pressure, heart disease, and tobacco to boost their life expectancy.

High Blood Pressure

Men with high blood pressure should opt to eat more lean meat. A study published in the  Journal of Human Hypertension found people with high blood pressure who replaced eight percent of their daily calories from bread, cereal, potatoes, or pasta with lean red meat had a four-point drop in their systolic blood pressure in eight weeks. This suggests a moderate protein diet that emphasizes lean beef as the main protein can reduce blood pressure compared to a diet that was lower in protein and higher in carbohydrates and saturated fat.

Heart Disease

A high-dairy intake can slash a man's risk of heart disease by about a third. A study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found consuming three or more servings of dairy per day can reduce heart disease risk, but researchers do not know how exactly this works. Other studies have shown calcium and magnesium can lower blood pressure.

Smoking

Cigarette smoking causes premature death, with the life expectancy for smokers being at least 10 years less than nonsmokers. However, Quitting smoking before the age of 40 reduces the risk of dying from smoking-related disease by about 90 percent, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A study published in the British Medical Journal found smokers who saw their results from a saliva-based nicotine test were 17 percent more likely to quit. Seeing progress while trying to quit helped motivate the participants to not relapse.

There’s even more evidence that one activity could help slow the aging process Read more at http://www.businessinsider.my/evidence-caloric-restriction-slows-aging-process

By Kevin Loria

A significantly longer and healthier life would be almost invaluable. What wouldn’t people give for an extra decade or two, especially if they stayed able-bodied and clear-minded for that extra time?
The quest for longer life has driven searches for the Fountain of Youth, had billionaires consider transfusions of the blood of the young, and is perhaps one of the biggest motivating factors that gets people to change their diet or to start exercising.

Researchers know those last two changes can make people healthier, but none of these strategies has yet been found to slow the aging process itself.

But there’s more and more evidence that one particular anti-aging strategy might work, if we can figure out how to translate promising animal results to humans.

Significant caloric restriction — cutting caloric intake by about 30% — is at this point the anti-aging intervention that researchers think might actually stave off the physical processes that make cells slower to heal, opening up the brain and body to disease.

A new study on mice published August 24 in the journal Nature adds even more evidence supporting the potential anti-aging effect of caloric restriction and showing precisely how it happens in those animals. Previous studies have shown that mice on restricted diets live longer, but they’ve often failed to show why, according to a commentary published alongside the Nature study. The new study compared the physiology of mice on restricted diets and mice that could eat whatever they wanted.

The physiological differences they found show exactly how significantly cutting calories appears to affect the brain and neuromuscular system, slowing changes that we associate with aging.
There is still no proof that this sort of intervention works in humans, and several prominent researchers studying aging told Business Insider that they don’t expect to see any data saying that humans should or could safely cut calories that much.

It’d be hard to safely run a study asking an aging human population to cut their caloric intake by 30%, Dr. Leonard Guarente, the Novartis Professor of Biology at the Glenn Laboratory for the Science of Aging at MIT, told Business Insider. It’d be even harder to ensure that people actually to stick to a diet like that, he said.

But data like this fascinates scientists who are studying aging, as it may help lead us to some way to replicate the effects of caloric restriction without actually putting people on dangerous diets.

An anti-aging pathway

It’s well established that caloric restriction can extend life and prevent disease in animals, with studies conducted in species ranging from yeast and mice to dogs and monkeys.

In this latest study, researchers used mice that had been genetically modified to age faster than normal, modeling genetic conditions that affect some people. In those people, we see aging accelerate. Notably, they have trouble repairing DNA damage, one of the most reliable markers of aging. Their organs stop functioning as well as they should; they develop problems with vision and hearing; and they become more frail and have a harder time moving about.

The researchers used two different types of mice as models. Cutting calories relatively early in their lives (starting in weeks 7-9 for mice expected to live 4-6 months) extended their median lifespan significantly — by 180% or 200%. In another experiment, other mice that ate a restricted diet for only a brief period of time, from 6 to 12 weeks old, before going back to eating whatever they wanted, lived 4 to 6 weeks longer. Even a brief, temporary period of dieting extended their lives by about 30%.

Perhaps more importantly, all diet-restricted mice didn’t just live longer, they appeared to stay healthier, too, showing a handful of markers that researchers say indicate that something is slowing aging. They continued to be able to run, for example, even after their freely-feeding counterparts had died. They didn’t lose organ and eye function. They had about 50% more neurons in their brains than mice who had been able to eat all they wanted. Their bodies were able to repair DNA damage.

Can it work in people?

So far, we can’t be sure. But researchers are interested in using the study as a jumping-off point for more research into other ways of reproducing the effects of caloric restriction; some even want to test some form of caloric restriction on people.

“[Th]e study should provide much needed momentum for efforts to discover pharmacological mimetics of dietary restriction that can be used in humans,” Dr. Junko Oshima and Dr. George M. Martin of the University of Washington wrote in the accompanying commentary.

Still, it’s unlikely that what works on mice will translate directly to humans, Dr. Valter Longo, a professor of gerontology and biological science and the director of the University of Southern California Longevity Institute, told Business Insider in a recent interview, since mice and even other animals used as models are so different from humans and what works well for one type of animal doesn’t always work as well for others. Longo explained that even though some types of mice show major life-and-health-span improvements after caloric restriction, other types actually suffer. “It’s a very unsophisticated intervention,” he said.

Plus, as Longo explained it, if people were to severely restrict their calories in the way researchers did with the mice, other problems could result, such as suppressing their immune systems and abilities to heal. And these could contradict any of the good anti-aging properties of caloric restriction. For these and the practical reasons that Guarente of MIT mentioned, humans probably shouldn’t cut calories in the same way we have animals do in these experiments.

But the demonstration of the way that caloric restriction in animals works makes researchers think it could be possible to mimic those effects in some other way to fight aging. Oshima and Martin mentioned potential pharmacological interventions, for example. Guarente, for one, has helped develop a supplement that he thinks could help mimic these effects; Longo has developed a diet that’s meant to do similar things (though it’s vastly different from general caloric restriction).
“Treating aging used to be just an idea that was confronted with skepticism,” said Longo. But now, based on studies like this, we’re starting to see some pathways through which it might really happen.

Shania Twain: Vegetarian Diet, Yoga And Pilates Workouts Are Fitness and Weight Loss Secrets

By Samantha Chang,

 
 Shania Twain credits a vegetarian diet, yoga and Pilates workouts for anti-aging beauty at 51.


Country superstar Shania Twain credits a low-carb vegetarian diet, yoga and Pilates workouts for her age-defying body at age 51.

Twain has said her fitness and beauty secrets are a vegetarian diet and regular exercise such as yoga and Pilates workouts, walking, dancing, and horseback riding.

Shania, who became vegetarian in 1993, has praised the anti-aging health and weight loss benefits of her plant-based diet, saying it gives her more energy and stamina.

The age-defying effects of vegan and vegetarian diets are no surprise to obesity expert and nutritionist Lindsay Nixon.

A diet of minimally processed foods close to nature — predominantly plants — is associated with health and disease prevention, said Nixon, author of Happy Herbivore Light & Lean.

Health expert and vegetarian chef Jonathan Vine agrees.

A vegetarian diet is full of antioxidants which protect the body from age-related damage by free radicals, said Vine, author of Vegetarian Weight Loss.

Other celebrity vegans include country singer Carrie Underwood, who lost 30 pounds on the vegan diet, as Celebrity Health Fitness has reported.

For exercise, Shania Twain does yoga and Pilates workouts to keep her body lean and toned.
Pilates is an excellent low-impact way to lose weight and tone your entire body, said fitness expert Cassey Ho, author of Hot Body Year Round.


Shania Twain’s anti-aging beauty secrets include Bag Balm, which was originally used to “soothe cows’ irritated udders” on milking cows.

Shania told People she massages Bag Balm on her face to keep it soft, moist and wrinkle-free.
“When I’ve been flying a lot and my skin is really dry, I’ll rub [Bag Balm] over my face and on my hair and leave it there all day,” said Twain.

Twain has kept a low profile since her devastating divorce in 2008, when her ex-husband (and the father of her 14-year-old son Eja), Mutt Lange, left Shania for her best friend, Marie-Anne Thiébaud.


In a bizarre “wife swap,” Mutt and Marie-Anne now live together. In 2011, Twain married Marie’s ex-husband, Frédéric Thiébaud. Shania said she has finally found happiness with Frederic.

Twain, who released her Greatest Hits album in 2004, dropped her latest album, Still the One in 2015. Shania is currently working on a new album.

5 Diet Hacks That Will Take You From Zero to Hero

We all know that with the many different diet theories in circulation it can be a challenge to know which one is right for you. And once you have selected one it can be even more of a challenge to stick to it! Research from Harvard Medical School has shown that these diet hacks will make turning your diet into a lifestyle as easy as 1 to 5.

 

1. Learn To Think About Food Differently

The bottom line to healthy eating is that we all need to learn to understand food – and the impact it has on our bodies – differently. The breakthrough diet research in the last decade has revealed a picture of healthy eating that wasn’t there before. We now understand how poisonous sugar is and how an acidic diet creates inflammation in the body. We also understand that the dietary guidelines of years passed are no longer applicable. While meat and potatoes may have been the accepted staple once upon a time, this is surely no longer the case.

Our attitudes need to change with the times and the growing base of evidence. We now know that vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and fish are best. If you focus on these you’re guaranteed a holistic, long term healthy eating strategy.  

2. Experiment With New Recipes & Meal Plans

You have to make healthy eating fun! Not only do you have boosted energy levels and a slim figure to look forward to. You also get to experiment with new recipes. Harvard Researchers recommend that you get creative and take chances. This will increase the likely hood of you sticking to your eating plan.

There are so many exciting healthy recipes out there. Not everything is for everyone, but you have a whole new taste palate to explore. Switch up meal plans weekly to keep it interesting and involve your partner or best friend. Healthy cooking could be your next big hobby!

 

3.  Slow Change Is Better

Change should not be done all at once. Multiple studies have shown the benefits of an increase in levels of change over time. You are more likely to make your diet into a lifestyle if you give both your brain and your body and opportunity to get used to it in stages. One step at a time is best – think the tortoise and the hare!

Harvard Medical School makes the following suggestions:

• Start with breakfast, switching from eggs, bacon, donuts, white toast, or bagels to oatmeal or bran cereal and fruit. If you just can’t spare 10 minutes for a sit-down breakfast, grab high-fiber cereal bars instead of donuts or muffins.
• Next, try out salads, low-fat yogurt or low-fat cottage cheese, tuna or peanut butter sandwiches (on low GI whole grain), and fruit for lunch.
• Snack on unsalted nuts, trail mix, fruit, raw veggies, rice cakes, or graham crackers. Try eating a few handfuls of a crunchy fiber cereals, or nibble on a cereal bar.
• For dinner, experiment with fish, skinless poultry, beans, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta, and, of course, salads and veggies.
• Fruit and low-fat frozen desserts are examples of desirable after-dinner treats.

As Harvard says: “Change slowly. By the time you are 40, you’ll have eaten some 40,000 meals — and lots of snacks besides. Give yourself time to change, targeting one item a week.

 

4. Be Relaxed About Your Diet

Being too strict with yourself is never going to work! Know your goals and why you value how you are eating. Educate yourself on the affects of various foods on the body and how diet impacts your health. This will keep you motivated in a healthy way.

You do, however, need to realise that your plate is not going to look perfect every single time and that is ok! Eight or nine times out of ten is far better than not at all.  Moderation is key.

“You will never find a perfect food. Not everything on your plate needs to have a higher purpose. Take your tastes and preferences into account. If roast beef is your favorite food, it is okay to eat it — but try to make it a Sunday treat instead of a daily staple. The choices are yours — and the better your overall diet, the more “wiggle room” you’ll have to indulge your passions,” say the researchers at Harvard Medical School.

 

5.  Take A Long Term View

Keep the bigger picture in mind! Understand your short and long term goals and make sure that you have action steps in place to achieve them. Know that the healthy eating decisions that you are making now will have a positive impact on your health for the rest of your life. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

“Don’t get down on yourself if you slip up or “cheat” from time to time. Don’t worry about every meal, much less every mouthful. Your nutritional peaks and valleys will balance out if your overall dietary pattern is sound,” the researchers add

Forget friends, family is the key to a long and happy life: Having lots of close relatives helps to reduce the chance of death in older adults

If you want to live for a long time, it might be wise to end any family feuds now.

Perhaps proving, ‘blood is thicker than water’, people with close family ties live longer than people with a network of close friends.

It seems for older adults, having more or closer family members in one’s social network - particularly a husband or wife - decreases their likelihood of death.

Having a larger or closer group of friends did not have that effect.

The findings surprised researchers, who thought that as we choose our friends, we might think our friendships would cater to our individual needs better than our kin, who we do not choose.

Study lead author Doctor James Iveniuk, of the University of Toronto in Canada, said: ‘We found that older individuals who had more family in their network, as well as older people who were closer with their family were less likely to die.

‘No such associations were observed for number of or closeness to friends.’

The study used nationally representative figures to investigate which aspects of social networks are most important for postponing mortality for people aged 57 up to 85.

Dr Iveniuk said: ‘Regardless of the emotional content of a connection, simply having a social relationship with another person may have benefits for longevity.’

He said he was surprised that feeling closer to family members and having more relatives as confidants decreased the risk of death for older adults, but that the same was not true of relationships with friends.

Dr Iveniuk added: ‘Because you can choose your friends, you might, therefore, expect that relationships with friends would be more important for mortality, since you might be better able to customise your friend network to meet your specific needs.

‘But that account isn’t supported by the data - it is the people who in some sense you cannot choose, and who also have little choice about choosing you, who seem to provide the greatest benefit to longevity.’

The four factors most consistently associated with reduced mortality risk were being married, larger network size, greater participation in social organisations, and feeling closer to confidants, which all mattered to about the same degree.

Factors found to be less important included time with confidants, access to social support, and feelings of loneliness.

Marriage was found to have positive effects on longevity, regardless of marital quality.

Dr Iveniuk said that the findings back up the substantial importance of family relationships for longevity.

He added: “Going back to the very first sociological theorists, many different thinkers have noted that there is some kind of special significance that people attribute to family ties, leading people to stay close to and support people who wouldn’t necessarily be individuals that they would associate with if they had the choice.”

The findings are due to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Sociological Association. 

By Colin Fernandez Science Correspondent For The Daily Mail

Women Live Longer When They're Surrounded By Nature, Science Says

By: Michelle Regalado

There's no better way to enjoy a beautiful summer's day than by heading outdoors and soaking in the sunshine. But there are plenty of reasons to explore nature aside from great weather. A new study has found that women who live in homes surrounded by trees and other greenery have lower mortality rates than those who don’t. That's right: living in an area surrounded by nature can help you live longer.

According to a new study published in Environmental Health Perspectives, researchers from the Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health used data from over 106,000 American women to compare each one's risk of mortality with the level of greenery around their homes (the latter of which was obtained via satellite imagery). The data, compiled from 2000 to 2008, showed a clear correlation between lower mortality rates and those living in greener surroundings.

Case in point? Women who were surrounded by nature reportedly had a whopping 34 percent lower rate of respiratory-related diseases and deaths, as well as a 13 percent lower rate of deaths from cancer. But the correlation wasn't just specific to those types of conditions. Women who lived in the greenest surroundings also had a lower mortality rate overall — a full 12 percent lower than those living in the least green areas.

There are a few obvious reasons for this. As you can probably guess, people who live in high-vegetation environments usually don't experience as much air and noise pollution or extreme heat as those living in city environments. But researchers also suggest that there's another cause of this link between nature and lower mortality rates and it actually makes perfect sense. Those surrounded by more greenery have more opportunity for outdoor exercise and social interaction — which, in turn, leads to lower levels of depression and stress and improved mental health.

 Bottom line: spending any time in nature is good for your health, but there are even bigger pros if you live somewhere surrounded by greenery. Looks like it may be time to look into fulfilling that lifelong dream of owning a house in the countryside

Slowing down aging

Krisel Macatangay, Viki Encarnacion, Christine Villongco, Maita Santiago, Kim Reyes and Karen Fabres at the launch of Watsons’ Kiss Aging  Goodbye Campaign

MANILA, Philippines – Celebrity and TV host Patty Laurel-Filart said the demands of family, motherhood and her job all take a toll on her skin. She admitted that she’s never one to fuss too much over her skin and, in fact, only started her anti-aging skin care regimen when she reached her 30s.

“In my 20s, I was low maintenance, I would try something trendy but that’s it. In my 30s, when I got married and had a child, I kinda forgot to take care of my skin. Now, I have a simple skin-care regimen that only takes five minutes,” Patty said at the launching of Watsons’ Kiss Aging Goodbye Campaign held at a Watsons branch in Podium.

With all the stress and bad habits that come with hectic, modern lives, women are aging faster than ever before, Maita Ancheta-Santiago, trading director (for beauty) of Watsons, told reporters at the launch.

And the signs — both internal and external, visible and invisible — start to manifest as early as your 20s.

“Women during their younger years didn’t think about getting crow’s feet, wrinkles, saggy skin and dark spots as they spend long days at work and late nights out,” she said.

“If you’re not careful, those cute little laugh lines, now making an early guest appearance, might just stay on until they’re full-fledged crow’s feet. But it’s never too early to start,” Santiago said.

Today, women give more importance to whitening products, but Santiago said it’s high time ladies think about starting an anti-aging skin care routine.

“In Japan and Korea, most women start their anti-aging regimen in their teens. So, they are not just born with a beautiful skin, they worked hard for their supple, smooth skin. In the Philippines, more women want whitening but I suggest that they also start an anti-aging routine,” she added.

“It’s not too late to try. If you just take the right measures early on, you can prevent the physical manifestations of aging,” Santiago added.

Watsons marketing director Viki Encarnacion, for her part, shared that Watson’s Kiss Aging Goodbye Campaign teaches their customers how to prevent the negative effects of aging by taking care of themselves inside and out.

“We are literally helping people ‘Look good. Feel great.’ And it’s a wonderful thing,” Encarnacion said.

Meanwhile, Patty noted that buying anti-aging skin care products should not cost you so much.

“There’s a misconception that you have to use expensive products if you want to start an anti-aging skin care regimen. You don’t have to spend so much. Today, there are a lot of value for money skin-care products that won’t cost you an arm and a leg. When I was pregnant with my son, I use rose hip oil at Watsons and it’s very affordable at P500. You just have to be creative, do your research, find a way to make it work. Be beautiful but don’t get broke,” said Patty, who has an online show with Nicole Hernandez and Kelly Misa titled Eat, Drink and Be Married.

Santiago said at Watsons they have a myriad of products that can help keep skin aging at bay.
“There’s the L’Oreal Dermo Expertise Revitalift Range — a skin care solution inspired by laser, that promises younger looking skin in four weeks. Or bring back your baby skin with Collagen by Watsons Intensive Nourishing Facial Mask, enriched with Collagen and Vitamin E to repair dryness and enhance skin’s elasticity,” Santiago said.

Today, topicals and creams are not the only way to have a great skin, now you can take tablets for that inner glow, Santiago said.

“A lot of the signs of aging we see on the outside are caused by the body breaking down on the inside. Calcium deficiency and lack of collagen are two common culprits. To help prevent a haggard look, you should give yourself the added nutrition you need in the form of food supplements and ingestible beauty aids. One of Watsons’ favorites is the iVi Collagen Ready-To-Drink, with 10,000 mg. of Collagen that helps smoothen fine lines and lighten dark spots,” she said.

Santiago said there are three things to remember if you like to look younger than your age.
“First, if you want to keep your beauty longer, keep your beauty bases covered from nutrition to skincare, inside and out. Two, you’re never too young to start looking old. Start preventive maintenance in your early 20s. If that ship has sailed, start as early as now. Three, there’s no better place to start your anti-aging regimen than the store that always brings you great beauty advice, amazing products and fantastic prices,” she enthused.

Studies vitamin niacinamide could be effective against aging

By LINDA J. SIMPSON
SPECIAL TO THE LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

One of the more recent, and more promising, breakthroughs in the anti-aging battle is a close relative of the humble vitamin niacin — the kind found in fortified cereals and other foods.

Known as niacinamide, this form of vitamin B3 (niacin)is gaining momentum as an effective ingredient for improving skin’s texture and appearance.

For decades, niacinamide has been used as an oral supplement for the treatment of inflammatory skin conditions, such as acne. But by including the ingredient in topically applied lotions, serums and creams, the number of new skin-care products containing the ingredient has soared. A search of Amazon.com using the sole word “niacinamide,” in the beauty and personal care category, resulted in 888 product hits.

The topical benefit claims of niacinamide include: minimizing lines and wrinkles; reducing hyper-pigmentation; improving prevention of moisture loss through the skin barrier; reducing pore size; and improving dull and sallow skin tones.

 

The promise of smooth, flawless skin is big business. In 2014, Americans spent about $2.8 billion on skin-care products, according to statista.com.

Many of those products claim to have cosmeceutical properties. While the FDA does not recognize the term, the cosmetic industry has coined it to refer to cosmetic products that have medicinal or druglike benefits.

So it comes down to the question: Do all the lotions, serums, toners and creams with niacinamide really work? Or is it just advertising hype?

PASSING THE KLIGMAN TEST

Dermatologists Jacquelyn Levin, Saira B. Momin and James Del Rosso of Las Vegas reviewed published scientific data on the common cosmeceutical ingredients niacinamide, retinoids, kinetin, soy isoflavones, soy protease inhibitors and green tea in the Journal of Clinical and Aesthetic Dermatology in February 2010. They sought answers to what many professionals consider the “gold standard” questions posed by Dr. Albert Kligman, the recognized father of cosmeceuticals, about the scientific rationale for ingredient use:

1. Does it penetrate? Is the active ingredient able to reach in significant concentrations, the deeper layer of the skin, the stratum corneum where the cellular changes occur?

2. Do we know how it works? Is there a known scientific mechanism of action?

3. Does it show clinical significance? That means published, peer-reviewed, double-blind, placebo-controlled, statistically significant clinical trials, not anecdotal or manufacturer’s claims.
The authors concluded, “Niacinamide is probably the closest ingredient investigated in this review to satisfy the three major questions in cosmeceutical ingredient analysis.”

 

CONSUMER TIPS

There are a few things for consumers to consider when incorporating niacinamide into their skin-care regimen.

“You want to look at the whole picture when it comes to products, not just the specific ingredient,” advises Lynda Moore, local licensed aesthetician.

Preparations come in varying degrees of concentration, ranging from 2 percent to 10 percent. Moore emphasizes the need for ingredients to work synergistically.

For example, an alcohol-based product would be at odds with niacinamide as an ingredient.

“Alcohol is very stripping to the skin so it is going to negate this product because niacinamide is trying to help with hydration to the skin,” Moore explains.

For Moore, a teenage and young adult acne sufferer, proper skin care isn’t a luxury — it is a necessity. An aesthetician for 28 years, Moore moved to Las Vegas from California in 1996. Prior to the opening of the Skin Bar in Henderson, Moore worked with Dr. Howard Murad, the founder of Murad Inc. The skin-care pioneer holds 19 patents for advances in the science of skin health.
“We live in the desert so our moisture evaporates into the air,” Moore notes. “You could put on moisturizer day and night and you still have that trans-epidermal water loss. This (niacinamide) actually helps to strengthen the barrier function of the skin.”

CAUTIONS

A consultation with an aesthetician or a dermatologist may be a good place to start when deciding which product to use.

Moore cautions, “It’s an expensive ingredient. So when you see niacinamide in a product, it’s not a two-dollar eye cream.”

Also, changes don’t happen overnight. We want to see immediate results and when we don’t, we assume the product doesn’t work.

“We want that (overnight) miracle,” Moore says. “When our skin cells turn over about every 28 days, they are going to see results in about a month — give or take.”

Moore encourages clients to take a selfie before starting a product then another one in two months to evaluate improvements.

Does this mean we can sunbathe, smoke, not exercise, stay up all night, eat unhealthy foods and still have great-looking skin as long as we use niacinamide?

No, niacinamide is not a magic potion.

“In addition to photoprotection and proper sunscreen use, which are extremely vital to healthy skin, inclusion of niacinamide in well-formulated skin-care products may help to maintain skin integrity and barrier protection, both of which are needed to keep skin smooth and healthy,” says Del Rosso, clinical professor of dermatology at Touro University Nevada and dermatologist at Lakes Dermatology.

IMPORTANCE BEYOND WRINKLES

With one in five Americans developing skin cancer in their lifetime, the research into finding effective, low cost, easy to administer, preventive agents has never been more important.

According to a recent report by Australian researchers, Diona Damian, Andrew Martin and Gary Halliday, published in the Spring 2016 Melanoma Letter, a publication of the Skin Cancer Foundation, niacinamide (also known as nicotinamide) is being studied as a pre-cancer and nonmelanoma chemopreventive agent.

In the past year, the researchers observed that both oral and topical nicotinamide replenish the cellular energy repair processes in the skin after normal metabolism or UV sunlight has depleted them.
This promising research suggests that nicotinamide “can significantly reduce recurrences of actinic keratosis, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma in patients with a history of these lesions,” wrote editors of the Melanoma Letter, Allan C. Halpern and Ashfaq A. Marghoob

Scientists unlock a secret to Latinos’ longevity, with hopes of slowing aging for everyone

A new way to measure how humans age suggests that Latinos withstand life’s wear and tear better than non-Latino Caucasians, and that they may have their Native American ancestors to thank for their longer lives.

The new findings offer some insight into a longstanding demographic mystery: that despite having higher rates of inflammation and such chronic diseases as obesity and diabetes, Latinos in the United States have a longer average lifespan than do non-Latino whites.

Those findings emerge from an intriguing effort to devise a biological clock — a standard measure of age more revealing than birthdays, walking speed, wrinkled skin or twinkly eyes. By doing so, researchers hope to glean why some people die young while others live long, to understand what chronic diseases have to do with aging, and to predict and increase patients’ lifespans. A reliable measure of biological age could also set a standard by which to judge the effectiveness of anti-aging therapies.

At UCLA, bioinformatician Steve Horvath has devised a measure of aging that reflects the activity level of the epigenome, the set of signals that prompts an individual’s genes to change their function across the lifespan in response to new demands.

Horvath’s “epigenetic clock” captures a key feature of aging: that as we grow older, there are complex but predictable changes in the rate at which our genes are switched on and off by a chemical process called DNA methylation. To arrive at a single measure of a person’s biological age and then compute his or her speed of aging, Horvath has proposed to measure epigenetic activity at 353 sites in a person’s genome.
 
Earlier efforts to devise an epigenetic clock suggested that biological age, and the speed of aging, not only differ among populations and from person to person: the tissues in each of us may age at different rates. That may explain, for instance, why some organs and tissues are more vulnerable than others to such age-related diseases as cancer.

The new study, published this week in the journal Genome Biology, set out to refine and test that clock. To do so, Horvath and his colleagues analyzed blood, saliva and lymphoblastoid samples collected from 5,162 participants in a wide range of studies.

Those participants included not only black, white and Latino Americans but also Han Chinese, members of the Tsimane Amerindian tribe in South America, and two separate groups of Central Africans: rain-forest-dwelling hunter-gatherers and agrarians living in grasslands and open savannas.
The Tsimane, an indigenous people who forage and cultivate crops in the lowlands of Bolivia, offer an especially good test of the epigenetic clock: constantly bombarded with bacterial, viral and parasitic infections, the Tsimane typically experience high rates of inflammation, which has widely been seen as a marker for aging. But they rarely show risk factors for heart disease or develop type 2 diabetes as they age, and obesity, high blood pressure and problematic cholesterol are virtually nonexistent.

The epigenetic clock found that the Tsimane aged even more slowly than Latinos. The biological clock calculated the age of their blood as two years younger than Latinos and four years younger than Caucasians.

But that finding was despite strong evidence that, over the age of 35, a Tsimane’s immune system was close to exhausted and his inflammation levels “make him look like a 90 year-old,” said Horvath.
“This result sheds light on what is frequently called the Hispanic paradox,” said Horvath. “It suggests that what gives Hispanics their advantage is really their Native American ancestry, because they share ancestry with these indigenous Americans.”

Horvath emphasized that Latinos’ slower aging rate cannot be explained by lifestyle factors such as diet, socioeconomic status, education or obesity, because researchers  adjusted such factors.
The study may also shed light on a different demographic oddity: that once African Americans have reached the age of 85, they tend to live longer than Caucasians of the same age. Using a new gauge of biological aging, the authors of the latest research found that older African Americans age more slowly than do Caucasians of the same chronological age.

The measure also finds that women age more slowly than men, and that aging is accelerated in those with less education and slows with higher educational attainment. Those findings, too, may help explain longstanding observations that stir curiosity: that despite suffering more illness, women statistically live longer than men, and that more education is linked to longer lifespan. 

Because they track nicely with such baffling demographic patterns, the new study’s findings offer some validation of the epigenetic clock. Several other studies have begun to validate the clock’s accuracy and reliability, testing it in populations known to age differently from the norm, including people with Down syndrome, HIV infection and Parkinson’s disease. In three separate studies, the clock has been found to accurately predict mortality from any cause in large populations, even after researchers adjusted for chronological age and a range of factors that can erode health and hasten death.

“This effort is very novel and exciting,” said Max Guo, chief of the division of aging biology at the National Institute of Aging, which has funded Horvath’s research. Guo said that, ultimately, biological clocks that use large panels of markers --not just epigenetics but other measures of well-being — would likely be needed to capture the complexity of aging.  “But this is promising,” he said.

Melissa Healy

Copyright © 2016, Los Angeles Times

108-year-old credits 'just simple living' for her longevity

EAST PEORIA — Doris Snyder stayed up late one night last week to make sure she'd reach a milestone she never would have thought possible.

"I make sure I stay up right till the dot of midnight to make sure I get that day in. And this year especially. I thought, I'm so close to being 108, so I stayed up right till exact midnight to make sure I made it," she said from her room in Riverview Senior Living Community.

Snyder, born Aug. 10, 1908, in Boston, had celebrated her 108th birthday a few days earlier with 55 friends and family members but wanted to be entirely sure she'd actually reached the age that only about 0.035 percent of people will live to, and one she'd never expected to reach herself.

The year Snyder was born, Teddy Roosevelt was nearing the end of his tenure as president, the 46th star was added to the American flag for the newly named state of Oklahoma, Henry Ford produced the first Model T and the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. And since then, she's seen a lot.
Snyder moved to Chicago in 1918, the year World War I ended.

"Seems like I remember them yelling, 'Extra, extra! War ended!' They didn't have TV or radio then, and it was very special just to get a newspaper and have these extras out," she said.

She and her first husband moved from Chicago to Peoria when he was transferred for his job, which she notes they were lucky he had during the Great Depression. Her husband was bringing in $23 a week, and she earned an additional $10 as his assistant.

To make it to 108, Snyder credits "just simple living." She always was athletic, she noted, and enjoyed swimming, playing tennis and badminton, biking, horseback riding, dancing and walking with friends. She watched what she ate.

"I'v never smoked, never even tried. And I don't care for soda pop and drinks and french fries and greasy foods. I dodge them. I eat carefully," she said.

At 108, she's outlasted many of her friends and family members, and many of her own possessions. The carpet in her East Bluff home had needed replacing for nearly 30 years, she said, but she didn't bother to replace it, figuring she wouldn't be around much longer.

"And the carpet just wore out completely, and I'm still going strong," she said with a laugh.
She hasn't had a driver's license since she gave hers up voluntarily at age 97. She still has her mind, she's proud to say, and impressive hearing and sight. She reads the Journal Star every day, she said. Without glasses.

Being 108, she said, isn't all that bad.

"I like it. I hope to make it to 109, 110," she said. "But I don't really expect to, just like I didn't expect this either."

Laura Nightengale is the Journal Star health and lifestyle reporter.

You could also die early when your ‘good’ cholesterol is too high

 
 HDL has a protective role, carrying cholesterol away from the arteries to the liver, but too much of it can have a negative health impact. Photo: AFP/Shutterstock

Too much of a good thing is always not… good. We’ve always been told to keep our good cholesterol levels up and to lower our LDLs to avoid heart disease, but now there seems to be a ceiling of how high your good cholesterol can be.

A study has linked excessively high levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL), often dubbed “good cholesterol”, to premature death.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in the US investigated HDL to establish whether its role was always beneficial.

They found that HDL levels that were either too low or too high could have negative effects on health.

Previously, only LDL (low-density lipoprotein) – known as “bad cholesterol” – had been an subject of close consideration when interpreting blood test results.

Excess LDL favours the build-up of deposits on artery walls, leading to atherosclerosis, or the hardening and narrowing of the arteries. This is the main risk factor for strokes and heart attacks.
Although HDL has a protective role, carrying cholesterol away from the arteries to the liver, this epidemiological study – which followed 1.7 million male veterans for 10 years – found that very high levels of HDL could increase the risk of premature death.


The researchers established that patients with kidney disease often had lower levels of HDL cholesterol, which could explain their increased risk of premature death. They also found that levels of HDL cholesterol that were too high or too low were linked to an increased risk of early death, regardless of kidney health.

In other words, the scientists found a U-shaped correlation between levels of HDL and early death, with increased risk at the highest and lowest ends of the scale.

Generally, dietary intake of antioxidants such as vitamin E, vitamin C and beta-carotene, found in fruit and vegetables, and omega-3 fatty acids can help limit the build-up of “bad cholesterol” on artery walls. However, all types of meat – even lean meats (offal, chicken, etc.) – are sources of cholesterol, particularly offal.

According to a recent Canadian study, barley and oats could reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease linked to “bad cholesterol” by 7%. These two cereals are particularly rich in beta-glucan, a highly viscous soluble fiber that can be found in brans, flours, ground grains or flakes.

The study was published in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.– AFP Relaxnews

These unique people might hold a key to defeating aging

By Kevin Loria

Loja is a remote place, a province located in the mountains in the south of Ecuador. To the east lies a forest that quickly becomes the Amazon. The border with Peru is not much further south, though journeys in this region tend to be slow.

In this hard-to-reach zone live a number of people — about 100 — with a special trait: They seem to be protected from certain diseases that devastate the rest of the world.
No matter how old they get, almost none die of cancer. No matter what they eat, they don’t seem to develop diabetes.

This group represents approximately one-third of the global population of people with what’s known as Laron syndrome, a genetic disorder that makes the body unable to use growth hormone. The primary symptom of the disorder is dwarfism, but as many years of study have shown, the syndrome also seems to protect against cancer, diabetes, and other diseases that are some of the most common causes of death in the world.

What’s more, scientists think that if we can understand this unusual constellation of symptoms, there’s a chance we could replicate them. It might be possible to take the biological pathway that causes these effects in people with Laron syndrome and recreate it in otherwise healthy adults, according to Valter Longo, a professor of gerontology and biological science and the director of the USC Longevity Institute.

Doing so, we might be able to drastically reduce the number of people who suffer from diabetes and cancer, and potentially also from autoimmune diseases, Alzheimer’s, and other illnesses, according to Longo. This wouldn’t just increase people’s lifespans — they’d stay healthier for those longer years too.

“Treating aging used to be just an idea that was confronted with skepticism, [people would say] ‘you’re going make them live longer sick,’” Longo tells Business Insider. But he says that what they’ve seen with people with Laron syndrome is that lives don’t have to be crippled by chronic disease. In animals where researchers have activated these same biological pathways, the animals have lived longer, disease-free lives.

Activating the key

People with Laron syndrome differ from others with dwarfism in an important way: Their bodies still produce growth hormone. But their livers can’t process it to generate what’s really needed: something called insulin-like growth factor-1, or IGF-1.

The lack of IGF-1 prevents growth and makes people with Laron syndrome much more sensitive to insulin, which helps regulate blood sugar. That better regulation of blood sugar is what researchers think prevents diabetes.

Cancer protection comes from the same thing that prevents growth. Cancer itself is a disease of growth, where the process of cell division goes out of control. People with agromegaly — that’s an excess of growth hormone (like André the Giant) — have an increased risk of cancer. Interestingly, they also have a higher risk of developing diabetes.

Longo’s work has focused on developing a diet that involves a five-day fast once a month every few months or so. During those five days, people consume a very limited amount of food with precisely calculated amounts of protein, fat, and carbohydrates.

So far, his research has shown that eating this way can lower IGF-1 levels in already healthy adults. Theoretically, this should decrease risks for cancer, diabetes, and other diseases, though longer term studies are still being carried out to confirm these results. Other researchers who are also interested in the benefits of fasting are working on other ways to replicate different biological pathways that are activated when people don’t eat or eat less.

Longo’s research is based on an idea that healthy people should have normal levels of IGF-1 until they are fully grown. If levels tapered off after that, we could be healthier for longer, less susceptible to the illnesses of aging.

He hopes that this research could help people with Laron syndrome as well, though in a different way. Most of the people whom he and other researchers have studied in Ecuador don’t suffer from cancer or diabetes, but they do have other issues. Many die or are injured in accidents. Dealing with their short stature has been hard for many of them, and so they have higher rates of depression, alcoholism, and suicide.

Longo tells Business Insider that he hopes to raise enough money to provide IGF-1 to people with Laron syndrome who have yet to go through puberty. He’s previously estimated that doing so would cost about $2,000 per month per person.

“The idea,” Longo explains, “is to have a successful company based on the technology derived from the Larons,” which could provide the necessary funding.
“It’s going very slow,” he says. “We are, however, optimistic.”

1st 'true' anti-aging drug seeks human subjects

A promising compound which has been shown to significantly slow the aging process in mice might be tried on humans as early as next month, scientists say. If the trials work out well it would be the first genuine anti-aging drug to appear on the markets. 

According to Japan News, Researchers at Keio University and Washington University in St. Louis are set to begin first clinical trials of the compound known as nicotinamide mono nucleotide (NMN), previously tested on mice.

NMN is a substance produced within the bodies of living things which may be also found in a variety of food products, such as milk.

Scientists believe in NMN’s potential to extend human life as experiments on mice showed that the compound has the ability to counter the declines in metabolism, eyesight and glucose intolerance which come into play as we get older. It was also found that the compound activated proteins called sirtuins, whose production decreases due to the aging process.

If the scientists’ plan to test the drug on humans is approved by Keio University’s Research Ethics Committee, the new drug will be given to 10 healthy volunteers as early as next month.

“We’ve confirmed a remarkable effect in the experiment using mice, but it’s not clear yet how much [the compound] will affect humans,” Professor Shinichiro Imai of Washington University said, as cited by Japan News.

“We’ll carefully conduct the study, which I hope will result in important findings originating in Japan.”

Although scientists express great hope that the substance will work as an elixir of life, it is not exactly clear how the compound will behave when applied to humans.

“The age-retarding effect of NMN has been only detected in such animals as mice. It’s necessary to carefully inspect the effects [of the substance],” said Professor Daisuke Koya of Kanazawa Medical University, an expert in the aging process, Japan News reports.

According to Japan News, if proven safe and efficient in clinical trials, the drug is most likely to be distributed as a product similar to ‘food with functional claims.’

The study comes at a time when the Japanese population continues to age and birth rates are down.
Starting next fiscal year the Japanese government promised to increase investments into anti-aging studies and offer full-fledged support to the research.

NMN is not the only anti-aging drug being examined by scientists. Last year the experimental Alzheimer's drug J147 was discovered to have anti-aging effects on mice. Clinical trials of the diabetes drug metformin are also planned for this year.

Anti-ageing drug breakthrough

Drugs that combat ageing may be available within five years, following landmark work led by Australian researcher, Professor David Sinclair

The work, published in the March 8 issue of Science, finally proves that a single anti-ageing enzyme in the body can be targeted, with the potential to prevent age-related diseases and extend lifespans.

The paper shows all of the 117 drugs tested work on the single enzyme through a common mechanism. This means that a whole new class of anti-ageing drugs is now viable, which could ultimately prevent cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and type 2 diabetes.

“Ultimately, these drugs would treat one disease, but unlike drugs of today, they would prevent 20 others,” says the lead author of the paper, Professor Sinclair, from UNSW Medicine, who is based at Harvard University. “In effect, they would slow ageing.”

The target enzyme, SIRT1, is switched on naturally by calorie restriction and exercise, but it can also be enhanced through activators. The most common naturally-occurring activator is resveratrol, which is found in small quantities in red wine, but synthetic activators with much stronger activity are already being developed.

Although research surrounding resveratrol has been going for a decade, until now the basic science had been contested. Despite this, there have already been promising results in some trials with implications for cancer, cardiovascular disease and cardiac failure, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases, fatty liver disease, cataracts, osteoporosis, muscle wasting, sleep disorders and inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis, arthritis and colitis (inflammatory bowel disease).
“In the history of pharmaceuticals, there has never been a drug that tweaks an enzyme to make it run faster,” says Professor Sinclair, a geneticist with the Department of Pharmacology at UNSW.
The technology was sold to pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline in 2008[i]. Four thousand synthetic activators, which are 100 times as potent as a single glass of red wine, have been developed – the best three are in human trials.

“Our drugs can mimic the benefits of diet and exercise, but there is no impact on weight,” says Professor Sinclair, who suggests the first therapeutic to be marketed will be for diabetes.
There have been limited trials in people with type 2 diabetes and the skin inflammatory disease, psoriasis. There were benefits to the metabolism in the first group and a reduction in skin redness in the second.

The drugs can be administered orally, or topically. So far, there have been no drugs developed targeting ageing skin, but one major skin care range has developed a crème with resveratrol in it.
While any drug would be strictly prescribed for certain conditions, Professor Sinclair suggests that one day, they could be taken orally as a preventative. This would be in much the same way as statin drugs are commonly prescribed to prevent, instead of simply treating, cardiovascular disease.
In animal models, overweight mice given synthetic resveratrol were able to run twice as far as slim mice and they lived 15 per cent longer.

“Now we are looking at whether there are benefits for those who are already healthy. Things there are also looking promising,” says Professor Sinclair, who also heads the Lowy Cancer Research Centre’s Laboratory for Ageing Research at UNSW.

“We’re finding that ageing isn’t the irreversible affliction that we thought it was,” he says. “Some of us could live to 150, but we won’t get there without more research.”

Susi Hamilton, UNSW Media Office.

[i] Professor Sinclair formed a started up company Sirtris to develop the anti-ageing technology. This was subsequently sold to GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). Professor Sinclair is now a scientific advisor to GSK. Several other authors on the paper work for GSK or an affiliated company.