Aging

Botox and face lifts only give the appearance that you've turned back the clock, and although expensive procedural looks are deceiving, your telomeres don't lie.  As your cells divide, telomeres become shorter, eventually leading to cell death over time.  Unfortunately, scientists are far from curing this universal "disease" known as aging.  However, understanding the mechanisms of aging will have a more immediate impact on the development of stem cell therapies, and researchers at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden have discovered that the female egg is capable of…

A new study says that some aspects of peoples' cognitive skills, like making rapid comparisons, remembering unrelated information and detecting relationships, will peak at about the age of 22 and then begin a slow decline starting around age 27.Timothy Salthouse, a University of Virginia professor of psychology and the study's lead investigator, and a team conducted the study during a seven-year period, working with 2,000 healthy participants between the ages of 18 and 60.Participants were asked to solve various puzzles, remember words and details from stories, and identify patterns in an…

40 is the new 30, but maybe it should be the new 80. A report from BBC says mental abilities start to dwindle at age 27, "marking the start of old age." The story refers to a study by Timothy Salthouse, University of Virginia, published as an open peer commentary manuscript in April's Neurobiology of Aging. About 2,000 subjects solved puzzles, recalled words and recognized patterns as a measure of mental agility, and in nine out of 12 tests the average age at which the top performance was achieved was 22. The first age at which there was any marked decline was at 27 in tests of brain speed…

Who hasn't tried to bleach their hair with hydrogen peroxide  in college?    I can't tell you how many young scientists we know who tried to go for that young Reed Richards look. It turns out that hydrogen peroxide may be responsbile for bleached hair in aging also, though not intentionally.    Researchers of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz in Germany nd the University of Bradford  say they have now unlocked the secret of hair turning white or gray in old age. According to them, free oxygen radicals are significantly involved in the loss of hair color.…

The theory that a higher metabolism means a shorter lifespan may have reached the end of its own life, according to a study published in the journal Physiological and Biochemical Zoology. The study, led by Lobke Vaanholt (University of Groningen, The Netherlands), found that mice with increased metabolism live just as long as those with slower metabolic rates. The theory that fast-living animals die young, known as the rate-of-living theory, was first proposed in the 1920s. The premise is simple: Aging is the inevitable byproduct of energy expenditure. The faster you expend energy, the faster…

We know that lifespan can be extended in some animals by restricting calories such as sugar intake shortly after birth.   Université de Montréal scientists now say that it's not sugar itself that is important in this process but the ability of cells to sense its presence. Aging is a complex phenomenon and the mechanisms underlying aging are yet to be explained. What researchers do know is that there is a clear relationship between aging and calorie intake. For example, mice fed with half the calories they usually eat can live 40 percent longer. How does this work?  As part of the…

A new hypothesis, published in today's Nature, suggests that Alzheimer's may be caused by a normal prenatal developmental process gone awry in the adult brain. Before you cast aside years of beta-amyloid research or proclaim a cure is imminent, relax - the results are only from lab and mouse studies. The research indicates that beta-amyloid precursor protein "and DR6 are components of a neuronal self-destruction pathway, and suggests that an extracellular fragment of APP, acting via DR6 and caspase 6, contributes to Alzheimer's disease." When prenatal brains are developing…

- Bioidentical Hormones for Physical Rejuvenation and Fitness "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" has come to the movie theatres around the globe. Benjamin Button is born with the appearance and physical maladies of an elderly man but continuously growing younger - ailments and visible signs of aging disappear. While in the film the effect of rejuvenation was achieved by changing actors, make up, and digital processing, modern medical technology can provide gentle rejuvenation of the body by up to 15 years. DDr. Karl-Georg Heinrich, Vienna-based expert in anti-ageing and cosmetic surgery…

A study from the Harokopio University of Athens (Greece) says that adherence to a dietary pattern close to the Mediterranean diet, with high consumption of fish and olive oil and low red meat intake, has a significant impact in women skeletal health. Results suggest that this eating pattern could have bone-preserving properties throughout adult life. Diet is one of the modifiable factors for the development and maintenance of bone mass. The nutrients of most obvious relevance to bone health are calcium and phosphorus because they compose roughly 80% to 90% of the mineral content of bone;…

Participating in certain mental activities, like reading magazines or crafting in middle age or later in life, may delay or prevent memory loss, according to a study released today. The study involved 197 people between the ages of 70 and 89 with mild cognitive impairment, or diagnosed memory loss, and 1,124 people that age with no memory problems. Both groups answered questions about their daily activities within the past year and in middle age, when they were between 50 to 65 years old.  They found that during later years, reading books, playing games, participating in computer…