anti-aging tagged posts

Your gut microbes can be anti-aging—scientists are uncovering how to keep your microbiome youthful

People have long given up on the search for the Fountain of Youth, a mythical spring that could reverse aging. But for some scientists, the hunt has not ended—it’s just moved to a different place. These modern-day Ponce de Leóns are investigating whether gut microbes hold the secret to aging well.

The gut microbiome refers to the vast collection of microscopic organisms—bacteria, fungi, and viruses—that largely inhabit the colon. These microbes aid in digestion and produce molecules that affect your physiology and psychology. The composition of the microbiome is influenced by a combination of factors, including genetics, diet, the environment, medications, and age.

I’m a microbiology professor and author of “Pleased to Meet Me: Genes, Germs and the Curious Forces That Mak...

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Do Women Age differently from Men?

Rapamycin prolongs lifespan only in female fruit flies.
© K. Link

The effect of medicines on women and men can differ significantly. This also applies to the currently most promising anti-aging drug rapamycin, as researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing in Cologne and University College London have now shown. They report in Nature Aging that the drug only prolongs the lifespan of female fruit flies, but not that of males.

In addition, rapamycin only slowed the development of age-related pathological changes in the gut in female flies. The researchers conclude that the biological sex is a crucial factor in the effectiveness of anti-aging drugs.

The life expectancy of women is significantly higher than that of men...

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Research sheds new light on effects of Dietary Restriction

Research at MDI Biological Laboratory sheds new light on effects of dietary restriction
C. elegans. Credit: MDI Biological Laboratory

In new research, Aric N. Rogers, Ph.D., who studies the cellular and molecular mechanisms of aging at the MDI Biological Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine, has discovered that muscle may be a protected tissue under conditions of dietary restriction, or DR.

Dietary restriction, in which calories are restricted without malnutrition, is one of the most robust anti-aging interventions. When confronted with a scarcity of nutrients, an organism conserves resources by lowering the translation, or production, of proteins, which is one of the most energetically expensive processes in the cell. Proteins serve as the building blocks for tissues and organs and perform vital physiological functions.

The conservation of cellular resources through red...

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Senolytic Drugs Reverse Damage caused by Senescent Cells in Mice

D + Q reduces senescent cell abundance and decreases proinflammatory cytokine secretion in human adipose tissue.

D + Q reduces senescent cell abundance and decreases proinflammatory cytokine secretion in human adipose tissue.

Injecting senescent cells into young mice results in a loss of health and function but treating the mice with a combination of two existing drugs cleared the senescent cells from tissues and restored physical function. The drugs also extended both life span and health span in naturally aging mice, according to a new study in Nature Medicine, published on July 9, 2018.
A research team led by James L. Kirkland, M.D., Ph.D., of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, found that injecting even a small number of senescent cells into young, healthy mice causes damage that can result in physical dysfunction...
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