Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers from the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, along with colleagues from Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital, have identified remarkably consistent alterations in gene expression within the brains of individuals with schizophrenia and older adults. This discovery points to a shared biological foundation underlying the cognitive difficulties frequently observed in patients with schizophrenia and in aging populations.

In a study published in Nature, the team describes how they analyzed gene expression in more than a million individual cells from postmortem brain tissue from 191 people. They found that in individuals with schizophrenia and in older adults without schizophrenia, two brain cell types called astrocytes and neurons reduced their expression of genes that support the junctions between neurons called synapses, compared to healthy or younger people. They also discovered tightly synchronized gene expression changes in the two cell types: when neurons decreased the expression of certain genes related to synapses, astrocytes similarly changed expression of a distinct set of genes that support synapses.

The team called this coordinated set of changes the Synaptic Neuron and Astrocyte Program (SNAP). Even in healthy, young people, the expression of the SNAP genes always increased or decreased in a coordinated way in their neurons and astrocytes.

Results of DNA studies also seem to confirm the idea that optimism is an effective tool for slowing down cellular aging, of which telomere shortening is a biomarker. (Telomeres are the protective caps at the end of our chromosomes.) This research is still in progress, but the early results are informative. In 2012, Elizabeth Blackburn, who three years earlier shared a Nobel Prize for her work in discovering the enzyme that replenishes the telomere, and Elissa Epel at the University of California at San Francisco, in collaboration with other institutions, identified a correlation between pessimism and accelerated telomere shortening in a group of postmenopausal women. A pessimistic attitude, they found, may indeed be associated with shorter telomeres. Studies are moving toward larger sample sizes, but it already seems apparent that optimism and pessimism play a significant role in our health as well as in the rate of cellular senescence. More recently, in 2021, Harvard University scientists, in collaboration with Boston University and the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan, Italy, observed the telomeres of 490 elderly men in the Normative Health Study on U.S. veterans. Subjects with strongly pessimistic attitudes were associated with shorter telomeres — a further encouraging finding in the study of those mechanisms that make optimism and pessimism biologically relevant.

Optimism is thought to be genetically determined for only 25 percent of the population. For the rest, it’s the result of our social relationships or deliberate efforts to learn more positive thinking. In an interview with Jane Brody for the New York Times, Rozanski explained that “our way of thinking is habitual, unaware, so the first step is to learn to control ourselves when negative thoughts assail us and commit ourselves to change the way we look at things. We must recognize that our way of thinking is not necessarily the only way of looking at a situation. This thought alone can lower the toxic effect of negativity.” For Rozanski, optimism, like a muscle, can be trained to become stronger through positivity and gratitude, in order to replace an irrational negative thought with a positive and more reasonable one.

While the exact mechanisms remain under investigation, a growing body of research suggests that optimism plays a significant role in promoting both physical and mental well-being. Cultivating a positive outlook, then, can be a powerful tool for fostering resilience, managing stress, and potentially even enhancing longevity. By adopting practices that nurture optimism, we can empower ourselves to navigate life’s challenges with greater strength and live healthier, happier lives.

Research in mice shows limited intakes of one particular essential amino acid can slow the impacts of aging and even lengthen their lifespan.

Scientists are now wondering if these findings could help people improve their longevity and quality of life.

Isoleucine is one of three branched-chain amino acids we use to build proteins in our bodies. It is essential for our survival, but since our cells can’t produce it from scratch, we have to get it from sources like eggs, dairy, soy protein and meats.

Where are the best places to find longevity research? We just updated this list of top anti-aging research journals; any we missed?

Finding quality life-extension research is tough, so we’ve compiled the best anti-aging research journals and resources, all in one place!

Our brains change more rapidly at various times of our lives, as though life’s clock was ticking faster than usual. Childhood, adolescence and very old age are good examples of this.

Yet for much of adulthood, the same clock seems to tick fairly regularly. One lap around the Sun; one year older.

However, there may be a stage of life when the brain’s clock starts speeding up. The brain starts changing without you necessarily noticing it. It may even be caused (partly) by what’s in your blood.

More and more people around the world are taking their chances that science will advance significantly in the future so their preserved, frozen bodies can be revived back to life.

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Welcome back to Virtual Reality James! In this exciting video, we delve into the groundbreaking topic of Japan’s Anti-Aging Vaccine and explore the future of longevity. Join us as we uncover the latest scientific advancements and reveal how this revolutionary vaccine could potentially transform the way we age.

Discover the secrets behind this cutting-edge technology that aims to slow down the aging process and enhance our quality of life. We’ll explore the science behind the vaccine, its potential benefits, and the implications it may have on society as a whole.

Continue reading “Japan’s Anti-Aging Vaccine: The Future of Longevity Revealed” »

Join us on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/MichaelLustgartenPhDDiscount Links: Epigenetic, Telomere Testing: https://trudiagnostic.com/?irclickid=U-s3Ii2r7x…

The field of aging research has made significant progress over the last three decades, reaching a stage where we now understand the underlying mechanisms of the aging process. Moreover, the knowledge has broadened to include techniques that quantify aging, decelerate its process, as well as sometimes reverse aging.

To date, twelve hallmarks of aging have been identified; these include reduced mitochondrial function, loss of stem cells, increased cellular senescence, telomere shortening, and impaired protein and energy homeostasis. Biomarkers of aging help to understand age-related changes, track the physiological aging process and predict age-related diseases [1].

Longevity. Technology: Biological information is stored in two main ways, the genomes consisting of nucleic acids, and the epigenome, consisting of chemical modifications to the DNA as well as histone proteins. However, biological information can be lost over time as well as disrupted due to cell damage. How can this loss be overcome? In the 1940s, American mathematician and communications engineer Claude Shannon came up with a neat solution to prevent the loss of information in communications, introducing an ‘observer’ that would help to ensure that the original information survives and is transmitted [2]. Can these ideas be applied to aging?