Aging Matters
A funny thing happened along the way to testing a carbon nanostructure for toxicity. The lab rats who got the toxin lived twice as long. Is there a possibility here for human health? Three Allotropes of Carbon When I went to school, they taught us that carbon was found in nature in two elemental … Read more
An eminent Russian biochemist has been working fifteen years to get the cell’s most active anti-oxidant into the mitochondria, which is the locus of its action. Called “SkQ” for short, his designer drug administered in food, has been shown to make mice live longer; and topically it can induce regression of eye diseases in rodents, … Read more
Last week, I wrote aspects of aging that appear to be active self-destruction. I mentioned four such processes that might make promising targets for anti-aging therapies: inflammation, immune derangement, cell suicide (or apoptosis) and telomere shortening. I promised more detail to follow We used to think the body wears out with accumulated damage. In order to … Read more
Most people think of aging as passive – something that happens to your body. Random mutations occur faster than the body can fix them. Cholesterol deposits build up in the arteries. Above all, oxidation damages the body’s delicate chemistry, and this affects the ability to fix other damage. But a new view is emerging, in … Read more