Comprehensive Index of Posts to Josh Mitteldorf’s Aging Blog (2012 –
Sept-Dec 2012
Can telomere herapies help us live longer?
Vitamin D and Aspirin
Is Metformin an Anti-Aging Drug?
Anti-oxidants: A Disappointment or Worse
Mortality and Life Expectancy
Telomerase as a Fountain of Youth
What would it mean to live forever?
Rising Life Expectancy, but not in the US
Can having children help you live longer?
Ideal Weight an Illusion
Jan-Mar 2013
Is Aging Active Self-Destruction?
How can we Stop Killing Ourselves (4 modes of programmed self-destruction)
SkQ: Putting the Brakes on Cell Suicide
Spectacular success with Buckyballs
Declining Force of Natural Selection
The China Study (veganism)
DNA Methylation – an aging clock
Cold temperature, life span, rate-of-living hypothesis
Thymic Involution
Resveratrol & Sirtuins
Deprenyl
Young Blood, Katcher, Heterochronic Plasma Exchange
Apr-Jun 2013
Immune System and Cancer
Mutilevel Selection and Evolution of Aging I
Mutilevel Selection and Evolution of Aging II
Intermittent Fasting
Nervous System controls rate of aging
Methionine Restriction
“Natural anti-aging” an oxymoron
Short takes from AGE mtg 2013
How to be skinny (weight loss tips)
Dietary Salt: Science corrects a long-standing error
Rhodiola
July-Sept 2013
Demographic Theory of Aging
Cell Phones and Cancer
Evolution of Evolution (Evolvability 1)
Evolution of Evolution (Evolvability 2)
Osteoporosis
How does aspirin work?
(Does it extend life by thinning the blood or by reducing inflammation? Only the latter can be considered truly anti-aging)
Meditation and Longevity
Natural selection has rewarded those who contribute to the community with long life
New Take on Free Radicals
Conference Report: SENS-6
Creative deprivation: how to get less from your food
Aging and LIfe Extension: Unexpected Lessons from Evolution
Oct-Dec 2013
Combining biochemical pathways: recipe for the Youth Pill
How is sex like Obamacare? (The conundrum of the evolution of sex)
Within the paradigm of the “Selfish Gene”, there is no way that gene sharing could have evolved as an adaptation. But sex DID evolve. This alone should make us wary of the selfish gene.)
How does the body’s hormonal signaling change with age?
Signal molecules in the blood: what do we have too much as we age?
Signal molecules in the blood: what do we lose with age?
Exercise because it feels good! (Longer life is a fringe benefit)
The Selfish Gene vs Multilevel Selection: Aging doesn’t Fit
The Selfish Gene can’t Explain Aging – but neither can Multi-level selection
Political and “moral” opposition to the anti-aging program
Anti-aging anti-depressants
Love of life? or Fear of death? Why do we wish to live longer?
Jan-Mar 2014
Comprehensive Review of Anti-aging Supplements (points to AgingAdvice.org)
MitoQ and SkQ – designer anti-oxidants that are targeted to the mitochondria
Telomerase activation: The most promising medical technology on the horizon
A new way to eliminate senescent cells and a simpler way to make stem cells
A heavy hitter weighs in against evolutionary theory
Anti-oxidants can nullify the benefits of exercise
A well-known Anti-aging Supplement
One-minute Workouts
Mitigating risk of Alzheimer’s Disease: More important than we thought
A one-man experiment in radical anti-aging
“Life extension supplements” – a reality check
Apr-Jun 2014
Salt is good for you
Build exercise into your day
The body doesn’t just wear out as we get older (entropy, damage theories of aging)
Lamarckian Inheritance: Passing what you have learned to your children
Whole Turmeric better than Curcumin?
GDF11 – A Hormonal Candidate for Rejuvenation (parabiosis, Wager, Conboy, Rubin)
Cholesterol Controversy – Part I
Cholesterol, Part II
Three-day fast: Day four (Valter Longo)
Human mortality, Individual and Collective (environmental politics, ecosystem collapse, existential threats)
Anisimov – Russian Optimist on Longevity (short peptides, epithalamin, epitalon)
July-Sept 2014
Vegetarian diet contributes to longevity
Origin of Life, Part I
Origin of Life, Part II
How Aging contributes to Evolvability
Oxytocin, the “love hormone”, is also a longevity hormone
Questioning the FDA decision to back away from recommending aspirin
Notes from Rejuvenation Biotech Conference in Santa Clara
Imminent test of transfusions with young blood as a treatment for Alzheimer’s
Sleep and Longevity
CRISPR for gene therapy and maybe epigenetic reprogramming
Substituting an inefficient means of DNA repair is one way the body slowly kills itself with age
Aging in protozoa is a means of enforcing the imperative for sexual sharing of genes
October-December 2014
Anti-Aging Oxymorons and Anti-oxymorons Why “natural anti-aging” can never work
Lithium for Life Extension?
Response to Gretchen Reynolds, Poking Fun at Longevity Science
Open Letter to Google CaLiCo on Priorities in Research
Conference notes: Center for Aging Research, Sherbrooke, QC
Nicotinamide Riboside–Where’s the Beef?
Three Technologies to Watch (1)Thymus regrowth w/ FOXN1; (2) New anti-inflammatory drugs based on ARF6 inhibitors; (3) Telomere length directly affects gene expression
Regeneration in mammals — Ancient capacity is not lost but actively suppressed
What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger
Caloric Restriction, Hormesis and what they teach us about Evolution
Ginseng for Longevity?
Where do we Live? In our quest for a longer life, I often assume “I am my brain”. There are reasons from neuroscience and quantum physics to question this perspective.
Jan-Mar 2015
What is aging? Most scientists still get it wrong (The body doesn’t just wear out. Death is programmed into our genes.)
Programmed death, H. pylori and the legacy of George Williams (evolution and gut bacteria)
MYC: bad and good, but more bad than good
Do we really need epidemiology to tell us to get off our duffs? (Common sense experience about exercise and sedentary time)
Anti-Aging Pills in the News (Novartis and Elysium Health)
Ideology is Holding Back Aging Research
“What Looks like Cooperation is Really Selfishness” (Critique of the Selfish Gene)
Kill Senescent Cells Before They Kill You
Tomorrow’s Anti-Aging Therapies, Available Today (Bioviva)
Fertility is Kaput, but Life Goes On (Post-Reproductive Life Span)
Apr-Jun 2015
Magnesium
Telomerase Does Not Cause Cancer
New Study Correlates Telomere Length with Human Mortality
Pterostilbene
Caution follows last year’s excitement about GDF11
Review of The Vital Question by Nick Lane, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
Preserving Insulin Sensitivity–the Anti-Diabetes Diet
Is there an aging clock in the hypothalamus? (Orexin, Neuropeptide Y)
Toward a Pill to Enable Regeneration
Correlation and causation; Nuts and Chocolate
Longo on how you can eat while fasting; Barzilai’s campaign to have aging recognized as a disease
Jul-Sep 2015
Funding Policies Distort Science
Aging in Microbes
(despite theory that forbids it, there is aging in protozoans and even bacteria)
Update and disclaimer — the Longo Fasting-mimicking Diet, including Recipes
Parkinson’s Disease — Can anything be done?
Overstated claims and oversimple theories, including the
“Simple genetic switch” in C elegans, Autophagy, Glycine & mitochondria,
GDF11 and TGF-β)
Orcas and Elephants–Aging and the Taboo Subject of Population Regulation
Review of Carl Safina’s book, Beyond Words.
Report from Rejuvenation Biotech 2015
(Thymus regeneration, Bruce Ames & Rhonda Patrick, plasma transfusion update
Wuyi Kong and NPRCPs)
HGH and IGF–Promise and Danger
Untested Treatments for Longevity, and How to Test Them
(Redundancy and synergy in combining anti-aging treatments)
Promise of Novel Alzheimer’s Treatments
Growth and Aging; Myostatin and Health
Oct-Dec 2015
Can botanicals replace metformin? Jiaogulan, Berberine and Gymnema
From Roscoff, with Rotifers – What I learned at the Monod Conference on comparative biology of aging
Does donating blood extend your life expectancy?
Anti-Aging Medicine: Two Paths Diverge – Can aging be reversed with biochemical signals?
We Know Nothing about Longevity Drug Interactions – a proposal for efficiently finding the best dynergies among many potential treatments
Global Consequences of Increased Human Longevity – Life extensionists have an vital interest and responsibility to preserve the planet.
Jan-Jun 2016
Is Aging Controlled from the Brain? NPY and ALK5
‘One of the most important aging discoveries ever’ “Senolytics” are agents that kill cells that have become senescent (and toxic).
When your doctor suggests statins (Part 1: Mechanism of Action)
Cholesterol and inflammation; Statins and alternatives (Part II)
Politics drives a promising nutraceutical underground Anatabine
Retrotransposons: The Lamarckian Link A mechanism by which the body re-engineers its own genome.
Aging is a Military Coup Systems that evolved to defend the body against invaders turn self-destructive and destroy the body late in life.
Epigenetics of Aging and Prospects for Rejuvenation
“No Animal Dies of Old Age in the Wild” The declining force of natural selection is the foundation of all evolutionary theories of aging. But it doesn’t decline enough to explain anything.
Cell Phones can Cause Cancer – It’s worthwhile to take precautions with microwaves.
A germ theroy of aging? A new paper proposes that plaques in Alzheimer’s Disease come from inflammatory response to brain infections.
Lamarck Update – Evolutionary scientists have assumed for a century that traits acquired in a lifetime can’t be passed to offspring. Now it’s clear they were wrong. How wrong?
Rapamycin Redux – Rapamycin is the most effective life extension drug yet tested in rodents. Is it safe for humans?
CRISPR update – We’re making progress gaining control over gene expression faster than we are learning what to do with our new power.
Jul-Dec 2016
Video: “Natural Anti-aging” is an oxymoron
Social Correlates of Longevity 1: Social status and depression, activism vs powerlessness
Social Correlates of Longevity 2: Family
Arthritis: Its importance, its ubiquity, and suggested treatment approaches
Nutritional Geometry 1: Most of us eat too much protein
Nutritional Geometry 2: Carb Restriction
Nutritional Geometry 3: Ketosis— benefits & risks of oil-rich diets
Post-Reproductive Life Span in C. elegans—How did worms evolve a life span that continues long beyond the end of their fertility?
Putting the “system” back in Systems Biology (Report from Cold Spring Harbor Asia Conference, October, 2016)
In an age of epigenetics, does antagonistic pleiotropy still make sense?
Traditional Chinese Medicines for Longevity
Do we have to worry about telomeres being “too long”?
Yamanaka Factors (which turn normal cells into stem cells) used to rejuvenate mice
Epigenetics and the Direction of Anti-Aging Science
Jan-Jun 2017
First fruits of blood plasma research VCAM-1 identified as a blood factor that we have too much of as we age
Glycine and mitochondria The simplest amino acid, taken in large enough quantities, encourages new mitochondrial growth
Fasting-mimicking diet: can you make it a habit?
NFkB beyond Inflammation Many supplements and drugs inhibit NFkB, with multiple benefits
New database of lifespan trials Some surprises include creatine, N-Acetyl cysteine, ginkgo, BHT, and a Chinese herb no one has heard of.
Senolytics against aging: snapshot of a fast-moving field The latest and greatest senolytic agent promises to kill more senescent cells while leaving other cells unharmed.
Is fasting senolytic? One of the many benefits of intermittent fasting may be in killing off a tiny number of senescent cells that are poising us from the inside.
Prolonging life with fecal transplants opening a new area of research: life span of fish is extended just by changing their gut microbiome
The only experimental subject who matters using self-experimentation to create a personalized program
Aging gets personal my mother’s stroke; notes from Geneva symposium; blood plasma transfusions; ideas from Andy Mendelssohn
Preventing Dementia physical exercise; individualized programs
Jul-Dec 2017
Mitochondria in Aging: I Mechanisms
Mitochondria in Aging: II Remedies
Building the Case that Aging is Controlled from the Brain
New Evidence that Long Telomeres cause Cancer, and Why I Think It’s Wrong
Follow-up on Telomeres: Genetic Studies vs Straight Epidemiology
Is Cancer a Mitochondrial Disease Warburg has a new lease on life
Air Pollution and Life Expectancy
Digging Deeper in Response to Reader Comments
- Aspirin, ibuprofen, neproxen
- Does too much exercise cause areterial calcification?
- IP6
- Cancer as Atavism
- News from the World of telomerase activation
- Inheriting Telomere Length
- Tocotrienols
- Low Dose Naltrexone
- Extraordinary story of radiation hormesis
- High-profile, misleading “proof” that aging is inevitable
- Disappointing results from Alkahest trials
- NewYorker article on exercise in a pill
- Splicing factors rescue senescent cells
A Dead Theory Still Walks many biologists continue to relate their findings to the Antagonistic Pleiotropy theory, though it has been falsified many times over.
Apologia pro Scientia Sua (an original poem)
The Varieties of Aging in Nature Life spans and also shapes of aging curves vary tremendously. Nature can do what she pleases.
The Other Half of Science Science has become synonymous with “reductionism”, and unexpected findings are being suppressed because they cannot be explained in those terms.
D-Limonene: Wondering if anyone has information on this citrus oil derived from the rinds of grapefruit, orange or lemon. It recently gained attention as an effective treatment for GERD but was known in skin cancer circles for being an interesting compound that when added to diet, decreased incidents of melanoma to a statistically significant degree. There have been many studies that confirm this, notably, underfunded but promising work done by Dr. Sherry Chow at University of Arizona. It appears D-Limonene may have strong action on other types of cancer, particularly breast and prostate. Interesting that it is ubiquitous, inexpensive and has very few side effects, and coincidentally has received little funding for research despite very promising, credible studies that go back 20 years. Here’s a link:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1464157
It should not be surprising that limonene might help prevent skin cancer. Limonene is found in the rinds of citrus fruit, which of course are exposed to sunlight. Sunlight causes some bad chemical reactions like causing DNA dimers to form. So it may be that limonene is there in citrus rinds to prevent such reactions in the citrus, and can also prevent such reactions in human skin. Judging from its chemical structure with double bonds, I suspect it is an antioxidant.
Oh shame to Man!
Devil with devil dammed.
Firm concord holds, whilst humans disagree
Of creatures rational and full of hope.
Yet live in hatred, emnity and strife and levy cruel wars,
Wasting the earth, each other to destroy,
As if, which might induce us to accord,
Man hath not enemies enough besides,
Who day and night for his destruction wait!
JOHN MILTON, from Paradise Lost
Josh, recently you discussed using Lithium for gene suppression. But in the discussion you stated that Lithium increased nf-kb expression. It didn’t seem right to me, so I did a bit of digging and found Lithium to be a potent inhibitor of nf-kb. This in turn started me thinking on nf-kb itself and how it appears to only exist to kill you.
Would you please consider doing an article on it and how to control it, in the not to distant future.
Josh
I found your blog 2 months ago. It is fantastic. Congratulations. I have one query. Do you have any thing further on Vitamin D3. There is your post back in 2011 and I have read it. But recently I read a book by Jeff Bowles called “Vitamin D3 Miracle”. He suggests that taking large doses of D3 along with Vitamin k2 can cure numerous diseases many of which accompany aging. Any thoughts on this ?
Thanks
Bill
I know Jeff, and think of him as very smart, basically trustworthy, but his evidence is anecdotal. I don’t think large doses of vitamin D are going to hurt you, but whether you experience a “miracle” is a function of your individual metabolism. I encourage you to experiment.
Josh,
I greatly appreciate this blog, keep it up. Have you investigated Alpha Ketoglutarate? I haven’t found anything on it here, but would be interested in your insights, including this study found in PubMed: “The metabolite α-ketoglutarate extends lifespan by inhibiting ATP synthase and TOR.”
Thanks,
Neil
Glucosamine?
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2014/140408/ncomms4563/full/ncomms4563.html
In your article Part 2 on Statins you mention Simvastatin .
Here is a link to an article in Science Daily that suggests that Simvastatin be useful in treating Parkinsons
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160111092404.htm
Hi Josh & thanks for your excellent work! I’m a fit 70 year-old; take no medications, sail avidly, ski occasionally, play with 7 grandchildren, etc. For a long time, I have suspected that i’ve had attention deficit issues. Because I have been successful in my business and personal endeavors, I have always had it on a back-burner and have never sought a diagnosis. Actually, I will be going for my first physical in 10 years in a few weeks(Pray there are no unexpected surprises).
I am working on something that requires me to work on my computer at my desk. So, I was thinking it might be interesting to experiment with remedies to my suspected attention deficit. Do you have any sources or suggestions? I suspect i could go see a shrink, but I hate dealing with medical people. Any ideas? Thanks so much.
Hi Josh, Just discovered your blog, and I find it to be an extremely informative resource (and one that has lead me to read many other articles).
I was wondering if you have published the list of supplements that you are currently taking and/or recommend. I realize that this might be a bit of a moving target, but it would be interesting to get your views.
Personally I’ve been taking a number of supplements from the Life Extension Foundation (i.e the usual suspects: CoQ10, etc.) and Metformin. But was wondering what your view are on TA-65 and other telomerase activators.
Thanks for your help!
AgingAdvice.org has my recommendations, which is also what I do myself. But people are different. I encourage self-experimentation, n=1.
– Josh
Longevity-promoting superstar gets revealed in Caenorhabditis reproducibility project
Posted: 21 Feb 2017 05:05 AM PST
The amyloid dye Thioflavin T emerged as the superstar when age researchers in three independent laboratories tested ten already-promising pro-longevity chemicals across a range of distinctive strains and species of tiny nematode worms known as Caenorhabditis. The project, dubbed the Caenorhabditis Intervention Testing Program (CITP), tackled reproducibility, which has been a lingering problem in age research, given that some of the field’s most prominent research findings cannot be replicated by other labs.
Question to Josh and others: How do you see the benefits of rapamycin vs. metformin. Both reduce mTOR, from what I’ve read metformin seems to have broader effects. Any thoughts on whether they should be taken together? Or should only one or the other be taken? Any research on this?
Thanks.
Dr. Alan Green has been taking and recommending both for over a year and is conducting an informal trial using both w/ volunteers (rapamycintherapy.com). I’ve been taking 2x500mg Met. w/ 6 mg. Sirolimus most weeks for over 6 months. Have not seen the great results that Dr. Green saw (after only 4 months) but a small improvement might be the combo. Will get my first DNAm soon. My age is mid 70s like Dr. Green but our blood work is pretty different of course!
I am not sure about benefits but mechanisms seem different. I understand rapamycin is directly inhibiting mTORC1 (chronic use might also result in inhibiting mTORC2 though which might not be good). Other molecules such as aspirin and metformin feature an indirect inhibition of mTORC1. Metformin seems to regulate REDD1 which promotes TSC2 which leads to inhibit mTORC1 and this indipendently from the metformin AMPK activation path (Kalender et al 2010)
https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2019/11/researchers-able-to-improve-reverse-age-related-diseases-in-mice/
. Davidsohn, Church, and their co-authors homed in on three genes that had been shown to confer increased health and lifespan benefits in mice that were genetically engineered to overexpress them: FGF21, sTGFβR2, and αKlotho. They hypothesized that providing extra copies of those genes to nonengineered mice via gene therapy would similarly combat age-related diseases and bring health benefits.
Hi Josh,
I hope your health continues to improve after your severe cycle accident.
Thankyou for hosting such an excellent, well moderated, longevity website which attracts responses from all the ‘heavy hitters’ in the field. I really enjoy catching up on the latest research by reading your site.
I agree with you that the SARS-Cov2 was engineered and like you I have been dragged into finding out the truth. I would much rather do longevity research!
Stephen Rodwell BSc. , Grad Dip Comp Sci
Just read your article in The Defender?CHD titled “Yes, Ecosystems Are collapsing. No, It Has Nothing to Do With CO2”. So appreciative of your efforts! I have
encountered the article on the volcanic eruption in 2022 (Hunga Tonga?) which states it may have a significant global warming effect for 4-5 years. If this is true the naysayers will attribute it to human activity erroneously. Seems to me to be a lot of contributing factors to “climate change’ the least of which is inadvertent human activity. More dangerous is the intentional manipulation of natural systems. There is an agenda unfortunately that is a runaway horse and reasonable people like yourself need to be heard and broadcast. I will look for more of your research and writings. God be with you.