Aging = Reproduction versus Self Preservation ?

[exclamation55]

A genetic experiment to unlock the secrets of the ageing process has created organisms that live six times their usual lifespan, raising hopes that it might be possible to slow ageing in humans.


A large body of research has already shown that severely restricting diet can boost the lifespan of flies, worms and mice by around 40%. Scientists believe that drastically cutting calories triggers a switch in an organism's behaviour, from growing and being able to reproduce, to a state of stasis in which growth and ageing are put on hold at the expense of reproductive capability, until more food is available. Scientists are now trying to mimic the effect by tinkering with genes in the hope of developing anti-ageing treatments that work without having to cut food intake.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,1645418,00.html
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2005-11/uosc-ntm111505.php

 

[Rick]

If the reaper doesn't get you, all those hot dogs and sodas will....

 

[SNGX1275]

! !

Why do you continually post stuff like this, and never have an opinion of your own to voice about whatever it is you are quoting?

 

[hewybo]

Think, thank, thunk!

! !

Why do you continually post stuff like this, and never have an opinion of your own to voice about whatever it is you are quoting?

I think he thinks his posts make people think. This makes me think his thinking may be being done by the thinking of others. Thus, he may think less than than he thought.

 

[exclamation55]

Something else to "THINK" about

Decades From Now - the ability of Amputees to Naturally "GROW" :wave:

everything has a beginning - we are witnessing many beginnings in our lifetime

Researchers at the University of Utah have discovered that when a gene called smedwi-2 is silenced in the adult stem cells of planarians, the quarter-inch long worm is unable to carry out a biological process that has mystified scientists for centuries: regeneration.

http://www.utah.edu/unews/releases/05/nov/regeneration.html

The replacement of tissue lost to injury or shed during the body's normal activities is essential for the survival of most organisms. The new study, published in the November 25, 2005, issue of the journal Science, helps scientists understand how stem cells make this process possible. The research, performed at the University of Utah School of Medicine, was carried out by Helen Hay Whitney postdoctoral fellow Peter W. Reddien (now an Associate Member at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research), and led by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Alejandro Sánchez Alvarado.

Salamanders, zebrafish, and other organisms are capable of regenerating entirely new body parts. Although the human body does not face such demands, it is constantly replacing lost cells. For example, blood replenishes itself, wounds heal, and the lining of the gut sloughs off and is restored. Nowhere, however, is the process of regeneration more dramatic than in the freshwater flatworm planaria. Cut one of these animals in half, and a week later, two fully functional worms will have developed from the pieces. Cut a piece that is 1/279th the size of the animal, and it too will regrow into a complete worm

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=34165

 

[bedlam_4]

As I understand it much of the aging process is caused by cellular respiration. When the mitochondria (an organelle in the cell) converts sugar to energy free radicals are kicked out as waste. These negative ions are destuctive to the bodies tissue. All you have to do to stop this process is to quit eating. That stops those things and you dead. No more aging.

 

[Vigilante]

Sweet! All I have to do is not eat? I could live forever, um, for about a month!

I heard it best in this one-liner:

"Why, thanks to advances in medical technology, people are dieing every day who never looked better!"

So then, they can make cells to cause someone's arm to grow back? But they STILL can't cause a man's hair to grow back? Tell me why the freak these people are paid millions of dollars a year researching this garbage? Why can't they just pool all their resources together and make a cure for cancer? Regrow hair? Deodorant that lasts all day? I mean seriously.

There are SO many GOOD things these guys could be doing for society. Why consentrate on dumb things like age? It makes no sense. What about healthy food with no hormones? What about organics? What about fighting all-to-common diseases? What about cleaner air? Cleaner water? Or better yet, REMOVE from society all the crap that's causing so much pain these days already by making heathy alternatives?
What does it mean, tweenagers killing each other over stupid things? The hopelessness they feel? Destroyed families? 9 year old girls being able to give birth? This is our world, the LAST thing we need is to live longer. So we can do an additional nothing for 20 more years what nothing we did for the last 20 years.

It's like walking up to your car and then checking the oil before you get in and start, only you didn't see that all four tires are missing. But hey, the oil is checked!
I don't know fellas, seems like a dumb thing to research. If our world had a better climate and less radiation yadda yadda, good diet and exercise and healthy living, hey, there's your added 20 or 30 or 40 years of life. But no, instead they are trying to build a house from the roof down. Seems they aught to be going after some root issues here. Instead of white-washing a rotten wall, which will still rot even with the fresh paint.

Ok I'm done, if you read this far I'm sorry, lol, but it's late and I feel like a rant. This feels like, say, one child is hitting another with a stick; well instead of taking the stick away, you give the other child a shield to help block him. It's like, it just doesn't make sense. Maybe that's just me.

night all

 

[lithiumdeuterid]

If aging can be loosely defined as an increase in entropy, then stopping aging is permitted by the laws of physics, as long as you're not dealing with a closed system. If you continuously put energy into the system, it is technically possible to undo ANY effects that aging might have (for instance, getting smarter).