Lifeboat Foundation

Nicola Bagalà and Michael Nuschke take a look at the future of pensions and how the possible defeat of age-related diseases will affect them.

If you work in social security, it’s possible that your nightmares are full of undying elderly people who keep knocking on your door for pensions that you have no way of paying out. Tossing and turning in your bed, you beg for mercy, explaining that there’s just too many old people who need pensions and not enough young people who could cover for it with their contributions; the money’s just not there to sustain a social security system that, when it was conceived in the mid-1930s, didn’t expect that many people would ever make it into their 80s and 90s. Your oneiric persecutors won’t listen: they gave the country the best years of their lives, and now it’s time for the country to pay them their due.

When you wake up, you’re relieved to realize that there can’t be any such thing as people who have ever-worsening degenerative diseases yet never die from them, but that doesn’t make your problem all that better; you still have quite a few old people, living longer than the pension system had anticipated, to pay pensions to, and the bad news is that in as little as about 30 years, the number of 65+ people worldwide will skyrocket to around 2.1 billion, growing faster than all younger groups put together [1]. Where in the world is your institution going to find the budget?

Continue reading “The Future of Pensions” »

On senescent cells, mechanism of interaction and (potential?!) side effects of NAD+ supplements. “… Those people self-experimenting with NAD+ precursor supplementation should consider keeping a close eye on markers of inflammation…”

Enhancing levels of NAD+ in mitochondria via delivery of various precursor compounds as supplements is growing in popularity as an approach to boost faltering mitochondrial function and thus modestly slow the progression of aging. A human trial demonstrated improved vascular function as a result of nicotinamide riboside supplementation, for example. Researchers here show that increased NAD+ will likely make worse the inflammatory signaling of senescent cells, however. Senescent cells accumulate with age, and are an important cause of the chronic inflammation of aging that drives the progression of many age-related diseases.

The results here suggest that efficient senolytic treatments to selectively destroy senescent cells should proceed any of the current approaches to raising levels of NAD+ in older individuals — and it is an open question as to whether any of the existing available options are efficient enough to make NAD+ enhancement safe in the longer term. Those people self-experimenting with NAD+ precursor supplementation should consider keeping a close eye on markers of inflammation.

If you are an MD or scientist interested in bringing evidence-based rejuvenation therapies to a broader audience, this is for you!

Help to accelerate the access to Rejuvenation Therapies.

I am writing this shortly after returning from the third edition of RAADfest, a conference created two years ago by a team led by Jim Strole. I go to a lot, I mean a lot, of conferences, not least because outreach is such a big part of my role in our crusade. But I think this is the first time I have chosen to devote an editorial to one. You may wonder what’s so special.

Well, RAADfest is … not your typical conference. Its organizers—Strole and his team, most notably his partner Bernadeane—have, for a couple of decades, led a group in Arizona named “People Unlimited”, which has acquired a reputation—and, I have to report, a well-deserved one—for, let’s say, placing excessive emphasis on the principle that ‘‘where there’s a will there’s a way’’ in relation to the defeat of aging (Yeah, I can still do classic British understatement when I try). Accordingly, when they first let it be known that they planned to do something bigger, the initial reaction was decidedly mixed. I don’t know how many credentialed biogerontologists declined speaking invitations, but only a few of us accepted—and of those, as I recall, only the perennially fearless Michael Rose was a university professor. I myself, though happy to lend my support to this new initiative as a speaker, was rather more diffident in response to Strole’s entreaties to promote the event through my outreach channels.

But the doubters were wrong—very wrong. The event was a storming success, in terms of both attendance—Strole had secured significant sponsorship from the Life Extension Foundation under the expectation of a budgetary shortfall but was actually able to give it back, yes you read that correctly—and also content, which, while being necessarily a little light on science given the paucity of scientist speakers, was coherent, rousing, and informative.

Continue reading “Anti-Aging Passion and Pragmatism: Effective Bedfellows at Last” »

With greater longevity, the quest to avoid the infirmities of aging is more urgent than ever.

A recent article, published in the Oxford journal Brain, categorizes and draws attention to an age-related disease that impacts the brain yet is widely unknown, even among scientists: limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy (LATE) [1].

The symptoms of this disease are similar to those of Alzheimer’s disease. It causes cognitive impairment and, when presenting alongside Alzheimer’s disease, can lead to even faster degeneration along with heightened agitation and aggression.

This new disease has been found to impact very specific areas of the brain – generally traveling vertically through the brain, it degenerates areas partly responsible for emotions, memory, and language, influencing different areas depending on its stage.

Continue reading “LATE: A Disease That Mimicks Alzheimer’s Disease” »

I’m excited to share my new #transhumanism article out at Metro, on of UK’s largest sites. It’s part of their #FutureofEverything series. Check out the artwork too:

Whatever science transhumanists want to use to become a better species, overcoming biological death is the movement’s primary goal.

Most deaths in the world are caused by ageing and disease. Approximately 150,000 people die every day on planet Earth, causing devastating loss to loved ones and communities.

Continue reading “Death could soon become a curable disease” »

We’d like to draw attention to an initiative whose objectives are close to our own: the German Party for Health Research (GPHR, Partei für Gesundheitsforschung in German). Founded in January 2015 by three biochemists and one actor, the GPHR is rather unique in that it is a single-issue party: its only concern is the creation of effective therapies to treat and prevent the pathologies of old age.

Since its creation, the party has participated in five elections; one of its biggest successes was the Berlin state elections in September 2016, where it received 0.5% of the secondary votes despite being still a rather unknown party. Slowly but steadily, the party has enjoyed an increase in voter support over the years, doing even better than the well-known Pirate Party in one election district during the 2017 federal elections. Currently, the party counts over 250 members, a very heterogeneous group of young and old people with different backgrounds.

The GPHR was founded because the founding members, including biochemist Felix Werth, wanted to give people a new way to support research against age-related diseases; not everyone is willing or capable to help the cause in traditional ways, such as by donating money or time to research or advocacy organizations, while a political party offers simpler yet effective ways to help, such as voting for the party, signing for its participation in elections, or even joining for free as a member.

Continue reading “The German Party for Health Research Enters Elections” »

Here’s a look at 20 of the most exciting areas of research on aging to watch in 2019 and beyond.