Welcome to all new subscribers!

In this issue I’m talking about:

1. Longevity Landscape

2. Don’t Die Dilemma

🪫Alcohol should carry warning label for cancer risk, US surgeon general says

Surprise surprise! But of course, not really.

What happens when ethanol enters your system? A highly reactive process of poisoning and oxidation.

It is absorbed primarily through the stomach and small intestine into the bloodstream. It then travels to the liver, where it is metabolised by enzymes, predominantly alcohol dehydrogenase, into acetaldehyde, a toxic compound that is further broken down into acetate and eventually water and carbon dioxide for excretion.

Ethanol acts as a central nervous system depressant, altering brain function by affecting neurotransmitters, leading to effects such as euphoria, impaired judgment, slowed reflexes, and reduced motor coordination.

At higher concentrations, it can lead to sedation, memory blackouts, and even life-threatening conditions like alcohol poisoning. Chronic use can damage the liver, brain, heart, and other organs.

There is no ‘safe’ amount of alcohol for consumption. It’s all poisoning that creates more inflammation in the body, hence, accelerated aging.

🪫The 12-year gap we should be paying attention to when it comes to ageing

With Sydney based Prof. Luigi Fontana chipping in, it’s one of my favourite points of discussion in aging. For those who can’t comprehend the crazy futuristic moonshots of full body replacement and cryopreservation, let’s start here.

First thing we want is to compress morbidity (and this is what this article is about)—spend as less time in poor health at the end of life as possible. And we have to start early. Also think of financial implications of the poor health at the age where you can’t earn anymore…

I hope this helps with motivation for staying healthy for longer. Think of it as a durability of health.

🔋9 science-backed tips for extending your healthspan

Simple and actionable tips from Sydney based scientists on what you can do today to maintain vitality.

🪫Beware the air you breathe – more evidence links microplastics to health problems

Since I was a child, I was never a fan of plastic and synthetic materials. If I had to put on something made of, for example, polyester, I felt like I was suffocating.

I’m glad my nature aligned with the recent research. This article is based on the scientific paper that states - plastic particles smaller than 5 millimeters – may be causing a host of health problems in people, including colon cancer; chronic pulmonary inflammation, which can increase the risk of lung cancer; and infertility issues in both men and women.

Is it time to swap your plastic clothes, soft furnishings, bed linen, storage containers, cutting boards and utensils for natural materials?

Now, the hardest part is replacing your toothbrush plastic bristles. They are typically made from nylon or other synthetic materials. If you know of one that’s not plastic, please recommend! I’m on a look out.

🔋Building a Personalized Recommendation Engine

Buck Institute does a lot of incredible things in the longevity filed, and this one is one of them!

The future of health is N-of-1. We’re moving towards personalised medicine, where drugs and treatments will be created for everyone individually. Because everyone is unique, and we have unique needs.

“N-of-1 Analyser” is a first step toward this future. Super exciting!

🔋Landmark genetics partnership to probe the causes of cancer and dementia

The root causes of diseases like cancer, dementia and heart disease are set to be better understood thanks to the development of a world-first ‘epigenetic map’ of the human genome – which could lead to breakthroughs in new diagnoses and treatments.

🔋INSPIRE Issue 34 - The Prevention Edition

It’s great to see that this issue of Australian INSPIRE is dedicated to the diverse and innovative health and medical research, which contributes to the broad theme of prevention. This edition showcases medical and non-medical factors that keep us well and thriving.

🔋Global Healthy & Sustainable City Indicator

Our environment has huge impact on our health and longevity.

This is an open-source software for calculating and reporting on policy and spatial indicators for healthy, sustainable cities worldwide using open or custom data.

🔋The anti-ageing diet: 6 science-backed changes to protect your skin, body and brain from getting older

Written by Andrew Steele, the author of one of my favourite books “Ageless” (and one of my favourite people to listen to and learn from), this article points to new research that reveals the links between what you eat and how you age… And the foods that might help you to slow the ageing process down.

🔋What Your ‘Face Age’ Can Tell Doctors About Your Health

The future may be closer than you think. Scans of face photos are estimating people’s ‘biological age’ and even predicting how long they’ll live.

🔋The Speed of Human Thought Lags Far Behind Your Internet Connection, Study Finds

Nerd out with me here on the facts about how slow our brain is in comparison to computers.

Now researchers have estimated the speed of information flow in the human brain: just 10 bps. They titled their study, published this month in the journal Neuron, “The unbearable slowness of being.”

“It’s a bit of a counterweight to the endless hyperbole about how incredibly complex and powerful the human brain is,” said Markus Meister, a neuroscientist at the California Institute of Technology and an author of the study. “If you actually try to put numbers to it, we are incredibly slow.”

🔋Using “atomic habits” to reach your health goals

Peter Attia is applying James Clear’s Atomic Habits model to health.

Isn’t it cute and adorable! This one is good for sharing with your older family members. They’ll love it (as well as you).

🪫Google’s secretive anti-aging company Calico finally released data. Its drug failed.

This shows how slow, expensive and complex drug discovery is. Longevity biotech is tough and underfunded. But this wasn’t the case. Calico is well funded by Google, yet, when it comes to safety—safety wins. And the drug loses.

This is sad new for the whole industry. Curious to see what’s next in their pipeline.

BUSINESS

💼Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global inks novel partnership with pharma giant Eli Lilly

This is very interesting! Now Eli Lilly drugs will be plugged in to Thrive and offered to their customers. I like the unstoppable Arianna Huffinton and her pursuit of health.

Let’s see how this will pan out…

💼Buck Institute and Phenome Health Awarded up to $52M from ARPA-H

This is a win for the whole industry! (clap, clap, clap)

The Buck Institute for Research on Aging and strategic partner Phenome Health announced a four-year award of up to $52M from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) to support its groundbreaking research project, “Personalized Analytics for Transforming Health (PATH): A PATH Toward Proactive Health.”

The project aims to revolutionise healthcare by harnessing the power of advanced analytics and AI to predict and prevent diseases with the goal of increasing individual healthspan.

💼Vesper Bio kicks off clinical trial in patients with gene mutations that cause FTD

Study to focus on asymptomatic individuals with gene mutations linked to a deadly form of frontotemporal dementia.

💼Cyclarity Therapeutics Secures Approval for First-in-Human Clinical Trial

Very exciting biotech that promises to make cardiovascular disease obsolete will soon start trials here in Australia! Congrats to them and to us!

💼NOVOS Leading The Longevity Industry With AI

This is the face scan company. This article is from their website.

💼L’Oréal is launching a device that’ll tell you exactly what your skin needs (and doesn’t) so you don’t ‘audition’ products

Skincare is catching up with longevity as well.

L’Oréal’s tech incubator has been working with Korean startup NanoEnTek for about seven years to build Cell BioPrint, which measures different biomarkers—molecules underneath the skin packed with information about skin health. 

The device, which is the size of a hand, just needs a tape strip of the skin to drill down on the skin’s biological age, how inflamed it is, how prone it is to drying, and more. It’s also geared toward understanding the skin’s longevity, an area that’s attracted much attention as people go to inventive lengths to reverse aging. 

SCIENCE

🧬An expert consensus statement on biomarkers of ageing for use in intervention studies

This is an important paper, and we certainly need more iterations of it. As the field still cannot agree on which biomarkers should be used to identify, track and solve aging, this scientific consensus is laying the ground for future work and collaborations to figure out the way to treat aging.

🧬Disagreement on foundational principles of biological aging

And here is that disagreement, I’ve mentioned above.

To understand how experts in aging research view the process they study, a survey has been conducted under the guidance of heavy weight in aging filed, Vadim Galdyshev. It found widespread disagreement.

Fundamental questions like "What is aging?" and "What causes it?" revealed no consensus, not even on whether consensus is needed. This lack of alignment means researchers often label different processes as "aging," leading to varied priorities and experimental approaches.

The survey highlighted the need for clearer definitions and goals, as well as the gaps between current research and unanswered critical questions. Addressing these disagreements could help guide more focused and impactful progress in aging science.

🧬Telomir-1 shows promise in normalizing accelerated aging

🧬Global consensus on optimal exercise recommendations for enhancing healthy longevity in older adults (ICFSR)

Another scientific consensus in this Longevity Landscape. This one is on optimal exercise. I think, we’ve all agreed long time ago that exercise is good ;)

But which one is the best for older adults? Read it in this article.

🧬A Potential Gene Therapy for Hearing Loss

In mammals, certain neurons in the inner ear pick up sound waves and turn them into electrical signals that the brain can understand. This process, called mechanoelectrical transduction, relies on a protein called MYO7A.

If the gene responsible for this protein, Myo7a, doesn’t work properly, it can cause hearing loss.

Scientists discovered that removing this gene in adult animals makes their hearing cells behave like they did before birth, when they weren’t functional yet. This change also happens naturally as animals age. Researchers are now studying whether fixing this gene could help restore hearing in these cases.

🧬Even a small dose of physical activity can be good medicine

🧬Receiving Caloric Restriction Benefits Without Practicing It

🧬FDA grants Orphan Drug Designation to first-in-class gene therapy for STXBP1 disorder

🧬Precision Targeting of Senescent Cells

🧬The unbearable slowness of being: Why do we live at 10 bits/s?

You may have heard that a documentary about Bryan Johnson, called Don’t Die, was released on the 1st of January this year.

Everyone immediately jumped to judging this guy after watching the movie.

1. Some say the movie didn’t provide enough information on how to avoid dying. But why would it?! The movie is called “Don’t Die: The Man Who Wants to Live Forever”. It’s not about Don’t Die, it’s about The Man!

   It’s a heartbreaking and gut-wrenching story about a man who grew up in a religious family without a father and made his fortune on his first attempt to find himself—all while battling suicidal thoughts.

   Luckily, he had the brains and willpower to recognise the failures and shortfalls of the social structure and business system around him, allowing him to rewrite his story and transform himself into a new kind of human being.

   He’s done phenomenal work on himself and should serve as an example to many of us.

2. Some have complained about the treatments and drugs he uses, arguing they’re not scientifically approved.

   Well, guess what? A lot of what he does is being done for the first time. His doctor, Oliver Zolman, even said in the movie that Bryan is the perfect guinea pig. Bryan is risking his health and experimenting (based on his biomarkers) with any longevity treatments that show promise.

   By no means should you consider this safe or experiment on yourself. Why? Because you don’t have a team of doctors constantly analysing and advising you.

   It also doesn’t make sense to follow Bryan’s protocol because his needs are uniquely his. Until you’ve done all the tests he has and consulted your own long-term longevity doctor, even seemingly simple things could be harmful: taking vitamin D could be poisonous for you, doing ice baths could be damaging, and avoiding animal protein could be depleting.

If you’re at a crossroads deciding whether to love or hate this movie—and Bryan along with it—how about you just let him be? An intelligent and kind nerd (remember, he was the only person to visit his father in prison and cheer him up), Bryan has finally found his purpose. Despite being an introvert who has struggled with relationships, he’s now trying to grow his community.

He is just doing his best. So, leave him alone or join his tribe.

Hope you’ve found the above educating and entertaining!

Be healthy, live long.

Katia Dowling

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