Thursday, November 21, 2019

Is Metformin the Anti-Ageing Elixir of next Year?

By Erik Bredemeyer

 22 November 2019

Is Metformin the Anti-Ageing Elixir of next Year?

We all want to live healthier for longer, but despite the increase in lifespans over the past century, at some point, age inevitably catches up with us and our cells begin to make mistakes, leading to a range of diseases such as cancer and dementia. But now researchers believe they might have found something that could slow down the ageing process entirely – a cheap diabetes drug that’s already being taken by millions of people.
Known as metformin, the drug has been on the market for around 60 years. But the reason scientists are so interested in it now is that, over that time, researchers have observed that the drug appears to reduce the likelihood of age-related cancers. Studies have also shown that diabetics taking metformin live longer than people who don’t have diabetes – despite the fact that the condition normally takes eight years off people’s lives.
“People on metformin get 30 percent less cancers, almost every cancer except maybe prostate cancer. There are fewer studies, but there is a signal that metformin prevents cognitive decline,” co-leader of the study Nir Barzilai, from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, told Andrea Alfano from Tech Times. “Additionally, there is a study that suggests that people on metformin who, when they start taking metformin, are more obese and sicker than people without diabetes, they outlive people without diabetes.”
Based on these observations, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has now green-lit the drug to be trialed for its anti-ageing properties as early as next year. And if it ends up being approved, it’ll be the first time that the FDA recognizes ageing itself, rather than a specific disease, as a drug target.
Of course that’s a big “if”, and the results of the trial won’t be out for years, so don’t get too excited just yet. But evidence in animals suggests that they just might be onto something. For example, after testing the drug in the roundworm C. elegans, researchers in Belgium found that the worms not only aged slower, but they stayed healthier for longer.
And mice treated with the drug had their lifespan increased by almost 40 percent, with signs that they stayed more youthful for longer too. In humans, that would be equivalent to us living closer to 120 years old than 80.
To be clear, the drug isn’t intended to stave off death forever – it might simply put the brakes on the ageing process to keep people healthier for longer. It’s thought to work by increasing the number of oxygen molecules released into a cell, although scientists aren’t quite sure how that could be slowing down cellular ageing just yet.
If the anti-ageing link holds up in this next trial, that’ll be the next step. The trial will be known as the Targeting Ageing with Metformin (TAME) study, and it’ll involve giving either the drug or a placebo to around 3,000 elderly people who suffer from or have a high risk of developing conditions such as cancer, heart disease, and Alzheimer’s.
Over the next six years, researchers will track how many patients go on to develop new age-related conditions and whether they took the drug or not. The team will also look into whether the drug appears to have impacted longevity at all.
Before you all go and stock up on Metformin, remember, we have a long wait in store for results, and there’s every chance that the study will turn up no link between the drug and ageing in humans, or will produce inconclusive results.
But regardless of the outcome, this is a landmark trial for the FDA, and if things work out… well then it could be the beginning of the end for growing old before our time. Either way, we’re pretty excited.
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Wednesday, November 20, 2019

Organic Coffee vs Regular Coffee: What’s the Difference?

By Erik Bredemeyer

 20 November 2019

Organic Coffee vs Regular Coffee: What’s the Difference?

I’d like to believe that coffee lovers are open-minded people who are open to trying out new coffee brands and have an interest everything about coffee.
With the latest craze on healthy living, green living and naturopathy, coffee is not exempted in this “health” war. Organic coffee became the buzz and more and more people are becoming interested with drinking organic coffee.
In fact, even people who used to believe that coffee is bad for their health because it supposedly causes dehydration, heartburn and high blood had a change of heart after they found out about organic coffee. Suddenly, coffee was on the pedestal just by slapping “organic” on its label.
If you think about it, is organic coffee any different from regular coffee? What are differences? What are the similarities? Is it really better to drink organic coffee than regular coffee?
Let’s find out!

The Truth About Organic Coffee!

According to Ethical Coffee, just like any kind of coffee certification, there is a set of standards followed before any coffee produce is labeled organic. The organic seal in the United States is monitored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
For coffee to get an organic seal, producers cannot use synthetic substances such as pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. At least 95 percent of the coffee beans should have grown under organic conditions.
Because organic coffee farmers do not use synthetic fertilizers or chemicals used in growing or production, this means cleaner beans, air, land, and water. The coffee is grown with only organic fertilizers from coffee pulp, chicken manure, or compost.
Organic farms also share in fighting climate change by emitting less carbon than chemical farms. As a bonus benefit, organic coffee beans are richer in healthful antioxidants, and many people can even taste the difference. It’s not only your health that gets a boost.
Mother Earth is also happy that less chemicals are used in farming. Here are some of the strongest coffees many of which are also organic!
Most organic coffee is grown the natural way. The farms are within the shade of lush forests, providing a home for wild plants and animals, sustaining soil fertility, and keeping unique regional ecosystems alive. These forested farms provide better resiliency and become equipped to handle unusual weather patterns that are a result of climate change.
In the long run, these farms make a safer investment for farmers and their futures. Honduras is one of the leading producers of organic coffee. Other South American countries are also producing more and more organic coffee after Equal Exchange partnered with coffee cooperatives to restore forested lands and growing more organic coffee farms.
Related – Do you have a plastic free coffee maker? Maybe you should. The Truth About Regular Coffee
Let’s be clear about one thing here. Coffee is one of the most widely traded commodities in the world – second to oil. Over 12 billion pounds of coffee are produced every year. Each day over 1.6 billion cups are drunk. Every second 18,500 cups of coffee are consumed.
It is not easy to meet the demand. As a result, farming methods were adapted that would double or triple the yield of production. Every acre of land used for coffee production should be maximized. However, this process comes with a price, both human and environmental.
Regular, or conventional coffee, is mass-produced coffee beans. It is readily available in just about anywhere. You can find it at your local deli, in a nearby convenience store, in a vending machine and even in your cupboard, if you are someone who just grabbed a pack of coffee from the supermarket.
This is the normal coffee you’d find made in a drip coffee maker served in a small carafe from your local IHOP. Nothing fancy.
One important feature of regular coffee is its affordability. It’s relatively inexpensive.
Why? Because regular coffee is mass-produced in the most cost-efficient ways.
According to Ethical Coffee, coffee farmers who harvest regular coffee beans often use synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides and insecticides to ensure the greatest number of harvested coffee beans. Pests can easily ruin a coffee farm, but using chemicals can ensure that the coffee farm is safe from potential harm and maximum yield is guaranteed.
Such a practice exposes the farmers to health hazards. The communities living near the coffee farm can also be affected by the chemical residues that mix in the air and the water resources.
Because of the demand for more coffee beans, some forests are cleared to give way to fields of coffee. Coffee production may increase, but at the expense of the natural ecosystem. Natural pest-deterrents like birds and lizards lose their home. Insects that eat coffee start to populate.
As a result, farmers resort to chemical solutions to protect their fields. Due to the inevitable climate change that follows this sort of ecosystem change, rains increase the water runoff in areas where the forests were cleared. Soil is washed away, along with its nutrients. The rainwater also carries away the chemicals sprayed on the coffee trees, which poisons water sources.

Is it Better to Drink Organic Coffee?

No matter if you drink plain drip coffee or make fancy coffee in a French press travel mug, you can consider two things when deciding to drink organic coffee.

Health Concerns:

Organic coffee is arguably better than regular coffee, because they are produced without the potentially harmful and lethal chemicals.
Also, organic coffee preserves more of the antioxidants present in coffee beans. If you want to get the best out of coffee for your health, going organic is the best option. You get more caffeine and more beneficial antioxidants that help fight aging, promote weight loss and prevent the risk of developing cancer, heart disease, liver problems, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

Environmental Concerns:

If you want to contribute to fighting climate change, patronizing organic coffee is the way to go. This way, you encourage coffee farmers by your support as you buy their products. Organic coffee thrives in the shade under the lush canopy of thick, tropical forests.
In other words, forests don’t need to be slashed and burned to make room for organic coffee crops, because natural coffee grows better in those woodlands anyway. Regular coffee, meanwhile, is usually grown on large sprawling farms that were once forested.

Should you Buy Organic Coffee and Forget About Regular Coffee?

If price is your main concern when buying coffee, your choice will gravitate toward buying regular coffee. It is really affordable and it gives you the caffeine fix you need on a daily basis. You still get the same antioxidants, but along with it, you can just imagine how many chemicals are used in growing these coffee beans.
However, if price is not an issue, go for organic coffee. It is consistently found in all of the best local roasteries and if you are making espresso at home then you’ll find the best espresso coffee beans are almost always organic.
Many people are disappointed by the expensive price tag of most organic coffee. However, in time, the price will also go down as more coffee farmers opt for organic farming.
To date, organic coffee is about 3 percent of the total coffee production.
It’s a small number, hence the price is highly dictated by the producers. But as the law of demand and supply dictates, an increase in demand of organic coffee will encourage non-organic coffee farmers to have a shift and go for organic coffee production.
If you have not tried drinking organic coffee, now is the time to give it a go.
Enjoy!

https://thebrainsupplements.com/organic-coffee-vs-regular-coffee-whats-the-difference/

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Sunday, November 17, 2019

Can We Slow Down Aging?

 17 November 2019

Can We Slow Down Aging?

Harvard Scientist Says He’s 20 Years Younger Than His Biological Age!

Renowned Harvard University geneticist David Sinclair recently made a startling assertion: Scientific data shows he has knocked more than two decades off his biological age. What’s the 49-year-old’s secret?
He says his daily regimen includes ingesting a molecule his own research found improved the health and lengthened the life span of mice. Sinclair now boasts online that he has the lung capacity, cholesterol and blood pressure of a “young adult” and the “heart rate of an athlete.”
Despite his enthusiasm, published scientific research has not yet demonstrated the molecule works in humans as it does in mice. Sinclair, however, has a considerable financial stake in his claims being proven correct, and has lent his scientific prowess to commercializing possible life extension products such as molecules known as “NAD boosters.”
His financial interests include being listed as an inventor on a patent licensed to Elysium Health, a supplement company that sells a NAD booster in pills for $60 a bottle. He’s also an investor in InsideTracker, the company that he says measured his age.
Discerning hype from reality in the longevity field has become tougher than ever as reputable scientists such as Sinclair and pre-eminent institutions like Harvard align themselves with promising but unproven interventions — and at times promote and profit from them.
Fueling the excitement, investors pour billions of dollars into the field even as many of the products already on the market face fewer regulations and therefore a lower threshold of proof.
“If you say you’re a terrific scientist and you have a treatment for aging, it gets a lot of attention,” said Jeffrey Flier, a former Harvard Medical School dean who has been critical of the hype. “There is financial incentive and inducement to overpromise before all the research is in.”
Elysium, co-founded in 2014 by a prominent MIT scientist to commercialize the molecule nicotinamide riboside, a type of NAD booster, highlights its “exclusive” licensing agreement with Harvard and the Mayo Clinic and Sinclair’s role as an inventor. According to the company’s press release, the agreement is aimed at supplements that slow “aging and age-related diseases.”
Further adding scientific gravitas to its brand, the website lists eight Nobel laureates and 19 other prominent scientists who sit on its scientific advisory board. The company also advertises research partnerships with Harvard and U.K. universities Cambridge and Oxford.
Some scientists and institutions have grown uneasy with such ties. Cambridge’s Milner Therapeutics Institute announced in 2017 it would receive funding from Elysium, cementing a research “partnership.” But after hearing complaints from faculty that the institute was associating itself with an unproven supplement, it quietly decided not to renew the funding or the company’s membership to its “innovation” board.
“The sale of nutritional supplements of unproven clinical benefit is commonplace,” said Stephen O’Rahilly, the director of Cambridge’s Metabolic Research Laboratories who applauded his university for reassessing the arrangement. “What is unusual in this case is the extent to which institutions and individuals from the highest levels of the academy have been co-opted to provide scientific credibility for a product whose benefits to human health are unproven.”
“Until about the early 1990s, it was kind of laughable that you could develop a pill that would slow aging,” said Richard Miller, a biogerontologist at the University of Michigan who heads one of three labs funded by the National Institutes of Health to test such promising substances on mice. “It was sort of a science fiction trope. Recent research has shown that pessimism is wrong.”
Mice given molecules such as rapamycin live as much as 20 percent longer. Other substances such as 17 alpha estradiol and the diabetes drug Acarbose have been shown to be just as effective — in mouse studies. Not only do mice live longer, but, depending on the substance, they avoid cancers, heart ailments and cognitive problems.
History is replete with examples of cures that worked on mice but not in people. Multiple drugs, for instance, have been effective at targeting an Alzheimer’s-like disease in mice yet have failed in humans.
“None of this is ready for prime time. The bottom line is I don’t try any of these things,” said Felipe Sierra, the director of the division of aging biology at the National Institute on Aging at NIH. “Why don’t I? Because I’m not a mouse.”
Research by Sinclair and others helped spark interest in resveratrol, an ingredient in red wine, for its potential anti-aging properties. In 2004, Sinclair co-founded a company, Sirtris, to test resveratrol’s potential benefits and declared in an interview with the journal Science it was “as close to a miraculous molecule as you can find.”
GlaxoSmithKline bought the company in 2008 for $720 million. By the time Glaxo halted the research in 2010 because of underwhelming results with possible side effects, Sinclair had already received $8 million from the sale, according to Securities and Exchange Commission documents. He also had earned $297,000 a year in consulting fees from the company, according to The Wall Street Journal.
At the height of the buzz, Sinclair accepted a paid position with Shaklee, which sold a product made out of resveratrol. But he resigned after The Wall Street Journal highlighted positive comments he made about the product that the company had posted online. He said he never gave Shaklee permission to use his statements for marketing.
Sinclair practices what he preaches — or promotes. On his LinkedIn bio and in media interviews, he describes how he now regularly takes resveratrol; the diabetes drug metformin, which holds promise in slowing aging; and nicotinamide mononucleotide, a substance known as NMN that his own research showed rejuvenated mice.
Of that study, he said in a video produced by Harvard that it “sets the stage for new medicines that will be able to restore blood flow in organs that have lost it, either through a heart attack, a stroke or even in patients with dementia.”In an interview with KHN, Sinclair said he’s not recommending that others take those substances.
“I’m not claiming I’m actually younger. I’m just giving people the facts,” he said, adding that he’s sharing the test results from InsideTracker’s blood tests, which calculate biological age based on biomarkers in the blood. “They said I was 58, and then one or two blood tests later they said I was 31.4.”
InsideTracker sells an online age-tracking package to consumers for up to about $600. The company’s website highlights Sinclair’s support for the company as a member of its scientific advisory board. It also touts a study that describes the benefits of such tracking, which Sinclair co-authored.
Sinclair is involved either as a founder, an investor, an equity holder, a consultant or a board member with 28 companies, according to a list of his financial interests. At least 18 are involved in anti-aging in some way, including studying or commercializing NAD boosters. The interests range from longevity research startups aimed at humans and even pets to developing a product for a French skin care company to advising a longevity investment fund.
He’s also an inventor named in the patent licensed by Harvard and the Mayo Clinic to Elysium, and one of his companies, MetroBiotech, has filed a patent related to nicotinamide mononucleotide, which he says he takes himself. Sinclair and Harvard declined to release details on how much money he — or the university — is generating from these disclosed outside financial interests. Sinclair estimated in a 2017 interview with Australia’s Financial Review that he raises $3 million a year to fund his Harvard lab.
Supplement Loophole?
The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t categorize aging as a disease, which means potential medicines aimed at longevity generally can’t undergo traditional clinical trials aimed at testing their effects on human aging. In addition, the FDA does not require supplements to undergo the same safety or efficacy testing as pharmaceuticals.
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Can We Slow Down Aging? Harvard Scientist Says He’s 20 Years Younger Than His Biological Age! By Erik Bredemeyer https://thebrainsupplements.com/can-we-slow-down-aging/
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Thursday, November 7, 2019

What can be done to keep the Brain healthy?

Can The Foods You Eat Keep Your Brain Healthy?

Preventing memory loss!




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Best supplements for sleep: Two Supplements proven to help with a good night’s rest!

Not getting enough sleep hinders daily functioning and can have a negative impact on a person’s health and longevity. But some experts have found taking certain supplements before bed can help you get your much-needed forty winks.

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Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Why I love Castles-The Palace of Versailles!
The Palace of Versailles was the principal royal residence of France from 1682, under Louis XIV, until the start of the French Revolution in 1789, under Louis XVI.
It is located in the department of Yvelines, in the region of Île-de-France, about 20 kilometres (12 miles) southwest of the centre of Paris. If you haven't seen it yet, you should go, it is breathtaking!





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