Category Archives: Anti-Aging Medicine

Posted on June 13, 2017, 6 a.m. in Women's Health Botanical Agents Sleep

Study confirms the benefits of fennel in reducing postmenopause symptoms such as sleeplessness, hot flashses, vaginal dryness, and anxiety.

A recent study has confirmed that fennel helps minimize postmenopause symptoms. This herbal medicine is rapidly growing in popularity as it has helpedcountless women across the globe manage their postmenopause symptoms. Women love the fact that fennel doesnot have any serious side effects.

About Fennel

Fennel is an herb commonly used in cooking. It has an anise flavor that is quite pleasing to the palate. The herb has long been valued for providing an array of health benefits for all sorts of issues ranging from digestion problems to premenstrual symptoms. Fennel has essential oils and phytoestrogenic properties. Similar to estrogen-like chemicals found in plants, phytoestrogens are used to successfully treat myriad menopause symptoms.

The New Study

The study referenced above confirms fennel is quite effective in managing postmenopause symptoms like anxiety, sleeplessness, hot flashes, irritability, depression, joint discomfort and vaginal dryness. The study results were recently published in The North American Menopause Society (NAMS) online journal Menopause.

Women have made use of alternative and complementary medicine for menopause symptom management across the past decade-plus. There has been a steady movement away from hormone therapy (HT) as it has its fair share of side effects. Though HT is a highly effective means of treating the majority of menopause symptoms, women are turning to herbal medicine in droves. Some are not candidates for HT while others are fearful of the side effects.

The study was conducted in Tehran, Iran. Women who live in Tehran reach menopause at a younger age (48.2 years) than women who reside in the United States (51 years). Soft capsules with 100 mg of fennel were provided to Iranian women between the ages of 45 and 60. The capsules were consumed two times per day over an 8-week period. The study was comprised of 79 women, some of whom were in a placebo group.

The intervention and placebo groups were compared at the following intervals: four, eight and 10 weeks. A major statistical difference was noted. Fennel proved to be an effective and safe means of decreasing menopause symptoms without inducing major side effects. This is one of the first clinical studies to determine if the benefits of fennel for the management of menopause symptoms had merit. Fennel was previously studied to determine if it was effective in managing premenopause symptoms. It was determined that fennel helped in managing these symptoms.

The Findings

The study determined that consuming fennel two times per day alleviated the severity of menopause symptoms. The placebo had minimum effect. It is still necessary to conduct a longer and larger randomized study yet these findings make it clear that fennel is quite effective for reducing postmenopausal symptoms.

More here:
Fennel Reduces Postmenopause Symptoms - Anti Aging News

You know what theres really plenty of in the sea? Algae. And I am in love with them. Most people envision algae as slimy, possibly toxic, green scum. But this diverse group of fast-growing aquatic plants is about to undergo an image makeover, and may soon seem flat-out glamorous.

Algae got a lot of excited press a few years ago as a potential biofuel, but theyre turning out to be a sustainable super-ingredient with transformative potential in several massive industries: fish and other animal feeds, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, nutritional supplements, bioplastics and fertilizers. Theyre also gaining favor as a vegetarian seafood. In all, the market for algae products could reach nearly $45 billion by 2023, according to a 2016 Credence Research market analysis.

Micro versus macro: size is a quick guide to what algae can do

Algaes broad utility stems partly from their abundant variety. Algae fall into two broad categories: microalgae and macroalgae. Microalgae are single-cell organisms, such as chlorella and spirulina, grown mostly in controlled industrial facilities. Theyre high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids, which makes them an ideal alternative to increasingly scarce and expensive fish oila primary ingredient in feeds. Microalgae also are essential to reinvigorating the shellfish industry. In many oyster-farming areas, for example, the ocean environment no longer provides the algae that oysters need to grow.

Macroalgae are larger aquatic plants, such as seaweed and kelp, that grow in the ocean. Theyre an artisanal ingredient in high-value products including cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, and foods, and theyre relatively easy to grow in coastal areas. This makes them great economic development tools for fishing communities in the global south: algae farming can boost household incomes and provide work for fishers when the weather is too poor for fishing or quotas are exhausted.

Entrepreneurs address the full range of algaes potential

I was excited to see the number and diversity of algae-focused businesses applying to this years Fish 2.0 workshops and competition, all with triple-bottom-line impact at their core. Some ventures are growing microalgae as feed for shellfish or an ingredient in fish feeds. Others are growing algae to create needed jobs, especially for women in coastal communities. Some sell the algae they harvest to pharmaceutical and cosmetics companies; others sell to food companies. And entrepreneurs increasingly are processing the algae themselves to make seaweed snacks, garnishes and products for the natural foods sector and the Japanese restaurant marketa trend that increases the value communities can capture from their algae products, as well as communities interest in starting such enterprises.

One example of algae entrepreneurship is Lili Kawaguchi, who won over the room with her pitch at Fish 2.0s Pacific Islands business development workshop. Her business, South Pacific Mozuku, provides seaweed for high-end cosmetics. Growing the seaweed off the Tonga coast allows the company to develop local stewardship of coastal and marine habitats, so as the business grows, both the people and the reefs of Tonga benefit.

Salty, crunchy and good for you?

I wondered just recently if lionfish would be the new kale. Its also possible that seaweed snacks will be the new potato chips. While similarly salty and crunchy in its dried and roasted form, seaweed is certainly more nutritious: many varieties are loaded with nutrients, fiber, protein and iodine. U.S. retail sales of seaweed snacks grew about 30 percent in 2014, reaching more than $250 million, and launches in the category have surged in the past two years. In a creative twist, one company is using algae to create faux shrimp.

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical companies are studying algae-based products for use in combatting colds, flu, tumors, AIDS, Alzheimers and a range of other conditions. And the cosmetics industry is finding that algae can have anti-acne, anti-aging, and other beneficial effects.

Algaes uses are so varied its difficult to know where to focus. Fish 2.0s one-page Investment Insights overview of the algae market offers investors and entrepreneurs an understanding of the opportunities and industry basics. With algae businesses, we have a real opportunity to preserve ocean habitats and enable coastal communities to thrivewhile producing natural solutions for disease control, nutrition and skin care.

Read more:
Food, Fuel, Medicine, Wrinkle Reducer: Algae Does It All - National Geographic

Russian researchers have provided a new method of determining human biological age. The group hails from the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Clinical Research Center for Gerontology, the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and other prestigious research centers. The survey was carried out at the National Research Center for Preventive Medicine, as well as the Center for Gerontology. The article was published in the journal Aging. The researchers emphasize determining biological age will play a major role in the development of anti-aging medicine.

Biological age is a concept used to describe the state of a human organism. An average healthy individual has their biological age no different from their chronological age, i.e., the age on their ID. However, with age, these two indicators are likely to become mismatched due to different reasons: environmental factors, bad habits, manifestations of hereditary diseases, etc. So far, there is no established method of predicting biological age. Both medical and scientific researchers are looking for a marker that could accurately and consistently reflect if not the general state of the body then at least that of its systems.

The study is based on a combination of carotid ultrasound and tonometry data. Using machine learning, a model was developed capable of determining the biological age of healthy men and women with a mean absolute error of 6.9 and 5.9 years, respectively. The test set also included subjects with hypertension and Type 2 diabetes, whose biological age turned out to be, on average, three years greater than their actual age.

"Researchers have been trying to find a means to estimate human biological age for decades. The most accurate of the existing techniques are based on DNA analysis (the so-called "epigenetic clock") and can predict human age with the median error of three years. However, they require expensive equipment and skilled laboratory personnel, which is the reason why they are still not widely used in medical practice. Our method relies on a type of patient-related data any modern health care facility can obtain," says Alexey Moskalev, who heads the Laboratory of the Genetics of Aging and Longevity at MIPT's Center for Living Systems.

In their study, the authors relied on information about the cardiovascular system, namely, a set of predictors, all of which reflect its functioning: minimum middle layer thickness of the carotid artery tissue, pulse wave velocity, carotid artery diameter (the degree of stenosis), and augmentation index (the difference between the second and first pressure peaks in a pulse wave). Individually, all of them are established markers used for diagnosing atherosclerosis, hypertension, calcinosis, diabetes, and other conditions. The choice was made after performing a correlation analysis, which is a technique used to measure the association between variables.

The main result of the study is that a model (a formula) has been developed in which biological age is derived from the four clinical parameters stated above. Coefficients for each of the parameters were calculated using machine learning, namely robust regression. For this study, a total of 303 subjects (199 women and 104 men) were selected, their age varied from 23 to 91. All of them had visited the National Research Center for Preventive Medicine in Moscow, Russia, back in 2012. Robust regression analysis provides an alternative to the least squares method, which we remember well from school. It is essentially an attempt to approximate the observed dependence using a formula. In other words, the method seeks to pick the variables in a formula so as to make sure the resulting curve fits experimental data. There are, however, certain fundamental differences between the two alternatives which make robust regression preferable. Machine learning methods have long been used to evaluate biological age. Recent years have seen a rise in popularity of deep neural networks, which enable researchers to build high-accuracy models. And yet their application is not always justifiable as they, among other things, require a large number of tests and parameters, which is not always feasible in clinical practice.

Alexander Fedintsev, a bioinformatics specialist from the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology of RAS, the first author of the article, clarifies: "We used nonlinear robust regression, since it does not rely on a priori assumptions of the distribution of the dependent variable and therefore is robust to outliers. Since the number of factors is limited, the model can be taught using a relatively small amount of data. In addition to being fairly accurate, it also provides an easy interpretation of the results: We can tell for sure how the predicted age will change if the measured parameters are varied. It is worth noting, though, that qualitative data was at the heart of this research. Thanks to a large database with a variety of biomarkers, we managed to select the most important factors, which helped us maintain a low error rate while predicting age despite the fact that we were using a rather simple and compact model."

To test the validity of the new method, the researchers compared their biological age estimates with the data obtained through other techniques for evaluating the state of an organism. Correlation of predicted biological age with Framingham CVD Prediction Scores -- an algorithm which estimates a patient's risk of developing cardiovascular disease and is not based on carotid ultrasound imaging -- exceeded that with chronological age. Also, the method was compared with other data processing techniques: The findings were contrasted with those obtained using the Klemera-Doubal statistical method. Again, correlation with biological age exceeded that with chronological age.

Olga Tkacheva, director of Russian Clinical Research Center for Gerontology, who co-authored the article, comments: "Since we used cardiovascular system as our only source of information, additional research that would consider other factors is necessary to refine biological age estimates. However, recent research has shown that the relationship between the state of blood vessels and biological age appears to be even stronger than between the state of blood vessels and chemical composition of blood."

Considering that according to WHO statistics heart disease is the leading age-related cause of death, it seems only natural to claim that the technique developed by the researchers is an effective means of determining biological age. The possibility of doing it rapidly and accurately is indeed crucial to the success of the battle against aging.

More:
Carotid Artery Gives Away Human Biological Age - Bioscience Technology

June 6, 2017 The roundworm, C. elegans, is a popular model in aging research because its short lifespan allows scientists to quickly assess the effects of anti-aging interventions, including genetic manipulation and drug therapies. Scientists at the MDI Biological Laboratory used C. elegans as a model to identify markers of healthy aging. The study will help scientists assess the tradeoffs between lifespan and health span in humans. Credit: MDI Biological Laboratory

Exactly when does old age begin? Which health markers best predict who will live a long and healthy life versus a life spent in poor health?

Developing metrics to help answer these questions and to understand the tradeoffs between lifespan and health span is the subject of a recent paper by MDI Biological Laboratory scientists in Journals of Gerontology: Biological Sciences, a publication of the Gerontological Society of America.

The authors studied various parameters of health in short-lived strains of the roundworm, C. elegans, with the goal of developing an empirical definition of the onset of old age, and of teasing out which health markers are most predictive of a long and healthy life.

With the development of new genetics tools, scientists are getting closer to developing therapies to extend human lifespan, but the effect of such therapies on health span (the proportion of life spent in good health) is unclear. While it used to be thought that therapies to extend lifespan would also extend health span, new research is showing that may not always be true.

The growing number of anti-aging therapies on the horizon creates a need for the development of new parameters to assess healthy aging. Instead of striving to only to prolong longevity, as has been the case in the past, the use of such tools will allow scientists to focus their efforts on lifespan-enhancing therapies with the greatest positive effects on health.

"All anti-aging interventions aren't created equal," said post-doctoral researcher Jarod Rollins, Ph.D., one of the study's lead investigators. "A recent study in C. elegans found, for instance, that the proportion of life spent in a frail state is longer in long-lived mutants than in wild-type animals. Our research is aimed at developing tools to help scientists assess the effect of lifespan-enhancing interventions on health span."

The molecular mechanisms of aging are a focus of research at the MDI Biological Laboratory, located in Bar Harbor, Maine, which is pioneering new approaches to regenerative medicine focused on the development of drugs to increase healthy lifespan by enhancing the body's innate ability to repair and regenerate lost or damaged tissues and organs.

Rollins works in the laboratory of Aric Rogers, Ph.D., the lead author of the study, in the institution's Kathryn W. Davis Center for Regenerative Biology and Medicine.

C. elegans is a popular model in aging research because its short lifespan of only two to three weeks allows scientists to quickly assess the effects of anti-aging interventions, including genetic manipulation and drug therapies. The tiny, soil-dwelling roundworm also has other advantages for research: it shares many of its genes with humans and its health markers roughly correspond to those in humans.

One marker that the MDI Biological Laboratory scientists found to be predictive of a healthy lifespan in C. elegans was movement speed. Movement speed corresponds to walking speed in humans, which studies have found to be an accurate predictor of longevity. One of the scientists' next steps will be to further develop movement speed as a marker for assessing the effect of anti-aging interventions in C. elegans.

"As science closes in on the mechanisms underlying aging, the tradeoffs between lifespan and health span become a greater cause for concern," said Kevin Strange, Ph.D., president of the MDI Biological Laboratory. "The scientists in the Rogers laboratory are at the forefront of developing metrics to assess the impact of anti-aging interventions on quality of life."

Explore further: Research sheds light on mechanisms underlying aging

More information: Jarod A. Rollins et al. Assessing Health Span in Caenorhabditis elegans: Lessons From Short-Lived Mutants, The Journals of Gerontology: Series A (2017). DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glw248

(Medical Xpress)A large team of researchers from the Netherlands, Italy and the U.S. has found a possible explanation for the injury and death to patients in a clinical trial held last year in France. In their paper published ...

(HealthDay)Exercise doesn't just trim your tummy. It may also improve bone thickness, boost bone quality, and whittle away the fat found inside bones, new animal research suggests.

Despite many studies looking at which bread is the healthiest, it is still not clear what effect bread and differences among bread types have on clinically relevant parameters and on the microbiome. In the journal Cell Metabolism ...

Yale scientists produced increased grooming behavior in mice that may model tics in Tourette syndrome and discovered these behaviors vanish when histaminea neurotransmitter most commonly associated with allergiesis ...

Some bodily activities, sleeping, for instance, mostly occur once every 24 hours; they follow a circadian rhythm. Other bodily functions, such as body temperature, cognitive performance and blood pressure, present an additional ...

Delivering drugs to the brain is no easy task. The blood-brain barrier -a protective sheath of tissue that shields the brain from harmful chemicals and invaders - cannot be penetrated by most therapeutics that are injected ...

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Living long and living well: Is it possible to do both? - Medical Xpress - Medical Xpress

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Too much caffeine caused the death of a 16-year-old high school student from South Carolina who collapsed during class last month, according to the county coroner. Davis Allen Cripe died from a caffeine-induced cardiac event causing a probable arrhythmia.

During an arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythm, the heart may not be able to pump enough blood to the body, and lack of blood flow affects the brain, heart and other organs. The teen consumed three caffeine-laced drinksa cafe latte, large Diet Mountain Dew and an energy drinkin a two-hour period before collapsing in his classroom at Spring Hill High School on April 26, Watts said.

So where does this tragic news leave adultjava lovers?

How much caffeine can I drink a day? Most people can safely take in about 400 milligrams of caffeine daily or about 4 cups of coffee, says Dr. Christopher Calapai D.O., a New York City Osteopathic Physician board certified in family and anti-aging medicine.

He adds that the limit varies from person to person. Its difficult to assign an exact amount for everyone because people can have different sensitivities or reactions to caffeine based on age, medical history, and tolerance. However, there is enough research available to make a recommendation based on an individuals weight.

To keep it safe, health experts recommend a maximum daily dose of 400 mg. To see what this means for you, check out the caffeine in some of these common drinks:

Starbucks Coffee (16 fl oz): 320 mg caffeine 5-hour energy (1.93 fl oz): 207 mg caffeine Dunkin Donuts regular (16 fl oz): 203 mg caffeine Starbucks Latte (16 fl oz): 150 mg caffeine Coffee, brewed (8 fl oz): 133 mg caffeine Red Bull Energy Shot (2 fl oz): 80 mg caffeine Red Bull (8 fl oz): 80 mg caffeine Tea (8 fl oz): 53 mg caffeine

But how, exactly, can the worlds most popular drug kill? Like other stimulants, caffeine raises blood pressure, boosts heart rate and temporarily shrinks blood vessels.

Dr. Calapai explains, In excess, the effects can be deadly by causing a heart attack, stroke or other cardio-vascular-related problem. Researchers think daily caffeine intake can increase the risk of coronary heart disease, but the results so far have been inconclusive.

Its also important to realize that medical conditions can affect sensitivity to caffeine. If you have anxiety, panic disorder, heart arrhythmia, high blood pressure, diabetes, take medication or have any sort of medical condition, then you may tolerate less caffeine and should speak to a doctor, says Dr. Calapai.

Here are crucial caffeine overdose symptoms to watch for: Jitters, Restlessness, and Nervousness Increased heartbeat Nausea Anxiety Heart palpitations (cardiac arrhythmia) Insomnia Sweating Dizziness Vomiting Cardiac arrest

Read this article:
Can You Actually Die From Too Much Caffeine? - BOSS Magazine

The Fellowship in Metabolic and Nutritional Medicine is an interactive educational experience that combines modular training with hands-on clinical practice and web broadcasts, while instilling practitioners with the necessary knowledge and skills to effectively practice regenerative and functional medicine. The Fellowship is comprised of the latest findings and research in the areas of endocrinology, cardiology, neurology, nutrition, and a variety of other health fields, and is available to all physicians and healthcare practitioners with active medical licenses.

As the world's largest non-profit society of physicians and scientists committed to research that helps optimize the human aging process, along with the advancement of techniques and technologies that detect, prevent, and treat aging-related diseases, The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine has collaborated with MMI to provide the RCGP with high quality information and guidance. The A4M is dedicated to the education of all healthcare professionals, and is proud to be in its 25th year of providing first-class continuing education conferences on anti-aging, regenerative, and functional medicine.

A4M & MMI work collectively to ensure that general practitioners are fully equipped with the knowledge and clinical skills in order to provide the best standards of care for patients.

Tolearn more,registerfor events,enrollin training programs, orexhibitat an A4M Conference, please contact the office of The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine at:

Toll-Free - US Only:(888) 997-0112International:(561) 997-0112Email: internationalevents@a4m.com

SOURCE American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine

http://www.a4m.com

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The American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) and Metabolic Medical Institute (MMI) have been - PR Newswire UK (press release)