Category Archives: Longevity Medicine

ROCHESTER, Minn. If you are a doctor and devout person of faith, and if your religion says vegetarianism is the diet endorsed by the Bible, can you be expected to study the science of food and health without bias?

Its an emerging question for the communities waging battle over methodological weaknesses in the dietary sciences, one highlighted by a recent, widely reported Mayo Clinic clinician-authored paper on the association between diet and prostate cancer.

The publication, a Journal of the American Osteopathic Association study by the Mayo oncology and hematology fellow Dr. John Shin and four Mayo Clinic Scottsdale colleagues, reviewed 47 studies dating back 11 years. It rendered a timely, vegan-friendly conclusion that diets high in dairy products may be associated with increased prostate cancer risk, and diets high in plant-based foods may be associated with decreased prostate cancer risk. The study was reported in new outlets across the U.S., U.K. and Australia.

For those who heard the news and came away with new reasons to swear off animal foods, a valuable piece of context went missing, however. Shin, like thousands of other clinicians across the country, is Seventh-Day Adventist. Sermon-hosting sites offer links to the physicians religious lectures and he serves as a speaker in the Adventist Medical Evangelical Network (AMEN), an independent organization with the goal of uniting the church to restore Christs ministry of healing to the world, hastening His return.

Why should a nutrition researchers faith tradition matter? Because an Adventist ministry of healing includes the promotion of a plant-based diet. In response to a recent Forum News Service question asking if Adventism seeks to move the public towards a plant-based diet in keeping with religious beliefs about the foods that promote health, Shin responded in the affirmative.

Yes, he replied, because the original diet given to man in the garden of Eden as described in the Bible was a plant-based diet, Seventh-day Adventists believe that this is the ideal diet for maintaining and restoring health. Shin added that the purpose of the AMEN organization is to inspire Christian medical professionals to incorporate whole person care into their practices, and he disputed that its mission is to bring about dietary change.

Questionable science

Like much of the research that now informs the U.S. Dietary Guidelines, the 47 studies the Shin paper analyzes to impugn dairy are of a methodologically weak form of science known as nutritional epidemiology, so-called case-control and cohort studies that contain no information about cause and effect. The studies were of varying size and quality, moreover, and their findings were all over the place. Most showed no effect, protective or harmful, for any foods in relation to prostate cancer.

Given these results, how did the Mayo group come to their dairy-cautioning, plant-promoting conclusions? By citing the plentiful number of studies with no finding, alongside the few studies showing plants were good and dairy was bad, all as part of the same trend. Shin says this step was justified because the vast majority of papers with findings, outnumbered though by null findings, showed plants to be protective and dairy harmful, a pattern favoring his vegan-friendly findings on foods and cancer.

Earlier this year, however, a team of Canadian researchers conducting a more rigorous statistical method found dairy to be without effect as often as harmful in relation to prostate cancer. The diagnosed rates of prostate cancer within the US during the period studied, moreover, are widely recognized to be inaccurate thanks to the overdiagnosis of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screenings. When it comes to diet and prostate cancer, in other words, the room for investigator bias to affect an outcome is high.

Visions from God

Adventist dietary beliefs derive from the writings of Ellen White, its mid-19th century co-founder and spiritual prophet.

She would go into trances and receive what she called visions from God, says Ronald L. Numbers, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin and expert on the history of Adventism. Numbers says White began to describe visions on diet and health, leading her to become a vegetarian distinguishing between clean and unclean meat according to the Levitical laws.

Among the hundreds of passages concerning diet which are attributed to White are several that look decidedly vegan or vegetarian. These include meat eating deranges the system, beclouds the intellect, and blunts the moral sensibilities, and, people everywhere should be taught how to cook without milk and eggs, so far as possible, and, grains, fruits, nuts, and vegetables constitute the diet chosen for us by our Creator. Numbers says Adventists have a diversity of views about the dietary positions of Ellen White.

But Adventist scholars have taken credit for over 100 years of moving food practices away from animal foods and toward plants. Whites contemporaries were early cereal pioneers in Battle Creek, Mich., and their products were instrumental in diverting Americans from bacon and eggs towards carbohydrate-laden breakfasts of today, changes believed to have contributed to the skyrocketing global burden of Type 2 diabetes and secondary illnesses of heart disease, hypertension, Alzheimers and some forms of cancer.

Contemporary Adventism has figured in over 300 health outcome studies of its communities, often conducted with NIH funding and in partnership with researchers from Harvard School of Public Health. Though studies of church-going populations have characteristics that limit their usefulness, this sustained appeal within the medical literature to the benefits of Adventist so-called lifestyle medicine is cited widely, including by the so-called Blue Zones longevity initiative adopted in cities like Albert Lea, Minn.

In perhaps the most direct position of influence on the direction of dietary policies today, Joan Sabate, an acknowledged Adventist and professor at the SDA-affiliated Loma Linda University School of Public Health, currently sits on the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee of the USDA.

Shin says Adventists focus on health because we believe that when the body is healthy, the mind is better able to comprehend spiritual truths, thus enhancing ones relationship with God. He adds that the teetoling, tobacco- and caffeine-avoiding faith also promotes exercise, adequate sleep and spending time with family. But while exercise, sleep, and family time is largely uncontested in medicine, a rigorous debate exits over the wisdom of the advice to avoid animal foods.

Should being Adventist while studying nutrition require a disclaimer?

The real issue for me is that Seventh-Day Adventists began their religion as a health religion, so they are compromised in making broad decisions about societys health

The real issue for me is that Seventh-Day Adventists began their religion as a health religion, so they are compromised in making broad decisions about societys health, says Belinda Fettke, an Australian who blogs on the subject of Adventism and health. We should be asking them how best to do a vegetarian or vegan diet, because they understand it. But they shouldnt be telling the world that animal fats and protein are dangerous, which is what they do ... I dont think Ive ever come across a religion thats so involved in a health message, and I think thats a concern.

Shin counters that all researchers approach their work with a bias, its just that his is visible.

My Seventh-day Adventist faith provides me with the predisposition to believe that plant-based foods are healthful, and therefore I have an interest in conducting research to show whether or not this is true, he says. In this sense, my ability to maintain my objectivity in conducting diet-related research would be no more compromised than any other dietary researcher, the only difference being that my predispositions can be more readily traced to my religion.

He says he believes requiring a disclosure would imply that someone of that faith is somehow less qualified or trustworthy to conduct the research in question. It would be a form of discrimination.

When asked if a devout Adventist could make a dietary recommendation contrary to the faith, the historian Ronald Numbers is skeptical. That would be difficult, he says.

If you even found that eating pork contributed to health, you would be in a bad quandary ... I assume that the nutritional studies that show Adventists live longer, healthier lives are reasonably accurate. But then of course, studies of Mormonism show they live longer lives. And theyre not vegetarian.

So, should Adventists be asked disclose their faith when conducting nutrition studies?

That is an incredibly interesting question, he says.

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Are dietary studies influenced by religious beliefs? | State - Southernminn.com

Not far from the picture-perfect tourist hubs of Santorini and Mykonos, where cruise ships unload tourists by the thousands, sits another Greek island, more rugged but no less remarkable. Ikaria is off the beaten path.

Up the winding mountain roads of this isolated isle, you're likely to notice brightly-painted boxes dotting the landscape. And what's happening inside those boxes is generating some buzz: Bees busy making a rare honey that locals believe is one of the secrets to a long life.

Beekeeper Andoni Karimalis explained to correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti that people on the island have been eating the honey for generations, to keep healthy and strong well into old age.

At work in her weaving studio, 109-year-old Yaya Joanna agrees there is something special about it.

So does 87-year-old-beekeeper Giorgos Stenos. He eats the honey "every single day."

Chef Diane Kochilas says she has a spoonful every morning.

"So, when the locals here say it's like their medicine, their daily vitamin, there's truth to that?" asked Vigliotti.

"There is truth to that," she replied. "And the local older guys say it's nature's Viagra. I don't know if I should be telling you that!"

To our knowledge, that claim hasn't been tested. But research has found that people here have among the highest life expectancies in the world. And the University of Athens concluded that Ikarians are more than twice as likely as Americans to reach age 90, often in better health.

Kochilas said, "What was it in 'Mary Poppins' 'Just a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down'? Well, a spoonful of honey, you don't need medicine!"

For centuries humans have valued honey for its medicinal properties. And in Ikaria, known in ancient times as the "healing island," the honey is different from that found on most supermarket shelves.

"First of all there's no industrial farming on the island," said Kochilas. "There's very few commercial undertaking whatsoever. So, nature is pretty pure."

As a result, the pollen and nectar collected by the bees is free of chemicals and pesticides normally found in commercial or private farming. And unlike most honey sold in the U.S., Ikarian honey is also unheated, unfiltered, and unpasteurized all processes which can destroy the natural vitamins and minerals.

In other words, said David Kahn, "It's going from the bees to somebody's mouth. Andoni (the beekeeper) is just facilitating."

David and his wife, Robyn, are also helping spread the word. The American expats who moved to the island a decade ago for a simpler life, introduced Andoni to a distributor in the U.S.

"When we first came, we had a lot of friends that would want the honey because we had it at our house," said Robyn. "They were like, 'What is this? It's so great?' So, he kept going up to Andoni all the time. They said, 'Where can we order this stuff?'"

"It's basically been a very well-kept secret," said David.

That secret, now, perhaps a little less well-kept.

So, how does Diane Kochilas feel about word spreading? "I have to be honest, that's a double-edged sword, because we want to share, of course, the goodness. But we also want to retain the purity of the place and keep it more or less as it is."

For more info:

Story produced by Mikaela Bufano.

Continued here:
Ikarian honey: The secret ingredient to long life? - CBS News

Kieran Mercer and Miriam Spencer, representing our Sports Injury team, attended the flagship Kings Chambers Future of Sports Law and Business Conference at Manchester Citys Etihad Stadium on 1 November 2019.

The conference brought together sports lawyers, athletes, regulators and academics to discuss the most prescient legal issues facing the world of sport. The conference included panels covering topics from the regulation of football agents to bullying and sexual abuse in sport.

Of particular interest to the growth of the sports injury practice were the reflections of keynote speaker David Casement QC, who discussed the toxic environment that many professional footballers currently inhabit as a result of widespread racism and discrimination within the game. The links between discrimination and mental health issues in football have been exacerbated by the modern-day camera culture and demands of social media.

A 2017 study published in the Clinical Journal of Sport Medicine found that 37% of professional footballers in Europe recorded symptoms of anxiety or depression within a 12-month period. The duty of care owed by a club to its players is demonstrable and clubs should be conscious of their inclusion and equality responsibilities. In the wider context, where clubs fail to adequately protect and support their players during periods of poor mental health, they could be opening themselves up to litigation in cases where foreseeable psychiatric injury results.

Concussion

A growing area of concern in sports injury is the treatment of concussions and the long-term impact on cognitive function when such injuries are not effectively managed. Sport-related concussion is defined somewhat vaguely as a traumatic brain injury induced by biomechanical forces. The extent and longevity of the injury varies.

Sports regulators have divergent approaches to procedure for assessing athletes for suspected concussions during play. Notably, where there is suspicion of concussion in rugby, players are removed from play and should undergo the SCAT5 recognition test if they are to be considered for a return to action. During the assessment, a substitute takes their place; the substitution is made permanent if the player cannot return to the field. In contrast, in football, FIFA currently only requires players to undergo a three-minute assessment, which takes place on the pitch or side of the field. Although the clinical understanding of concussion and its links with degenerative brain injury is still in its infancy, it is thought that the procedure in football is insufficient and is putting players at risk.

Daniel Parslow, a former professional footballer and concussion awareness campaigner, reflected on his experience when suffering a concussion during a game in February 2019. Daniel passed the basic test initiated by his clubs medical staff before returning to the game and suffering worsening symptoms soon after; he lost his vision and felt nauseous. Fortunately, half-time arrived without Daniel making any further meaningful contributions to the match, which could have risked further injury. Daniel remained symptomatic for six months, suffering from headaches and exhaustion, and retiring from football in the process.

Unlike rugby, there is no provision for concussion substitutions in football and the sports law-making body, the International Football Association Board (IFAB), has decided not to consider rule changes until its annual general meeting, which will be held in Belfast on 29 February 2020. In the interim, with footballers at risk of potential injury from ineffective concussion recognition practices, clubs and individual practitioners could face liability where medical staff fail to protect their players and injury results. Under the Bolam test, to show a breach of duty, a claimant must demonstrate that in conducting a short, on-field concussion test the clinician followed a course of action which is not supported by a reasonable body of medical opinion. The clinician and clubs exposure is compounded by the pressure sports clinicians can face from players and managers to allow an injured player to return to action as was seen in the infamous incident involving Dr Eva Carneiro and Jose Mourinho during Chelseas Premier League match in August 2015. Currently, if medical teams at professional football clubs followed the FIFA head injury guidelines, they could be deemed negligent under Bolam, increasing litigation risks. Additionally, FIFA and IFAB could be deemed responsible for delaying rule changes when evidence shows their procedures are out of step with clinical opinion and best practice in other sports.

Growth of womens sport

A further highlight was the Growth and Opportunities in Womens Sport panel which included Sue Smith, former England footballer and Carrie Dunn, author of Pride of the Lionesses. Carrie Dunn gave a brief history of womens football, revealing that following the First World War the womens sport was more popular than the mens until it was banned in 1921 for being quite unsuitable for females.

Today, there has been significant growth in womens football, demonstrated by the success of the recent Womens World Cup and Barclays groundbreaking sponsorship of the Womens Super League earlier this year. Despite this unprecedented growth, the panel highlighted the various inequities in the womens game, most pertinently in relation to the treatment of injuries. Sue Smith revealed that when she suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury, her contract with England was immediately terminated.

Similarly, the panel noted that female players at one Championship club had no option but to fundraise via JustGiving to pay for their rehabilitation and surgeries or resort to waiting for treatment as regular NHS patients. Additionally, despite the advances in the commercialisation of womens football, the rewards are not evenly distributed, with high-profile clubs such as Liverpool FC still not paying their womens team enough for their players to be full-time professionals.

Overall, the conference was an excellent opportunity for Stewarts to remain abreast of the key areas of growth in the sports injury and disputes market, and to learn how best we can assist our clients with the biggest challenges facing the sporting world.

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The Future of Sports Law and Business Conference - Lexology

This longitudinal prospective study examined the relationship between child maltreatment as per reports to child protective services (CPS) and adolescent self-reportedmarijuana use, and the association between relationships with mothers and fathers and use ofmarijuana. The association between relationships with parents early in childhood (ages 6-8 years) and during adolescence with adolescentmarijuana usewere also probed. Another aim examined whether relationships with parents moderated the link between child maltreatment and youthmarijuana use. The sample included 702 high risk adolescents from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN), a consortium of 5 studies related to maltreatment. Children were recruited at age 4 or 6 years together with their primary caregiver. Some were recruited due to their risk for child maltreatment, others were already involved with CPS, and children in one site had been placed in foster care.

Logistic regression analysis was performed using youth self-report ofmarijuana useas the criterion variable and child maltreatment and the relationships with parents as predictor variables, controlling for youths perceptions of peer substance use and parental monitoring, parental substance use, race/ethnicity, sex and study site. Approximately half the youth had usedmarijuana. Most of them described quite positive relationships with their mothers and fathers. Participantmarijuana Usewas associated with a poorer quality of relationship with mother during adolescence, and with peer and parental substance use. A better relationship with father, but not mother, during adolescence attenuated the connection between Child Maltreatment and youthMarijuana Use.

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Child Maltreatment, Relationship with Father, Peer Substance Use, and Adolescent Marijuana Use - DocWire News

VENTURA, Calif., Nov. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ --A California-based pet wellness company has launched a new natural health supplement formulated to boost your pet's immune system and protect dogs and cats against cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

"Cancer is the number-one killer of dogs and cats," explains VetSmart Formulas founder and CEO, Russ Kamalski. "We wanted to create a product that would help pets stay healthy and active for years to come. That's why we've spent the past few years perfecting the formula and making sure it includes active ingredients that have been proven to promote normal cell growth and support long-term health in pets."

The supplement's main ingredients are four medicinal mushrooms from Asia that have been proven to inhibit the growth of cancerous tumors, strengthen the immune system, lower cholesterol levels and blood pressure, and reduce inflammation. The product also includes a patented white turmeric extract that contains active ingredients that have been shown to protect against neurodegenerative diseases, arthritis, cardiovascular risks, and liver damage.

Kamalski says that the powerful combination of natural ingredients is one of the most effective antioxidant supplements for pets and is designed to strengthen the immune system for both young pets as a preventative measure, and for those dogs and cats struggling with diseases such as cancer, it helps the pet's natural immune defenses in an extraordinary way.

"It is the responsibility of the pet owner to do everything possible to minimize the risk of cancer in their pets. That includes a sensible lifestyle with sufficient exercise, weight management, drinking clean water, healthy food intake, and avoiding toxins," says Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Shawn Messonnier, founder of Paws & Claws Animal Hospital in Plano, Texas. "Giving your pets a high-quality antioxidant supplement is highly recommended to further reduce the risk of cancer."

Kamalski, who has decades of experience in the natural health supplement industry, decided to develop this all-natural supplement when his 12-year-old dog, Sienna, developed bone cancer. The doctors gave her just a few months to live but Kamalski exhaustively researched alternative cancer treatments and developed an early prototype of the Critical Immune Defense formula to aid in her treatment and recovery. With the support of Sienna's veterinarian and oncologist, he succeeded in extending Sienna's life by almost two years.

"The oncologists who were treating her were amazed," Kamalski says. "Her tumors basically stopped growing and started to shrink. Not only did the product help slow the cancer growth, her quality of life dramatically improved. They'd never seen anything like it."

Critical Immune Defense is not available in retail stores and can be found at the Pet Wellness Direct Website: http://getvsf.com/cid-press

About VetSmart Formulas:VetSmart Formulas is a line of high-quality pet supplements sold directly to consumers by Pet Wellness Direct, an online pet wellness company founded in 2015. The company's all-natural products are made in the USA in FDA audited labs, have no artificial ingredients or flavors, are wheat-free, and are based on scientifically superior formulas that pet professionals demand. The company's board of advisors includes a professor of biochemistry and molecular medicine and four veterinarians who are passionate about protecting our pets from disease and increasing pet health and longevity.

Related Links:

Russ KamalskiCEOPet Wellness Direct888-212-8400, ext. 802inquiries@petwellnessdirect.com

This release was issued through WebWire. For more information visit http://www.webwire.com.

SOURCE Pet Wellness Direct

Link:
New Immune-Boosting Pet Supplement May Add Years to the Life of Your Pet - PRNewswire

MANHATTAN, Kan., Nov. 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Libella Gene Therapeutics, LLC("Libella") announces an institutional review board (IRB)-approved pay-to-play clinical trial in Colombia (South America) using gene therapy that aims to treat and ultimately cure aging. This could lead to Libella offering the world's only treatment to cure and reverse aging by 20 years.

Under Libella's pay-to-play model, trial participants will be enrolled in their country of origin after paying$1 million. Participants will travel to Colombia to sign their informed consent and to receive the Libella gene therapy under a strictly controlled hospital environment.

Traditionally, aging has been viewed as a natural process. This view has shifted, and now scientists believe that aging should be seen as a disease. The research in this field has led to the belief that the kingpin of aging in humans is the shortening of our telomeres.

Telomeres are the body's biological clock. Every time a cell divides, telomeres shorten, and our cells become less efficient at dividing again. This is why we age. A significant number of scientific peer-reviewed studies have confirmed this. Some of these studies have shown actual age reversal in every way imaginable simply by lengthening telomeres.

Bill Andrews, Ph.D., Libella's Chief Scientific Officer, has developed a gene therapy that aims to lengthen telomeres. Dr. Andrew's gene therapy delivery system has been demonstrated as safe with minimal adverse reactions in about 200 clinical trials. Dr. Andrews led the research at Geron Corporation over 20 years ago that initially discovered human telomerase and was part of the team that led the initial experiments related to telomerase induction and cancer.

Telomerase gene therapy in mice delays aging and increases longevity. Libella's clinical trial involves a new gene-therapy using a proprietary AAV Reverse (hTERT) Transcriptase enzyme and aims to lengthen telomeres. Libella believes that lengthening telomeres is the key to treating and possibly curing aging.

Libella's clinical trial has been posted at the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM)'s clinicaltrials.gov database. Libella is the world's first and only gene therapy company with a clinical trial posted at clinicaltrials.gov that aims to reverse the condition of aging.

On why they decided to conduct its project outside the United States, Libella's President, Dr. Jeff Mathis, said, "Traditional clinical trials in the U.S. can take years and millions, or even billions,of dollars. The research and techniques that have been proven to work are ready now. We believe we have the scientist, the technology, the physicians, and the lab partners that are necessary to get this trial done faster and at a lower cost in Colombia."

Media Contact:Osvaldo R. Martinez-ClarkPhone: +1 (786) 471-7814Email: ozclark@libellagt.com

Related Files

curing_aging_booklet.pdf

Related Images

william-bill-andrews-ph-d.jpg William (Bill) Andrews, Ph.D. Dr. Bill Andrews is a scientist who has spent his entire life trying to defeat the processes that cause us to age. He has been featured in Popular Science, The Today Show, and numerous documentaries on the topic of life extension including The Immortalists documentary.

Related Links

Dr. Bill Andrews speech at RAADfest 2018 (Sept 21, San Diego, CA)

bioaccess: Libella's CRO partner in Colombia.

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SOURCE Libella Gene Therapeutics, LLC

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Breakthrough Gene Therapy Clinical Trial is the World's First That Aims to Reverse 20 Years of Aging in Humans - P&T Community