5 ms·
Can someone explain why this is interesting? It looks like a directionally interesting anti-aging study, but without any major breakthroughs. I'm curious what f
by harles 3y ago
Can someone explain why this is interesting? It looks like a directionally interesting anti-aging study, but without any major breakthroughs. I'm curious what folks upvoting see in the study that I'm missing.
- kalium-xyz 3y agoIts further evidence for a hypothesis on the mechanism of aging. Personally I just wanna know how aging works
- graphe 3y agoDon't your telomeres get shorter, your DNA gets damaged and it doesn't replicate correctly anymore? Some animals can be immortal like lobsters but face limits like their physical size can kill them when they molt enough.
- tambourine_man 3y agoI think the consensus is that it’s part of the process, but not the whole picture, but I’m no expert.
- throwaway60703 3y agoYes, that's one of around 50 currently recognized factors of aging.
- echelon 3y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallmarks_of_aging https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallmarks_of_aging This isn't comprehensive, though. I don't see intracellular or extracellular waste accumulation, for instance.
- calepayson 3y agoI'm not sure if this is one of the consensus primary causes but the most compelling explanation I've heard is capillary damage. Red blood cells and capillaries have roughly the same diameter leading to constant friction. Your body repairs the capillaries but, given enough time, it makes mistakes. As these mistakes pile up your circulatory system, your body's supply chain, slowly gets less efficient. This leads to every cell in your body gets the energy it needs a little later, and has to hold onto waste for a little longer.
- BobaFloutist 3y agoIf aging was just DNA errors, wouldn't it be far less consistent in how it effected people?
- Torkel 3y ago"Remarkably, the microenvironmental change and the functional decline of mid-old cells could be reversed by a young cell-originated protein, SLIT2. Our data identify functional reversion of mid-old cells as a potential method to prevent or ameliorate aspects of aging-related tissue dysfunction." I think this sounds promising.
- RobotToaster 3y agoSo, potentially, we can synthesise this SLIT2 and inject people with a bunch of it?
- Torkel 3y agoThat is, unfortunately!, not how these things work. But it allows people to do more targeted studies, and (many years of research later) perhaps find a drug that can have some impact.
- vanderZwan 3y agoOr sometimes we get really lucky and just find a food or spice that upregulates/downregulates the right gene or affects the right enzyme (e.g. ginger contains compounds that suppress the inflammation triggering enzyme COX-2 without affecting the related COX-1 enzyme, which is actually beneficial. Most inflammation-reducing drugs affect both). Although I'm sure we'd have noticed it by now if a food item targeted these genes (assuming they do significantly affect how healthily people age).
- woliveirajr 3y agoThanks for the ginger example, it was tangential but gave me some ideas :-)
- goatlabs 3y ago[flagged]