Following a trail from Gizmodo to Live Science to Nature, I felt like Ponce de Leon. I was promised that"science" has discovered the "fountain of youth". Considering the resveratrol debacle that still continues to unfold, megadoses of vitamins, the supplement du jour, and assorted other concoctions of floor sweepings and lawn clippings, my expectations were, shall we say, not very high. It's basically a study of how NF-κB is a key regulatory element for apoptosis in hypothalamic neurons in mice. If you began reading this post hoping you would know how to live longer, the punch line is that when NF-κB is blocked in mice, they live 20% longer.
If you are new to pharmaceutical research, let me leave you with one key learning: A mouse is not a human. If you look at all the pathways that have an effect on aging in mice, when you examine them in humans, they are all pretty maxed out. The take home message is do not try this at home. If you want to live longer, the biggest single factor is your genetics. You can exercise, eat healthy and avoid all potential toxins and mutagens and you probably won't live that much longer. You may feel better, which is nothing to sneeze at, mind you, but eternal youth, well if it's not in your genes, it's not in your future. Sorry.
If you are new to pharmaceutical research, let me leave you with one key learning: A mouse is not a human. If you look at all the pathways that have an effect on aging in mice, when you examine them in humans, they are all pretty maxed out. The take home message is do not try this at home. If you want to live longer, the biggest single factor is your genetics. You can exercise, eat healthy and avoid all potential toxins and mutagens and you probably won't live that much longer. You may feel better, which is nothing to sneeze at, mind you, but eternal youth, well if it's not in your genes, it's not in your future. Sorry.
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