February 1, 2013
Life extension science, also known as anti-aging medicine and experimental gerontology, is the study of slowing down or reversing the processes of aging to extend both the maximum and average lifespan.
Some researchers in this area, and ‘life extensionists’ or ‘longevists’ (those who wish to achieve longer lives themselves), believe that future breakthroughs in tissue rejuvenation with stem cells, molecular repair, and organ replacement (such as with artificial organs or xenotransplantations) will eventually enable humans to have indefinite lifespans (agerasia) through complete rejuvenation to a healthy youthful condition.
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January 31, 2013
The free radical theory of aging states that organisms age because cells accumulate free radical damage over time. A free radical is a molecule with an unpaired electron. The molecule is reactive and seeks another electron to pair. This initiates an uncontrolled chain reaction that can damage the natural function of the living cell, causing various diseases. While a few free radicals such as melanin are not chemically reactive, most biologically-relevant free radicals are highly reactive.
For most biological structures, free radical damage is closely associated with oxidative damage. Antioxidants are reducing agents, they limit oxidative damage to biological structures by donating an electron to free radicals. Biogerontologist Denham Harman first proposed the free radical theory of aging in the 1950s, and in the 1970s extended the idea to implicate mitochondrial production of reactive oxygen species.
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January 31, 2013
Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence (SENS) is the term coined by British biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey for the diverse range of regenerative medical therapies, either planned or currently in development, for the periodical repair of all age-related damage to human tissue with the ultimate purpose of maintaining a state of negligible senescence in the patient, thereby postponing age-associated disease for as long as the therapies are reapplied.
The term ‘negligible senescence’ was first used in the early 1990s by professor Caleb Finch to describe organisms such as lobsters and hydras, which do not show symptoms of aging. The term ‘engineered negligible senescence’ first appeared in print in Aubrey de Grey’s 1999 book ‘The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging,’ and was later prefaced with the term ‘strategies’ in the article ‘Time to Talk SENS: Critiquing the Immutability of Human Aging.’
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January 31, 2013
Negligible [neg-li-juh-buhl] senescence [si-nes-sens] refers to the lack of symptoms of aging in a few select animals. More specifically, negligibly senescent animals do not have measurable reductions in their reproductive capability with age, or measurable functional decline with age.
Death rates in negligibly senescent animals do not increase with age as they do in senescent organisms. Some fish, such as some varieties of sturgeon and rockfish, and some tortoises and turtles are thought to be negligibly senescent.
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January 31, 2013
Han is a concept in Korean culture attributed as a national cultural trait. Han denotes a collective feeling of oppression and isolation in the face of overwhelming odds. It connotes aspects of lament and unavenged injustice.
The minjung theologian Suh Nam-dong describes han as a ‘feeling of unresolved resentment against injustices suffered, a sense of helplessness because of the overwhelming odds against one, a feeling of acute pain in one’s guts and bowels, making the whole body writhe and squirm, and an obstinate urge to take revenge and to right the wrong—all these combined.’ In some occasions, anthropologists have recognized han as a culture-specific medical condition whose symptoms include shortness of breath, heart palpitation, and dizziness. Someone who dies of han is said to have died of ‘hwabyeong’ (‘anger illness’ or ‘fire illness’).
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January 31, 2013
Hwabyeong, literally ‘anger illness’ or ‘fire illness,’ is a Korean culture-bound somatization disorder (e.g. panic disorder), a mental illness. It manifests as one or more of a wide range of physical symptoms, in response to emotional disturbance, such as stress from troublesome interpersonal relationships or life crises. It most often occurs in middle-aged, menopausal women with relatively low socio-economic status. The individuals typically live in traditional families, which stress the value of males while devaluing women, and in which a woman’s virtue is to quietly bear misfortune and unhappiness while maintaining harmony.
Hwabyung is believed to be caused by a build-up of unresolved anger, which disturbs the balance of the five bodily elements. The triggering cause is external events, particularly intra-familiar stressors such as spousal infidelity and conflict with in-laws. Because of the cultural emphasis on familial harmony and peace, expressing anger is not acceptable, so the anger is suppressed, and builds on itself over time. The suppressed anger, hate and despair is known as ‘han,’ or ‘everlasting woe.’
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January 22, 2013
Coenzyme Q10 is an oil-soluble, vitamin-like substance present in most eukaryotic cells, primarily in the mitochondria. Enzymes are protein molecules which work as catalysts (accelerating chemical reactions); coenzymes are are non-protein compounds bound to an enzyme.
They are sometimes referred to as ‘helper molecules.’ CoQ10 aids in cellular respiration (the conversion of sugar into usable energy). It is a component of the electron transport chain and participates in aerobic respiration, generating energy in the form of ATP. Ninety-five percent of the human body’s energy is generated this way. Therefore, those organs with the highest energy requirements—such as the heart, liver and kidney—have the highest CoQ10 concentrations.
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January 22, 2013
An antioxidant [an-tee-ok-si-duhnt] is a molecule that can slow or stop the oxidation, or loss of electrons, of other molecules. Oxidation reactions are necessary for many bodily functions but can produce free radicals (molecules with an unpaired electron). In turn, these radicals can start chain reactions. When the chain reaction occurs in a cell, it can cause damage or death to the cell. Antioxidants terminate these chain reactions by removing free radical intermediates. They do this by being oxidized themselves (donating an electron to the free radical).
Vitamins and enzymes can have antioxidant properties that neutralize the damaging effects of free radicals. Although oxidation reactions are crucial for life, they can also be damaging; plants and animals maintain complex systems of multiple types of antioxidants. Insufficient levels of antioxidants, or inhibition of the antioxidant enzymes, cause oxidative stress and may damage or kill cells. As oxidative stress appears to be an important part of many human diseases, the use of antioxidants in pharmacology is intensively studied, particularly as treatments for stroke and neurodegenerative diseases. Moreover, oxidative stress is both the cause and the consequence of disease.
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January 22, 2013
Oxidation [ok-si-dey-shuhn] is any chemical reaction that involves a loss of electrons. For example, when iron reacts with oxygen it forms a chemical called rust: the iron is oxidized (loses electrons) and the oxygen is reduced (gains electrons).
A reduction reaction always comes together with its opposite, the oxidation reaction, and together are called ‘redox’ (reduction and oxidation). Although oxidation reactions are commonly associated with the formation of oxides from oxygen molecules, these are only specific examples of a more general concept of reactions involving electron transfer.
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January 22, 2013
A microexpression is a brief, involuntary facial expression made in reaction to an emotion. They usually occur in high-stakes situations, where people have something to lose or gain. Microexpressions occur when a person is consciously trying to conceal all signs of how he or she is feeling, or when a person does not consciously know how he or she is feeling. Unlike regular facial expressions, it is difficult to hide microexpression reactions. Microexpressions express the seven universal emotions: disgust, anger, fear, sadness, happiness, surprise, and contempt.
Nevertheless, in the 1990s, pyschologist Paul Ekman expanded his list of basic emotions, including a range of positive and negative emotions not all of which are encoded in facial muscles. These emotions are amusement, contempt, embarrassment, excitement, guilt, pride, relief, satisfaction, pleasure, and shame. They are very brief in duration, lasting only 1/25 to 1/15 of a second.
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January 17, 2013
The phrase ‘mind’s eye‘ refers to the human ability for visualization, i.e., for the experiencing of visual mental imagery; in other words, one’s ability to ‘see’ things with the mind. The biological foundation of the mind’s eye is not fully understood. fMRI studies have shown that the lateral geniculate nucleus (in the thalamus) and the V1 area of the visual cortex are activated during mental imagery tasks.
Harvard Medical School psychiatrist John Ratey writes: ‘The visual pathway is not a one-way street. Higher areas of the brain can also send visual input back to neurons in lower areas of the visual cortex… As humans, we have the ability to see with the mind’s eye – to have a perceptual experience in the absence of visual input. For example, PET scans have shown that when subjects, seated in a room, imagine they are at their front door starting to walk either to the left or right, activation begins in the visual association cortex, the parietal cortex, and the prefrontal cortex – all higher cognitive processing centers of the brain.’
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January 15, 2013
Dreamwork differs from classical dream interpretation in that the aim is to explore the various images and emotions that a dream presents and evokes, while not attempting to come up with a single unique dream meaning. In this way the dream remains ‘alive’ whereas if it has been assigned a specific meaning, it is ‘finished’ (i.e., over and done with). Dreamworkers take the position that a dream may have a variety of meanings depending on the levels (e.g. subjective, objective) that are being explored.
A tenet of dreamwork is that each person has his or her own dream ‘language.’ Any given place, person, object or symbol can differ in its meaning from dreamer to dreamer and also from time to time in the dreamer’s ongoing life situation. Thus someone helping a dreamer get closer to her or his dream through dreamwork adopts an attitude of ‘not knowing’ as far as possible.
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