Experimenting to live longer and healthier
Avocado oil has the highest smoking point. (Photo by Muffet ) If you've wondered which oils and fats are the best choices for cooking your meals, this post is for you. The first question we need to ask is what makes an oil good or bad for cooking? Putting the cholesterol issue aside for a moment , we can say that perhaps the most important thing is how well the oil tolerates heat. We are using it…
Look good? Forget it, there's way too much sugar. (Photo by .craig ) You may have thought of chocolate as a guilty pleasure, but the ancient Maya considered it the food of gods. Granted, the Maya also thought cutting out someone's heart in a ritual ceremony was a good fun, but they did get one thing right: chocolate really is a health food. That is, as long as you buy the dark kind. In fact, the…
Food sources of isoflavones include tofu and miso soup. (Photo by sokole oko ) Many of you have probably heard that soy isoflavones may be good for hair loss. How exactly dietary isoflavones work to promote hair growth is less clear, however. In male rats even a relatively low amount of soy isoflavones reduces DHT and increases testosterone . This alone would probably be enough to explain hair…
Retinoids – slap them on your scalp and let nature do the rest. (Photo by Steve Rhode ) Retinoid creams and gels are probably the most effective skin care products out there at the moment. They seem to do just about everything you could hope for: increase skin firmness and hydration, reduce wrinkles, improve skin tone, you name it. But what about hair growth? The effects of retinoids on hair…
Palm oil, palm kernel oil, palm olein and palm stearin are all different products of the palm tree. Palm oil is extracted from the pulp of the fruit of the oil palm. Palm kernel oil, on the other hand, is extracted from the seed of the oil palm. While red palm oil (also known as crude palm oil) is easily distinguishable by its deep orange to red color, refined palm oil and palm kernel oil can be…
Hot dogs are high in AGEs. (Photo by TheBusyBrain ) There are two ways that advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) are formed: inside the body or outside the body. These are known as endogenous and exogenous AGEs, respectively. The accumulation of AGEs is one of the seven types of aging damage . While it's uncertain just how big a role exogenous crosslinks play in aging, consuming excess amounts of…
Deprenyl increases the lifespan of female hamsters. (Photo by MarinaAvila ) Selegiline, also known as deprenyl, is an old life extension drug. It's been around since the 80's, but after some conflicting data from Parkinson's Disease studies, interest in selegiline for life extension purposes has been negligible. These days, deprenyl is mostly used to treat Parkinson's Disease, depression and…
Avocados contain plenty of MUFAs, most of which is oleic acid. (Photo by Muffet ) Everyone knows avocados are high in fat, but does that make them healthy or unhealthy? In this post, we'll look at how avocados affect cholesterol levels. Avocados are technically large berries of the avocado tree, each berry containing a single seed usually called the avocado stone. There are several different…
Rinse with green tea and keep your teeth happy. (Photo by Daria ) I've written before about the protective effects of green tea against dental caries . Several studies have shown that green tea helps tooth and gum health by reducing harmful bacteria, increasing enamel strength and inhibiting the breakdown of starch to sugar. Black tea, cocoa and coffee protect against oral problems too , but green…
Are blueberry antioxidants beneficial for intermittent fasting? (Photo by Simply Bike ) Is it possible to live longer by combining the benefits of intermittent fasting (IF) and plant polyphenols? A new paper claims that taking polyphenol antioxidants during dietary restriction increases the lifespan of mice more than dietary restriction alone. The antioxidants used in the study were blueberry,…
Glucosamine is also found in seashells. (Photo by DavidRPhoto ) Guest post by Emily Matthews Glucosamine sulfate and chondroitin sulfate have long been used as supplements to ease the pain of arthritis. Both compounds are found naturally in animal cartilage and glucosamine can also be found in seashells. A person who wishes to increase the amount of glucosamine and chondroitin in their diet should…
Eating the right foods can protect your skin from the sun. (Photo by Extra Medium ) While studies on antioxidants are generally pretty disappointing when it comes to life extension, they do have some use as anti-aging treatments for the skin. While all or most antioxidants appear to protect from the harmful effects of the sun, some antioxidants are more effective than others. Carotenoids are a…
Kudzu will grow over anything in its path. (Photo by jjjj56cp ) In traditional Chinese Medicine, kudzu – a quick-growing vine native to China and Japan – is commonly used to treat alcoholism and hangover. This may be due to its potential to increase blood levels of alcohol when taken with an alcoholic beverage. Indeed, at least one study found that giving kudzu to heavy drinkers resulted in lower…
Green tea is a good candidate for treating stomach ulcers. (Photo by toughkidcst ) Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) are generally used for treating pain and reducing fever. The most common NSAIDs are aspirin and ibuprofen. While effective, these drugs have some pretty nasty side effects. For example, up to one in four regular users develop a chronic gastric ulcer at some point. In…
Water may have an effect on your longevity. (Photo by anthony_goto ) Lithium is an essential trace element found mostly in drinking water and vegetables. However, nutritional intake of lithium varies considerably, depending on where you live. In rats, a deficiency of lithium causes health problems such as behavioral abnormalities, but in humans, lithium deficiency is an unknown concept. On the…
Want to lower your body fat? Coffee might an option. (Photo by annais ) Adiponectin is a protein hormone that modulates several metabolic processes related to weight gain. Adiponectin levels are inversely correlated with body fat percentage ( link ) – for example, diabetics have lower levels of adiponectin than non-diabetics, and losing weight increases adiponectin levels. Since adiponectin…
Common sage tea increases HDL and reduces LDL. (Photo by Kelly Johnson ) Salvia officinalis , also known as common sage or garden sage, has been used for hundreds of years both for cooking and healing purposes. It's the variety you can find in most grocery stores – not to be confused with the psychoactive herb Salvia divinorum . While you might not get hallucinations from common sage, it does have…
Strawberry margarita – the perfect longevity drink. (Photo by bookgrl ) According to conventional wisdom, LDL is the "bad cholesterol" and HDL is the "good cholesterol". While there is plenty of evidence showing this is an oversimplification, it is generally agreed that the higher your HDL is, the better. In fact, I've never seen anyone suggest a "maximum" HDL level for a healthy person. One of…
Is there evidence behind biotin and hair growth? (Photo by Martin Neuhof ) Long-time readers of the blog may remember that one of the earliest experiments I did was with biotin, also known as vitamin B7. The purpose was to see whether taking a biotin supplement would affect nail and hair strength . I wrote back then that although a lot of people seemed to believe biotin is good for hair and nails,…
Spicy peppers contain capsaicin, which should promote hair growth. (Photo by Jonathon W ) Several readers have been asking for an update on my hair growth experiment with soy isoflavones and capsaicin . I admit it's long overdue, so here goes! First some background on the experiment. Why soy isoflavones? I know there are a lot of people who think soy is the ultimate poison, and while I'm not a big…
Think you're getting enough vitamin A from carrots? Think again. (Photo by Ben Hussman ) In the comment section of my previous post on genes, diet and cavities , a couple of readers commented that vitamin A is necessary for proper dental health. I replied that I get plenty of beta-carotene (the vitamin A precursor found in vegetables and fruits) from red palm oil, which I use for most of my…
Getting rid of candies didn't prevent me from getting caries. (Photo by exper ) As you may know, I have something of an ongoing experiment with dental health. This includes reducing cavities, preventing gingivitis and the receding of gums, and also finding safe ways of whitening teeth. In previous updates, the main focus has been on the teeth whitening aspect. The last product I purchased was…
Is too much green tea harmful for you? (Photo by tornado_twister ) I was browsing through the latest studies on green tea and came across a paper saying EGCG, one of the green tea polyphenols, increases protein cross-linking ( link ). I was intrigued, because this was the first time I'd heard of such an effect. The abstract also mentions that there's increasing evidence EGCG can generate reactive…
Not all things that are good for you taste bad. (Photo by CC Chapman ) Everyone knows that dark chocolate is healthy, but how many of us really know why exactly it's healthy? It's the same as with red wine: it's common knowledge that it's healthy – it contains those magical polyphenols, after all – but the actual effects are mentioned less frequently. Most things that are labeled healthy by…
Comments or suggestions for the year 2011? Drop a comment! (Photo by Altus ) Happy New Year everyone! I hope your holidays went well and you're ready to make 2011 even better than last year. But before we do that, let's take a look at some of the best bits and pieces from 2010. In January, I finally got a chance to see Aubrey de Grey for the first time . His presentation in Helsinki, Finland was…