fixaging

The number one risk factor for dying of heart disease is your age. 83 percent of people who die of coronary heart disease are over 65. From this you can see that by tackling the root cause of heart disease which is the effects of aging we can drastically reduce the incidence of heart disease.

What you can do to cut your risk of getting heart disease:

• Fund aging research – by donating to aging research which is specifically targeted to counteract aging effects you will help ensure that you and your children do not get heart disease.
• Exercise – an inactive lifestyle is a risk factor in heart disease. So with regular moderate or vigorous activity heart disease risk can be reduced, the more vigorous the better, though if you have not exercised for a while it is best to start gradually.
• Lose weight - people who have excessive body fat, particularly around the waist, are more likely to get heart disease and stroke. So if you are overweight you can reduce your risk by eating more healthily and exercising.
• Stop smoking - a smokers risk of developing a coronary heart at is 2 to 4 times more than a non-smoker. Its time to stub it out.
• Monitor your cholesterol - high cholesterol is another risk factor, this can be modified by diet, but its important to find out whether you have high blood cholesterol to start with, so go get a check-up.
• Monitor your blood pressure – a high blood pressure makes the heart work harder, increases risk of heart disease, and when it exists with other risk factor risk of heart attack or stroke increases several fold.
• Control diabetes - if you have diabetes it is essential that it is managed as about 3/4 of people with diabetes end up dying because of heart or blood vessel disease.
• Calm down – stress may be a factor in heart disease, or at least lead to other factors such as overeating or smoking, so if you are stressed out, identify what it is that is stressing you out and work on removing this from your life.
• Drink less alcohol – if you drink too much alcohol you can raise your blood pressure increase risk of stroke or heart attack, if you are drinking more than one or two drinks per day it would help to cut down.

Tags: Aging, Heart disease by Matias
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One the arguments commonly heard against extending life spans is that it will lead to overpopulation. However this is not the necessarily the case, without curing aging we could end up with a depopulation problem.

Whether there will or won’t be growth in population is governed by the Total Fertility Rate (TFR), this measures the number of children each couple will produce during their lifetime, if this runs at below 2.1 then population will shrink. Other factors can counteract this on a national scale, e.g. even though the U.K. has a Total Fertility Rate of less than 2.1 its population is growing due to immigration. However once a global Total Fertility Rate drops below 2.1 the world population will eventually start to drop. TFR has already dropped dramatically. In 1950-1955 global TFR was 5.0, while in 2000-2005 it had dropped to 2.65. The current rate of the developed world is 1.56, and for Europe it stands even lower at 1.38. If it were not for immigration most would have shrinking populations today. On these trends it is predicted that the total world population will peak at around 9 billion then drop.

Take as an example India, it has seen its fertility rates plummet, from 1990 where it was at 4, and only 15 years later in 2005 fertility rate is down to 2.9, if this trend continues then India will fall below replacement rate in 10-15 years. In China TFR is already below replacement rate at 1.75.

One of the major contributors to the decrease in fertility could be television. Here is a quote from Phillip Longman’s presentation at the Long Now foundation:

“Seriously, though. Demographers are paying more and more attention these days to how television affects fertility, especially in the Third World Here’s an example of why the case is so compelling. Since 1975, Brazil’s fertility rate has dropped by more than half to just 1.9 children per woman. This is not the result of a family planning program, since Brazil has never adopted one. Instead, studies show that births have declined from one region to the next coincident with the introduction of television. Today, the number of hours that a Brazilian woman spends watching television predicts how many children she will have. What’s on Brazilian television? Mostly domestically produced soap operas, called telenovelas. These soaps rarely address reproductive issues directly. Instead, they typically depict wealthy individuals living the high life in big cities.”

Actually this depopulation could lead to severe consequences as an elderly and increasingly retired population must be supported by a smaller working population. If life extension technologies where in place this would be mitigated.To read much more detail on this upcoming depopulation problem see Phillip Longman’s presentation.

Tags: Aging by Matias
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Its important to find out where you are now. The clock is ticking so take the following tests to see how long you are likely to live.

1. A quick test:death clock
2. A more in depth calculator with tips at the end for you what can do to improve the situation:life expectancy calculator
3. Another longevity calculator from Northwestern Mutual Financial Network.
4. Longevity calculator from eons

Tags: Aging, Life expectancy by Matias
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To get people understanding and pushing for life extension technologies, its paramount that you become a good communicator. Here are ten steps to take to get there.

1. Prepare your 30 seconds to impress statement.
2. Join your local toastmasters group. If you can join up to two so that you can go every week and keep your momentum going.
3. Any time that you are 5 foot away from someone is a good time to communicate. So prepare a few sentences before hand, and use them when you are at the bus stop, or the check-out counter, or waiting in line in a store.
4. Join a drama club.
5. Do evening courses in acting.
6. Try some haggling, go to a local market and see if you can get 10% off all that you buy.
7. Ask someone for help – if you know someone who communicates effortlessly, then ask them for help and advice.
8. Get a second job working in PR, marketing, or sales.
9. Go to networking events.
10. Create your own business on the side, this will give you a focal point for networking and bring in some extra cash.

Tags: Communication, Fund raising by Matias
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I feel that having the satellite technologies and research such as regenerative medicine, is important to the success of getting funding into aging. If you ask people on a long enough time line, they will say life spans will extend but most people believe that at some point things will change, not in their lifetime. Part of this is due to there being are very few of the major diseases which have been eradicated, most are treated as ongoing concerns. I feel that this is a factor leading to people’s apathy towards aging. Also is does not help that the media one day reports that X is good for you then the next day reports the opposite, leading people to lose trust in scientific endeavours.

New Hand

One method to show that this is not the case is to break a strongly held belief. One such is that people do not regrow limbs or organs. That is why I feel that the video below has such and impact, it shows impressive visuals on regeneration technology which is out there . The highlight being the regrowth of a tip of a finger, once even more can be shown such as a regrown hand or leg, who could possibly say that it is not possible to push out our maximum life span.

TED Alan Russel Why can’t we grow new body parts

New Spine

Spinal damage being irreversible is another strongly held belief. This is also in the realm of regenerative medicine, as one solution is to promote the regrowth and reattachment of the affected area. Once people who have not been able to walk for x number of years are able to do so, it will show in a clearly demonstrable way that scientists understand the body to a degree that allows maximum life span to change. It will be a new era.

Tags: Uncategorized by Matias
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