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The research further explains earlier findings that exercise and restricted-calorie diets help to stave off the mental and physical degeneration of aging.”

“Caloric restriction and exercise have numerous, dramatic effects on our mental acuity and motor ability,” said Joshua Sanes, a professor of molecular and cellular biology and director of the Center for Brain Science at Harvard University.

“This research gives us a hint that the way these extremely powerful lifestyle factors act is by attenuating or reversing the decline in our synapses,” he added.

Sanes said that the study was conducted on genetically engineered so that their nerve cells glow in fluorescent colors.

It shows that some of the debilitation of aging is caused by deterioration of connections that nerves make with the muscles they control, structures called neuromuscular
junctions.

These microscopic links are remarkably similar to the synapses that connect neurons to form information-processing circuits in the brain.

In a healthy neuromuscular synapse, nerve endings and their receptors on muscle fibers are almost a perfect match, like two hands placed together, finger to finger, palm to palm.

This lineup ensures maximum efficiency in transmitting the nerve’s signal from the brain to the muscle, which is what makes it contract during movement.”

Read more: Anti-Aging News http://www.medindia.net/healthnews/anti-aging-news.asp#ixzz0y9KPtLRz

Because beets are rich in regard to nutrient levels and low in regard to calories and fat, beets are a treat from the nature gods. Within each beet is a bevy of health benefits. Each beet contains a treasure trove of fiber: equally soluble and insoluble; both types of fiber play an active role in busting fat. Even more comforting is the fact that beets can protect against heart disease, birth defects, cancers (but more proof is found in regard to colon cancer).

Due to the high levels of folic acid, calcium, and iron within beets, women tend to load up on beets during the pregnancy stage. Folic acid during childbearing is a must for women and a deficiency in this critical nutrient can result in grisly birth defects. But there’s more. Folic acid contributes to lifelong health for women, men, and children alike and studies show that folic acids can be linked to helping prevent heart disease and cervical cancer (point one for beets).

In my research about beets, I found myself in disbelief. I couldn’t imagine that I have abstained from beets for so long and in turn abstained from so many benefits. Before I share with you more benefits that can be gained from beets (and it seems they can greatly contribute to anti-aging health) I want to share with you the nutritional values of beets. Remember that the serving size of beets is typically two beets.

Calories : 88
Fat :<1 g
Saturated Fat: 0 g
Cholesterol : 0 mg
Carbohydrate: 20 g
Protein: 3 g
Dietary Fiber : 4 g
Sodium : 154 mg
Folic Acid : 160 micrograms
Magnesium : 46 mg
Manganese : <1 mg
Potassium: 610 mg
Carotenoids: 21 micrograms

You get a lot out of such a small package!

So I began my blog entry with a far-from-subtle condemnation from the beaten vegetable. So let’s end on a positive note: what’s great about beats?

1. Beats (as you should recall from the nutritional values above) has zero fat and has very few calories.
2. Beets have high amounts of carbohydrates! Body fuel!
3. The nutrients within beets are unbeetable (week pun): sodium, magnesium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, folic acid, fiber, vitamin A, and vitamin C. It’d be a shame to pass them up.
4. As stressed earlier, beets contain folic acid which is necessary to produce and maintain new cells.
6. Beets guard against cancer (especially colon and cervical cancer).
7. Studies show that incorporation of beets into one’s diet can protect one from cardiovascular disease.

So beets definitely can play a positive role in anti-aging and cell health. The benefits of beets are fabulous; beets: fighter of cancer and cardiovascular disease, rich in folic acid, and low in fat. I think that stands for itself. When it comes to anti-aging, beets can’t be beat and incorporation of beets into an already very healthy diet will only bring more of the benefits.

I’ve listed the healthy combinations below so you don’t have to click through each one individually.

1. Green Tea & Lemon (antioxidants)

I’m sure you read my posts about Green Tea being good for you, but did you know that adding lemon to it makes it even healthier? The catechins (antioxidants) are absorbed 13 times more by adding Vitamin C to it. Just make sure to use fresh brewed tea, not the already mixed stuff. And don’t add milk, as that blocks the absorption of the catechins.

2. Exercise & Music (good for the brain)

Probably not news to the gym rats, but exercising with music (in the study it was classical)has shown to boost brain power. Researchers believe exercise boosts cognitive performance by stimulating the central nervous system, and the addition of music may help organize thoughts.

3. Beef & Carrots (Vitamin A)

The Vitamin A in carrots cannot be used by the body unless it is bound with a protein. With beef, it’s the zinc that helps the retinol. Of course, not all of us eat beef, so you can also pair any Vitamin A rich food with a protein: Slice fresh mango into low-fat yogurt, eat a small sweet potato with your fish, or stuff your chicken with spinach.

4. Saturated Fat & Calcium (fat blocker)

No, we’re not suggesting you eat a meal high in saturated fat, but next time you do, you may want to combine it with low-fat dairy. Calcium binds to fatty acids in the digestive tract, blocking their absorption.

5. Avocado & Salad (good for the eyes)

This combination is actually good for the eyes. In this case, the salad would have to include spinach or carrots or other carotines, as researchers believe the healthy fats in avocado increase the absorption of fat-soluble carotenoids, which are associated with a decreased risk of macular degeneration and cataracts. They say you only need about 3 tablespoons of avocado and it’s best to use Haas avocados.

6. Strength Training & Stretching (builds muscle faster)

We all know weight training builds muscle, but did you know you can build it 20% faster if you add static stretches to your routine? Be sure the stretch is working the part you just used and hold it for about 30 seconds.

7. Mediterranean Diet & Nuts (Metabolic Syndrome)

I’ve covered Metabolic Syndrome before. New research shows that people with metabolic syndrome–a condition characterized by high cholesterol, blood pressure, and blood sugar and excess belly fat–can reduce these symptoms by adding an extra serving of mixed nuts to a Mediterranean Diet – one rich in fruits, vegetables, beans, fish, olive oil, and grains.People in the study ate about five walnuts, five hazelnuts, and five almonds daily and reduced their incidence of metabolic syndrome by 14% in a year.

8. Eggs & Orange Juice (Iron Absorption)

If you don’t eat meat, you may be low in iron. You can increase your iron absorption from other sources (like eggs and tofu) if you pair them with vitamin C. Vitamin C keeps the iron up to 6 times more soluble.

9. Curcumin & Black Pepper (Memory)

Curcumin (see my posts on Turmeric) has anti cancer properties but also is good for memory. Alzheimer’s patients who took 1 g of curcumin either as a supplement or mixed with food reduced the buildup of plaque in their brains. However, curcumin tends to be poorly absorbed, so you’ll need to mix it with black pepper to increase its absorption up to 2,000%.

10. Caffeine & Exercise (Skin Cancer)

This one is news to me. I had heard that drinking a cup of coffee before exercising gives you better performance, but apparently new animal studies show that the combination can also protect against skin cancer. Scientists learned the pairing increased the animals’ ability to destroy skin cancer cells by up to 4 times.”

Original source: http://antiagingnutritionnews.com/blog/1530/healthy-food-combinations/

Continue reading here: http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000316

Read original source: http://www.worldhealth.net/news/jellyfish-protein-helps-improve-cognitive-function/

Aging and wisdom are supposed to go together, but it turns out that a molecule that prevents one may actually play a role in the other.

Researchers have discovered a new role for the famous antiaging protein SIRT1. It not only fends off aging, but also aids in learning and memory, a new study published online July 11 in Nature shows.
Click here to find out more!

Sirtuins, a family of proteins that includes SIRT1, help to regulate gene activity and have been implicated in governing metabolism and many of the biological processes that lead to aging. In the new study, Li-Huei Tsai, a neuroscientist and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator at MIT, finds that SIRT1 also plays a critical role in protecting learning and memory, at least in mice.

Tsai and her colleagues had an inkling that SIRT1 might play some role in the brain from earlier experiments showing that resveratrol, an activator of sirtuins, could help neurons survive a mouse version of Alzheimer’s disease. Resveratrol also improved the animals’ ability to learn and remember. Since resveratrol can act on all seven of the sirtuins found in mammals and also affects other biological processes (SN Online: 6/28/10), the researchers didn’t know what role, if any, SIRT1 played in the process.

To find out, Tsai and her colleagues put mice genetically engineered to lack SIRT1 in their brains through a series of learning and memory tests. The mice had trouble remembering the location of a submerged platform in a water maze, couldn’t tell the difference between a new object and an old one placed in their cages, and did poorly on other memory tests. “The ability for these animals to learn is clearly impaired,” Tsai says.

Probing into the brains of mice lacking SIRT1, Tsai and her colleagues found fewer connections, called synapses, between neurons. Fewer synapses could make it harder for the mice to forge long-term memories. That result gave the team a clue to some molecules that might be involved in the process. The team found that mice lacking SIRT1 also had lower levels of a protein called CREB in their brains. CREB works with other proteins to help regulate the strength of connections between neurons.

Delving deeper, the team discovered that SIRT1 modulates CREB levels through a small piece of RNA called microRNA-134 or miR-134. Normally, SIRT1 and a protein called YY1 team up to limit production of miR-134, but without SIRT1, more miR-134 is made. The microRNA then latches on to RNA instructions for making CREB and shuts down production of CREB protein.

The study reinforces the idea that SIRT1 is a master regulatory molecule, governing many aspects of metabolism and cell function, says Valter Longo of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Longo is conducting similar research, and his own work on the role of SIRT1 in learning and memory will appear in the July 21 Journal of Neuroscience.

He cautions against the idea that boosting SIRT1 activity could be a memory aid. Mice in the new study didn’t do better than normal on memory tests when SIRT1 levels were boosted. And the long-term consequences of having too much SIRT1 are still not known. Longo’s previous research suggested that elevated SIRT1 activity is bad for neurons (SN: 8/2/08, p. 14).

SIRT1 may well regulate other microRNAs too, says Paolo Sassone-Corsi, a molecular biologist at the University of California, Irvine. “I think she revealed just one pathway,” he says of Tsai’s new study. “Now you can see a new piece of the horizon that wasn’t there before. It’s really exciting.””

See original article location: http://www.usnews.com/science/articles/2010/07/13/antiaging-protein-also-boosts-learning-and-memory.html

At 16lb in weight and just 30in tall, Brooke Greenberg is still the size of a one-year-old.

ccording to a preliminary study of her DNA, her failure to grow could be linked to defects in the genes
that make the rest of humanity grow old.

If confirmed, the research could give scientists a fresh understanding of ageing and even suggest new therapies for diseases linked to old age, reports The Times.

“We think that Brooke’s condition presents us with a unique opportunity to understand the process of ageing,” said Richard Walker, a professor at the University of South Florida School of Medicine
, who is leading the research team.

“We think that she has a mutation in the genes that control her ageing and development so that she appears to have been frozen in time.

“If we can compare her genome to the normal version then we might be able to find those genes and see exactly what they do and how to control them.”"

Original source of article: http://www.medindia.net/news/US-Teen-Girl-Who-Doesnt-Age-May-Hold-Key-to-Ageing-68739-1.htm

In the study, mice
that were placed in an oxygen chamber after exposure to UVB radiation developed fewer wrinkles and showed fewer signs of tissue damage than those that were exposed to UVB radiation alone.

The readily visible hallmarks of skin damage are wrinkles and a thickening in the outer layer of skin, the epidermis.

When skin is repeatedly exposed to UVB radiation, new blood vessels form from existing blood vessels in the skin in a process called cutaneous angiogenesis.

Several transcription factors-proteins that bind to specific DNA sequences-play a role in angiogenesis, including hypoxia inducible factor (HIF-1) and its subunit HIF-1 a and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)….”

Continue article at original source: http://www.medindia.net/news/Oxygen-Overdose-Could-Slow-Wrinkle-Formation-Study-70688-1.htm