Any way we can boost mitochondria helps us to increase the longevity of our cells and support energy production. In this article, we explore lifestyle habits that improve mitochondrial health and support healthy aging.
Any way we can boost mitochondria helps us to increase the longevity of our cells and support energy production. In this article, we explore lifestyle habits that improve mitochondrial health and support healthy aging.
Most organisms have several alternatives for producing the NAD+ molecule. In humans, there are three major NAD+ biosynthesis pathways: the De Novo Pathway, starting from the essential amino acid L-tryptophan; the Preiss-Handler pathway, using niacin (nicotinic acid); and the Salvage Pathway from niacinamide (nicotinamide). In this article, we’ll be covering the De Novo Pathway.
Any way we can boost mitochondria helps us to increase the longevity of our cells and support energy production. Here we explore temperature and light therapy to improve mitochondrial health and support healthy aging.
Fatty acids are an important fuel for the generation of cell energy in the form of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Fatty acid oxidation, also known as beta-oxidation, is the metabolic pathway of fatty acid breakdown for energy production. Fatty acids are the primary source of energy for the heart (i.e., the cardiac muscle) and skeletal muscle during rest or moderate physical activity.
Is science on the cusp of changing the future of disease prevention via a deeper understanding of an individual’s biology at a molecular level?
In 1958, Jack Preiss and Philip Handler published a scientific paper describing how NAD+ was made from niacin in three steps.(1) This pathway was later named the Preiss-Handler pathway after the co-discoverers. It describes the enzyme steps needed to convert niacin into the NAD+ molecule.
The NAD+ form of the molecule is required for certain cellular signaling reactions that change the way cells behave. Unlike redox, where the molecule is conserved, the NAD+ molecule is broken apart or “consumed” when used for signaling. It’s these NAD+ consumption uses that have been a main reason for the resurgence of scientific interest in strategies to boost NAD+.
In Silicon Valley, the hub of anti-aging research and funding, countless entrepreneurs and high-profile celebrities use fasting to combat the effects of aging. In Anti-Aging Benefits of Fasting, we will explore the mechanisms that create these fasting benefits. This part is more scientific than the others, but we emphasize only crucial components in an easily digestible format.
Matt Maruca, CEO of Ra Optics, shares with us 8 steps to optimizing, both mitochondrial and vision health through the power of light
In this article, we’re going to introduce an indirect way of supporting NAD+. Rather than making more, this article will be teaching you about using less. Using less requires downregulating a protein called cluster of differentiation 38 (CD38 for short). When CD38 is not as active, less NAD+ is used by it. The result is higher NAD+ levels and greater NAD+ availability for important healthy aging uses.
On the Collective Insights podcast, Dr. Aubrey de Grey, Dr. Dan Pardi, Daniel Schmachtenberger, and Dr. Dan Stickler share their insights on the difference between beneficial and damaging stress. We answer "What is hormesis?" and "How can we effectively manage stress?" Read on to understand how certain kinds of stress actually benefit the body, and which ones to avoid.
As Neurohackers, longevity, in relation to both lifespan and healthspan, is a topic of great interest to us. Scientific understanding in these areas is advancing rapidly as are studies linking algae to longevity.
Viruses are everywhere cellular life is present, often in unfathomable numbers. They mutate very often, frequently by recombining with other viruses. This means that new viruses are constantly being generated.
As we’ll learn in this article, viruses are very simple, but despite their simplicity, they are very effective and impressive little creatures. We’ll also learn how our immune system rises to the challenge.
The citric acid cycle, also known as the Krebs cycle or tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle, is a circular loop rotating through eight organic acid intermediates (e.g., citrate, malate, oxaloacetate). This cycle plays a critical role in moving cell energy production forward, because it is the first pathway of the final stage of energy extraction from nutrients, in which carbon units are fully oxidized. The intermediate products formed in this cycle are also used to build molecules including proteins, DNA, and RNA.
In this article, we’re going to learn about mitohormesis, the activity of reactive oxygen species (ROS) as signaling molecules, and how and why ROS can be both beneficial and harmful. We will also discuss what leads to excessive ROS production and accumulation, how this associates with aging, and where antioxidants fit into the equation. Lastly, we’ll discuss nutritional strategies that can support the antioxidant defenses cells and mitochondria use to protect themselves against excessive ROS.
The immune system is the collection of cells, tissues, and molecules that work together to recognize the healthy cells that make up the body, and protect us against the unfamiliar or damaged.
The immune system monitors our body continuously searching for certain categories of things that may threaten our health: infectious microbes, viruses, fungi, and parasites (i.e., germs or pathogens); toxic cellular products; and damaged or diseased cells, including senescent or tumor cells.
One of the public health goals of prevention is “flattening the epidemic curve*,” which essentially means decreasing the growth of new infections now, so they can be spread out over time. This is the reason why businesses are asking employees to work from home and governments are enacting policies to support social distancing strategies. In essence, public health wants to push some of the infections that might otherwise occur in the next weeks to sometime in the future … the further into the future the better.
There’s no data suggesting that gargling prevents infection from the virus causing COVID-19. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is too new to know. But, in general, gargling might have modest preventive benefit for colds (and likely less so for the flu). Once someone has an upper respiratory infection, gargling is not a treatment for the infection. It would, at best, offer some degree of soothing of sore throat symptoms.