12.31.06
Posted in Of Interest at 10:12 pm by heaven
Pantagraph.com discusses longevity insurance in a piece that provides more of the nuts and bolts details than
my recent post on the subject at Fight Aging! "In its simplest form, the premise of longevity products is that by making a one-time payment, you will start receiving guaranteed lifetime income at a designated point in the future. Your projected income stream is calculated at the time that you invest. ... The insurance companies rely on the fact that people aren't going to live that long to provide the payouts to the select few that will ... financial planners were critical because the investments, while similar to annuities, carried high commissions and lacked some of the flexibility traditional annuities offer, such as inflation protection and return-of-premium benefits ... Insurers have since added some of these options. But such features add considerably to the cost, which leads critics to still question whether such products are worth the investment." And of course, whether these insurers are going to be
ambushed by rapidly rising longevity in the old, thanks to modern biotechnology, and thus rendered unable or unwilling to meet their obligations.
View the Article Under Discussion:
http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2006/12/31/money/doc45970259ec07b165223006.txt
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
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Posted in Medicine, Biotech, Research at 9:54 pm by heaven
Randall Parker of
FuturePundit comments on
the latest results from studies of the long-lived and
centenarians: "CETP is on one of the 3 pathways that transfer
cholesterol from
HDL particles in the blood into the liver. So CETP is involved in regulating the amount of cholesterol in the blood. ... Work is underway to develop a drug that emulates the effect of this life-extending version of the CETP gene. But I'd much rather get a
gene therapy that'd enhance my liver cells to express the genetic variant for CETP that slows aging. I've long thought the liver a key target for slowing whole body aging because it regulates blood
lipid,
lipoprotein, and cholesterol levels. This CETP gene variant (called CETP VV) is likely just one of many genetic variations waiting to be found that are expressed in the liver and can raise life expectancy." As I've said before, this sort of
complex work to tweak metabolism to slow the rate of age-related damage does not seem to be the best use of scientific resources, at least when
compared to the path of periodically repairing damage.
View the Article Under Discussion:
http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/003990.html
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
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12.30.06
Posted in Medicine, Biotech, Research at 9:31 pm by heaven
Interesting views on the structure and progress of the
Alzheimer's research community - and its funding - can be found in a recent
BusinessWeek article: "A few years behind
Alzhemed and
Flurizan are promising treatments [that] provoke an immune response against the disease.
Nearly 60 other drugs designed to modify the disease are also in clinical trials, including one from
AC Immune of Switzerland that caught the attention of biotech giant
Genentech Inc. best known for its cancer treatments. Genentech just announced plans to invest $300 million for the rights to AC Immune's drug. ... It's a whole new era. At least some of these medications are likely to work, and once we have disease-modifying drugs, we have opened the door to prevention. ... Certainly any disease could benefit from more funding, but with Alzheimer's the need for effective treatments is especially urgent. It is the only major cause of death in the U.S. where the numbers are getting worse, not better. That's because Alzheimer's is a disease of success. As people live longer and benefit from new treatments for common killers such as heart disease and cancer, the odds they will succumb to Alzheimer's increase."
View the Article Under Discussion:
http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/07_02/b4016060.htm
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
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Posted in Healthy Life Extension Community at 8:53 pm by heaven
I am always pleasantly surprised to see a very positive, mindful article on
healthy life extension in the media, especially coming from reaches of
the community I was unaware existed. It's a sign of growth, that the concepts of
progress in longevity science and
support for research are spreading. From the
American Chronicle: "History unequivocally demonstrates that money is essential for invention. It shows that the larger the share of the economy that goes into research and development, the larger the amount of discoveries. It is a very straightforward correlation. Therefore,
the larger the amount of cash that goes into biomedical gerontology, the sooner will humanity possess
a technology that will allow people to live to two hundred years. ... What could possibly be more important than that? What could be more relevant than that? There is obviously nothing worthier than life. Most people believe there is such a thing as the right time to die. There is no such thing. ... if what we have today is good, then living to two hundred will also be good."
View the Article Under Discussion:
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=18446
Read More Longevity Meme Commentary:
http://www.longevitymeme.org/news/
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Posted in Uncategorized at 5:30 am by heaven
Richard O. Russell Jr., MD, cardiologist at Cardiovascular Associates in Birmingham, has been named Professional of the Year in Cardiology by Cambridge Who’s Who. While inclusion in Cambridge Who’s Who is itself an honor, only one member in each discipline is named Cambridge Who’s Who Professional of the Year. The Cambridge selection committee hand picks these special honorees based on accomplishments, academic achievement, leadership, and service. (PRWeb Dec 29, 2006)
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