Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Human Ageing Reversed in ‘Holy Grail’ Study, Scientists Say

independent.co.uk

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 39 posts

Re: Human Ageing Reversed in ‘Holy Grail’ Study, Scientists Say

#11

Post by franciscop »

jxcole wrote: post #5

Telomeres are intentionally shortened by the body, a process which is no doubt favored by evolution. While we don't know why for sure, it is entirely possible that telomere shortening actually lengthens life. As telomeres become shorter, cell division becomes slower and metabolism decreases. This means that an older person's cells will reproduce at a slower rate than a younger person's in general. If we suppose that…

Seems like pure speculation. There are a thousand different mechanisms that would explain it and would not mean "there is some health benefit". Is there a health benefit of white hair? Of wrinkles? Of ...?

Quite the opposite seems true in fact. Evolution tries make us be on our peak at the reproductive age, and a lot of that happens after is a byproduct/consequence of this, not just for health benefits. Most (all?) of the biological "health indicators" decline after this peak age.

Re: Human Ageing Reversed in ‘Holy Grail’ Study, Scientists Say

#13

Post by arikrak »

Enginerrrd wrote: post #4

>The subjects were placed in a pressurised chamber and given pure oxygen for 90 minutes a day, five days a week for three months. >It is understood that instead the effects were the result of the pressurised chamber inducing a state of hypoxia, or oxygen shortage, which caused the cell regeneration. This article is garbage. What they are reporting makes no sense. Putting people in a HYPERbaric oxygen chamber shouldn'…

Didn't read this article, but saw this in another article:

> Every 20 minutes, the participants were asked to remove their masks for five minutes, bringing their oxygen back to normal levels. However, during this period, researchers saw that fluctuations in the free oxygen concentration were interpreted at the cellular level as a lack of oxygen – rather than interpreting the absolute level of oxygen.

> In other words, repeated intermittent hyperoxic (increased oxygen level) exposures induced many of the mediators and cellular mechanisms that are usually induced during hypoxia (decreased oxygen levels) – something Efrati explained is called the hyperoxic-hypoxic paradox. “The oxygen fluctuation we generated is what is important,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “During this process, a state of oxygen shortage resulted, which caused cell regeneration.”

https://www.jpost.com/health-science/israeli-scientists-say-...

Re: Human Ageing Reversed in ‘Holy Grail’ Study, Scientists Say

#14

Post by nootropicat »

jxcole wrote: post #5

Telomeres are intentionally shortened by the body, a process which is no doubt favored by evolution. While we don't know why for sure, it is entirely possible that telomere shortening actually lengthens life. As telomeres become shorter, cell division becomes slower and metabolism decreases. This means that an older person's cells will reproduce at a slower rate than a younger person's in general. If we suppose that…

I think you're assuming evolution is smarter than it is. Telomeres make sense as an anti-cancer mechanism by making it less likely that cells replicate infinitely. The fact they also put a hard limit on age is not a problem as long as genetic carriers manage to reproduce.

"In the large majority of cancer cells, telomere length is maintained by telomerase."

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4915101/

Re: Human Ageing Reversed in ‘Holy Grail’ Study, Scientists Say

#17

Post by arikrak »

jxcole wrote: post #5

Telomeres are intentionally shortened by the body, a process which is no doubt favored by evolution. While we don't know why for sure, it is entirely possible that telomere shortening actually lengthens life. As telomeres become shorter, cell division becomes slower and metabolism decreases. This means that an older person's cells will reproduce at a slower rate than a younger person's in general. If we suppose that…

There's a theory that setting an expiration on cellular division can help prevent cancer.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11909679/

Re: Human Ageing Reversed in ‘Holy Grail’ Study, Scientists Say

#18

Post by Sunspark »

newacct583 wrote: post #7

I eagerly await the coming flood of DIY oxygen chamber tutorials. Hopefully no one gets hurt. FWIW: high concentration O2 is known to be toxic in other ways. It causes lung inflamation at least (oxygen is, after all, highly reactive and tends to break up lots of different molecules). I think there's a real possibility that this does more harm than good.

Ozone (O3) is definitely the one that is very reactive and bad for your lungs.

Re: Human Ageing Reversed in ‘Holy Grail’ Study, Scientists Say

#19

Post by arikrak »

Mary-Jane wrote: post #2

Were there any tangible benefits observed? Did the participants' heath quantifiably improve in any way? This kind of observation is missing from the article; if the expected benefits of telomere length is increased health and longevity, does the lack of such result suggest that they are less involved in aging than we think?

The main outcome of the study was to measure an in improvement in cognition: https://www.aging-us.com/article/202188/text

Re: Human Ageing Reversed in ‘Holy Grail’ Study, Scientists Say

#20

Post by Shugarl »

arikrak wrote: post #13
Enginerrrd wrote: post #4

>The subjects were placed in a pressurised chamber and given pure oxygen for 90 minutes a day, five days a week for three months. >It is understood that instead the effects were the result of the pressurised chamber inducing a state of hypoxia, or oxygen shortage, which caused the cell regeneration. This article is garbage. What they are reporting makes no sense. Putting people in a HYPERbaric oxygen chamber shouldn'…

Didn't read this article, but saw this in another article: > Every 20 minutes, the participants were asked to remove their masks for five minutes, bringing their oxygen back to normal levels. However, during this period, researchers saw that fluctuations in the free oxygen concentration were interpreted at the cellular level as a lack of oxygen – rather than interpreting the absolute level of oxygen. > In other words…

Why would oxygen shortage lead to cell generation ? If I regularly choke myself, will I end up living longer ?
Post reply on HN