Immortality

A lot of my developments lead up to a realistic stab at it, relevant to you, and shed light on my style of thinking. So here I go.

I talk of physical immortality. I do not question the beliefs of those who would get it otherwise. I happen to believe that my methods are complementary and orthogonal to these beliefs. The overview of immortality is simple too – if you can postpone death reliably for a century every time, mathematically you get immortality. The kind of immortality I talk about has physical uses too – I do not believe in the existence of hyperspaces or wormholes or other tricks to make communication or material transfer faster than speed of light. Still I see no limits on humans roaming the galaxy and the Universe, they just go into statis. So immortality is really a study of statis.

Now humans are simply a large collection of cells. Cells have to divide so that their context remains alive. As long as the replication is error-free, nothing but physical injury can kill the organism. Errors can happen in the replication due to chemical reasons with a certain fixed probability, essential to how humans evolved, and also the basis of cancers. Erroneous replications have to die and this happens because cells have a built-in clock that prohibits division beyond a certain number of times, using portions called telomerases. Endless division is precisely cancer. Or they can have misfolded proteins leading to dead cells and diseases like Alzheimer’s or mad cow. External agents can insert their DNA’s to modify the cell itself, giving rise to AIDS etc.

Even when a cell is healthy, its environment can be screwed up for it needs regular supply of energy and means to convert it. That is bulk of conventional medicine and is outside the scope of these thoughts.

Statis then must have two components, both essential – indefinite cellular replication, and elimination of erroneous replications. I call it controlled cancer and is the basis of immortality as per me. A cancer would be just a tumor to be surgically removed unless mobile cells became cancerous. In most cases however, death occurs due to metastasis. That is why early detection and aggressive intervention is so important.

Required consequences that make the technological advances giddily exciting side-effects of this style of thinking and development are understandings of the process of hibernation, stunning advances in medicine, treatments of simple disorders, successful attacks on aging, and developments in solar and galactic travels.

Clearly I have contempt for empirical work past the progenesis phase – maintainance workers must not be allowed to become dominant – and a deep respect for science to go where no one has before.

So what is the relevance to you? One of the obscene truths I confronted and vanquished twenty years ago is the realization that there was only 1 of me and so much to do. One of the horrendous consequences of that was my application of industrial psychology truths to myself. I was spending an inordinate amount of time on troubleshooting. One way to control that drain is to make trouble shooting itself productive. For example, not only am I striving to get married, I am using this effort to debug a lot of my document production software with many CRM (consumer relation management) applications! As long as I restrict the amount of time and money on some project, I feel I don’t have to justify the utility and appropriateness of any project with no serious negative consequences. A simple part of being nuts I think. My family has always humored me, my ex-wife to a certain point; I do not think I am insane. On the negative side, promptness and temporal sanity of others goes out of the window with my way of doing things. As a manager, the worst scenario I can imagine is a whole bunch of employees like me. So what is the solution to dilemma of scientific advancement versus management sanity? The Bell labs solution: It consumed 6% of AT&T budget, no politics around this number. It even tolerated us when we called its executives the blue suits.

Health - Reuters

Scientists Find New Clues About How Cancer Spreads

Mon Aug 5,12:12 PM ET

By Patricia Reaney

LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have discovered how a key protein helps cancerous cells spread through the body in a finding that could pave the way for new drugs to slow the progression of the disease.

The molecule, called Src, loosens the tissue around a tumor and allows cancerous cells to metastasize, or grow in other organs.

Scientists at Glasgow's Beatson Institute, who figured out how it works, believe drugs designed to block the action of the molecule could prevent cancer from spreading.

"We discovered what it is actually doing in human cancer cells. It is important in the molecular understanding of how cancer cells spread," Professor Margaret Frame, who headed the research team, said in an interview Monday.

Cancer develops when the control signals in a cell go wrong and an abnormal cell forms. Instead of destroying itself the mutated cell divides and multiplies and forms a lump or tumor.

When cells escape from a tumor they can invade nearby parts of the body or travel to other organs. A breast cancer ( news - web sites) cell, for example, can travel to the lymph nodes and then to the bones or liver where it can set up a secondary growth, or tumor. Surgeons are skilled at removing cancerous tumors but if cells have broken off from the original site and set up other tumors the disease becomes much more serious. Most deaths from cancer result from the uncontrollable spread of cells from the tumor to other sites. (MY BOLDING)

Src is the oldest known cancer-causing molecule but until now scientists did not know how it was involved in the disease.

While studying colon cancer, Frame and her colleagues discovered that the molecule becomes over-active and breaks down the tissue's normal structure.

Src sends out signals for the removal of a molecule, called E-cadherin, which is needed to hold cells together. It also works with integrins, another set of molecules, to form a new and much looser type of tissue structure that allows cancerous cells to move and spread.

"We've now found that the molecule triggers several different chemical signals in a variety of ways. Designing drugs to intercept these signals could be an important way of preventing bowel cancer from spreading," said Frame, whose research is reported in the science journal Nature Cell Biology.

The molecule works in a similar way in many of the commonest cancers, including breast, prostate and ovarian, so a drug that blocked its action could have potential in treating different cancer. (MY BOLDING)

"Hopefully we can slow down the disease in patients," Frame added.

She is confident that drugs that either prevent the cancer from spreading from the original tumor or slow down its progression if it has already started could be developed in the next few years.

"Improving our understanding of how cancer spreads should help in the development of drugs to block the process," she said. "If we could confine cancer cells to the original tumor it would give surgery a much greater chance of success and reduce the risk of the disease reappearing in other parts of the body."

Health - HealthScoutNews

Testosterone: Shot in the Arm for What Ails Aging Males

Mon Aug 5, 2:05 PM ET

By Robert Preidt
HealthScoutNews Reporter

MONDAY, Aug. 5 (HealthScoutNews) -- You're a middle-age guy who can still spot your 40th birthday in the rear-view mirror without having to squint through your new glasses.

However, you can't quite shake the nagging suspicion that your performance is starting to slip -- in the boardroom, the bedroom, or the sports field.

The problem may be low testosterone levels. And a simple 10-part questionnaire could help determine whether testosterone replacement therapy is the way to put that spring back into your step.

Lack of energy, depression, decreased work and sports performance, falling asleep after dinner, muscle loss, fat gain, low libido, weak erections -- these are just some of the symptoms of low testosterone levels, also referred to as andropause.

It's a common problem. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration ( news - web sites) estimates that 4 million to 5 million American men suffer from low testosterone, but only about 5 percent receive treatment.

The Androgen Deficiency in Aging Men (ADAM) questionnaire could improve those treatment numbers by helping men 40 and older recognize the signs of testosterone decline, a slow process that can occur over 10 to 15 years.

The questionnaire was developed by gerontology professor Dr. John Morley, director of the geriatric medicine division at St. Louis University School of Medicine.

"We used to say, 'You're getting old.' Well, now we know you're getting old because your male hormones are going down, and replacement of your male hormones may make you feel younger and be more active and more effective," Morley says.

It would be far too expensive to do regular hormone tests on all men over 40. So, the questionnaire is a cheap, effective screening tool to educate and encourage men to talk with their doctors about low testosterone.

If a man's answers to the 10 questions show a potential problem, his doctor can then do a hormone test to check the testosterone levels.

If there's a deficiency, the man may need testosterone replacement therapy, which can offer a major improvement in the quality of his life, Morley says.

At least 70 percent of men who have testosterone replacement therapy get relief from their symptoms, and almost every man will have an increase in his muscle mass and perhaps in his bone mineral density, Morley says.

"It's very effective. You can normalize testosterone levels," says Dr. Richard F. Spark, director of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center's Steroid Research Lab in Boston.

Some compare low testosterone in men to menopause in women, but Spark says that's somewhat misleading.

"There is nothing dramatic that happens in men, like the hot flashes occurring in women that signal that there's some disruption in hormone production," says Sparks, who's also the author of Sexual Health for Men: The Complete Guide.

While women experience an abrupt decline in estrogen production, men have a gradual ebbing of testosterone.

Many men on testosterone treatment feel stronger, more confident, have an improved sense of well-being and are more effective at work, Spark says.

In the United States, testosterone replacement therapy is done three ways -- with injections, skin patches or skin gel. Injections are administered every two weeks; the patches and gel need to be applied every day.

It's also a lifetime commitment.

"If they want to keep their testosterone levels increased, they will have to do this for the rest of their lives," Spark says.

He cautions that testosterone therapy isn't a fountain of youth. If you're 60 years old, it won't restore your buff 21-year-old physique -- if you ever really had one.

"There are other men who are expecting too much from the treatment, and are disappointed when they don't get the results that they fantasize about," Spark says.

As for side effects, "the major concern has always been whether testosterone supplementation would put a man at greater risk for developing prostate cancer ( news - web sites) than men who haven't received testosterone supplementation," Spark says.

"But there's really no evidence that testosterone supplementation puts a man at greater risk for developing prostate cancer than another man his age who has the same testosterone level normally and is not taking testosterone supplements," Spark adds.

Some men receiving testosterone treatment also need to have their red blood cell count monitored. The therapy can sometimes elevate red blood cell counts to dangerously high levels, and could increase the risk of stroke. In those cases, the testosterone treatment should be stopped, Spark says.

Here's the ADAM questionnaire. If you answer "yes" to questions one through seven, or "yes" to three or more questions, Morley suggests you make an appointment with your doctor to discuss the results.

· Do you have a decrease in libido?

Do you have a lack of energy?
Do you have a decrease in strength and/or endurance?
Have you lost height?
Have you noticed a decreased "enjoyment of life?"
Are you sad and/or grumpy?
Are your erections less strong?
Have you noticed a recent deterioration in your ability to play sports?
Are you falling asleep after dinner?
Has there been a recent deterioration in your work performance?