StemCell Therapy

Blessing of sight often overlookedIts very easy to take our senses for granted. As Joni Mitchell says, you dont know what youve got till its goneThe blessing of sight is often overlooked. However, in an instant, it can vanish. David Rullos interview with Sandy Greenberg in Hello Darkness, My Old Friend (July 31), recounting the friendship between Greenberg and Art Garfunkel, is a cautionary piece, and one that personally struck close to home: Sandy Greenberg was a childhood friend to many in my family and, after all, Buffalo is a big small town.

Three years ago during an annual ophthalmological exam, I was diagnosed with narrow angles, a condition that can lead to glaucoma and sudden blindness. We are incredibly fortunate that treatments and surgery are now available to correct this otherwise disastrous and life-changing condition. Yet, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, of the large number of adults who report having eye problems (64%), only 13% of them have seen a doctor for an eye exam. The 2020 End Blindness prize that will award $3 million to the deserving team needs to focus on public awareness of necessary ophthalmological yearly exams, especially for those 40 years and older, to correct what is now a preventable blindness condition.

Dori OshlagSquirrel Hill

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Notable events ignored in Chronicle featureI have been mystified for some time by the events that the Center for Israel Education provides the Chronicle (This Week in Israeli history, ongoing). I wondered why the dates were not notable in Jewish history, rather than being limited to Israeli history. How, in fact, can the two be separated?

They cant as a regular reading of the feature clearly demonstrates. The CIE notes, for example, the Aug. 4 publication of an article by Mordecai Kaplan laying the groundwork for Reconstructionist Judaism. How, one might ask, is that related to Israel history? Ah, the item cleverly closes with what no doubt is a barely noticed phrase Kaplans article includes Zionism as a key component.

In addition to learning about Kaplans article, your readers might if they found it of the slightest interest have learned the birthdate of an obscure Israeli politician, and the date of death of an equally obscure composer. What they would not have read was one word about one of the great tragedies of Jewish history: the expulsion of the Jews from Spain. Apparently that lacked a sufficient connection to Israel to be worthy of the CIEs attention.

But that shouldnt have missed the Chronicles attention too. Surely your readers are worthy of a more a comprehensive look at Jewish history than what the CIE can conceive of.

The Bialystok Ghetto uprising began on Aug. 20, 1943, and Leopold Zunz was born on Aug. 10, 1794. Since neither is amenable to an easy connection to Israeli history, I assume the CIE will overlook them both. Will the Chronicle do the same?

The CIE may be a useful resource for the Chronicle, but it certainly isnt a sufficient one. Finding notable dates in Jewish history is not a formidable task. I hope the Chronicle will broaden its search so that it will more effectively achieve what I assume is its intent to offer its readers glimpses into their rich history.

Ann Sheckter PowellPittsburgh

Still waving to cyclists, but gave up the HarleyIn regard to Life is a chai-way for these Jewish bikers (Aug. 7), I drove a Harley until I was 80 (I am now 95). I stopped because I couldnt lift it anymore. Also the helmet became too heavy. I wished there was a Jewish group then.I still have my jacket and trousers, if anyone wants them. They are fairly short.

Marion DamickSquirrel Hill

A small Jewish worldPittsburgh was my home for many years, but I now live in San Diego. Because of COVID-19, I havent met many people in my new retirement community. Our menu often has lox and bagels and pastrami sandwiches. Occasionally, even matzah ball soup. There are Shabbat services but theyve been cancelled because of quarantine rules. But I have been waiting to make my first Jewish friend. Guess who introduced us?

My daughter was visiting me outside and reading the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle to me. A gentleman strolled by on his walker and said, Oh, a Yiddishe maideleh is reading to her mameleh!

So the Chronicle introduced me to my first M.O.T. here in Paradise Village. Thought youd like to know.

Beverly King Pollockaka Quoth the Maven (Chronicle columnist 1967-78)San Diego, California

Go here to read the rest:
Letters to the editor | The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle - thejewishchronicle.net

Performing arts stages all across America, the Tampa Bay area included, first went dark on Friday, March 13. That was when the coronavirus curtain fell.

It was that same day Friday the 13th that American Stage producing artistic director Stephanie Gularte was diagnosed with a rare, degenerative disease that will eventually, inevitably erode her eyesight into next to nothing.

I got my genetic test results back the day we closed the theater, Gularte says. The universe has a sense of humor, for sure.

The disease retinitis pigmentosa was first detected when Gularte went to visit her optometrist for a new pair of reading glasses in February. She was sent to a retinal specialist the next day.

Shes unsure about the days, weeks and months ahead.

To be honest, Im still processing it, Gularte says. The biggest thing that I have come to learn is that theres a very significant range of impact before we think of blindness as being fully, one hundred percent blind.

Because retinitis pigmentosa is progressive, she expects a period of low vision to come first how long, doctors can only speculate. I realized that I need to make preparations to be able to be productive, with some limitations.

Its not uncommon, she has learned, for people to dismiss minor vision issues when something more serious lies just under the surface.

What I thought was clumsiness, and what I thought was kind of being distracted, bumping into things and knocking things over for the last few years, was actually the fact that my peripheral vision is compromised.

Night blindness, Ive struggled with since my 20s. And its kind of been a joke everybody whos worked with me in the theater knows that Stephanie needs help getting off the stage, if Im ever performing, or when the lights go down. I didnt realize that it was connected to something much more serious.

She has agreed to stay on with American Stage through early 2021.

Its not that I cant do my job, she explains. I intend to continue to be productive, and find a new way, creating a career that will allow me to continue to stay active as my vision declines. But what my position right now makes it difficult to do is prepare, and plan, and really assess how to be ready for change.

So it wasnt a matter of I cant do it any more, it came down to The best thing that I can do, the best gift I can give to myself right now, is stepping back and giving myself the time and opportunity to be very intentional about how I take care of myself, and how I plan for my future.

Her intention is to work with the company through its leadership transition, and ultimately to divide her time between St. Petersburg and her California hometown.

I want people to know that American Stage is going to be not just fine, but strong, Gularte says. Im not jumping on a jet plane to go take a job in another city. Im here. And so that transition is going to be managed very carefully, with great consideration for all of the other things the organization is dealing with.

I am still here and I still want to contribute to the community. And I dont know exactly what thats going to look like yet. Its not like this is it for me. Ive got a lot of energy still, and Ive got a lot I want to do.

I need to re-structure, and re-strategize, and my health will be the number one thing I make time and space for.

Gularte will address the situation on her Creative Collaborations podcast Monday, Aug. 24 at 6 p.m.

Read more here:
I am still here: Stephanie Gularte on her health, and the future of American Stage - St Pete Catalyst

Never before, in the field of human communication, was so much said by so many about so little.

It is only a piece of paper or cloth, for goodness sake, but the face mask debate rages on.

From the ceaseless parroting of the You must wear one orders on social media - yes, I know, I got the message when they said it was going to become law - to the rantings of those who are outraged at this supposed eroding of their liberties. Really?

Weve heard, ad nauseum, that they cause your glasses to steam up and make it difficult to read the facial expression underneath, and if you are as tired of the whole thing as I am, excuse me for introducing another thread into the debate, but it does seem to have been overlooked.

My big issue with face masks is trying to work out who is underneath.

For some years now, I have realised I suffer from prosopagnosia.

Proso-what?

You may well ask.

If I say it is also sometimes called face blindness you will probably get an idea that prosopagnosia is the inability to recognise people efficiently.

It is sometimes brought on by an accident or a stroke, but the majority of sufferers, including me, are born with it.

If you have it really bad, even recognising family members or yourself in the mirror can be a challenge, but for me it is relatively mild, and comes down to sometimes really struggling to recognise people.

You would be amazed, for instance, by my inability to name even some of the most famous faces in the world.

We are not talking about occasionally forgetting someones name, which happens to everybody, but always having to work hard to separate, put labels to, and then memorise or imagine different faces.

And if it was a struggle with a whole face, imagine the difficulty of seeing only half a face, thanks to a mask.

As with many minor mental disorders, our brains develop other strategies and skills to compensate, but there is the added complication for me in that I am also colourblind, so cant rely on identifying someones skin, hair or eye colour to help me identify them.

So face masks compound what is surely the ultimate social nightmare.

Few situations are more awkward than when somebody says hello to you in a supermarket and you cant work out who they are.

For all the disasters that 2020 has brought, however, at least this year is teaching us new lessons, and if you think about face blindness, there is another.

As many as two per cent of people suffer from it, yet the other 98 per cent are probably blissfully unaware that face recognition is an issue for some.

We should never forget that we all have our foibles, and every Tom, Dick and Harry has his own way of coping with what life throws at us.

Although dont ask me which is Tom, which is Dick and which is Harry.

See more here:
Graham Carter: The challenge of facemasks when you have face blindness - Swindon Advertiser

The 1996 film Twister has stood the test of time. It has everything you'd need for a perfect action film -- Steven Spielberg as executive producer, Michael Crichton as screenwriter, and Jan De Bont ,who directed Speed, leading the charge onset (that's why the car scenes are so good). It's no wonder it was a biggest box office hit when it was released. (It was surpassed only by Independence Day.)

The film follows two storm chasers who are also an estranged couple on the verge of divorce, Bill and Jo, played by Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt. Inspired byThe Wizard of Oz, they created a machine they named "Dorothy," which they believe will help give people more time to prepare before severe storms hit. Accompanied by their misfit group of storm chaser friends and Bill's fiance Melissa (Jami Gertz), Bill and Jo set out to release their creation into the eye of the storm. There's some competition to get there first between the gang and Jonas, the cocky meteorologist (Cary Elwes) and nothing really goes as planned on their wild ride. The film delivers multiple incredible tornado scenes that still feel almost too real today.

Here are some things you probably didn't know about the beloved film.

Who could forget Hoffman's unique character, Dusty, who jammed out to music videos whenever they were driving into the action and regaled Melissa with stories of Bill's days as "The Extreme." He told Esquire that he took the role because he was trying to move across the country and needed the paycheck. Fair enough.

"I was living in L.A. at the time....and I knew if I took that job, I'd be able to move back to New York."

Paxton told Entertainment Weekly that in order to make the weather look accurate, there were a lot of lights on set that ended up giving him and Hunt temporary blindness. Luckily, there was no permanent damage after a few days. They wore special glasses and the crew put a filter over the lights.

"Those lights, they were like sun balls," says Paxton. "They had to pump light into the cab to get the exposure down, to make the sky behind us look dark, stormy. Because it was too bright outside. And these things literally sunburned our eyeballs. I got back to my room, I couldn't see."

Whedon, who is now known for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Toy Storyand The Avengers, was brought on to help with rewrites. After getting bronchitis, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Schindler's List, Steven Zaillian, was brought in. Whedon came back to help one more time before leaving again to get married.

According to Entertainment Weekly, De Bont threw a camera assistant into the mud at one point for ruining a take and even had up to 20 people just completely leave the set due to his intense attitude. But De Bont defended his actions, saying that it was a really difficult story to capture on film.

"With the wind machines it was very loud," says De Bont, "so the crew had to watch my hand signals. I cued action, and he [walked] right in the middle of the scene. We kept losing good performances because of stupid things like that. I don't think I'm a hothead, but I do believe you have to be passionate. These crews get paid well, and when they screw up, I'm going to call them on it."

Though there were certain scenes shot in Iowa, like the cornfield, the majority of filming took place around the state of Oklahoma. Apparently the original plan was to film in California but De Bont refused to film anywhere other than the heart of the real tornado alley.

The real-life small town was first scouted as a solid film location since it was not only tiny, but also had already endured some damage from a hailstorm a couple of years prior. Apparently, local residents were paid $100 a day to be extras in the film, and an older part of the town was even demolished during filming (on purpose, of course) to capture the aftermath of the tornado that ripped apart Aunt Meg's house.

Now the town has a museum dedicated to the film that's full of memorabilia including one of the Dorothy models. There's even a Twister-themed pinball machine that Paxton gifted to the museum. The film helped keep Wakita alive and even features a walking tour throughout to see all of the film locations. According to the museum's website, the town's residents loved Bill Paxton during filming as he was known to have a football on him at all times to play catch with the extras.

According to Variety, the film altered sounds from a camel's moan to create the sounds of the twister. That's one way to do it. Other reports have also claimed that a lion's roar was also added in to create the "roar" of the wind.

Luckily,producers worried that tagline would be taken too far by critics who didn't like the film, so this was changed to "the dark side of nature." Probably a good call.

Paxton told the AV Club that there had been talk of a sequel but nothing had happened. He even had a great idea for it because he felt the original was too "Pepsi Lite."

"There's a tougher version of that movie that I think now... I've kind of designed it so that me and Helen [Hunt] would have a daughter, a junior in high school, but she's already dating a guy in college, and we'd kind of hand it off to them. There's a great story of the Tri-State Tornado I'd like to tie into it as well."

Can you imagine watching country sensation Garth Brooks chasing around an f5 tornado instead of Bill Paxton? Well, according to a 2013 lawsuit,Brooks turned down the role because the twister was the real star of the film. The lawsuit was filed by Brooks' former employee Lisa Sanderson. Brooks has never publicly addressed the allegations. In 2014, Brooks won the lawsuit against Sanderson.

Michael Crichton and his wife, Anne-Marie Martin, were hired by Speilberg to write the script. You might remember another movie they worked on together...Jurassic Park. When an aspiring screenwriter sued Crichton and the studio saying that he had already pitched a script that was similar, Crichton claimed that the story was inspired by the film His Girl Friday as well as seeing real storm chasers on the TV.

Does anyone else find it weird that a film that came out in the mid-'90s has better special effects than movies coming out today? Just me? Well, apparently the Academy was so impressed that the film scored nominations for Best Sound as well as Best Visual Effects. You literally see a drive-in movie screen ripped apart so that seems pretty well deserved.

Is nothing sacred Hollywood?? According to Variety, Joseph Kosinski, director of the upcoming Top Gun: Maverick film is in discussions to direct. We can only hope that they do the beloved blockbuster justice as well as the late, great Bill Paxton.

Excerpt from:
'Twister' Was Filmed in a Small Oklahoma Town, Which Has a Museum Dedicated to the Film - Wide Open Country

Right now, a global infection is spreading from person to person, leading many to sickness and even death. We are not talking about the coronavirus. But it goes hand in hand with this other insidious plague.

The global spread in question is what researchers call an infodemic an oversupply of information, carrying with it fake news, rumours, and conspiracy theories that put people in harm's way. Bad ideas and poor advice, shared amongst friends, family, and total strangers alike.

In theory, an infodemic could attach to anything. This time, it's COVID-19. And it's a hugely serious problem that amplifies and extends the already grave dangers of the coronavirus crisis.

In a new study, an international team of infectious disease researchers scoured social media and news websites to monitor how COVID-19 misinformation was circulating on online platforms.

In total, they identified over 2,300 reports of COVID-19-related rumours, stigma, and conspiracy theories, communicated in 25 languages from 87 different countries.

None of this misinformation is helpful even if it's intended to be and much of it is harmful. In some cases, it's lethal, leading to preventable death and injury on a truly tragic scale.

"For example, a popular myth that consumption of highly concentrated alcohol could disinfect the body and kill the virus was circulating in different parts of the world," the authors write in their study.

"Following this misinformation, approximately 800 people have died, whereas 5,876 have been hospitalised and 60 have developed complete blindness after drinking methanol as a cure of coronavirus."

That incident, centred in Iran, might be the worst example of infodemic-related death, injury, and misery. But it's far from the only one the team found.

A similar event claiming the lives of 30 people was reported in Turkey, the researchers say, while in Qatar, two men died from ingesting either surface disinfectant or alcohol-based hand sanitiser.

In India, a dozen people became ill after drinking alcohol made from toxic datura seeds, having watched a video on social media that claimed it would boost their immunity against COVID-19. Five of the imbibers were children.

Of course, not every dangerous fallacy about coronavirus leads to hospitalisations that make headlines. Yet so many twisted ideas are out there and being shared, the researchers found, which people suggest can kill, cure, or prevent coronavirus things like drinking bleach, drinking cow urine and cow dung, ingesting silver solution, or spraying chlorine all over your body.

In the midst of this swirl of misinformation, even relatively benign mistruths can become dangerous in the wrong hands, the researchers say.

"A church in South Korea, where a spray bottle was used to spray salt water among the church attendees, resulted in more than 100 infections among the attendees because of spraying contaminated water," the team explains describing an incident in which the nozzle of a spray bottle was repeatedly put inside the mouths of different members of the congregation, without being disinfected.

The infodemic doesn't just perpetuate claims about false cures, though. It also has a lot to say about the origins of coronavirus, how you can catch it, and racial aspersions about who's to blame.

Some from the long list of examples includes: coronavirus is a type of rabies; mobile phones can transmit coronavirus; coronavirus is an engineered bio-weapon; coronavirus was made to sell vaccines; coronavirus was manufactured by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation/Donald Trump/the CIA/China (etc.); coronavirus is a population control scheme. And so on, and so on.

The researchers acknowledge a number of limitations to their study, and point out that they didn't investigate or follow up on the misinformation they discovered online, nor determine the number of people who believed in any given rumour or conspiracy.

Nonetheless, they did find all this misinformation freely circulating on publicly accessible websites and social media. That's the heart of the issue: the coronavirus infodemic is out there for all to see and it's a problem we need to actively counter, the researchers say.

"Misinformation fuelled by rumours, stigma, and conspiracy theories can have potentially serious implications on the individual and community if prioritised over evidence-based guidelines," the team writes.

"Health agencies must track misinformation associated with COVID-19 in real time, and engage local communities and government stakeholders to debunk misinformation."

The findings are reported in The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Continued here:
Pandemic Conspiracies And Rumours Have Killed Over 800 People, Study Shows - ScienceAlert

09 Aug 2020 | 05:59am ISTSince 2012, the State of Goa has been hearing about the Rs 35,000 crore mining scam, which is double the size of the States budget. The amount of illegal mining in the State was estimated by the Justice MB Shah Commission report. Thereafter, the Public Accounts Committee headed by former Chief Minister (late) Manohar Parrikar found the figure to be Rs 3,400-odd crore and not Rs 35,000 crore. But sadly, the State has shown no inclination to recover this loot. Till date only Rs 3.99 crore has been recovered by the State despite sending notices to the companies in the year 2016 and 2017. SURAJ NANDREKAR looks at the status of the recovery so far, the Goa Foundation petition in the Court that is also demanding recovery and whats holding the State back

SURAJ NANDREKAR

On August 4, 2020 the State government agreed to the demands of the PIL filed by the Goa Foundation seeking directions to it to recover Rs 3,431 crores from mining companies on several counts within a time-bound period.

After the State's Advocate General (AG) told the Court that the amount was recoverable, the High Court Bench recorded the undertaking of the Goa government that orders would be passed on all the demand notices issued to mining companies within a period of four months.

The Court recorded that the Director of Mines would first deal with the demand notices issued (for Rs 1,508 crores) to mining companies, pursuant to the report of the team of Chartered Accountants appointed by Chief Minister (late) Manohar Parrikar.

Thereafter, the Department would enforce the notices raised pursuant to the report of the Auditor General (CAG) in his 2016 report (Rs 1922 crores).

The total of both reports amounts to Rs 3431.31 crores. The demand notices on the report of the team of CAs were issued in 2016.

The Supreme Court in 2018 set aside the 88 mining lease orders, and from there on onwards, the State economy has come under due stress.

But shockingly, despite this, the State has made no attempts to recover the Rs 3,414 crore. This is at a time, when the State is borrowing over Rs 300 crore every month to meet the expenses.

Also during the COVID-19 crisis, the State has opted to withdraw from mining funds and not try and recover money from the mining firms.

It goes without saying that Goa government is badly in need of funds for COVID pandemic management and for continuing grants under its various schemes.

But shockingly, the State Government has decided instead to raid the coffers of the District Mineral Foundations of the state up to 30% of the Funds lying with these foundations. This would work out to Rs 60 crores (taking both DMFs).

Sadly, there are several proposals from mining affected persons and village communities for use of these DMF funds pending before the DMF which have not been attended to. That is the original objective of those DMF funds. But the government is not willing to recover Rs 3431.31 crore from mining lease holders

As per information available the largest amounts are due from Sesa Resources Ltd., (Rs 351.44 crores) Sesa Mining Corp Ltd., (Rs 267.89 crores), G.N Agarwal (Rs 203.14 crores), Lima Leitao & Co. (Rs 164.67 crores) and Vedanta Ltd., (Rs 113.29 crores).The Goa Foundation filed the PIL when it became apparent that the Goa government was not pursuing the matter of recovery of these huge amounts with any zeal. It sought as interim relief, a restraint on grant of any mining business to any of the entities till the amounts demanded were paid by them.

Two other petitions filed by the Goa Foundation for recovery from mining companies are pending hearing before the High Court. The first involves recovery of around Rs 1000 crores from mining companies who mined without being in possession of a valid mining lease. A second PIL demands recovery of Rs 65,058 crores due from the entire mining industry for conducting mining operations without being in possession of a mining lease for five years (2007-2012).

It may be recalled that the Supreme Court declared all mining carried out in the State of Goa from 2007 to 2012 as illegal.

There is also a specific direction from the Apex Court for expeditious recovery of these amounts which is not being implemented by the State of Goa.

Interestingly, after conducting enquiries and also relaying upon enquiries done by the Auditor General, Goa; demand notices for Rs 3431.31 crores were issued to various parties for recovery but shockingly despite a direction from the Apex Court in its judgement dated 7.2.2018, only Rs 3.99 crores recovered.

The first set of notices for recovery of 1,508.70 crores was issued in 2016 pursuant to the Mining Audit Report of the team of Chartered Accountants appointed by the State Govt to advise the Government on recoveries to be made from mining companies for discrepancies in payments made vis-a-vis the ore that was actually extracted and consequent loss of revenue to the State.

The second set of notices for recovery of 1,922.61 crores was issued in 2017 puruant to the report of the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (Goa) office.

The notices were served post hearings in the Supreme Court filed by Goa Foundation, wherein the Supreme Court accepted the undertaking of the Goa Government that it would launch its own probe into the violations and theft of public resources by lease holders in Goa and take necessary action for recovery of the amounts, after issuing appropriate show causes and giving the parties opportunity to reply.

After the judgment dated 21.04.2014 (Goa Foundation I) was passed, the State government set up a 17-member team of Chartered Accountants to examine - the quantities that were handled by mining companies and observe discrepancies and advise the government on recovery in those cases, where there was obvious misappropriation and export of the mineral resources of the State.

It appears that simultaneously the Auditor Generals office in Goa had also been conducting its own inquiry into illegal mining.

While the Chartered Accountants team concentrated only on discrepancies between permitted and actual quantities of mineral ore extracted, the CAGs office concentrated on several other matters including non-payment of stamp duty, removal of ore without payment of royalty, etc.

Read more:
Selective blindness - Has the State WRITTEN-OFF the LOOT? - Oherald

A British TikToker has captivated social media with a simple explanation of how she both creates and consumes online content as a blind person.

Gracie Marsh, a 19-year-old disability advocate from England who went blind at age 14 due to Septo-optic dysplasia, shared a now-viral video on July 28 explaining how she operates her BrailleNote HumanWare Touch+.

Marsh demonstrates how the tablet, which allows those with visual impairments to read and write with ease, functions as she walks viewers through the keyboards nine main buttons the backspace, enter and space bars, as well as the six keys representing the six dots that make up the braille system.

The device also comes equipped with a touchscreen, which Marsh says is particularly useful for teachers and sighted peers.

Her insightful video has since racked up over 1.5M views on TikTok alone, plus 2.2M more on Twitter, along with tons of comments from viewers who were utterly impressed with the technology.

This is [a] true technological masterpiece! wrote one user.

This was really interesting to learn! Thanks for sharing with us, commented another.

This blows my mind, said a third.

Marsh, who was born with multiple chronic illnesses that have caused her to need a wheelchair, feeding tube and catheter, told In The Know that she started making TikToks for entertainment earlier this year before pivoting into disability awareness content after one of her videos went viral with over 450K views in June.

[A TikTok] where I did my makeup as a blind person kind of blew up, so I decided totry and build a bigger platform, Marsh, who now boasts over 28K followers, told In The Know.

With content ranging from rating her main diagnoses to how she uses an iPhone to how she dreams, Marsh says that her videos have been generally well-received.

She does, however, still occasionally get nasty or misinformed comments, including some that allege shes faking her condition.

Its been really positive overall, but I have received some comments questioning my blindness, she told In The Know. How are you blind if youre reading these comments? et cetera, even though thats been explained in many of my TikToks!

Ultimately, Marsh hopes that her informative and often humorous videos can serve to dispel stigmas surrounding the visually impaired and show the world exactly what shes capable of.

I think Id just like people to know that blindness, and disability in general, doesnt mean that individuals cant advocate for themselves, participate in normal activities and be independent, she said. Id like people to stop underestimating me and the disabled community as a whole!

These are the best tech gifts under $100:

If you enjoyed this article, read about TikToker Chrissy Marshall, who uses her experience as a deaf woman to educate millions.

More from In The Know:

Starbucks is opening its first sign language store in Japan

Deaf, transgender model Chella Man shares how to be a better ally for people with disabilities

Netflixs new show, Love on the Spectrum, highlights the dating lives of people with autism

Blind skateboarder Ryusei Ouchi has never let his disability hold him back

The post Teen reveals how shes able to read and type as a blind person appeared first on In The Know.

Original post:
Teen reveals how shes able to read and type as a blind person - Yahoo Lifestyle Australia

Patient Advisory Council to include advocates from the inherited retinal diseases global community

New Patient Advisory Council to focus initially on Companys clinical stage programs for X-linked retinitis pigmentosa (XLRP)

GAINESVILLE, Fla., and CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Aug. 12, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: AGTC), a biotechnology company focused on developing adeno-associated virus (AAV) based gene therapies for the treatment of rare inherited diseases, today announced the formation of a Patient Advisory Council to build on its focus of incorporating the patient and caregiver voice into the Companys culture and clinical and pre-clinical programs.

Engagement with patients and caregivers has provided AGTC with substantive information that has guided its clinical trial design, enhanced its understanding of retinal disorders, and inspired its patient centric culture. The Council, spearheaded by Jill Dolgin, PharmD, Head of Patient Advocacy at AGTC, is comprised of individuals with inherited retinal diseases (IRDs) and members from the global community of organizations that represent them.

Patient engagement will continue to be a critical success factor for our programs moving forward, and we are very pleased to formalize the establishment of this distinguished group of patient experts, especially as we move into the next phase of development for our X-linked retinitis pigmentosa gene therapy candidate, said Sue Washer, President and CEO of AGTC.

In July, AGTC announced next steps in the clinical development of the Companys potential treatment of XLRP caused by mutations in the RPGR gene following receipt of written feedback from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. AGTC is expanding the ongoing Phase 1/2 trial to dose additional patients in two masked dosing arms to collect additional functional data. In parallel, a planned Phase 2/3 trial, which is expected to begin in Q1 2021, will be designed to evaluate sustained efficacy across multiple measures of potential benefit in patients with XLRP.

We are delighted to be a part of this advisory council established by AGTC to lend our voice and collective experience that spans more than five decades in the search for treatments to address blindness and vision loss, said Brian Mansfield, PhD, Executive Vice President of Research and Interim Chief Scientific Officer at the Foundation Fighting Blindness. Having the patients perspective at the center of clinical drug development is a crucial component for addressing the unmet needs of patients within the inherited retinal diseases community.

Organizations and advocate members of the Patient Advisory Council include:

About AGTC

AGTC is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing genetic therapies for people with rare and debilitating ophthalmic, otologic and central nervous system (CNS) diseases. AGTC is a leader in designing and constructing all critical gene therapy elements and bringing them together to develop customized therapies that address real patient needs. The Companys most advanced clinical programs leverage its best-in-class investigational technology platform to potentially improve vision for patients with an inherited retinal disease. AGTC has active clinical trials in X-linked retinitis pigmentosa and achromatopsia (ACHM CNGB3 & ACHM CNGA3). Its pre-clinical programs build on the Companys industry leading AAV manufacturing technology and scientific expertise. AGTC is advancing multiple important pipeline candidates to address substantial unmet clinical need in optogenetics, otology and CNS disorders.

About X-linked Retinitis Pigmentosa (XLRP)

XLRP is an inherited condition that causes progressive vision loss in boys and young men. Characteristics of the disease include night blindness in early childhood and progressive constriction of the visual field. In general, XLRP patients experience a gradual decline in visual acuity over the disease course, which results in legal blindness around the 4th decade of life.AGTC was grantedU.S. Food and DrugAdministration (FDA) orphan drug designation in 2017, as well asEuropean Commissionorphan medicinal product designation in 2016, for its gene therapy product candidate to treat XLRP caused by mutations in the RPGR gene.

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Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements that reflect AGTC's plans, estimates, assumptions and beliefs, including statements regarding the timing for and expected expansion of its XLRP clinical development program, the timing for reporting data in its XLRP and ACHM clinical programs, and its ability to enroll patients, effectively design and successfully complete its ongoing clinical trials. Forward-looking statements include information concerning possible or assumed preclinical and clinical product development and regulatory progress, future results of operations, financial guidance, business strategies and operations, potential growth opportunities, potential market opportunities, the effects of competition and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Forward-looking statements include all statements that are not historical facts and can be identified by terms such as "anticipates," "believes," "could," "seeks," "estimates," "expects," "intends," "may," "plans," "potential," "predicts," "projects," "should," "will," "would" or similar expressions and the negatives of those terms. Actual results could differ materially from those discussed in the forward-looking statements, due to a number of important factors. Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially include, among others: gene therapy is still novel with only a few approved treatments so far; AGTC cannot predict when or if it will obtain regulatory approval to commercialize a product candidate or receive reasonable reimbursement; uncertainty inherent in clinical trials and the regulatory review process; risks and uncertainties associated with drug development and commercialization; the direct and indirect impacts of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic on the Companys business, results of operations, and financial condition; factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements are set forth under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Companys most recent annual or quarterly report and in other reports AGTC has filed with theSEC. Given these uncertainties, you should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements. Also, forward-looking statements represent management's plans, estimates, assumptions and beliefs only as of the date of this release. Except as required by law, AGTC assumes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements publicly or to update the reasons actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in these forward-looking statements, even if new information becomes available in the future.

IR/PR CONTACTS:David Carey (IR) or Glenn Silver (PR)Lazar FINN PartnersT: (212) 867-1768 or (646) 871-8485david.carey@finnpartners.com or glenn.silver@finnpartners.com

Corporate Contact:Bill SullivanChief Financial OfficerApplied Genetic Technologies CorporationT: (617) 843-5728bsullivan@agtc.com

Stephen PotterChief Business OfficerApplied Genetic Technologies CorporationT: (617) 413-2754spotter@agtc.com

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AGTC Formalizes Patient Advisory Council to Provide Insights and Guidance on Patient Perspectives for Pipeline Therapies - Yahoo Finance

According to a new market report published by Persistence Market Research Global Market Study on Ophthalmic Devices: Asia to Witness Highest Growth by 2020, the global ophthalmic devices market was valued at USD 29,171.5 million in 2014 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6.5% from 2014 to 2020, to reach an estimated value of USD 42,685.1 million in 2020.

Globally, the ophthalmic devices market is witnessing significant growth due to increasing prevalence of eye disorders, such as diabetic retinopathy and macular degeneration. In addition, growing global aging population, increasing government initiatives towards healthcare infrastructure in developing countries, and increasing incidence of lifestyle-associated diseases are also driving the growth of the market.

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Some of the major players in the global ophthalmic devices market:

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However, lack of awareness among people about eye disorders, poor primary healthcare infrastructure, and lack of insurance in developing countries hamper growth of the global ophthalmic devices market. In addition, eye diseases in children are also increasing due to the general lack of awareness.

The global ophthalmic devices market is anticipated to grow from an estimated USD 29,171.5 million in 2014 to USD 42,685.1 million in 2020 at a CAGR of 6.5% during the forecast period.

Age-related eye diseases, such as glaucoma, cataract, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration, are the leading causes of visual impairment and blindness in North America. According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, approximately 22 million Americans aged 40 and above were affected by cataract and 2.3 million Americans were affected by glaucoma in 2011.

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In Europe, increasing prevalence of chronic eye diseases among the rising aging population is becoming a challenge for the European healthcare system. In France, the number of age-related macular degeneration cases was 0.3 million in 2000 and it is anticipated to increase by 0.5 million in 2020.

However, glaucoma, cataract, and diabetic retinopathy are the major causes of blindness in Asia. Cataract can be held responsible for 50% to 80% of all cases of blindness in Southeast Asia. The prevalence of age-related macular degeneration is also increasing in Asia due to increase in life expectancy and rising incidence of diabetes among the younger population. As per the Centre for Eye Research Australia, prevalence of diabetic retinopathy among people ranged between 17% and 22% in India and 43.1% in rural China in 2012.

More here:
Ophthalmic Devices Market 2020 Size by Product Analysis, Application, End-Users, Regional Outlook, Competitive Strategies and Forecast - Chelanpress

Vegans and vegetarians are still pretty rare in the U.S. In a Gallup poll from 2018, only about 8% of 30- to 49-year-olds said they were vegetarians and 4% said they were vegans. Surprisingly, fewer young folks, 18 to 29, were off meat: 7% were vegetarian and 3% were vegan. Go figure.

Well, thats what researchers did in a study in JAMA Internal Medicine that looked at the life-extending properties of a plant-based diet.

They reviewed data on 400,000 U.S. adults 50 and older over a 16-year period and figured out that the risk of death fell 12% for men and 14% for women for every 3 ounces of plant protein they ate per 1,000 calories consumed.

But even a smaller bump in consumption of plant protein made a difference: Swapping 3% of calories from animal to plant protein was enough to reduce the risk of death for both sexes by 10%.

The most damaging animal proteins were red meat and eggs and the best benefits came from cutting them out entirely. Thats what weve said in this column for the past 12 years, based on the data of Stan Hazen at the Cleveland Clinic. That duo (plus processed meat) is so damaging because they encourage certain intestinal bacteria to produce inflammatory mediators that promote cancer, dementia, arthritis, heart disease and stroke. So gobble, gobble not turkey, but tofu, beans, nuts, seeds, 100% whole grains and a variety of fruits and vegetables.

Mehmet Oz, M.D. is host of The Dr. Oz Show, and Mike Roizen, M.D. is Chief Wellness Officer and Chair of Wellness Institute at Cleveland Clinic. To live your healthiest, tune into The Dr. Oz Show or visit http://www.sharecare.com.

Originally posted here:
Drs. Oz & Roizen: Planting the seeds of longevity - The Union Leader

One of the world's Blue Zones is in Nicoya, Costa Rica.

Throughout the world, the average life expectancy is 71 years of age (70 for males and 72 for females). It remains to be seen if the COVID pandemic will affect that average. Whether this pandemic impacts the average lifespan of people around the world or not, a lot can be gained by studying five specific regions in the world where people seemingly effortlessly live to over 90 years in age. These regions are considered Blue Zones.

There are five regions around the world called the Blue Zones: Okinawa, Japan; Sardinia, Italy; Nicoya, Costa Rica; Ikaria, Greece, and Loma Linda, California. Each region has its own diet, types of exercise, and community structure, but each has specific elements in common - all starting with a sense of purpose. Lets explore the Blue Zone in Nicoya, Costa Rica and what the Nicoyan lifestyle can teach us about humanity and what we could do better in the future.

Nicoya was introduced as a Blue Zone in a 2004 National Geographic article by Dan Buettner. Nicoya is a small, rural beach community located on the Guanacaste peninsula on the northwest coast of Costa Rica. According to researchers, most inhabitants live to at least the age of 90. Nicoyans often live more than 100 years and Nicoya boasts of the highest number of centenarians in the world.

The most amazing part about people who live in Nicoya, Costa Rica is that many of them live without medication or disability. The way Nicoyans choose to live their lives gives us a template from which we can learn to improve our health and find our sense of purpose.

While we may not increase the average life expectancy throughout the world we can use Nicoya as a template for healthier living. The Nicoyan way of life can enlighten people to make choices that will help to increase their life expectancy. People often consider the impact of global decisions on future generations through legislation. But we must also consider the impact of our individual health and lifestyle choices on future generations.

Every morning, at dawn, before the men of Nicoya ride their horses through the mountains of the Costa Rican peninsula, they eat a healthy breakfast. The daily breakfast consists of gallo pinto (rice and beans) with a basket of homemade corn tortillas and hot coffee. This healthy breakfast gives them the nutrients they need for a day of tending crops and livestock.

While starting the day off with rice and beans may not be an ideal breakfast for most people, the key to a healthy breakfast is one rich with protein, complex carbs, and antioxidants (minus the preservatives). Protein helps to rebuild and repair tissue, as well as it helps a person to feel full. Complex carbs provide the energy a person needs to get through the day. And a breakfast rich with antioxidants helps to protect a persons cells from disease.

Rice and black beans, gallo pinto, served with eggs and tropical fruit

Along with starting every morning with a healthy breakfast, Nicoyans also eat nutritious food throughout the day. They eat many fruits and vegetables often grown on their own lands, and they tend not to consume much meat.

For those who might need some meal ideas, Dan Buettner, wrote the Blue Zones Kitchen cookbook. It consists of 100 recipes with ingredients used by those who live in Nicoya, Costa Rica and the other four Blue Zones.

While Nicoyans start their day by eating a healthy breakfast, their diet is not the only secret to living long lives. They also practice good physical and mental health. Many Nicoyans choose to walk from one destination to another instead of driving. Oftentimes, this helps maintain healthy and supportive relationships within their communities, and develop a strong sense of faith and purpose along the way.

While walking gives Nicoyans a chance to exercise and get fresh air, it also gives them time to enjoy the natural beauty for which Nicoya is known. Healthy and supportive relationships with friends and family are another one of their keys to longevity. Maintaining close ties with family and friends helps reduce stress.

One Nicoyan, a centenarian, said he knew death would eventually come for him but it is the love for his children that motivates him to keep going every day. The proper mindset about longevity is not about aspiring to live to a very old age, but to enjoy the best quality of life possible during the last ten years we live, says Alvaro Cedeno-Molinari, a former Costa Rican diplomat and ambassador who works intensely promoting bioliteracy, regeneration, and well-being as holistic healthy mindsets.

When Dan Buettner introduced the concept of Blue Zones, he formed the Blue Zones Project. It is a template outlining the lifestyles of people who live in places like Nicoya, Costa Rica. Cities throughout the world can use this template to encourage people to live healthier lives.

Though Chicago is not one of those cities that uses the template outlined in the Blue Zones Project, the city could adapt to the Blue Zones principals. In an article in the Chicagoan, Marc J. Lane reasons why Chicago should use the Blue Zones template to improve the lives of people who live there.

Lane cites the impact of COVID-19 on minorities like Blacks and Hispanics throughout Chicago. While the Blue Zones project Lane discusses isnt a cure for COVID-19, the principals lived by the people in those zones could increase the chance of livelihood for people of other cultures. Lane reported isolation, alienation, and high rates of depression in Chicagos poorest neighborhoods as some of the reasons behind the high rates of COVID cases. By encouraging Nicoyans belief community and sense of purpose through work, family, or nature, cities could help their poorest thrive.

Poor communities are notorious for living in food deserts. Access to natural foods and organic fruits and vegetables (stables of the Nicoyans) is difficult to come by. If youre eating a standard American diet, its probably shaving about six to 10 years off of your life expectancy, Buettner says. People who have diabetes, heart conditions, or are overweight tend to have a more difficult time if they are infected by COVID-19. Changing the American diet and culture around the food we eat can help save lives.

Although the Blue Zone Project isnt all about diet, and its certainly about more than food for the people of Nicoya it is a big difference from the typical American diet (no matter what type of community). For most Americans, an entrance ramp for a new lifestyle change is through their mouth, Buettner says.

"Looking beyond Costa Ricas Blue Zone in Nicoya, elements that make our population stand out and that describe our focus on well-being can be found in every corner of our territory. This is due to key decisions the country has taken through its history that have positively affected its performance in social progress, environment, society and overall peace indicators, explains Daniel Valverde, Essential Costa Rica country brand director.

Over the last several months, the world has mourned the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives. The best way we can mourn those lives lost is to honor them by creating a better future for our children, their children, and their childrens children by making healthier choices now.

Now is the time for cities like Chicago to learn from the five Blue Zones throughout the world like Nicoya, Costa Rica. The template laid out in the Blue Zones Project: natural foods, daily movement, community, and sense of purpose, can help anyone develop stronger immune systems, so they can live healthier and longer lives.

We do not need to wait for our cities of residence to adopt the principles for healthier living outlined in the Blue Zones Project. We can start making healthier choices today, thus living more enriching lives and encouraging others to adopt similar healthy ways of living.

We can no longer afford to allow the COVID pandemic to cause us to live in or out of a place of fear. We must make the health of future generations our responsibility by implementing the lifestyles of the Blue Zones people now.

"The sense of community, shared purpose and celebration and appreciation for life in all its forms allows for a way of thriving that can even be seen today to have a connection to vitality and mitochondrial health." Pablo Jenkins, a regenerative investor and futurist explains that it is a great time to take on that wisdom from the local ancestors and combine it with new regenerative ways of living. It is the reason why the founder of Omega Institute set up Blue Spirit in Nosara and a Longevity center. Having worked with the pioneers in mind-body research and psychoneuroimmunology.

Many of us in Western countries know we need to eat less junk and add more natural food to our diets. We know we should include exercise into all parts of our lives (not just an hour at the gym). Its difficult to maintain family bonds and friendships when school and work take us far from home, into strange communities. Speaking of work, finding work/life balance is a constant challenge for many. What we can incorporate about Nicoya into our culture is the sense of purpose Nicoyans enjoy. That sense of purpose drives them in all aspects of their lives. If we can harness that, we can hopefully improve the health of future generations.

Adapting our lifestyles wherever we live to healthier practices such as intermittent fasting, walkability, exploring plant-based gastronomy, and low glycemic index food intake sound like your everyday doctors recipe for a healthy life, says Cedeno-Molinari.

But the simplest truth is that what one needs is to sleep eight hours every night, eat a nutritious, plant-based diet during a six-hour period to give your pancreas an 18-hour break until your next meal, and be at peace with everything and everyone all of the time, he adds.

Nicoya, Costa Rica

For Priscila Chaves, a Costa Rican social tech-entrepreneur and ethics thought leader, the question that still stands is, how can we translate these apparent otherworldly effects, to the rest of us? Many believe it will be through the cutting-edge innovations of regenerative medicine that the privileges of the Blue Zones can be democratized, so that anyone, anywhere, and at any time has access to the technology that allows us to replenish, replace and rejuvenate our physical bodies.

What weve witnessed during 2020 are healthcare systems around the world that are reactive, bureaucratic, inefficient, and saturated. Theyre focused on sick care, and so the actual healthcare is often neglected, says Chaves. Imagine yourself in a future not-so-distant, where more conscious lifestyle decisions you make at an individual level, are supported by a branch of medicine that attempts to change the course of diseases and regenerates failing parts of our bodies. Longevity then would not be a luxury only reserved for a few living in Blue Zones, but a reality for billions.

In the future, when we do emerge from the current pandemic, many cities and companies will revisit well-being as a main topic for their citizens and employees. There will be a lot to learn and a lot to do to get back to a healthier normal. That is when brands, businesses and cities will be able to look at Blue Zones like the one in Nicoya and find a model to follow.

When that day comes, Nicoyas Blue Zone will continue to be an example of the resiliency of the human body and spirit. For many the hope is that the lessons that these centenarians can teach us and the secrets of well-being and longevity that live in this extraordinary part of the world, will be able benefit all of humanity in the future.

The rest is here:
What Costa Ricas Blue Zone Can Teach Us About The Future Of Well-Being And Longevity - Forbes

Everyone wants to know the secret to longevity and whilst knowingit, many want to still be able to enjoy their lives without food restrictions. Spicy food lovers rejoice as health experts and studies prove that eating more spicy foods will help to boost your longevity.

A study from the Harvard School of Public Health published Aug. 4, 2015, inBMJfound that people who ate spicy foods almost every day had a 14percentlower risk of death than people who ate spicy foods once a week.

Researchers evaluated the health and diet information of almost 500,000 people in China from 2004 to 2008, then followed up with them a few years later.

"Some evidence from other studies suggests the bioactive ingredients in spicy foods such as capsaicin may lower 'bad' cholesterol and triglycerides and improve inflammation," says study author Dr. Lu Qi.

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Capsaicin is an active component of chili peppers, which are plants belonging to the genus Capsicum.

There is a lot of research out there finding strong connections between capsaicin, a major bioactive ingredient in chili powder, and a lower cancer risk, decreased gastro-intestinal complications, and better cardiovascular health.

These studies credit the far-reaching anti-inflammatory properties of capsaicin as one of the reasons behind the remarkable benefits spicy food can offer the body.

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In a study published in the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health, capsaicin and its potential for promoting vascular and metabolic health was analysed.

The study noted: Capsaicin, the phytochemical responsible for the spiciness of peppers, has the potential to modulate metabolism via activation of transient receptor potential vanilloid 1 (TRPV1) receptors, which are found not only on nociceptive sensory neurons, but also in a range of other tissues.

A subsequent study showed that dietary capsaicin had a beneficial metabolic impact on genetically diabetic micereducing plasma levels of glucose, insulin and triglycerides, boosting those of adiponectin, and exerting the same anti-inflammatory effects on adipose tissue as reported in the previous study.

This brief overview should make it clear that dietary capsaicinand, likely to a more limited degree, non-pungent capsiatehas intriguing potential for health promotion.

A study published in the journal PLoS ONE also linked red hot chilli peppers with a 13 percent lower risk of death.

Using data from the National Health and Examination Survey, scientists from the University of Vermont analysed the diets of over 16,000 American adults.

They asked the question, How often do you have red hot chilli peppers?

Those who ate any hot peppers in the past month had a lower mortality rate over a period of 18 years, after adjusting for other factors.

It has also been found that spicy foods may keep the heart healthy.

Recent research found that consuming spicy peppers was associated with a 13 percent lower incidence of deaths from heart disease and stroke.

Licia Lacoviello, director of the department of epidemiology and prevention at the IRCCS, added: "Chilli pepper is a fundamental component of our food culture. We see it hanging on Italian balconies, and even depicted in jewels.

"Over the centuries, beneficial properties of all kinds have been associated with its consumption, mostly on the basis of anecdotes or traditions, if not magic.

"And now, as already observed in China and in the United States, we know that the various plants of the capsicum species, although consumed in different ways throughout the world, can exert a protective action towards our health."

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How to live longer: Eating more of this food helps with heart health and boosts longevity - Express

Business ventures are never easy, but being built in 1926, it was a definite turbulent and uncertain chapter in American economic history. This particular Olney, Illinois business was however built on ethical practice and honesty as its foundation by Clyde H. King. As in those times money was scarce, King found a way to build bridges and community bonds, to assist families and keep his business open. By this practice, his legacy has lasted on the word he built on the relationships he made that have now carried on for generations in the local communities surrounding them. We often think of larger companies that have withstood the perils of economic and our countries ebbs and flows of recessions, such as railroads, NBC, and Northwest Airlines to name a few. Majority of smaller rural business owners were not quite as fortunate to make it out of the gates as King. The main street store was acquired from Bert H. Cooksey, then renamed as Kings Furniture. It seems unseemingly rare for an expansion, but the new enteranputenier was able to have an expansion on what is now Ivys Cottage in 1928. In the 80s, the Kings acquired the adjacent property built by D.A. Piper, which had been in the past a Ford dealership and garage and even a Montgomery Ward Store. The family had all worked in the business with Richard and John sons of Clyde running the business, and now henceforth each one of their families heirs taking on the role, Mike and Eric, as cousins being in co-leadership.

When asking Mike King, of the family struggles they have known of in their approaching centennial mark, he shared the early beginnings his grandfathers first steps were treacherous in itself as they were during the depression era. The ability to have creative business strategies is what helped him withstand the storms during those early years especially, Mike King shared. During World War II, it was also a difficult period with new furniture being hard to acquire and certain materials due to the war in itself. King shared the most recent hurdle has been quite harsh, in the COVID-19 sanctions, in that not knowing when as an non-essential business they might have been able to open up, or how long or to what capacity has been a definite challenge. To overcome obstacles, he said inlight of this new twist, "even knowing times are tough now, there are better days ahead."

When asked what the rewards of being a small town business owner were, King quickly responded with "seeing the people come back, confident they were treated well. "Thus the Kings strong backbone in customer service has served well with them for

now over nine decades and the generations that have dedicated themselves to it. By making key element changes in using suppliers that offer a good marketing base has helped them as well, such as expansion of their "Lazy Boy" line, King added. When asked what advice might give to anyone thinking of going into a small town business, he suggested the following, "Get lots of advice, talk to a lot of people, find out if there is a need for it and feel out the community." The future looks bright for the King family business, as they have a good foundation, a dedication to their long standing customer base, as well as their very positive attitude. King shared by being willing to change business practices, keeping up with how people are also changing and being willing to listen, the future looks promising for growth.

See original here:
Small town business gives highlights on their longevity and success for 94 years - Kewanee Star Courier

Western Cape South Africa. Specialist physician Dr. Gary Hudson says were facing a pandemic on top of an obesity epidemic. Startling research has now emerged showing that being obese or even slightly overweight can worsen the effect of COVID-193.

People living with pre-existing conditions such as atherosclerosis, type 2 diabetes, and hypertension, conditions are also common in people with obesity4. Initial data pointed towards the older population being particularly vulnerable, as well as those with these comorbidities. That said, an increasing number of reports have now also linked obesity to more severe COVID-19 illness as well as death5.

What has been termed the elephant in the room when it comes to this pandemic is the fact that being overweight and obese are already major global healthcare problems. This is now making a really serious global health situation that much worse1. In fact, data from the first 2 204 patients admitted to 286 National Health Service Intensive Care Units with COVID- 19 in the United Kingdom reveal that 72.7% of them were overweight or obese1.

Hudson says that COVID-19 is spreading amongst a global obese population that numbers 2.4 billion people, which means that more than 30% of the worlds population is at risk of severe disease and even death7,8. This is creating the perfect storm6,7., he says.

He cites an example that in France, the highest death rate due to COVID-19 was in North-Eastern France. Ironically, this is a region with statistically the largest overweight and obese population.

In fact, BMI was found to be the most important independent risk factor. As a result, a special guideline was introduced for anyone with a BMI of over 27.9 to be tested and isolated7,8.

Similar patterns were found in Italy. Once again the map of severe disease and obesity completely overlap he says. Conversely, Singapore and South Korea had comparatively low death rates but also have populations with a general low BMI7,8.

Research has found that patients with type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome might have to up to 10 times greater risk of death when they contract COVID-191. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of conditions that occur together, increasing your risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. These conditions include:

A high percentage of the population who will contract coronavirus are also expected to have a BMI over 253.

BMI is calculated by using a persons height and weight. BMI = kg/m2.

Although this is not the most accurate measurement, it is the widely accepted global definition of obesity as per the World Health Organisation, which defines a BMI of over 25 as overweight and over 30 or more as obese7,8.

It is a very important clinical measurement, says Dr. Hudson, who says that even a BMI of over 25, which is literally just above the normal weight range, seems to correlate with a higher incidence of serious disease, particularly when combined with a comorbidity such as hypertension7,8.

Dr. Hudson says that it is important to stress that the presence of abdominal fat is associated with a high risk of severe complications due to COVID-19. This is relevant for people with a mild increase in weight, and not only for the extremely obese7,8.

Furthermore, in a French study, the risk for invasive mechanical ventilation in patients with COVID-19 infection admitted to Intensive Treatment Units was more than seven-fold higher for obese patients with a BMI over 355.

To add fuel to a growing fire, for many people staying at home, consumption of more sugar and refined flour, along with less mobility and physical activity, has put even many people at an increased risk of metabolic disease3. An additional health challenge during the coronavirus crisis seems to be the consumption of a varied, nutrient-rich diet and keeping calorie intake under control2.

Lockdown restrictions have forced more people to stay home. As a result, people are now more reliant on processed food, as they have a longer shelf life and canned food which is generally higher in salt. We might well see an increase in weight if this persists for a longer period of time3. The causefor even more concern is that the resultant economic downturn caused by this pandemic might well worsen obesity, especially amongst the most vulnerable5.

The bottom line is that lifestyle can have a major impact on a persons immune system. The basic weapons against many diseases, including COVID-19, is diet and exercise. These are weapons available to most of us but not nearly enough of us take advantage of them2.

Therapeutic interventions such as proven weight loss medication and low-calorie diets might well be some tools that could potentially reduce the risk of developing severe COVID-19 illness as well as other lifestyle-related diseases5.

More than ever before, eating real food and exercising might help save lives. This pandemic has highlighted that we need to do more in order to tackle and prevent obesity in our societies. Its important for the prevention of chronic disease and to decrease adverse reactions to these types of viral pandemics5.

Dr. Gary Hudson is a Specialist Physician practicing in Bettys Bay in the Western Cape. He has expertise in immune-related diseases and therapies, including arthritis and inflammation, infectious diseases, and metabolic disorders. Dr. Hudson has a special interest in weight management. Dr. Hudson says we are facing a pandemic on top of an obesity epidemic. He, therefore, reiterates that there is a definite link between the more obese areas of the world and those battling COVID-19 complications7,8.

The content in this editorial is for general information only. There is no intent to provide medical or other professional advice. For more information on your medical condition and treatment options, speak to your healthcare professional.

See the original post:
The Startling Link Between Being Overweight and COVID-19 - Longevity LIVE

Knowledge is power, and the more women understand about breast cancer, the more likely they will be able to identify it early and minimize the risk of mortality.

Breast cancer is an uncontrolled growth of the cells in the breast gland which have the capability to spread to other parts of the body via the bloodstream or lymph channel. Staging of breast cancer is primarily clinical, which means by examination of the patient.

The stages can seem complex and detailed, but they are vital as they essentially help your doctors to:

Stage 0: Here, breast cancer has no clinical signs and cannot be detected by examining the patient. Cancers at stage 0 are detected principally by mammography screening for breast cancer.

The prognosis is excellent and most women diagnosed at this stage will survive appropriate treatment as long as they do not have cancer at all. If examined pathologically, many of these cancers are still non-invasive. This means that they have not broken out of the milk duct where they originated and therefore have no access yet to lymph or blood vessels and therefore cannot spread. These cancers can be cured by surgical excision alone.

Stage I describes a tumor that measures up to 2 centimeters where lymph nodes are not enlarged.

Stage II is divided into subcategories IIA and IIB.

This stage is where breast cancer where no tumor has been found in the breast, but cancer cells are found in the axillary lymph nodes (the lymph nodes under the arm) OR the tumor measures 2 centimeters or fewer and the axillary lymph nodes are enlarged OR the tumor is larger than 2 centimeters but not larger than 5 centimeters and the axillary lymph nodes are enlarged.

In this case, the tumor is larger than 2 but no larger than 5 centimeters and the axillary lymph nodes are enlarged OR the tumor is larger than 5 centimeters but the axillary lymph nodes are not enlarged.

Stage III is divided into subcategories IIIA, IIIB, and IIIC.

No tumor is found in the breast but cancer is found in axillary lymph nodes that are clumped together or stuck to other structures, or cancer may have spread to lymph nodes near the breastbone. Or the tumor is 5 centimeters or smaller and axillary lymph nodes are clumped together or sticking to other structures. Or the tumor is larger than 5 centimeters and has spread to axillary lymph nodes that are clumped together or stuck to other structures.

Invasive breast cancer in which the tumor may be any size and has spread to the chest wall and/or skin of the breast AND may have spread to axillary lymph nodes that are clumped together or sticking to other structures, or cancer may have spread to lymph nodes near the breastbone. Inflammatory breast cancer is considered at least stage IIIB.

Invasive breast cancer has three elements to it there may be no sign of cancer in the breast or, if there is a tumor, it may be any size and may have spread to the chest wall and/or the skin of the breast AND the cancer has spread to lymph nodes above or below the collarbone AND the cancer may have spread to axillary lymph nodes or to lymph nodes near the breastbone.

Another important term to know is Metastatic at presentation. This means that breast cancer has spread beyond the breast and nearby lymph nodes, even though this may be the first diagnosis of breast cancer. The reason for this is that the primary breast cancer was not found when it was only inside the breast. Metastatic cancer is considered stage IV.

You may also hear terms such as early or earlier stage, later, or advanced stage breast cancer. Although these terms are not medically precise (they may be used differently by different doctors), here is a general idea of how they apply to the official staging system:

The early-stage includes Stage 0, Stage I, and Stage II A.

The early-stage includes Stage IIB, Stage III and Stage IV.

The difference between cancer cells is why your pathology report, blood tests, and other tests can be so complicated and why there are so many treatments for breast cancer. Because cancer cells can be so different, what kills one type of cell might not do anything to another.

Almost two hundred medications have been approved to treat cancer, and many more are being developed. Some treatments are very specialized, designed to target only a particular protein in the cancer cells. This targeted therapy might do its job well, but thats only one part of the overall fight against cancer. Other treatments are needed to fight other targets in the cancer cells. Each treatment does its part to get rid of the whole cancer. This is why some treatments work best in combination with other treatments or before or after other therapies.

The difference in cancer cells is why two people with breast cancer may have completely different treatment plans.

The best overall treatment involves getting the best out of each specialty. Surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, and targeted therapies all work in different ways on their own plus they can be extra effective when given together. It is important that women speak to their doctors about any questions they may have regarding breast cancer from the risk factors to what is considered a good breast health management plan. We need to protect the women of our country from this disease and the best way to ensure their protection is through education and awareness.

Dr. Justus Apffelstaedtis aspecialist surgeon with a particular interest in breast, thyroid, and parathyroid health management, as well as soft tissue surgical oncology. Dr. Apffelstaedt has published about 50 peer-reviewed articles in scientific journals both nationally and internationally, presented about 60 invited papers at national and international scientific meetings, and had about 100 scientific papers read at national and international scientific meetings.

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Breast Cancer: Dr Justus Apffelstaedt Explains The Stages and Prognosis - Longevity LIVE

AI company Lapetus Solutions has been developing analytical solutions for the insurance market that leverage biometric facial recognition with selfies to treat the face as a biomarker of human aging, writes Longevity Technology.

Professor at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, Karl Ricanek holds a PhD in computer science and has specifically focused on facial analytics. He founded Lapetus Solutions in 2015 together with Jay Olshansky, professor of gerontology at the University of Illinois at Chicago and founder of the field of biodemography.

Ricanek explained in an interview with Longevity Technology that just 10 years ago, insurance companies created life expectancy models based on blood analysis. In a meeting with life insurance companies, Ricanek heard Olshanskys presentation on people who are biologically aging slower and the indicators on the face that present themselves for long-lived individuals.

Its about understanding your origins, your genes, those things that are just innate in you, Ricanek told the publication. So, it was natural that we would look at the components of the face to understand biological age, or what were now calling in our product, our senescing rate. This is the rate at which youre aging, and it can be faster or slower, or normal. So, if you are senescing slower than normal, it basically means that you are likely to live longer than average. If youre senescing faster, then youre likely to live shorter.

Next year, Lapetus plans to release Janus, a facial analysis product that life insurance companies can integrate with their online application process. The company claims a medical selfie is all it takes for the system to accurately detect gender, age and BMI in less than two minutes. Another feature it is working on is susceptibility to chronic diseases.

After working in AI for some 30 years, Ricanek says that Only now are we getting to the point where the artificial intelligence, the hardware, and the ability to scale it up using cloud technology, has presented itself in such a way that we can solve these really challenging and, before now, just intractable problems.

Lapetus focus areas are longevity risk, life expectancy, medical underwriting and wealth management. Future plans include adding sensory analytics and saliva-based genetic testing, while researching other innovation related to aging measurement.

When you blend all of these things together, we can give you a more detailed picture of your life expectancy and your potential for chronic disease, says Ricanek. We havent done the blending part yet but thatll come next year.

With roughly eight or nine million secured, Lapetus has received support from a number of investors including SixThirtyandPlug and Play.

ageing | artificial intelligence | biometric data | biometrics | face photo | facial recognition | insurance | Lapetus Solutions

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Lapetus Solutions working on biometrics-based selfie face analytics for aging - Biometric Update

Entrepreneur Dave Aspreys end-of-life plans are quite simple, really, even if some of his ambitions sound laughably optimistic to most of us.I want to die at a time and by a method of my own choosing, and keep doing awesome things until that day, he tells me. I dont think its outrageous to believe Ill make it to 180 years old. And if I run out of energy, itll just be because I did too much cool shit for my own good.

Asprey is strolling across his lush property in British Columbia, holding up his phone and pointing out the specimens in this years garden as we chat over Zoom in the midst of the global pandemic. Hes protecting his skin from the sun with a goofy Outdoor Research hat and wearing a long string of beads that he says are each over a hundred years old, from cultures around the world.

Asprey, 48, is the founder of the Bulletproof wellness empire and a vocal champion of the movement to extend human life expectancy beyond 100 years. Hes made millions by experimenting on his own body and packaging his home-brewed discoveries into books, a podcast, consulting services and consumer products (you may have even tried his butter-laced coffee). Asprey, who was a web-security executive before he became the Bulletproof Executive, is just one of a cadre of tech elite who have begun directing their attentionand truckloads of moneytoward the problem of life extension. Jeff Bezos, Peter Thiel, Sergey Brin, Larry Ellisonname a Silicon Valley A-lister and he or she is likely funding longevity research, experimenting with anti-aging interventions or both. These are the masters of the universe who see no reason they cant take the tech industrys optimization obsession and apply it to the ultimate challenge: conquering death itself.

And their efforts appear to be paying off: Thanks to a recent explosion of advances in longevity medicine, Aspreys vision of living healthfully into his second century might not be so crazy. In fact, for people in middle age right now, a handful of therapies in clinical trials have the potential, for the first time in human history, to radically transform what old age looks like. If the life extensionists are right, a person whos 40 today might reasonably expect to still be downhill skiing, running a 10K or playing singles tennis at 100.

Dave AspreyDave Asprey

If you do anti-aging right, Asprey insists, youll have a level of resilience and energy to fight what comes your way. If you get Covid-19, youre less likely to become very sick. The idea is that at a cellular level, youre making yourself very hard to kill.

The most extreme of the controversial interventions Asprey has undergone involved having stem cells extracted from his own bone marrow and fat and then injected into hundreds of locations on his body. Into every joint, between every vertebra and into my cerebrospinal fluid, face and sex organs, he tells me cheerfully. For what I spent on that, I could have bought a really nicely appointed Tesla.

He trots up a flight of stairs to his home office, which sits above a million-dollar lab filled with health gadgets, such as a cryochamber, a hypoxic trainer and an AI-enabled stationary bike. For a wealthy person, investing in your body should be a major part of your Im rich strategy, he explains. Personally, I think you should be spending at least 2 to 3 percent of your net worth on health and longevity. Get a personal chef who can cook you the right food. Its not that hard.

It might be an exaggeration to say BioViva CEO Liz Parrish believes death is optional, but for her, Aspreys goal of living to 180 shows a distinct lack of ambition. If you can reach homeostasis in the body, Parrish says, where its regenerating itself just a little bit faster than its degrading, then what do you die of? An accident or natural disaster, probably. Theres no expiration date at 90 or 100 years old.

Tall, blond and fit, Parrish cuts a strikingly youthful figure at 49one that might convince you to order whatever shes having. But, like Asprey, she has received criticism from the longevity research community for becoming patient zero in her own experimental drug trial, aimed at halting aging at the cellular level. In 2015, Parrish underwent telomerase and follistatin gene therapies in Bogota, Colombia. The procedures involved receiving around a hundred injections of a cocktail of genes and a virus modified to deliver those new genes into her bodys cells. The objective was to prevent age-related muscle loss and lengthen her telomeres: the caps at the end of our chromosomes. Scientists have identified their unraveling as not only a marker of aging but also a potential cause of age-related decline.

Liz ParrishLiz Parrish

Parrish told the media about her clandestine experiment and has published periodic updates on her condition in the five years since, and she reports that she has indeed increased her muscle mass and lengthened her telomeres. Parrishs punk-rock approach stems from her conviction that the medical-research communityboth the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and researchers who arent business-mindedis moving too slowly, with too much red tape, when it comes to advancing aging therapeutics. But gene therapy is a relatively new area of medicine that brings with it a host of new risks, including cancer, severe immune reactions and infections caused by the viral vector used to deliver the drug.

Parrish downplays such worries. There may be risks, she tells Robb Report. But the known risk is that youre 100 percent likely to die. So you have to decide for yourself if the potential benefit outweighs that.

Humans have always aspired to find the fountain of youth, so people might be skeptical about the fact that anti-aging technologies are working now, says British investor and businessman Jim Mellon. But the fact is that this is finally happening, and we need to seize the moment. Mellon cofounded Juvenescence, a three-year-old pharmaceutical company thats investing in multiple technologies simultaneously to increase the odds of bringing winning products to market.

Mellon, 63, has made his fortune betting on well-timed investment opportunities, and he predicts that a new stock-market mania for life extension is just around the corner. This is like the internet dial-up phase of longevity biotech, he enthuses. If youd invested in the internet in the very early days, youd be one of the richest people on the planet. Were at that stage now, so the opportunity for investors is huge. According to a report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, hes not wrong: The market for technologies to increase human life span is projected to grow sixfold to $610 billion in just the next five years.

When I talk to Mellon in the late spring, hes sequestered on the rugged coast of the Isle of Man, a tiny spit of land in the Irish Sea. Despite being what he describes as imprisoned there for 15 weeksand countingduring the Covid-19 shutdown, hes jovial and chatty and wants to make it clear that his interest in life extension is much more than financial. Working to extend life is an ethical cause, he says. If we can help people to live healthfully until the end of life, well transform the world completely. Well reduce a huge amount of pressure on failing health-care systems, and well have to reimagine pension and life insurance. This should be the number-one tick in anyones investment portfolio.

If youd like to get on board with this social-impact view of longevity, it helps to understand the trajectory of aging today. In Americas most affluent neighborhoods, the average life span is about 88 years. (Meanwhile, in this countrys poorest, it hovers around a meager 66 because of a raft of inequalities, such as diet, stress, smoking, pollution and health care.) For most people, health starts gradually diminishing in the last 15 years of life with the onset of chronic conditions, including arthritis, neurodegeneration and diabetes. If we could eliminate such diseases of aging, experts say, the US could save an estimated $7.1 trillion in health-care costs over the next 50 years. (Quite where all these sprightly centenarians might live on this already densely populated planet remains to be seen.)

Jim MellonEric Verdin

One of Mellons bets is on a class of drugs called senolytics, which destroy senescent cells: the so-called zombie cells that, for complex reasons, stop dividing as we age. Senescent cells harm the body by secreting compounds that cause inflammation in surrounding tissues. Many age-related conditionsarthritis, diabetes, Alzheimers, cancerhave an inflammatory component, and studies suggest that a buildup of senescent cells is a large part of the problem.

A number of biotech start-ups are devel- oping drugs that target cell senescence, but the furthest along is Unity Biotechnology, a company in South San Francisco that has three drugs in clinical trials to address aging conditions, starting with osteoar- thritis of the knee. Unity raised more than $200 million from such big names as Thiel and Bezos, who chipped in through their investment firms, before going public in 2018. Since then, Mellon has also bought a small stake.

The holy grail of senolytics will be the development of a preventive therapy to wipe out senescent cells in the body before they cause conditions of aging, theoretically extending life span. In June, a team from Sloan Kettering published new breakthrough research showing that CAR T cellstypically used for precision cancer therapycan also be used to target and kill senescent cells. Prescription senolytics for anti-aging therapy are still years away, but unsurprisingly, theres an audience of longevity enthusiasts who want to access such anti-aging miracles yesterdayand no shortage of FDA-unapproved ways to chase after them. For instance, after a few studies examined the senolytic effects of a chemotherapy drug called dasatinib, the website FightAging.org published a step-by-step guide to senolytic self-experimentation using chemotherapeutics.

It doesnt take a Ph.D. in biochemistry to guess that taking off-label chemo drugs might come with harmful side effects, but that hasnt stopped a zealous group of body-hackers from trying it themselves and chronicling their efforts online. The internet is littered with novice longevity adviceand sketchy anti-aging companies eager to separate the hopeful and desperate from their money, like the company that charges $8,000 for transfusions of plasma from the blood of teenagers and early-twentysomethings (yes, just like Gavin Belson on HBOs Silicon Valley). Many of these are at best ineffective and at worst deadly, since the same cellular systems that fuel growth in young people might cause cancer when tipped into overdrive. Imagine the tragic irony of paying tens of thousands for a therapy that promises to help you live longer but actually causes the cancer that kills you.

Adobe

Beyond the obvious red flags of repurposed chemo drugs and the bloodletting of teens, it can be difficult for a layperson to separate the world-changing longevity breakthroughs from the terrible ideas. Enter one of the worlds leading experts on longevity to help make sense of things.

Eric Verdin, 63, is president and CEO of the Buck Institute, a globally renowned center for aging research just outside San Francisco in Marin County. Verdin is bullish on the promise of living healthfully to at least 100. Today. But 180? Dont count on it. My prediction, based on everything we know today, is that getting to 120 is about the best we can do for the foreseeable future. Ill bet my house were not going to see anyone live to 180 for another 200 years, if ever, he says. But making everyone a healthy centenarian, this is something we can do today. And thats something to be excited about.

Verdins own lab at the Buck Institute studies the aging immune system and how its affected by lifestyle factors, such as nutrition and exercise. Informed by this research, Verdin follows a time-restricted diet in which he eats all of his meals in an eight-to-nine-hour window (similar to the Buchinger Wilhelmi process) and gets plenty of exercise mountain biking in Marins steep hills. The good news is that over 90 percent of what causes diseases of aging is environmental, and that means its within your control, he says.

But he emphasizes that responsible management of your health comes with limits, like avoiding experimental therapies. A group of people have decided to try some expensive and dangerous interventions, but there is zero evidence that any of these are going to help them live longer, he says. The problem, according to Verdin, is that the results of aging interventions in mouse trials can look very promising but rarely translate to success in humans. Theres a huge delta between the health of a stressed lab mouse and an optimally healthy mouse, Verdin says. So when you treat lab mice with longevity therapeutics, you see an outsized result that doesnt at all guarantee the same result in humans.

On the other hand, Verdin tells Robb Report, there are definitely new protocols worth getting excited about. Take, for instance, rapalogs, a class of drugs that interact with a protein called mTOR, which serves as a linchpin for multiple critical biological processes, including cell growth and metabolism. Rapalog drugs tamp down mTOR, possibly preventing age-related diseases such as diabetes, stroke and some cancers. The drug rapamycin, the most heavily studied formula, was approved in the US in 1999 to help prevent organ-transplant rejection. Last year the medical journal Aging published a rapturous opinion piece by oncologist Mikhail Blagosklonny in which he made the case that rapamycinin small or intermittent dosesis effective as a preventive treatment to ward off diseases of aging, and that, in the elderly, not taking rapamycin may be even more dangerous than smoking.

Eric VerdinJim Hughes Photography

Later this year, a biotech firm called resTORbio, which was spun out of the Swiss-based Big Pharma company Novartis in 2017, is expected to seek FDA approval for its rapalog RTB101, which clinical trials have shown to slow age-related decline of the immune system and improve immune response in elderly people by more than 20 percent, a key factor in protecting vulnerable aging populations from disease. (It is currently in trials on elderly patients with Covid-19.) This is the furthest-along program of anything in the aging field, Joan Mannick, cofounder and chief medical officer of resTORbio, told MIT Technology Review last year. If health authorities approve this drug well have a product for people to prevent age-related diseases. Not just in our lifetime, but in, you know, a few years.

One of the many effects of rapamycin is that it mimics the mechanisms of calorie restriction. As Verdins lab and others have shown, fasting provides a number of anti-aging benefits, including insulin regulation, reduced inflammation and, to put it colloquially, clearing out the gunky by-products of metabolismpart of the reason Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and other tech titans eat just a few meals per week. For lesser mortals, fasting is extremely hard to commit to and not much fun, hence the huge interest in calorie-restriction mimetics like rapamycin, which provide all the benefits without the downer not-eating part.

Of all the calorie-restriction mimetics, the one sparking the most excitement among longevity researchers is already on the market: metformin, a decades-old diabetes drug. Metformin became a part of the Silicon Valley health regimen several years ago after an epidemiological study showed that Type 2 diabetics who took the drug lived longer than non-diabetics who didnt. Just about everyone in the longevity industry takes metformin, Verdin tells me. He takes it himself, and nearly everybody I interviewed is taking or has taken it, too.

In April, Nir Barzilai, the renowned endocrinologist who spearheaded research on the anti-aging properties of metformin, announced in an opinion piece he co-authored in the journal Cell Metabolism that his lab is launching a large clinical trial to investigate the anti-aging effects of the drug on non-diabetic populations. Barzilais goal is to prove to the FDA that aging itselfrather than conditions associated with it, like Alzheimers and arthritiscan be targeted as a disease. If Barzilai is successful and the FDA approves aging as a treatment indication, the process of bringing longevity therapies to market would accelerate rapidly.

Just as the FDA was able to move faster to bring Covid-19 therapies to market this year, we will reach a tipping point when public opinion pushes the FDA to approve aging as an indication, and the longevity-research field will make leaps as a result, Mellon says. He has contributed funding to Barzilais metformin research, which he believes will be instrumental in proving that there are compounds that can extend human life across the board.

The fact of the matter is that the US has the best regulatory system for new drug development in the world, Mellon says. Were in the first era ever when humans can be bioengineered to live longer. And in 10 years, well have solutions that are even better than today. Just wait, its coming.

Liz Parrish

Jim Mellon

Diet:Vegetarian.Mindfulness practice:Nightly meditation.

Exercise regimen:30 minutes of cardio and 10 minutes of weights,five days a week.

Anti-aging Rx:Regenerative gene therapies. Im certain most peoplewill take them in the next couple decades.

180th-birthday wish:Solving another critical issue.

Sleep routine:7.5 hours plus a 30-minute nap; in bed by 9 p.m.

Vitamins/supplements/ prescription meds:Vitamins D and B12, metformin.

Exercise regimen:Walk or run minimum 10,000 steps a day;weights three times week.

Anti-aging Rx:Green tea.

100th-birthday wish:Another 25 years.

Dave Asprey

Jim Hughes Photography

180th-birthday wish:Either a cruise to Mars or a 1970 Mustang Fastback,which by then will be 210 years old!

Sleep Routine:Avoid: coffee after 2 p.m., heavy workouts after 6 p.m.,alcohol during the week and heavy eating in the evening.

Vitamins/supplements:Vitamin D, omega fatty acids, NMN, citrus bioflavonoidcomplex, fiber supplement, prebiotic supplement.

Diet:Fasting-mimicking diet once every four to six months;roughly 16:8 intermittent fasting at other times.

Mindfulness practice:Daily meditation.

Anti-aging Rx:I love cooking and eating, so I do not restrict foodon the weekend. Happiness with friends and family is thesurest path to longevity.

100th-birthday wish:A bike tour across the US, from coast to coast.

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Why Silicon Valley Execs Are Investing Billions to Stay Young - Robb Report

A Washburn woman with a reputation for kindness and hard work is celebrating a century alive, and letters of congratulations are coming from all over.

PRESQUE ISLE, Maine A Washburn woman with a reputation for kindness and hard work is celebrating a century alive, and letters of congratulations are coming from all over.

The Presque Isle Rehab and Nursing Center held a 100th birthday party for Dorothy Dot Sperrey on July 24. Wearing a tiara and a sash that read 100 and fabulous, she received well-wishes from dozens of residents as well as some high-ranking officials among her 75 birthday cards included one from Sen. Susan Collins. President Donald Trump also sent a letter of congratulations.

A litany of nursing home staff attended as family members watched from outside unable to enter because of restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was a sign of the times for a woman who has lived a lifetime of history.

On July 25, 1920, Sperrey was born into a vastly different Aroostook County and United States. The president was Woodrow Wilson, alcohol was illegal nationwide and women were only given the right to vote 24 days after Sperreys birth.

Dorothy Sperrey, right, appears in a photo from around 1941. Sperrey was around 21 at the time. (Reproduction by David Marino Jr.)

She is one of very few Americans who can vividly recall scenes of the 1920s. Her earliest memory is watching her mother nurse her newly born sister, Naida, around 1922. She remembers when her family got their first car in 1928 for $800 (about $12,000 adjusted for inflation). It was great to have their only previous mode of transportation was by horse.

In her teens, Sperrey worked on the historic Benjamin C. Wilder House on Main Street in Washburn, now a museum. Sperrey would clean, do laundry, cook and watch children in the home, at the time owned by the Jardine Family. Her work at the house introduced her to her eventual husband, Atwood Sperrey.

Sperrey, whose maiden name is Valley, married Atwood on April 20, 1939. They would remain married for more than 73 years, raising six children before his death in 2012. It is likely one of the longest lasting marriages in The Countys recent history.

Announcement of a bridal shower held for Dorothy Valley (later Sperrey) from a Star-Herald article published on April 6, 1939. She would get married exactly two weeks later. (Digital Archives, Mark and Emily Turner Memorial Library)

The Sperreys were an agricultural family that raised potatoes, peas and oats. Dorothy took an active role on the family farm, waking up at the crack of dawn to cut seed in the spring and harvest in the fall while doing all the cooking and cleaning required around the house as she raised half a dozen children.

Sperrey loved to cook her homemade chocolate doughnuts were well-known amongst family members make crafts and crochet. Religion was also an important aspect of her and her familys life. A longtime member of the Washburn Pentecostal Church, she often hosted traveling missionaries from South Asia and Africa. Now unable to read the Bible, her daughter Connie reads passages to her every night.

Her generosity is well-known in the Washburn community. One day, a school bus broke down near her home during one of Aroostook Countys notorious winter storms. As Sperrey recalls, she let the dozens of children inside, keeping them warm and even baking Rice Krispie squares for all of them. Her kindness wasnt forgotten one of those students sent Sperrey a birthday card celebrating her achievement.

Sperreys daughter, Anita McLellan, said that her mother has no life-threatening health issues and takes very little medication. There are other examples of longevity in their family: a few of her mothers siblings had lived into their 90s, including Naida Valley Parks, 97, who lives in Caribou.

People aged 100 or older, known as centenarians, make up an exclusive and miniscule subsection of the American population in 2014, there were only about 72,197, according to federal data. Sperrey attributed her longevity to living a clean life inspired by her upbringing.

My mother and father never smoked or drank or anything like that, and they never said you should do this or that, Sperrey said. But, we just knew by their example what they stood for, and we stood for that.

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The DTE Training and Development Center off Cherry Hill Road. (Photo: JOHN HEIDER | hometownlife.com)

In government, taxes make the world go round.

Last year, the City of Westland collected$93,879,944in taxes between the summer and winter collections. Over $7.5 million of that came from just 10 businesses. These businesses employ, house, power and receive business from residents of the city and its surrounding communities.

Taxes bring in money that help fundcities, schools, librariesand more. It's up to elected officials to decide how that money is spent.

"In Michigan, it's generally around 60 to 70 percent of their operating budget," said Tim Hodge, a professor of economics at Oakland University."Property taxes make up the lion's share."

In Westland, those big payers include DTE Energy, the Westland Mall, Consumers Energy and a number of apartment complexes.

Westland Shopping Center off Warren Road.(Photo: JOHN HEIDER | hometownlife.com)

A property's tax billis determined by its taxable value;which is determined by things likelongevity of the owner, inflationandmarket value;multiplied by the various millage rates landowners pay.

"Whatever the millage rates are for the city, the schools, the county, the community colleges, all of those are put on there and calculated based on the taxable value of the property," Steve Smith, Westland's finance director, said.

Because ownership longevity is a factor, two properties that serve the same function might have two very different tax bills.

"You can't compare a taxable value on a property from one to the other even if they're the exact same structure," Jennifer Stamper, Westland's city assessor, said."They may have been sold at different times, which is going to affect the taxable value, one may have added a small addition to it that changes the value."

Westland's Westwood Village appartments. (Photo: JOHN HEIDER | hometownlife.com)

Businesses can appeal their state equalized value with their state, which, if lowered, can lower their taxable value and therefore their tax bill. But according to Stamper, exemptions are few and far between.

According to the state department of treasury, none of Westland's top 10 taxpayers were approved for any of Michigan's major exemptions during either collection in 2019.

"There are certain exemptions under state law, but they are very few," Stamper said."We as a city cannot just decide that we're going to give an exemption on a certain property because we feel like we want to help them out."

Stamper and Smith said the city cannot decide how much a landowner pays in property taxes, no matter how much business certain properties may bring to the city.

"We can't arbitrarily decide what to charge them for taxes," Smith said."It's all based on formulas and laws."

Contact reporterShelby Tankersley at stankersle@hometownlife.com or 248-305-0448. Follow her on Twitter@shelby_tankk.

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Show me the money: Here's who pays the most property taxes in Westland - Hometown Life

As part of her 'Hessentour - Benefits of Digitalization', Hessian Minister for Digital Strategy and Development Professor Kristina Sinemus visited BRAIN AG in Zwingenberg. The Minister informed herself about the importance and application fields of digitalization in industrial biotechnology.

Scientists from BRAIN AG explained to the Minister the role of digitally-supported analysis of initially unmanageable amounts of data in the field of metagenome analysis - and the identification and characterization of enzymes that can later be used in industrial processes.

Identifying microorganisms and their biomolecules digitally

Scientists at BRAIN described the metagenome as the entire genetic information of all genomes, e.g. in a soil sample, and the microbial diversity it contains. According to the scientists, the acquisition of digital data on microbial diversity (metagenome sequencing), followed by the digital classification of the sequence data (metagenome annotation) and their digital evaluation (comparative analysis) is the only way to process such biodiversity. As an example, they cited the fact that digitalized metagenomics could be used to identify and characterize up to 1010 microorganisms from a single gram of a soil sample. These in turn would provide an enormous variety of new biomolecules, such as proteins and enzymes, for biotechnological application.

Optimization between laboratory bench and database

Once a biomolecule has been digitally identified, it is advisable to create a 'digital variant library' (with more than 105 biomolecules in some cases) and optimize it using bioinformatics. This so-called 'protein engineering' is then checked in analogue laboratory tests, making it possible to optimize an enzyme step by step and under predefined conditions for cyclical applications on an industrial scale.

According to the scientists who held the presentation, this digital optimization process would sometimes involve the use of structural models that predict a digital 3D model from the one-dimensional linear amino acid sequence of an enzyme. These 3D models allowed predictions to be made about 'set screws' with which an enzyme could be improved: for example, the enzyme's temperature or pH optimum could be adapted to industrial processes in this way.

The Minister, herself a qualified biologist, followed the explanations with great interest. In the ensuing dialogue, she wanted to know what benefits this digitalization application would have for people themselves. The scientists at BRAIN explained that the current digital possibilities - particularly in combination with the often cited artificial intelligence - might enable hitherto unknown processes, such as the correct folding of digitally identified enzymes, which could make such efficient predictions based on the wealth of metagenome data that it would be possible to save repeated cycles between laboratory and database. Apart from this practical benefit for the daily work of scientists, society as a whole also benefits from the new digital possibilities, because optimized enzymes can, for example, reduce the energy required in an industrial process or the amount of chemicals needed, thus leading to greater sustainability.

Picture: The Hessian Minister for Digital Strategy and Development Prof. Dr. Kristina Sinemus and Adriaan Moelker, CEO of BRAIN AG, in a laboratory of biotech company BRAIN. BRAIN AG

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BRAIN - Biotechnology Research And Information Network AG published this content on 11 August 2020 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 12 August 2020 11:57:01 UTC

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BRAIN Biotechnology Research and Information Network : Hessian Minister for Digital Strategy and Development visits BRAIN AG - marketscreener.com