Topline:
Longevity research is booming. Scientists are looking for ways to target the basic biology of aging. And here's the exciting part: Our biological age appears to be malleable.
Why it matters: Many scientists are optimistic that we're on the cusp of breakthroughs. Not only to help us live longer, but — more importantly — to extend the number of years we live with good health.
Read more ... to get some of the scientific breakdown of, well, breaking down over time.
I used to flinch at the topic of aging. Is there anything we can do about the inevitable?
But recently I've been digging into a new wave of longevity research that is making it an exciting time to be an aging human, which is all of us.
It turns out, we all age at varying rates. Super-agers may have great genes, but research shows our habits and routines — everything from what we eat and how we move our bodies to who we spend our time with — matter a lot, when it comes to aging well.
Now, the next frontier is to target the basic biology of aging and come up with new interventions to slow it down.
Many scientists are optimistic that we're on the cusp of breakthroughs. Not only to help us live longer, but — more importantly — to extend the number of years we live with good health.
This is the goal of researchers at the Human Longevity Lab at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. They're recruiting study participants so they can test what kinds of interventions may slow the rate of aging. To that end, I decided to roll up my sleeve for science.
When I arrived, the first step was a quick blood draw. The Potocsnak Longevity Institute is housed on the light-filled 21st floor of Northwestern Memorial Hospital, overlooking Lake Michigan. It felt more like a spa than a doctor's office. I didn't anticipate the vast range of data and insights scientists could glean from a battery of tests.
Over a four-hour period, they performed more than two dozen assessments. At first it felt a bit like an annual physical. They checked my blood pressure, weight, glucose and cholesterol.
But then, the tests got a lot more interesting. Inside a small exam room, a medical assistant opened the hinge of a BodPod, a capsule that looks like a submersible. The machine assessed my body composition, determining the ratio of fatty mass to lean mass, which includes muscle. Strength is a key marker of healthy aging, helping us fend off frailty and falls.
Next, I was asked to sniff and identify a range of distinct smells — from leather to chocolate — to test olfactory function. The loss of smell can be an early sign of disease and cognitive decline. They scanned my retina and took digital images of the inside of my eyes, which can also help detect disease. And I took a memory and cognitive function test, called MOCA. Thankfully, all was healthy.
Then I went through a slew of cardiovascular health tests. They measured my endothelial function, which keeps blood flowing smoothly through the body. They looked at my heart rate variability and pulse-wave velocity, which is an indicator of stiffness of the arteries. I had electrodes placed onto my chest for an electrocardiogram.
Midway through I was feeling a bit nervous, and my mind raced to what ifs.
Of all the tests they performed, the most intriguing is the GrimAge test. This test predicts biological age. It's gauging whether your DNA age is younger, or older, than your actual age, known as chronological age. Conjure images of the Grim Reaper? Yep, that's the idea: The test can estimate how quickly, or slowly, you're aging.
To figure this out, researchers use a technique based on DNA methylation, which is a measure of modifications in our DNA. Basically, as we age, compounds called methyl groups attach to some of our DNA molecules, which can turn genes on or off. Researchers have shown that the higher the proportion of methylated DNA in certain locations, the more accelerated a person's biological age. Published research suggests this is a reliable way to predict life span and health span.
No one wants to find out they're aging faster than their peers, right? But here's the exciting part. Our biological age may be malleable. The hope is that we can slow down our rate of aging — by making changes to lifestyle. Down the line, there may be anti-aging pills or other interventions.
For researchers, the GrimAge test isn't just a way to estimate DNA age. It's a tool to study whether interventions can alter it.
"That's the big ray of optimism that comes through all of this — the possibility that we can slow down aging and extend the health span of people," says Dr. Douglas Vaughan, director of the Longevity Institute. Health span is the number of years we live with good health. "It can be changed very rapidly in experimental models and probably in people, too," he says.
For example, smoking has a very strong effect on methylation. "Tens of thousands of locations gain methylation when you smoke," explains researcher Steven Horvath, who developed the epigenetic clock used as part of the GrimAge test. People with obesity also exhibit higher methylation at certain locations. "Conversely, if you eat vegetables, if you are lean, if you exercise, that slows methylation age," he explains.
Now, of course, it's long been known that smoking and eating poorly are bad for you. But researchers can now test specific interventions to see if it's possible to move the needle.
Vaughan's deep interest in aging took off when he identified a distinct genetic variant in an Amish community in Indiana. People who have the variant are protected from diabetes and have healthier cardiovascular systems compared to people who don't. In the laboratory, when Vaughan engineered mice to have only a 50% level of a protein associated with this mutation, their life spans increased by nearly fourfold. "This was a eureka moment," he says.
He tells his current medical students that in their careers they will prescribe interventions to slow down biological aging in their patients.
"I don't know exactly what that's going to be. It might be a drug. It might be a lifestyle intervention, for all I know it might be gene editing," Vaughan says. "But there are going to be ways that we are going to slow down this process and give people a longer health span."
People who live in the upscale Chicago neighborhood where the Human Longevity Lab is located can expect to live a much longer, healthier life compared to people who live just a few miles away. Vaughan wants to help close this gap.
"I'm worried about the poor soul in south Chicago who has a life expectancy of 55, compared to 92 in the neighborhood where we're standing right now," he says. A stunning difference of more than 30 years. (You can check out life expectancy in your ZIP code here.)
A lot of factors play into this life expectancy gap including poverty, housing, stress and crime, which can all work against health span.
Vaughan and his collaborators are enrolling people from a wide range of ages, ethnic groups, neighborhoods and socioeconomic status to see what works to slow biological aging for everybody.
"There are lots of people who've been dealt a bad hand with regard to aging," Vaughan says. Their goal is to find affordable, evidence-based interventions that can benefit everyone, regardless of socioeconomic status.
For example, there's interest in studying stress, which Vaughan says could be "part of the reason for the discrepancy in the life expectancy in different neighborhoods of Chicago." To study this, he could measure people's biological age at baseline, have them try a stress-reduction program, and test again to see if their results changed.
Vaughan is also interested in studying people with chronic HIV, who tend to age at an accelerated rate. A charitable gift from a Chicago family with a shared interest helped launch the institute. Vaughan's team is considering a range of interventions to test whether they can slow down aging in this population.
"It might be weight training, it might be intermittent fasting, it might be dietary manipulations, it might be drugs that are available now that might have anti-aging effects," Vaughan explains, citing the diabetes drug metformin.
Longevity and health span research is attracting lots of funding and attention, from places like the Hevolution Foundation, which provides grants and early stage investments, and Altos Labs, a biotechnology company, founded by Dr. Rick Klausner, which is investigating ways to reprogram or rejuvenate cells.
Dozens of groups have signaled their intent to compete in the $101 million X-PRIZE global competition focused on treatments that support healthy longevity — everything from new drugs or supplements, to devices, to repurposing old drugs for new uses.
"Teams have to come to the starting line and we're going to set up the frameworks by which they prove their therapeutic works," says XPRIZE's Jamie Justice, who is also a researcher at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.
Fortunately, my GrimAge score came back younger than my actual age, though I did get some surprises. I learned that my body composition isn't optimal. Turns out, I need to build more lean muscle mass, which is pretty common as we age — especially for women.
With muscle mass, if you don't use it, you lose it. After the age of 30 to 35, muscle starts to slowly decline. And after age 65 or so, this loss accelerates. So it's never too soon to start building a reserve. My goal for this year is to build muscle through resistance training and an optimal diet. And also, to reduce stress.
My experience in the longevity study has motivated me to get started on a new project: How To Thrive As You Age. We'll have more stories on healthy aging interventions coming soon.
As part of this project, we hope you'll share your healthy aging tips with us. What habits or lifestyle hacks have you've adopted to thrive as you age? Please use this form to share your thoughts or email us at Thrive@npr.org.
Copyright 2024 NPR. To see more, visit npr.org.
Topline:
A slow leak from a chemical tank smeared an orange cloud across the sky of a Southern California neighborhood on Tuesday, but authorities said they quickly got it under control.
Why it matters: Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Aaron Katon said authorities responded to a La Habra business that makes cleaning products after receiving a call shortly before noon about the cloud. Police evacuated a nearby middle school as a precaution, Katon said.
The chemical: They do not yet know what the chemical was, but all shelter-in-place orders have been lifted, Katon said.
What's next: The regional air quality management district has deployed staff to the area to investigate, said Connie Villanueva, a spokesperson for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
A slow leak from a chemical tank smeared an orange cloud across the sky of a Southern California neighborhood on Tuesday, but authorities said they quickly got it under control.
Los Angeles County Fire Capt. Aaron Katon said authorities responded to a business that makes cleaning products after receiving a call shortly before noon about the cloud. Police evacuated a nearby middle school as a precaution, Katon said.
They do not yet know what the chemical was, but all shelter-in-place orders have been lifted, he said. The regional air quality management district has deployed staff to the area to investigate, said Connie Villanueva, a spokesperson for the South Coast Air Quality Management District.
The company, Shepard Bros., could not immediately be reached for comment.
Three company employees reported minor respiratory irritation and declined further treatment, Katon said.
The leak occurred in the city of La Habra near a mix of residential neighborhoods and industrial warehouses about 10 miles (16 kilometers) north of Anaheim.
Keary Godinez, who works in a nearby restaurant, said she saw what appeared to be a dark yellow cloud spread across the sky. The 20-year-old said she watched students across the street board buses to evacuate, but police told her the eatery could remain open.
“It looked like pollen dust,” Godinez said, adding she didn’t detect a smell from the cloud. “It just kind of smeared in the sky and started going away.”
La Habra Mayor Jose Medrano had urged residents to shelter in place and said some streets were being evacuated.
Luis Gomez, who manages a nearby pickleball program, said earlier Tuesday he saw the cloud, called police and was told anyone within a mile radius of the location was under an evacuation order.
Topline:
The Los Angeles Lakers will unveil a statue of former coach Phil Jackson outside their downtown arena next year. The Lakers announced the plan Tuesday to honor Jackson, who led the Lakers to five championships and seven NBA Finals appearances during two stints totaling 11 seasons as their head coach.
The backstory: After his famed tenure leading Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls to six championships, Jackson joined the Lakers in 1999 and immediately began another era of major success for the 17-time NBA champion franchise. His first three teams in Los Angeles won championships behind the dynamic duo of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, and the Lakers added two more titles in 2009 and 2010 led by Bryant and Pau Gasol. His Lakers also made the NBA Finals in 2004 and 2008.
What's next: The statue will be unveiled April 9 before the Lakers’ home game against Minnesota.
The Los Angeles Lakers will unveil a statue of former coach Phil Jackson outside their downtown arena next year.
The Lakers announced the plan Tuesday to honor Jackson, who led the Lakers to five championships and seven NBA Finals appearances during two stints totaling 11 seasons as their head coach.
The statue will be unveiled April 9 before the Lakers’ home game against Minnesota.
After his famed tenure leading Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls to six championships, Jackson joined the Lakers in 1999 and immediately began another era of major success for the 17-time NBA champion franchise.
His first three teams in Los Angeles won championships behind the dynamic duo of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, and the Lakers added two more titles in 2009 and 2010 led by Bryant and Pau Gasol. His Lakers also made the NBA Finals in 2004 and 2008.
Jackson set the Lakers franchise record for coaches with 610 victories while leading his teams to the playoffs in every year of his tenure, which ended in 2011.
“Phil Jackson defines championship basketball for a reason,” Lakers governor Jeanie Buss said in a statement. “His masterful approach to coaching brought out the best in some of the greatest athletes to ever play the game. After he accepted my dad’s invitation to join the Lakers, Phil’s unmatched creativity and commitment to excellence restored our championship legacy, bringing five titles and setting a standard of excellence for generations to come. It is a great joy to be able to mark that achievement with the statue he so richly deserves.”
Jackson will be the ninth person associated with the Lakers to be honored with a statue in Star Plaza outside their arena. He joins Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Bryant, O’Neal, broadcaster Chick Hearn and former coach Pat Riley, whose statue was unveiled earlier this year.
Jackson’s 11 championships as a head coach are the most in NBA history. The North Dakota native and former New York Knicks forward is a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.
Topline:
The National Weather Service has issued an extreme heat warning for much of Southern California from Wednesday morning through Thursday.
The details: This week’s combination of heat and humidity could be worse than it has been all summer. Forecasters say temperatures will peak on Wednesday. Highs could get up to the triple digits. Overnight lows will also stay elevated. They may only get down to the 70s in places, offering little relief from the heat.
The humidity: Climate experts say the humidity this week could be some of the highest on record in Southern California, even after a summer marked by repeated humid heatwaves. The moisture in the air, combined with the extreme heat, makes it increasingly difficult for the human body to cool down, especially when outdoors. It’s also driving scattered rain and thunderstorms that will continue for the next few days.
The backstory: The tropical moisture is due in large part to the leftovers of Hurricane Marie hundreds of miles away in the Pacific Ocean. On top of that, record high ocean temperatures off the Southern California coast are adding to the humidity.
Topline:
An O.C. Superior Court judge increased the economic penalties for Orange County Board of Education member Marilyn “Mari” Barke for failing to report millions of dollars in economic disclosure filings. She will now have to pay more than $100,000 in penalties, according to court documents.
Why it matters: Barke was elected in 2018 to the Orange County Board of Education, which oversees and approves the county’s education budget that serves around 450,000 students.
Background: In 2024, the Fair Political Practices Commission found Barke liable for failing to correctly report income, resulting in a $3,200 penalty. But a judge in July said the FPPC’s settlement didn’t fully address Barke’s actions.
What are the penalties? Barke will have to pay $101,800 in penalties, as well as attorney fees, for incorrectly filling out economic disclosure statements and for failure to correct amended statements. She will be credited the $3,200 paid to the FPPC. Barke’s lawyer did not immediately respond to LAist’s request for comment.
What changed? Orange County Superior Court Judge H. Shaina Colover handed the decision on Sept. 3. Colover said in a final statement on the decision that “substantial civil damages are warranted” to enforce the Political Reform Act and prevent future violations.
Officials say: The complaint was filed by Lynne Riddle, a retired judge. Riddle’s lawyers said in a statement to LAist that the court’s ruling is a “landmark” outcome for public trust and that the high penalty fees show how serious the offenses were. “We hope this result reminds every public official in California that transparency is not optional, and that the public has both the right to know and the tools to hold them accountable when transparency is ignored,” Riddle’s legal team said.
