This will go down in history as one of science and medical research's greatest achievements. Perhaps the most impressive.
I put together a preliminary timeline of some key milestones to show how several years of work were compressed into months.
There are several points noteworthy related to this timeline: 1. Moderna had a head-start, so why didn't their Phase 3 trial finish first?
Part of #OperationWarpSpeed (OWS), they were requested to slow down enrollment to get better minority representation nytimes.com/2020/11/21/us/…
We've learned a lot more about the principal drivers of age-related diseases in the past few weeks. And that leads to a unified model to pull it all together. (open-access)
I review 4 new reports, summarized here: 1. The proteins from senescent cells predict age-related clinical outcomes 2. A new epigenetic age clock connects the dots between aging, the immune system, inflammation and lifestyle factors 3. People with a fast pace of aging had an increased risk of cognitive impairment, age-related diseases, disability, and mortality 4. The Importance of “Immune Resilience” for Healthspan
And present a unified I/I model for what we now know
Most people haven’t heard of this test, which is available in the US. It accurately predicts Alzheimer’s (not just if there’s a risk, but when). It is favorably affected by exercise and likely many other lifestyle factors.
Here’s (almost) everything we know about it. In Ground Truths (link in my profile d/t X-suppression)
A major @Nature paper this week found a significant decline in dementia after an outdated Shingles vaccine.
I've reviewed the study and many other relevant ones in a new Ground Truths (link in profile)
A Table from the post
The effect in the 2 natural experiments differed substantially by sex with the benefit predominant in women
The vaccine against Shingles helps protect against dementia, results of a natural experiment, adding to prior evidence
"implications are profound"
New @Nature nature.com/articles/s4158… nature.com/articles/d4158…
Of >105,000 participants with 30-year follow-up, only 9.3% achieved healthy aging (age 70, w/o any chronic diseases). Their diet was significantly associated with this outcome🧵 @NatureMedicine
These are the specific foods that were linked with healthy aging and other outcomes. Green-favorable; Red-unfavorable
Adherence to these diets (most to least in quintiles) linked to healthy aging
A paper on microplastics accumulating in the brain was just published @NatureMedicine, open-access
I review the background and major implications in a new Ground Truths edition (link in my profile)nature.com/articles/s4159…
The human brain:
—had 7-30 times more accumulation of microparticles (MPs) than the liver or kidney (organs with previously documented high propensity)
—from people with dementia had 5X accumulation of MPs compared with non-dementia
—there was a marked increase of accumulation over recent years