The results of detailed research by American scientists on the process of biological aging of people showed a radical difference between their biological and chronological pace of aging. Some people age three times faster than their calendar peers who are bypassed by the merciless ravages of time because they have excellent genes or because it is influenced by the environment.
Scientists who participated in the research of 954 thirty-eight-year-olds from the same New Zealand city, during the research took into account 18 biomarkers to establish the speed at which their organisms age.
Among other things, blood cholesterol level, heart muscle health, lung function, state of capillaries in the back of the eye, telomere length, body weight, kidney function, gum health…
Biomarkers were measured in volunteers at the age of 26, 32, and 38, which enabled scientists to precisely determine the rate at which their bodies age.
According to the data published in the professional journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it was shown that the biological age of the research participants varied between 28 and 61 years.
“The intention of the scientists is to conduct the same research among the elderly population, but if we want to prevent diseases that develop with regard to age, we must focus on studying the biological aging process of younger people.
“Aging increases the risk of developing various diseases, including malignant ones, and we are doing this to try to prevent the simultaneous development of several diseases in old age, and the next step is to find out what affects the pace of aging,”
Most of the research participants were found to be compatible when it came to their chronological and biological age. In individuals, the body, that is, the organism, aged three times faster in relation to their chronological age, and in some – time seemed to stand still.
“If we knew more about the biological aging process, we could treat people more fairly” of the same chronological age, says Moffitt, explaining that for some people, the time to retire at a certain age is actually too early because they are still in full force. Although it is still early to draw concrete conclusions, the research will help in testing methods to slow down the aging process.
“If we really want to find a way to slow down the aging process in order to prevent the development of a number of diseases in old age, we will have to conduct research on younger people. The results of the research give us hope that medicine will be able to slow down aging and enable people to live healthier and more active lives “,
Many people think about what happens after death, so they wonder what the last moments look like, whether life really “flies by” before our eyes and what awaits us after the last breath. Scientists have been dealing with this topic for years, and now they have solved the dilemma – does dying look like a process of falling asleep or are we aware that we are disappearing.
Dying is a unique experience for the individual and their loved ones. There is much more than physiological changes that contribute to the experience of dying. For example, a person’s personality, the burden of the disease, the support of family and friends, the duration of the terminal illness and their spirituality – explains Dr. Patrick Steele, a specialist in palliative care. However, there are certain physiological changes that occur universally.
Regular breathing patterns may change. Sometimes it can be faster than normal and sometimes slower. In the final days, there may be periods where there are long gaps between breaths. Breathing can become noisy at the end of life. It is the accumulation of waste products, secretions of the body. It’s often more upsetting for those listening than for the individual dying, Steele describes.
Study organizer Dr. Ajmal Zemar, a neurosurgeon at the University of Louisville, says this could mean that the idea that life “flies before our eyes as we die” is grounded in science. As a neurosurgeon, I sometimes deal with loss. It is indescribably difficult to convey the news of death to anxious family members – said the neurosurgeon, adding…
Something we can learn from this research is the following: even though our loved ones have their eyes closed and are ready to leave us, their brains may be replaying some of the most beautiful moments they experienced in their lives – Dr. Zemar added.
A twinkle in the eye
In addition to Zemar, another team of scientists momentarily restored a faint flash of life to the dying cells in the human eye. In order to better understand the way in which nerve cells are subject to lack of oxygen, a team of American researchers measured the activity in retinal cells of mice and humans immediately after death. They managed to revive the cells’ ability to communicate hours after death. When the cells were stimulated by light, postmortem retinas were shown to emit specific electrical signals, known as beta waves, writes Science Alert. These waves are also seen in living retinas and indicate communication between all layers of macular cells that allow us to see.
This is the first time a deceased donor’s eyes have reacted to light in this way, and some experts question the irreversible nature of death in the central nervous system.
“We were able to wake up the photoreceptor cells in the human macula, which is the part of the retina responsible for our central vision and our ability to see fine details and color,” explains biomedical scientist Fatima Abbas of the University of Utah.
In eyes obtained up to five hours after the death of the organ donor, these cells responded to bright light, colored lights, and even very dim flashes of light. After death, it is possible to save some organs in the human body for transplantation. But after the circulation stops, the central nervous system as a whole stops responding too quickly for any form of long-term recovery.
Different regions and different types of cells have different survival mechanisms, which makes the whole issue of brain death much more complicated. Learning how selected tissues in the nervous system cope with the loss of oxygen could teach us about the recovery of lost brain functions.
In 2018, scientists from Yale University made headlines when they kept a pig’s brain alive for as long as 36 hours after the animal’s death. The feat was achieved by halting the rapid degradation of mammalian neurons, using artificial blood, heaters and pumps to restore the circulation of oxygen and nutrients. A similar technique is now possible in mice and human eyes, which are the only extruded parts of the nervous system. By restoring oxygenation and some nutrients to the eyes of organ donors, researchers from the University of Utah and Scripps Research were able to trigger synchronous activity among neurons after death.
“We were able to get retinal cells to communicate with each other, the way they do in the living eye to mediate human vision,”
says visual scientist Frans Winberg of the University of Utah.
Initially, experiments showed that retinal cells continued to respond to light for up to five hours after death. However, the crucial intercellular beta-wave signals quickly disappeared, apparently due to the loss of oxygen.
Buried in a shallow grave deep inside a remote Indonesian cave, archaeologists have found the bones of a young person they say could change the history of medicine.
Using radiocarbon dating techniques, scientists estimate that the body had lain untouched for 31,000 years inside Liang Tebo Cave in Borneo’s East Kalimantan province, according to research published in the journal Natur.
The most striking aspect of this discovery is that the young man or woman’s lower left leg is missing, with signs that it was carefully amputated when the person was a child or early teenager. The patient survived the surgery and died of unknown causes when he was between 19 and 21 years old, the scientists said. The skeleton was found in 2020 by Australian and Indonesian archaeologists, who say the amputation reveals considerable surgical skill and is the earliest example of this type of operation. This discovery, according to CNN, changed our understanding of the sophistication of Stone Age people.
“It is significant because it significantly changes our species’ knowledge of surgery and complex medicine,”
said Maxim Aubert, a professor at the Center for Social and Cultural Research at Griffith University in Queensland.
“They had to have a deep knowledge of human anatomy, how to stop the blood flow, how to anesthetize the patient, prevent sepsis. All that became the norm only recently,” said Aubert. Experts believed that human ancestors did not know how to perform difficult procedures like amputation until the advent of agriculture and permanent settlements transformed human society in the last 10,000 years. Before this discovery, the oldest known example of amputation was an elderly farmer whose left forearm was removed just above the elbow 7,000 years ago in present-day France, the study said.
It was only 100 years ago that surgical amputation became the medical norm in the West. Before the development of antibiotics, the study states, most people would have died during the amputation.
“Blood loss, shock and subsequent infection were the main sources of death until relatively recently in human history.”
said Tim Maloney, a researcher at Griffith University and one of the study’s co-authors.
Community Care
This person had his lower left leg amputated as a child and survived six to nine years after the operation, according to experts. There were no signs of infection in the bones, and new bone growth formed in the amputated area – something that takes a long time. In addition, while the rest of the skeleton was the size of an adult, the amputated bones stopped growing and retained the size of a child. The surgeon or surgeons who performed the operation 31,000 years ago, probably with knives and scalpels made of stone, must have had a detailed knowledge of anatomy and the muscular and vascular system in order to discover and connect the veins, blood vessels and nerves and prevent fatal blood loss and infection , according to the study.
After amputation, care was vital, and the wound had to be regularly cleaned and disinfected.
“I think what’s most amazing is that this is real, direct, tangible evidence of a really high level of care in the community,”
said Maloney.
To live with an amputated leg in mountainous terrain for years, an individual would need a lot of constant help and care from their community.
“That this child survived the procedure and was estimated to have lived many years afterwards is astonishing,” said Charlotte Roberts, a professor in the Department of Archeology at Durham University in the UK, in a commentary published with the study. She was not involved in research. Roberts agrees with the assessment that the limb was deliberately removed – an accidental injury would not show a clean slash. Nor is it likely that the foot was cut off as punishment, given that the person lived for years after the amputation and was carefully buried, said Roberts, who trained as a nurse before becoming an archaeologist. The Australian team said it’s possible these hunter-gatherers had knowledge of medicinal plants, such as antiseptics, that grew in the rainforests of Borneo.
An exciting region for discovery
The child’s remains were dated in two ways: radiocarbon dating of charcoal remains in the sediment layers above, on, and below the skeleton; and a tooth dated by measuring the radioactive decay of uranium isotopes, the chemical elements found in tooth enamel. It is also the oldest known deliberate burial in island Southeast Asia, with limestone markers placed on top of the grave, the body placed in a bent, fetal position and a large globule of ocher – a mineral pigment used in Stone Age cave art.
The skeleton was discovered in a region that has become an exciting site for paleoanthropology: Liang Tebu, a large limestone cave with patterns of human hands on the walls, located in a remote, mountainous area that can only be reached by boat at certain times of the year. The world’s oldest figurative rock art has been found in caves elsewhere in Indonesia, and extinct human species such as Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis have been found on islands in the same region.
“From this area, people traveled by boat to cross the islands of South Asia to reach the mainland of Papua and Australia (the first successful great sea voyage),” Aubert said. “They were advanced artists, and now we know they had advanced medical knowledge. “
“At Liang Tebo, we came across this prehistoric person who was amputated 31,000 years ago less than a meter from the surface and we know we still have 3-4 meters of sediment to excavate before the bedrock,” he added. due to the spread of covid, and archaeologists based in Australia rushed home to avoid a border closure that would last more than two years. “We want to go back. Maybe we will find more human remains, and maybe the remains of unknown species,” they said.
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