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The United States' 92 nuclear reactors currently in operation have a mean age of 41.6 years, the third oldest in the world. As Statista's Katharina Buchholz reports, the only nuclear fleets that are older are those of Switzerland (46.3 years) and Belgium (42.3 years). Also older are the singular reactors in use in Armenia and the Netherlands.You will find more infographics at StatistaThe U.S. was among the first commercial adopters of nuclear energy in the 1950s, explaining the number of aging reactors today. A building boom between the 1960s and 1970s created today’s nuclear power plants in the United States....

The fountain of youth may be made of air, not water. Scientists say they’ve successfully reversed the aging process of elderly people through “oxygen therapy” in a first-of-its-kind study. Researchers from Tel Aviv University used hyperbaric oxygen chambers to target specific cells and DNA linked to shorter lifespans — and found the “Holy Grail” of staying young, according to a press release about the discovery. During the study, researchers investigated whether the therapy — which involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment — could reverse the effects of aging in 35 people over age 64, according to the study,...

Not all senescent cells are harmful "zombies" that should be wiped out to prevent age-related disease, according to research, which found that some of them are embedded in young, healthy tissues and promote normal repair from damage. Scientists have now seen these cells in action in lung tissue, as well as other organs that serve as barriers in the body, such as the small intestine, colon and skin. When they used drugs called senolytics to kill these cells, injuries to lung tissues healed more slowly. "Senescent cells can occupy niches with privileged positions as 'sentinels' that monitor tissue for injury...

Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis could become the first degenerative disease to be treated through the science of aging. It was known that this disease is associated with the aging process, but its molecular causes were unknown. The Telomeres and Telomerase Group has been working for years to unravel them. In their findings, they have narrowed down exactly which cells give rise to fibrosis when they undergo alterations due to the aging process: alveolar type II pneumocytes, the cells responsible for regenerating lung tissue. "The relevance of this finding is that it indicates which cells in particular should be targeted in any...

"Hashtag, 50 is the new 30," says Tiat Lim when asked about his age. And for Tiat, who turned half-a-century old early this year, the statement isn't a hollow one by a mid-lifer in denial either. More from AsiaOne Read the condensed version of this story, and other top stories with NewsLite. After all, the man has been found to have successfully reversed his biological age by more than 20 years. The "de-ageing" process to turn back the clock took him about six years, from around the time he and his sister opened their gym, Bespoke Fitness, in 2016. The...

Fluorescence microscopy images showing the endoplasmic reticulum network (green) wrapping around damaged lysosomes (red). The cell nucleus is shown in blue. Today in Nature, University of Pittsburgh researchers describe for the first time a pathway by which cells repair damaged lysosomes, structures that contribute to longevity by recycling cellular trash. The findings are an important step towards understanding and treating age-related diseases driven by leaky lysosomes. "Lysosome damage is a hallmark of aging and many diseases, particularly neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's," said lead author Jay Xiaojun Tan, Ph.D., assistant professor of cell biology at Pitt's School of Medicine...

Reduced calorie intake has been shown to improve health and lifespan in laboratory animals, and recent research shows these benefits may extend to humans as well. Researchers show that moderate calorie restriction in people reduces the production of a protein called SPARC, which then reins in harmful inflammation and improves health in the aged. The study, led by Vishwa Deep Dixit, follows a study published earlier this year that identified key health benefits of moderate calorie reduction in humans. Dixit further analyzed data from a clinical trial funded by the NIH. In the trial, known as Comprehensive Assessment of Long-term...

Too much screen use has been linked to obesity and psychological problems. Now a new study has identified a new problem—a study in fruit flies suggests our basic cellular functions could be impacted by the blue light emitted by these devices. "Our study suggests that avoidance of excessive blue light exposure may be a good anti-aging strategy," advised Giebultowicz. The researchers have previously shown that fruit flies exposed to light "turn on" stress protective genes, and that those kept in constant darkness lived longer. Blue light exposure caused significant differences in the levels of metabolites measured by the researchers in...

A randomized, double blind human clinical trial reveals that supplementation with GlyNAC—a combination of glycine and N-acetylcysteine—improves many age-associated defects in older humans and powerfully promotes healthy aging. This is relevant because until now, there have been no solutions toward improving many of these age-related declines in people. The study shows that older humans taking GlyNAC for 16-weeks improved many characteristic defects of aging. This includes oxidative stress, glutathione deficiency and multiple aging hallmarks affecting mitochondrial dysfunction, mitophagy, inflammation, insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction, genomic damage, stem cell fatigue and cellular senescence. These were associated with improvements in muscle strength, gait...

Funny Aging Quotes "To get back to my youth I would do anything in the world, except exercise, get up early, or be respectable." - Oscar Wilde "The older we get, the fewer things seem worth waiting in line for." - Will Rogers "We must recognize that, as we grow older, we become like old cars – more and more repairs and replacements are necessary." - C.S. Lewis "Old age comes at a bad time." – San Banducci “ "Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened." - Jennifer Yane "Old age is like a plane flying...

Researchers have revealed the cellular mysteries behind aging. A new explanation for aging has been developed by researchers who have shown that genetic abnormalities that develop gradually over a lifetime cause substantial alterations in how blood is generated beyond the age of 70. According to recent research, the drastic reduction in blood production beyond the age of 70 is likely caused by genetic alterations that steadily accumulate in blood stem cells throughout life. Researchers from the Wellcome Sanger Institute, the Wellcome-MRC Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, and others have published a study that offers a new theory of aging in the...

Alzheimer's Association Supplemental thiamine [vitamin B-1] as a practical, potential way to prevent Alzheimer's disease from commencingFirst published: 28 July 2021 Author: Jeffrey Fessel “… In brief: it is easier to prevent Alzheimer's than to try to reverse it after it has developed. The data supporting the prophylactic use of thiamine are robust. In order to validate its use, a clinical trial is advocated that would enroll persons aged 65 or older who have evidence of depositions of amyloid or tau in their brains, and randomly assign them to take, for as long as 5 years, either thiamine 100 mgs...

A pilot human clinical trial conducted by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine reveals that supplementation with GlyNAC—a combination of glycine and N-acetylcysteine as precursors of the natural antioxidant glutathione—could improve many age-associated defects in older humans. The results of this study show that older humans taking GlyNAC for 24 weeks saw improvements in many characteristic defects of aging, including glutathione deficiency, oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation, insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction, body fat, genomic toxicity, muscle strength, gait speed, exercise capacity and cognitive function. The benefits declined after stopping supplementation for 12 weeks. GlyNAC supplementation was well tolerated during the...

Age-associated muscle decline can start as early as 40 years old and there are currently no effective interventions to counteract it other than exercise. A new milestone study showed that daily intake of Amazentis' proprietary Urolithin A, Mitopure, significantly improved muscle strength by 12% after four months. These findings further validate Mitopure's benefits for muscle and mitochondrial health and show it is safe and well tolerated. Mitopure works by supporting the cells' ability to renew their powerplants, the mitochondria, during the aging process. Muscles have a high demand for energy and there are a very large number of mitochondria in...

Exercise increases levels of a chemical involved in brain cell growth, which bolsters the release of the "feel good" hormone dopamine, a new study shows. Dopamine is known to play a key role in movement, motivation, and learning. Experts have long understood that regular running raises dopamine activity in the brain and may protect nerve cells from damage. In addition, past research has tied exercise-driven boosts in the dopamine-triggering chemical called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and in dopamine levels to improvements in learning and memory. Researchers showed that mice running on a wheel for 30 days had a 40% increase...

Researchers led by UC's Robert Krikorian, Ph.D., found that adding blueberries to the daily diets of certain middle-aged populations may lower the chances of developing late-life dementia. Krikorian explained that about 50% of individuals in the U.S. develop insulin resistance, commonly referred to as prediabetes, around middle age. Prediabetes has been shown to be a factor in chronic diseases, he said. "We had observed cognitive benefits with blueberries in prior studies with older adults and thought they might be effective in younger individuals with insulin resistance," said Krikorian. "Alzheimer's disease, like all chronic diseases of aging, develops over a period...

Researchers have reported that supplementing a diet with the sea organisms Ascidiacea, also known as sea squirts, reverses some of the main signs of aging in an animal model. These sea organisms contain substances called plasmalogens, which are vital to our body processes. Plasmalogens are found all over our bodies naturally, particularly in the heart, brain and immune cells, but as we get older, the amount in our body decreases. This loss is also a characteristic of several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. The researchers studied the effects of adding plasmalogens to the diet of aged mice....

It sounds like something that might have come out of a sci-fi novel, but it's based on cold, hard, printed research: transplanting fecal microbes from young mice into old mice seems to reverse key signs of aging in the guts, eyes, and brains of the older animals. Further experiments showed that it works the other way too – moving microbes from the poop of aged mice into younger mice caused the younger animals to then show signs of aging, including increased inflammation in the brain and a reduction in a key protein needed for normal vision. It's by no means...

It is well established that older adults are more susceptible to infection and their immune systems less capable of generating a strong immune response. Findings suggest that lymph nodes, which are critical for maintaining and revving up the immune response during infection, age at different rates. Lymph nodes closer to the skin deteriorate two to three times more quickly than those deeper in the body. White blood cells, specifically T cells, are the soldiers of the immune system. T cells are made by the thymus, a gland that sits below the chest bone and above the heart. The thymus quickly...

A new study of genetic data published Wednesday April 20 of more than 400,000 UK adults has revealed a clear link between walking pace and a genetic marker of biological age. Confirming a causal link between walking pace and leucocyte telomere length (LTL)—an indicator of biological age—the Leicester-based team of researchers estimate that a lifetime of brisk walking could lead to the equivalent of 16 years younger biological age by midlife. Researchers from the University of Leicester studied genetic data from 405,981 middle-aged UK Biobank participants and found that a faster walking pace, independent of the amount of physical activity,...