🧬🛍 18 - Longevity - The Who is Who - Part 4, Bezos & Optimizing Testosterone
Have you lost the thread of The Who is Who of Longevity? So have I!
Here’s the final part of this initial series. Eventually, I will have to add to it.
The Controversy
Dr. Sinclair has cancelled Dr. Charles Brenner, Dr. Brad Stanfield, and Jeffrey Flier, a colleague at Harvard. Ok, not cancelled, just blocked them all on Twitter.
Anyone who knows me personally knows I am a fan of Sinclair. He is a great communicator, makes a compelling case, and is putting a lot of effort into the consumer. To me, he understood that you can grow an industry by speaking to the general public. When he followed me on Twitter, it was a massive ‘yes, I am being heard!’ moment. It felt like the time Apple contacted us to sell our products at their stores: you are part of an industry if the biggest players in the industry know you exist.
Anyway, the crux of the animosity lies in various statements Dr. Sinclair has made on various advancements in longevity. Dr. Brenner takes issue with a myriad of them, for Dr. Stanfield, it is around the purported effects of resveratrol in longevity; results show none.
Longevity is a small industry, and though it is growing exponentially, it is not yet mainstream. Altos Labs, the latest most-funded company in the space is distancing themselves from “anti-aging” and “longevity”. I agree with anti-aging, as a PR move, but it’s a pity on the longevity front. The word itself has such incredible positive potential as soon as we disassociate it from immortality (sorry my maximalist friends).
With this said, there is no unifying theory of aging, so no surprise here. Science is evolving so we need to find the solution to have open discussions, undermining each other, is not the way.
Aspirational Health
Health has gone Influencer and this is only going to become bigger. The mix of “you can do it” aspirational messages mixed with “how the gut works” scientific facts is a potent message. I for one prefer individuals who inspire people to live healthier lives, than the ones that make you buy useless things. Though, it raises the question of whether such aspirational content could make people feel self-conscious about their imperfect habits. How do we balance education, promotion of better habits, and the all-too-common toxic relationship with our social media lives? Orthorexia Nervosa, an extreme obsession with healthy eating, has become the anorexia of our time.
The bridge between knowing and doing is where most healthy practices get stuck. I wonder if social media can help us get across, or make us jump off it.
Holistic Midlife
The word ‘holistic’ has been co-opted many times to be mutually exclusive from anything related to science. When I say “longevity”, some who consider themselves part of the holistic movement assume that I want to stay forever young. The pro-aging/let-us-age women who are vehemently opposed to HRT (hormone replacement therapy) won’t even engage in conversation because they go as far as to compare it to the same pharma conspiracy that ‘brought us vaccines’. They are however fine with the massive “feel-good” industry that is recently focusing on menopause. They are happy to sell you a $25 kit with the equivalent of #bossbabe slogans for middle-agers, with oils and creams that supposedly help “brain fog”, and “hot flashes”, but I doubt do much for the accelerated rate of aging that happens during menopause (6% as per Horvath’s calculation):
Using an epigenetic clock Horvath invented in 2013, he and first author Morgan Levine tracked methylation, a chemical biomarker linked to aging, when analyzing DNA samples from 3,100+ women enrolled in four large studies. In 2010, data from one of these studies was used to confirm the controversial finding linking hormone therapy to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease in menopausal women.
In the UCLA study, researchers measured the biological age of cells from blood, saliva and inside the cheek to explore the relationship between each woman’s chronological age and her body’s biological age.
“We discovered that menopause speeds up cellular aging by an average of 6 percent,” said Horvath. “That doesn’t sound like much but it adds up over a woman’s lifespan.”
So women age faster during menopause, but we should feel empowered because #Midlife is not a crisis!
I personally want more options as I don’t think patchouli and some deep breathing will cut it for menopause. This woman thinks we need to stop the virtuous self-sacrifice and suffering that “makes us stronger”, we need to demand more research and solutions to make this period in our lives better for us.
And there is no reason you can’t enjoy both holistic practices and scientific advancements.
New Kids on Block of DeSci (Decentralized Science)
How incredible is the speed of tech that a community that took off in the summer of 2021 is already funding prizes, research, and has a fully operating structure? The ConstitutionDAO had the hype, but the VitaDAO crew had more of a plan. To me, they represent the beneficial side of Web3 and crypto.
I have written about them before, especially on my predictions for my 2022 longevity trends, and I’m excited to be figuring out some initiatives with them. More on that soon.
What they have achieved has made me more curious about the potential of DAOs and I am very excited to have helped in two grant proposals for the latest round of the Gitcoin Grants:
Dog Longevity DAO - Join us to fund the research that is looking into extending the healthy life of our dogs. Anyone who knows me knows Mobile and understands why this would be a cause close to my heart. Anyone who has a pet knows that we would do more for their health than our own. I believe more people would see the benefit of longevity if we could extend the healthy life of man’s best friends. (LINK)
CureDAO - We have more health data than ever but efforts are being replicated, so progress is slow. What if there was a collaborative open-source network that could help reduce efforts and focus on what matters, using the data to find cures? (LINK)
Please support! These initiatives are done by Quadrantic Funding, you can watch a video HERE in case you are wondering what it is! I did.
The OG Laura
There is one woman in longevity that is the idol of all alike: Laura Deming. She is like the Virgen de Guadalupe of the field. Geeks, techies, and well-respected scientists alike must hear Gloriana when in her presence.
I remember years ago, my friend and writer Amy Verner pointed out to me the FT article on Laura about longevity when I said I wanted to work on something that could help change aging. Back then, I was like the crowd in the aging space and looked at longevity science as something negative. I am willing to admit I was wrong.
More on her next week when I delve into cryonics.
Some takeaways
I got tired of writing about so many men.
Longevity branding and re-framing is about ‘playing the long game’.
It’s good when you don’t care to play the clout game. Cool and important is in the eye of the beholder, and depending on who you want appear cool to. I promise you, there’s an entire world out there of people who think VCs and startups are boring, scientists are geeks, and so on so forth. Your cool might be someone else’s loser.
Where do I sit in all of this? In case I have not made it obvious my mission is to make longevity a lifestyle, like how Martha Stewart made home decor a thing. This is why I reference her so much. I’ll join the 1 Billion Club Bros (read Part 2) - and declare my mission is to make 1 billion (and I hope most of them are women) live a longevity lifestyle. To the moon!
You can read the rest of this series below:
Optimizing Testosterone
Testosterone is often discussed by the SciComm Bros and then by default in longevity. Some actively promote TRT (Testosterone Replacement Therapy) and some tell you it is like burning two ends of the candle.
You can listen to our episode HERE where we explore Jeff Bezos rejuvenated look. 👀
Our Geroscientist, Girish Harintah explains on our 3 part protocol that Testosterone is about hitting a balance, extremes are not good for longevity.
Read:
Optimizing Testosterone Part 1