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Researchers at German Sports University have studied the effects of alpha lipoic acid (ALA) supplements on performance and muscle strength recovery of athletes. Previous studies have shown that alpha lipoic acid has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects. Those effects have been demonstrated in multiple clinical trials. Alpha lipoic acid is also frequently used as a dietary supplement for competitive athletes. However, quantitative information on the effects of ALA supplementation in healthy individuals or in competitive athletes was limited. According to the researchers, this was one of the first scientific studies of the physiological effects of alpha lipoic acid supplements in athletes after exercise. A research paper is published in Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition. It describes the results of a double-blind, randomized, controlled trial in which 17 male athletes participated. All participants were experienced in resistance- and endurance- intensive sports. The specific questions that the researchers investigated are: Does a single treatment with ALA after acute exercise increase the ability to recover? Does a short-term chronic application of ALA during a high-intensity training period affect the ability to recover? Does the application of ALA after acute and during chronic training protocol prevent the loss of performance? The subjects were divided into two groups. The participants in one group received a 150 mg dose of ALA. And the participants in the other group received a placebo. Then all participants underwent a standardized single training session and a high intense training week with supplements. They used 150 mg alpha lipoic acid or placebo before and after exercise. The intensive training week included strength training sessions and long runs. Blood samples were taken at scheduled times after exercise. And markers for muscle damage, inflammation and oxidative stress were investigated. In addition, the researchers also measured the maximum performance in a specific exercise (back squat). The results of the study indicate that a moderate inhibition of muscle damage and inflammation was observed in the participants that took ALA. Performance in the back squat after intensive training was significantly reduced in the placebo-group. But performance wasn't reduced in the alpha lipoic acid group. No significant anti-oxidative effects were observed. The researchers conclude that alpha lipoic acid supplementation during intensive training periods results in a reduction of muscle damage, reduction of inflammation, and better recovery. Therefore, ALA supplements could help athletes in long-term endurance training or in sports that induce oxidative stress, such as marathons and weight training. The researchers also observe that more studies are needed for a quantitative understanding of the positive effects of alpha lipoic acid supplements. Thrivous develops Alpha Neuroprotector to enhance brain and nerve function for better aging. Each serving of Alpha provides a clinical dose of alpha lipoic acid, in combination with other science-backed nutrients. As suggested by the results of this study, Thrivous Alpha may contribute to enhancing the effect of exercise on muscles.

As a teen, I had the good fortune to extensively backpack in various national parks and wilderness areas. My friend provided high-quality outdoor equipment. Part of the deal to use her "nice stuff" was treating it with respect. The tent was staked out tight, so it didn’t leak; but not too tight to avoid straining the zippers and seams. I was regularly instructed to open and close the zippers with a steady, smooth motion. I learned that treating the equipment with mindful intent prolonged its serviceable life. Joints and Bones Compare joints and bones to tent zippers. Treating them with care allows us to enjoy active aging. Proper nutrition and exercise keep our bodies moving as they were designed, allowing us to enjoy any adventure that might come our way. On the other hand, the breakdown or degeneration of joint cartilage limits choices based on pain and stiffness. The normal aging process is also associated with bone deterioration which increases the risk of bone fractures (especially for post-menopausal women). Dietary supplements designed to support the joints and bones can help keep us enjoying the activities that make life worth living. Reduce the Impact of Aging The skeletal system, made of hard mineral bones, gives us structure. The joints, where the bones are connected together, allow movement. Joints consist of intact cartilage to cushion the bones as they pass each other. The early signs of natural aging and breakdown of joints start with inflammatory responses. In addition, if the cartilage in the joint becomes damaged or compressed, movement causes joint inflammation and pain. Prolonging an active lifestyle requires detailed attention to reducing inflammation. When investigating supplements to support joint health, the following supplement ingredients often pop up. Glucosamine Chondroitin Turmeric S. Adenosylmethionine (SAMe) Collagen Peptides Boswellia Serrata MSM (Methylsulfonylmethane) Finite Resources Given you have finite resources, which of these supplements should you choose? Which have clinically been shown to be the most effective for protecting joints, reducing joint stiffness and pain, and improving movement? Glucosamine Glucosamine (a component of cartilage derived from shellfish) comes in two supplement forms: glucosamine hydrochloride (GH) glucosamine sulfate (GS) A meta-analysis concluded GH is ineffective at reducing knee pain. GS supplementation did not appear to significantly reduce pain either. However, after twenty-four weeks, GS supplementation may help improve movement and use. Another meta-analysis found daily long-term (3 years) GS supplementation may provide a small or moderate improvement in joint space narrowing. For individuals engaged in activities with high joint impact (i.e. soccer or running), studies indicate 1.5-3.0 mg of daily glucosamine supplementation may reduce biomarkers of type II collagen degradation but not increase type II collagen production. (Collagen is the protein building block of fibrous connective tissue.) Chondroitin Chondroitin, another component of cartilage, often accompanies glucosamine in joint supplements. Unfortunately, many meta-analyses find that several chondroitin studies employed poor or unsound methods and were often funded by companies producing chondroitin. Studies with better quality parameters show mixed results. Turmeric Extract The Indian spice turmeric contains polyphenol curcumin, a potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory. Numerous studies ( examine.com ) show highly-consistent and notable results of turmeric supplementation helping to reduce overall inflammation and pain to naturally improve quality of life. In a study of patients with knee pain, 1,500 mg of daily turmeric supplementation was as effective as 1,200 mg of ibuprofen for pain reduction with fewer reports of gastrointestinal issues. A 2017 study of rugby players dealing with osteo-muscular pain found naturally derived curcumin “could represent a promising safe, analgesic rem ...

Orem UT – Thrivous, the human enhancement company, has partnered with Consolidated Health Solutions to provide personalized medicine coaching. Thrivous' mission is to help customers access technology with the greatest potential to improve their brains and bodies. Customers may achieve better results when they: Have a better understanding of personalized medicine. Engage in a more complete review of their current health. Receive coaching to support personalized medicine. Through a series of short discovery appointments, coaches educate customers about personalized medicine, review their current health, and connect them with relevant medical service providers. Depending on individual needs, the discovery process includes the following: Introduction: 60-minute appointment that covers health history, desired outcomes, current supplements and medications, how healthcare systems work, and how functional medicine coaching may help. Lab Order: 30-minute appointment that covers recommendations for lab work (such as blood, genetic, and epigenetic tests) to facilitate personalized medicine, and placement of orders. Insurance may cover most of the cost. Lab Review and Referral: 30-minute appointment that covers lab work results, an explanation of how personalized medicine may help, and referrals to relevant medical service providers. Personalized medicine coaching is available to all new and existing Thrivous customers in the United States. That includes customers who may need personalized assistance with concerns or confusion about their health. And it includes customers who may want personalized assistance with maintaining or enhancing their health. Customers may sign up for personalized medicine coaching on the Thrivous website. After a customer provides initial discovery information via an online form, a coach will contact the customer using the customer's preferred method of communication. About Thrivous Thrivous is the human enhancement company. Its mission is to help people access technology with the greatest potential to improve their brains and bodies. Thrivous develops nootropics to enhance cognition and geroprotectors to combat aging. Each nutrient and each dose is based on multiple human studies. And its rigorous quality control is completely open source. For more information, contact [email protected]. About Consolidated Health Solutions Consolidated Health Solutions specializes in helping medical clinics and practitioners utilize industry leading technologies and services to streamline operations. Its goal is to help medical practitioners set up an efficient business so they can focus on providing patients with the attention and services they need.

Synthetic biologists at Stanford University, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and Caltech have developed a new technology for protein circuits between living cells. Gene circuits are synthetic networks of genes that can be integrated into cells to sense specific triggers and deliver a desired response. Gene circuit engineering permits adding new functions to cells, such as the ability to detect and respond to diseases. However, because genes must be translated into proteins to act, synthetic networks made directly of proteins would be more efficient. But natural protein circuits operate entirely within a particular cell. And the majority of biological processes require cells to be in communication with one another. The Stanford-led synthetic biologists have found a way for protein circuits to release proteins from the cell, or to display them on the cell surface. Other cells can then respond to these proteins. Researcher Alexander Vlahos describes the hoped-for end result of this research. In a press release issued by Stanford University, he says, “you can engineer a very small subset of cells that can then have an effect on other cells.” Synthetic protein circuits extend natural protein circuits found in living cells. A protein receives information and then passes the information along to the next protein. Efficient synthetic protein circuits would permit adding new functions to cells without changing with the cells' normal functions. Scientists have developed a new synthetic biology platform known as RELEASE (Retained Endoplasmic Cleavable Secretion). It is described in a research paper published in Nature Communications. It enables synthetic protein circuits to secrete and display proteins. The scientists “developed RELEASE with an end goal in mind: trying to have programmable cells that can talk to other things,” says Vlahos. “That’s fundamentally the big picture.” Vlahos and research leader Xiaojing Gao hope that engineered protein circuits will be able to attack cancers caused by mutant proteins that are difficult to target with traditional drugs. For these cancers, Vlahos and Gao envision a “circuit as medicine” approach. A subset of cells carrying the circuit would sense the mutant protein and respond in two ways. They would kill the mutant cell. And they would also secrete proteins that activate an immune response against the cancer. In the paper, the Stanford-led researchers argue that RELEASE could also have therapeutic applications in neurobiology, developmental biology, immunology, tissue engineering, and transplantation. RELEASE could be used to create sense-and-respond cells to control biological factors in order to facilitate the acceptance of engineered tissue implants. The proposed plug-and-play platform for sensing and secreting proteins would enable programming of such communications with unprecedented precision.

Bioengineers, led by UC San Diego, have shown that a new RNA editing technology can treat laboratory mice affected by Hurler syndrome. It's a rare genetic disease. The new technology can correct the disease-causing mutation in RNA. And it shows promise as a gene therapy for treating genetic diseases more generally. "We can simply deliver just a small piece of RNA inside the cell and repair mutations in vivo,” said bioengineering professor Prashant Mali in a press release issued by UC San Diego. RNA ( RiboNucleic Acid ) is a nucleic acid like DNA. A difference is that RNA is found in nature as a single strand folded onto itself, rather than a paired double strand like DNA. Nucleic acids are large molecules essential for all known forms of life. The findings are described in a research paper published in Nature Biotechnology. They could make it much simpler to repair disease-causing mutations in RNA, without compromising precision or efficiency. The innovative aspect of the new RNA editing technology is that it makes efficient use of RNA editing enzymes that naturally occur in the body's cells. These enzymes are called adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADARs). Until now, external ADARs had to be brought into a cell for targeted RNA editing. That made ADAR-based RNA editing complicated. But the bioengineers led by Mali have found ways to recruit a cell’s own ADARs to make edits at a precisely-targeted RNA region. As a proof of concept the bioengineers experimented with the new RNA editing technology on laboratory mice. Their aim was to correct a single mutation that causes Hurler syndrome. The mutation prevents the body from producing an enzyme that is necessary for breaking down complex sugars. Buildup of these sugars causes severe tissue damage, skeletal abnormalities, cognitive impairment, and other serious health problems. The bioengineers obtained encouraging results. After two weeks, the levels of mutant RNA and complex sugars in the diseased animals were significantly reduced. In conclusion, according to the bioengineers, the findings suggest that the new RNA editing technology could enable efficient programmable RNA editing in vivo. And it could be used for diverse protein modulation and gene therapeutic applications. "I'm hopeful that this work opens the door even more for RNA editing as another gene therapy tool," concluded Mali. At the same time, he cautioned that the research is still at an early stage, "and it remains to be seen how this RNA editing technology will work in primates." A new biotechnology company called Shape Therapeutics was co-founded by Mali. The company is working to bring RNA editing technologies to the clinic.

Scientists at University College London have developed a new cancer therapy. It uses an MRI scanner to guide a magnetic seed through the brain to heat and destroy tumors. Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique. It uses magnetic fields and radio waves to create detailed images of organs and tissues. A research paper is published in Advanced Science. It describes the new MRI guided cancer therapy, dubbed MINIMA (minimally invasive image-guided ablation). The paper also describes the first applications of MINIMA in experiments with laboratory mice, which demonstrate the viability of the new therapy. MINIMA works by first using magnetic propulsion gradients, generated by an MRI scanner, to guide a ferromagnetic thermoseed to a tumor. Then it remotely heats the seed to kill nearby cancer cells. With MINIMA, the MRI scanners that are routinely used in hospitals as diagnostic devices can be also used to deliver cancer therapy. “MINIMA is a new MRI-guided therapy that has the potential to avoid traditional side effects by precisely treating the tumor without harming healthy tissues,” says research leader Mark Lythgoe in a press release issued by University College London. “Because the heating seed is magnetic, the magnetic fields in the MRI scanner can be used to remotely steer the seed through tissue to the tumor. Once at the tumor, the seed can then be heated, destroying the cancer cells, while causing limited damage to surrounding healthy tissues." According to the scientists, the research results establish proof-of-concept for precise and effective treatment of glioblastoma. They also suggest the possibility of treating other cancers, such as prostate, that could benefit from less invasive therapies. Glioblastoma is the most common form of brain cancer. It is hard to reach with surgery. And the average survival time after surgery is only 12-18 months. Prostate cancer affects one in eight men. It can be treated more effectively, but with unwanted and debilitating side effects. The scientists say that MINIMA “has the potential to extend survival and limit damage to adjacent brain tissues” in glioblastoma patients. And it “may allow us to precisely target and destroy prostate tumor tissue, reducing harm to normal cells.” "We are now able to image and navigate a thermoseed in real-time through the brain using an MRI scanner,” explains Lythgoe. “As MRI is already used to detect the boundaries of cancers, the seed can be moved precisely to ensure it does not stray into surrounding healthy tissue. As the seed is guided through the tissue it can be heated to destroy the cancer. This combines therapy and diagnosis into a single device, creating a completely new class of imaging therapy." "In the longer term," concludes Lythgoe, "we will change the shape of the seed to act as a tiny cutting scalpel that could be guided through tissue, which would allow surgeons to perform remotely controlled operations, revolutionizing non-invasive surgery."

Hitting the half-century mark led me to seriously contemplate the type of life I want in retirement. If I really am going to backpack, long-distance bike, wilderness canoe, travel, and be the cool granny that enjoys the water park with her grandkids, I need to prioritize my health now. Too often, we put off healthy choices. We say things like, "tomorrow I will eat salad, but tonight I want a burger and fries." Or we say, "when things slow down, I will exercise every day." Vehicle Longevity My husband loves to see how many total miles he can put on a car. To get 300,000 or more miles, you have to start with a reliable and durable car. Then give it proper timely maintenance, and drive it gently. Our bodies are the ultimate machine, lasting almost 100 years depending on genetics and how we treat them. American Heart Association Recommendations “A healthy diet and lifestyle are the keys to preventing and managing cardiovascular disease. Remember, it is the overall pattern of your choices that counts.” - American Heart Association (AHA) It's just like maintaining a car for longevity, starting from day one. The cumulative effects of daily choices, starting now, determine the health factors you may face with age. Studies indicate that regular consumption of Omega-3 fatty acids (found abundantly in cold-water fish) suppresses the build-up of inflammation. Over time, inflammation plays devastating roles in cardiovascular diseases, cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer’s, and other geriatric concerns. To combat inflammation, AHA recommends consuming three ounces of fatty fish twice a week. Examples include Salmon, herring, mackerel, sardines, and anchovies. Do you like, let alone eat, two servings of cold-water fish a week? You Do You Face it. If you don’t like fish, or don't have the time, you won’t eat fish -- no matter how good it is for you. The best way to age with grace and promote long-term health is to know yourself. I have never liked running. When I decided (at age 39) my only option to lose weight was to run, I crashed and burned. A month of running put me in a worse place physically and mentally than if I had played to my strengths and went back to lifting weights and hiking and biking for pleasure. Starting a new lifestyle regime is not sustainable if you don't like it. Thankfully, when it comes to nutrition, dietary supplements can fill nutrition gaps to provide regular maintenance. Supplements Offer Support “A dietary supplement is a product taken by mouth that contains a ‘dietary ingredient’ intended to supplement the diet.” - US Food and Drug Administration Chemical reactions make everything in our bodies possible, from cognitive processing to digestion to removing dangerous free radicals. Sufficient nutrients keep things operating smoothly. Supplements harness the power of vitamins, minerals, herbs, and botanicals. They distill a recommended nutrient serving into a pill, capsule, powder, gummy, tablet, or liquid. Supplements can be powerful medicine based on the ingredients, dosage, and purity. Finding a Supplement Brand You Can Trust The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates supplements more like food than drugs. They aren't intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. And supplements are marketed without FDA approval. The FDA only removes marketed supplements after establishing that a supplement is unsafe or labeled with false or misleading claims. Your well-being and budget are on the line. How can you know if a supplement is safe and effective? These five queries can help you determine supplements that are honestly produced with the highest quality ingredients to meet desired outcomes. 1. Complete Disclosure of Ingredients with Exact Dosages The most elementary indicator of quality is the nutrition label. A high-quality supplement lists all ingredients and exact dosages by name. Listing a blend of ingredients (contained in so many milligrams) gives a fuzzy indication of dosage amounts. The FDA requi ...

Scientists led by ​​Centre for Genomic Regulation (CRG) have launched GENIGMA. The game enlists players to support cancer research and actively participate in the fight against cancer. A dedicated website describes GENIGMA as "a game for smartphones to explore genomic alterations in cancer cells." The game recruits "citizen scientists" in the construction of "genomic reference maps that will allow us to understand which parts of the human genome play a key role in the establishment and development of cancer." The GENIGMA app can be downloaded from Apple’s App store for iPhones and iPads. It can also be downloaded from Google Play for Android devices. "Anyone with a smartphone from anywhere in the world can download GENIGMA for free and make a direct contribution to research, lending their logic and dexterity to the service of science," says Elisabetta Broglio in a press release issued by CRG. Broglio is a CRG communications and PR specialist with the interesting job title of “citizen science facilitator.” To play GENIGMA, players have to solve a puzzle involving a string of blocks of different colors and shapes. Each string represents a genetic sequence in the cancer cell line. And how players organize the blocks is a potential solution to the location of genes. Players have to reorganize the blocks so that they attain the highest-score possible. The game has been designed to ensure that high scores indicate probable locations of genes. "Cell lines are responsible for the discovery of vaccines, chemotherapies for cancer or IVF for infertility. This makes them a pillar of modern biology," explains lead researcher Marc A. Marti-Renom. "However, the lack of genome reference maps limits current scientific progress. It's like asking people to navigate modern cities using maps from the past. With the help of other people, we can update these maps, which will allow us to make fast progress in breast cancer research." The game launched with a three-month GENIGMA Challenge focused on the T-47D breast cancer cell line. This cell line is one of the most commonly used resources in cancer research. The scientists estimate that 30,000 players solving an average of 50 games each would generate enough data to reveal the reference map of the 20,000 genes in this breast cancer cell line. "Science can often feel inaccessible for most people, which is why being able to pick up your phone to play GENIGMA is so exciting,” says game designer Oriol Ripoll. “Not only can you combine the universal appeal and popularity of videogames to contribute towards advancing medical research, you will also learn more about science." Physics World notes that solving scientific problems by turning them into games is a popular strategy of citizen science projects. The algorithms upon which GENIGMA is based require significant computational resources and sophisticated Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. But GENIGMA could crowdsource the job to enthusiastic citizen scientists. The "herd intelligence" of the players could provide creative solutions in ways that AI might not be able to, the scientists hope. "GENIGMA will analyze the solutions provided by the players as a collective and not as individuals, and will take advantage of creative solutions impossible to find with deterministic algorithms," says Broglio.

Researchers at University of Waterloo and University of Granada have studied caffeine's effects on dynamic visual skills. They concluded that caffeine increases alertness and detection accuracy for moving targets. Caffeine also improves reaction times. Dynamic visual acuity is defined as clarity and sharpness of vision in dynamic (moving) conditions. Dynamic visual acuity is especially important in the many daily activities during which we, or objects around us, are moving. "A lot of what happens in our environment is moving - like trying to cross a busy intersection as a pedestrian or finding something on a shelf as you're walking through the aisles of a grocery store," said researcher Kristine Dalton in a press release issued by University of Waterloo. "Testing visual acuity under dynamic conditions can provide more information about our functional performance in these scenarios than traditional static visual acuity measurements alone." A paper is published in Psychopharmacology. In it, the researchers report their findings on the effects of caffeine intake on dynamic visual acuity. 21 low caffeine consumers, most in their early twenties, took part in this study. On two different days, and following a random order, participants ingested either caffeine (4 mg/kg) or placebo. And dynamic visual acuity was measured after one hour. The researchers found that the participants who had ingested the caffeine capsules showed significantly greater accuracy and faster speed when identifying smaller moving stimuli. Eye movement velocity and contrast sensitivity are implicated in dynamic visual acuity performance. They were also sensitive to caffeine intake. And caffeine intake was associated with a faster reaction time for horizontally moving targets. "While we already know that caffeine increases the velocity of rapid-eye movements, we wanted to further investigate how exactly caffeine enhances visual processing and facilitates the detection of moving visual stimuli by testing dynamic visual acuity," said researcher Beatríz Redondo. The study results suggest that caffeine intake has a positive effect on dynamic visual acuity. This may be of special relevance in real-word contexts that require accurately and rapidly detecting moving targets. Notable examples include sports, driving, and piloting. "Our findings show that caffeine consumption can actually be helpful for a person's visual function by enhancing alertness and feelings of wakefulness," concluded Dalton. "This is especially true for those critical, everyday tasks, like driving, riding a bike or playing sports, that require us to attend to detailed information in moving objects when making decisions." The caffeine intake used in the study is equivalent to approximately two cups of espresso coffee. I’m an avid coffee drinker and very much prefer the real thing. But it seems clear that those who prefer not to drink coffee can benefit from caffeine supplementation. Thrivous develops Surge Acute Nootropic to enhance energy and focus. Each serving provides a clinical dose of Caffeine. Each dose also includes complementary nutrients, such as L Theanine, to enhance the effects and mitigate the side effects of Caffeine. Surge is available in the online Thrivous store.

Researchers at University of Alabama have announced the publication of a paper related to pig kidney transplants. They say it's the first peer-reviewed research paper outlining the successful transplant of genetically modified, clinical-grade pig kidneys. The kidneys were placed in a brain-dead human individual, replacing the recipient's native kidneys. The paper is published in American Journal of Transplantation. It reports that the study recipient had two genetically modified pig kidneys transplanted in his abdomen after his native kidneys were removed. The kidneys were taken from a pig that had been genetically modified with 10 key gene edits that may make the kidneys suitable for transplant into humans. The transplanted kidneys filtered blood and produced urine. And, importantly, they were not immediately rejected. The kidneys remained viable until the study was ended, 77 hours after transplant. According to the researchers, these positive results demonstrate the long-term viability of xenotransplantation. That's transplantation of organs from non-human animals to human patients. The results also show how such a transplant might work in the real world. And they show how it could address the worldwide organ shortage crisis. "This game-changing moment in the history of medicine represents a paradigm shift and a major milestone in the field of xenotransplantation, which is arguably the best solution to the organ shortage crisis," said lead surgeon Jayme Locke in a press release issued by University of Alabama. "We have bridged critical knowledge gaps and obtained the safety and feasibility data necessary to begin a clinical trial in living humans with end-stage kidney failure disease." More than 800,000 patients in the United States are living with kidney failure. And far too few human organs are available for transplantation. Most patients with kidney failure never make it to the waiting list for transplantation. The wait for a deceased donor kidney can be as long as five years. And, in many states, it is closer to ten years. Almost 5,000 people per year die waiting on a kidney transplant. Alabama has one of the highest rates of chronic kidney disease in the nation. It's 2,348 cases per million residents, New York Times reports. "Our study demonstrates that major barriers to human xenotransplantation have been surmounted,” added Locke. This study was supported by the biotechnology company United Therapeutics (UT). The company was founded by long term xenotransplantation advocate Martine Rothblatt. “It is enormously gratifying to see these xenotransplantation breakthroughs achieved after working on this for over twenty years,” said Rothblatt in a press release issued by UT. “At UT, we are relentlessly pursuing our goal of producing an unlimited supply of transplantable organs from xenotransplantation, regenerative medicine, and 3D bioprinting technology, and we expect to make additional breakthrough announcements in each of these fields in the coming years. Indeed, we have commenced work on a large clinical-quality organ facility.” The researchers are designing a small clinical trial with live patients. And they hope that the trial could begin by the end of the year, said Locke as reported by New York Times.