The Rhyothemis princeps Brain Externalization Project

The eat 'five a day' (referring to servings of fruits and vegetables) recommendation of the World Health Organization and many national health agencies has new support based on findings by Wang et al. (2021) from the Nurses' Health Study and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study.   - link to open access article: https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.120.048996 The study found a reduction in all-cause mortality as well as reductions in mortality due to respiratory diseases, cardiovascular disease and cancer. The thresholds for reductions in mortality were achieved at two servings of fruit and three servings of vegetables per day. No additional benefit was seen for over five servings. Sadly, there was no significant reduction found for neurodegenerative diseases (but see the Michley et al. (2017, open access) study on Parkinson disease re: fresh vs. canned/frozen). Wang et al. (2021) Above is Figure 1 from Wang et al. (2021); it is quite small and th

A clinical trial [ Veterans Affairs Topical Tretinoin Chemoprevention Trial (VATTC)] of topical all-trans retinoic acid (tretinoin, Retin-A) had to be halted because the intervention arm experienced higher mortality. The authors indicate that a causal relationship is unlikely, but the finding is a bit troubling nonetheless. The increase in mortality was not attributable to any one specific cause of death. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamadermatology/fullarticle/711869 "We considered the possibility that topical tretinoin applied to the face and ears might be a cause of death. One study that was published during our trial involved systemic administration of isotretinoin, a closely related compound. That trial found a significant interaction between the medication and smoking in their effect on mortality, with isotretinoin therapy associated with increased mortality among smokers. 4 Studies involving a less closely related compound, beta carotene, have also suggested an

Glucosamine (credit: AndresJS )   Sometimes I lurk on various life extension message boards and am perplexed that many (most?) people do not list glucosamine in their pro-longevity 'stack' even though its use is associated with reduction in all-cause mortality. Glucosamine is cheap and relatively well-tolerated. While association does not mean causation, the relationship has been found in several large epidemiological studies and holds up when controlling for various demographic factors; similar associations have not been found for other supplements - not even fish oil or vitamin D. There are some plausible mechanisms, which I don't have time to really get into, unfortunately. In brief, glucosamine inhibits glucose metabolism (see Ristow interview linked below) - which could have direct effects and also effects via the gut microbiome, increases hyaluronic acid production, and may have other effects relating to O-GlcNAcylation (that's what I'm most interested i