Why vampires never go old?
Scientists closer than ever to finding out the elixir of life!
If you have ever read any “vampire”
literature, you would know one thing for sure, that vampires live forever
healthily without aging. It’s almost like their body clock is frozen eternally
in the prime of their lives. That is because they survive by feeding on the
most essential thing needed for our life- ‘blood’. It seems the vampires have a
taste for ‘young blood’. I guess that’s what gives them that perennial youth.
It’s almost like they’re consuming the youthfulness of their victims, not just
their blood alone.
Perhaps we would brush all
this away saying it’s just some fable or myth. But latest research proves it
otherwise. No, I’m not saying there's scientific evidence now to prove the
existence of vampires, but there's proof to the fact that young blood after all
has anti- aging properties or what I’d like to call ‘youthful factors’.
Scientists are closer than
you think in discovering the forever elusive elixir or fountain of youth. That
elixir is not in some fictional place like Shangri la or someplace like that.
The factor that can gift us youth even in our old age is present in the blood
of youngsters! So I guess we can safely assume that our hunt for elixir stops
here. When young members of our own kind
have the youthful factor in abundance why look elsewhere to re-gain our youth?
I proudly present to you
folks the thing in the blood responsible for youthfulness; it’s called “Growth Differentiation Factor- 11 (GDF-11)”,
a protein found abundantly in the blood of youngsters. As we age the levels of
this protein begin to decline steadily, thereby causing the body to slowly
start exhibiting the signs of aging.
The signs of aging seen
externally, like developing wrinkles on skin, hair fall, graying of hair etc.,
are all outer physical manifestations of the complex internal aging processes.
The most common yet grave problems faced by people in their old age are- heart
problems, a sharp decline in memory and other vital brain functions including
sense of smell, weakening of muscles, bones and tissues, blood supply to
various parts of the body and so on. This experiment that I’m about to tell you
has actually reversed all these signs of aging.
THE
EXPERIMENT:
(Image source: http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NxCFdR7cL._SX300_.jpg)
One fine morning a genius of
a scientist woke up with a brilliant idea of reversing the age of an old mouse
and how did he plan to achieve that? Simple, he injected the old mouse with the
blood of a young mouse, which has the GDF-11 protein in abundance. The mouse
was injected with young blood for four weeks at the end of which the result was
nothing short of a miracle. The old mouse exhibited all the signs of a young
mouse!
The old mouse showed the
following typical “old age” problems:
1. Cardiac hypertrophy:
Simply put, the condition of an enlarged
heart is known as cardiac
hypertrophy. In this state, the heart muscles which make up the walls
of the lower chambers of the heart (our heart is made up of 4 chambers, 2
upper and 2 lower) are thickened, which causes the space inside the
chambers to decrease. This causes the heart to become larger in size and
it has been noticed in certain cases that the heart in such a condition
can increase mass by up to 150%. The most common cause for enlargement of
heart is high blood pressure. Since these chambers are responsible for
pumping blood to lungs and other organs of the body, a decrease in the
space inside these chambers will adversely affect the pumping of blood.
So, if a doctor ever tells you that you have a ‘big
heart’, it’s certainly not a compliment!
The pictures below show the
difference between a normal and a heart with hypertrophy.
(Image source:
http://scitechdaily.com/inhibition-of-micrornas-in-mice-can-attenuate-cardiovascular-stress/)
SIZE COMPARISON
BETWEEN A NORMAL HEART & A HYPERTROPHIC HEART.
2.
Decline
in memory & other vital brain functions: The
memory of the mouse and its ability to smell prior to the experiment was
deteriorating fast owing to its age and also possibly due to Alzheimer’s
disease. In Alzheimer’s, the number of neurons and connections between the
neurons are reduced greatly, thereby decreasing the functional ability of the
brain.
Read
on to find out what neurons and neural connections are, to understand the
experiment and the results of the research better.
Q: What is a neuron?
A: A
neuron is the main functional unit of the nervous system. The brain, spinal
column and the nerves which make up the nervous system are in turn made up of
neurons. A neuron plays the very important role of transmitting or passing on
the nerve impulses or signals, as in one neuron receives the signal and conveys
the signal to the next cell. Simply put, if these signals aren't passed then
our body would come to a standstill. The image below shows how a typical neuron
looks like.
(Image source: http://yourbrainonporn.com/endogenous-opioid-induced-)
Q: What’s a neural connection?
A: The
connection between neurons, as seen in the picture below (connection is
highlighted in red circles) is known as a neural connection or also known as a
‘synapse’. It is through these neural connections or synapses that the transfer
of electro-chemical signals takes place between the neurons. If these
connections decrease then the nerve signals can’t be transmitted effectively.
(Image source:
http://biology-and-human-behavior.wikispaces.com/Key+Findings)
The more the number of
synapses the better and more effective will be the transmission of information.
Perhaps the following cartoon will help you understand and remember the concept
of neural connection and communication between neurons better.
(Image source:
http://nbmpub.com/blog/2013/08/07/bits-of-brain/)
So, if the above neuron had
lesser synapses or as in this case, hands, what would happen? It wouldn’t be
able to take up so many communications at once and pass them all at once to the
next neuron. The whole process would be slowed down, throwing the entire
nervous system into jeopardy.
3. Decreased endurance and
muscle strength: It was observed that the old mouse
had decreased ability to bear pain or stress. Its stamina had reduced
sharply and couldn’t recover quickly from fatigue. Also, the muscle
strength had reduced greatly, resulting in lesser movement of the mouse
and thus ultimately leading to lowered endurance.
RESULTS
ü After
4 weeks (around 8 injections) of injecting the old mouse with young blood,
cardiac hypertrophy was reversed. The larger heart in the old mouse had become
smaller.
ü The
young blood seemed to have improved blood circulation in the brain, which
resulted in the stimulation of new neurons development. Also, the neurons
developed fresh synaptic connections, especially in the ‘hippocampus’ region of
the brain, which is important for memory. One more important thing noticed here
was, that ‘neuroplasticity’ of the old mouse’s brain had improved.
Neuroplasticity is the ability of the brain to keep rearranging itself based on
one’s experiences. Thanks to the improved functioning of the brain, the mouse
could now smell better. This improved ability to smell was tested by hiding
cheese in a maze and the old mouse could find the cheese with not much
difficulty, it just sniffed its way to the cheese (which the old mouse couldn’t
do so earlier). Also, some corners of its cage had mild electric shocks which
the old mouse could remember exactly and avoided them actively, suggesting the
rejuvenation of memory.
ü Post
treatment the mouse could run longer on treadmills. In fact the effect of this
treatment was so deep that the DNA in the stem cells of muscles seemed
repaired. The muscle fiber that makes up the muscle seemed youthful. This
explains their improved endurance.
And then finally, the
scientists had found in front of themselves a completely renovated mouse after
the treatment, giving the old mouse a fresh lease of life.
There's a possibility that
this protein GDF-11, could’ve an overall influence on the entire body as well
and could also hold the key to treat conditions like Alzheimer’s in humans as
well.
2.4: MASS VAMPIRISM & BLOOD FARMS- THE FUTURE OF MANKIND?
I know what’s been running
in your head all along while reading this topic….. What will be the outcome and
the consequences of this ground breaking research? Will people turn into
vampires en masse and start sucking the blood of their young ones to remain
young forever? Or will companies try to cash in on this research by harvesting
the blood of the young and the healthy secretly in some ‘blood farms’ in an
underdeveloped, third world nation and supply it to those who can afford it in
the name of ‘elixir’?
Thankfully the reality in
the future might be very different from this, for the scientists are working on
developing drugs which could mimic the age reversal action of this protein.
They're even working on isolating the individual factors which could address
all age related dysfunctions in one go and try and administer them directly to
patients. Our fears might be unfounded after all.
We are now just beginning to
understand the process of aging better and a lot of research into this protein
and its workings is underway, which just goes on to prove that age reversal isn't science fiction and if anything is possible.
References:
1) The
Telegraph. 2013. Ageing reversed as scientists
discover how to turn clock back in mammals. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/10529146/Ageing-reversed-as-scientists-discover-how-to-turn-clock-back-in-mammals.html.
[Accessed 06 August 14].
2) Wall
Street Daily. 2013. Scientists Reverse the Signs of
Aging in Four Weeks. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.wallstreetdaily.com/2013/06/04/video-gdf-11-heart-disease/.
[Accessed 05 August 14].
3) National
Geographic. 2014. Swapping Young Blood for Old
Reverses Aging. [ONLINE] Available at:http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/05/140504-swapping-young-blood-for-old-reverses-aging/.
[Accessed 07 August 14].
4) The
Independent. 2014. Vampire therapy: young blood
may reverse ageing. [ONLINE] Available at:http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/vampire-therapy-young-blood-may-reverse-ageing-9323042.html.
[Accessed 07 August 14].
5) Breitbart.
2014. 'VAMPIRE THERAPY' COULD REVERSE AGEING. [ONLINE]
Available at:http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-London/2014/05/05/Vampire-Therapy-Could-Reverse-Ageing.
[Accessed 07 August 14].
6) Loffredo,
S, 2013. Growth Differentiation Factor 11 Is a Circulating Factor that Reverses
Age-Related Cardiac Hypertrophy. Cell, 153, 828-839.
7) Brack,
S, 2013. Ageing of the heart reversed by youthful systemic factors!. EMBO,
162, 1-2.
8) USC
Cardiothoracic Surgery. 2013. Cardiac Hypertrophy.
[ONLINE] Available at:http://www.cts.usc.edu/zglossary-cardiachypertrophy.html.
[Accessed 08 August 14].
9) Andersen,
E, 2014. An ingredient for the elixir of youth. Cell
Research, 10, 107.
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