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A New Scout Code: Time For An Update, Beaver!

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60 Is The New 16!

What shapes a man’s life? To begin: Mom, dad, little Jenny Harrison in the 3rd grade, adolescence...

Low T? Welcome To Their World, Brother!

Middle-aged women the world over are now...chuckling.At least I imagine they are, given the news...

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Greg CritserRSS Feed of this column.

Greg Critser is a longtime science and medical journalist whose work appears in the LA Times, the Times of London and the New York Times. He is the author of California (National Geographic 2000)... Read More »

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Where Is Aging, Inc.?

Where Is Aging, Inc.?

Jul 07 2010 | comment(s)

A reality check on“healthy aging.”  The real troubles - and opportunities - of a gero-nation go unheeded.

The numbers are increasingly disturbing: By 2050, some 88 million Americans will be over 65, with more than 20 million over 85. That such huge demographic shifts portend a challenge to the medical system goes without saying. 

The traditional American response holds that such needs will be filled by an innovative business culture responsive to market demand.
Resveratrol: The Backlash

Resveratrol: The Backlash

May 07 2010 | comment(s)

“Is it schadenfreude, or is it something else?”

It is a question Harvard professor David Sinclair asks himself a lot of late.

No wonder.

Just about everyone doing cell biology has something—and usually critical—to say of him these days. There are loudmouth bloggers calling fraud and normally circumspect colleagues spouting uncomfortable questions about his work.

The Coming Gero-Economy

The Coming Gero-Economy

Feb 28 2010 | comment(s)

Green jobs—great. But gray jobs, maybe an even better bet.

If there is a single graphic that everyone concerned with the nation’s future should have tattooed on their eyeballs, my vote goes to this one:

US population over 65 1950 to 2050

Here is its central message: Forty years from now, one out of four Americans will be 65 or older.

Twenty million will be over 85.

One million will be over 100.
You Telo-Me, I Tell-o You

You Telo-Me, I Tell-o You

Feb 19 2010 | comment(s)

There is a new article out in today’s Molecular System Biology, which has the media saying the typical baloney-filled things like “The Key to Aging Discovered,” “Breakthrough to Immortality,” and “Live Forever?”


Eternity Soup:The Old Man's Broth

Eternity Soup:The Old Man's Broth

Jan 27 2010 | comment(s)


Re-engineer Our Gut To Beat Diabetes?

Re-engineer Our Gut To Beat Diabetes?

Dec 04 2009 | comment(s)

For type 2 diabetics, the choices are invariably slim: take medications and hew to a strict diet, or don’t take medications and hew to an impossibly strict—and largely unpalatable—diet. Such are the current options for maintaining the strict control of blood sugar needed to fight off the worst effects of the disease and its almost inevitable consequences of hypertension and heart disease.