Human Life Expectancy Research Articles

Efficacy and safety of acupuncture treatment as an adjunctive therapy after knee replacement: Single-center, pragmatic, randomized, assessor blinded, pilot study.

Introduction:Total knee replacement (TKR) is a surgical procedure that is being increasingly performed as a result of population aging and the increased average human life expectancy in South Korea. Consistent with the growing number of TKR procedures, the number of patients seeking acupuncture for relief from adverse effects, effective pain management, and the enhancement of rehabilitative therapy effects and bodily function after TKR has also been increasing. Thus, an objective examination of the evidence regarding the safety and efficacy of acupuncture treatments is essential. The aim of this study is to verify the hypothesis that the concurrent use of acupuncture treatment and usual care after TKR is more effective, safe, and cost-effective for the relief of TKR symptoms than usual care therapy alone.Methods/design:This is an open-label, parallel, assessor-blinded randomized controlled trial that includes 50 patients with TKR. After screening the patients and receiving informed consent, the patients are divided into two groups (usual care + acupuncture group and usual care group); the patients will then undergo TKR surgery and will be hospitalized for 2 weeks. The patients will receive a total of 8 acupuncture treatments over 2 weeks after surgery and will be followed up at 3, 4, and 12 weeks after the end of the intervention. The primary outcome is assessed using the Korean version of the Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Arthritis Index (K-WOMAC), and the secondary outcome is measured using the Numerical Rating Scale (NRS), Risk of Fall, and Range of Motion (ROM). Moreover, the cost per quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) is adopted as a primary economic outcome for economic evaluation, and the cost per NRS is adopted as a secondary economic outcome.Ethics and dissemination:This trial has received complete ethical approval from the Ethics Committee of Catholic Kwandong University International St. Mary's Hospital (IS17ENSS0063). We intend to submit the results to a peer-reviewed journal and/or conferences.Trial registration:ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03633097.

Targeting the Mitochondria-Proteostasis Axis to Delay Aging.

Human life expectancy continues to grow globally, and so does the prevalence of age-related chronic diseases, causing a huge medical and economic burden on society. Effective therapeutic options for these disorders are scarce, and even if available, are typically limited to a single comorbidity in a multifaceted dysfunction that inevitably affects all organ systems. Thus, novel therapies that target fundamental processes of aging itself are desperately needed. In this article, we summarize current strategies that successfully delay aging and related diseases by targeting mitochondria and protein homeostasis. In particular, we focus on autophagy, as a fundamental proteostatic process that is intimately linked to mitochondrial quality control. We present genetic and pharmacological interventions that effectively extend health- and life-span by acting on specific mitochondrial and pro-autophagic molecular targets. In the end, we delve into the crosstalk between autophagy and mitochondria, in what we refer to as the mitochondria-proteostasis axis, and explore the prospect of targeting this crosstalk to harness maximal therapeutic potential of anti-aging interventions.

Water Quality and Life Expectancy: Parallel Courses in Time

Since ancient times, the need for healthy water has resulted in the development of various kinds of water supply systems. From early history, civilizations have developed water purification devices and treatment methods. The necessity for fresh water has influenced individual lives as well as communities and societies. During the last two hundred years, intensive and effective efforts have been made internationally for sufficient water quantity and quality. At the same time, human life expectancy has increased all over the globe at unprecedented rates. The present work represents an effort to sketch out how water purity and life expectancy have entangled, thus influencing one another. Water properties and characteristics have directly affected life quality and longevity. The dramatic increase in life expectancy has been, indisputably, affected by the improvement in water quality, but also in other concomitant factors, varying temporally and spatially in different parts of the world throughout the centuries. Water technologies and engineering have an unequivocal role on life expectancy. In some cases, they appear to have taken place earlier than the progress of modern medicine. Among these, improved sanitation, personal hygiene, progress in medicine, and better standards of economic living have played the greatest roles.

Proteomics Landscape of Alzheimer's Disease.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most prevalent form of dementia, and the numbers of AD patients are expected to increase as human life expectancy improves. Deposition of β-amyloid protein (Aβ) in the extracellular matrix and intracellular neurofibrillary tangles are molecular hallmarks of the disease. Since the precise pathophysiology of AD has not been elucidated yet, effective treatment is not available. Thus, understanding the disease pathology, as well as identification and development of valid biomarkers, is imperative for early diagnosis as well as for monitoring disease progression and therapeutic responses. Keeping this goal in mind several studies using quantitative proteomics platform have been carried out on both clinical specimens including the brain, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), plasma and on animal models of AD. In this review, we summarize the mass spectrometry (MS)-based proteomics studies on AD and discuss the discovery as well as validation stages in brief to identify candidate biomarkers.

Social modulation of ageing: mechanisms, ecology, evolution.

Human life expectancy increases, but the disease-free part of lifespan (healthspan) and the quality of life in old people may not show the same development. The situation poses considerable challenges to healthcare systems and economies, and calls for new strategies to increase healthspan and for sustainable future approaches to elder care. This call has motivated innovative research on the role of social relationships during ageing. Correlative data from clinical surveys indicate that social contact promotes healthy ageing, and it is time to reveal the causal mechanisms through experimental research. The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is a prolific model animal, but insects with more developed social behaviour can be equally instrumental for this research. Here, we discuss the role of social contact in ageing, and identify lines of study where diverse insect models can help uncover the mechanisms that are involved. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ageing and sociality: why, when and how does sociality change ageing patterns?'

An Analysis of Differentially Expressed Coding and Long Non-Coding RNAs in Multiple Models of Skeletal Muscle Atrophy.

The loss of skeletal muscle mass (muscle atrophy or wasting) caused by aging, diseases, and injury decreases quality of life, survival rates, and healthy life expectancy in humans. Although long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) have been implicated in skeletal muscle formation and differentiation, their precise roles in muscle atrophy remain unclear. In this study, we used RNA-sequencing (RNA-Seq) to examine changes in the expression of lncRNAs in four muscle atrophy conditions (denervation, casting, fasting, and cancer cachexia) in mice. We successfully identified 33 annotated lncRNAs and 18 novel lncRNAs with common expression changes in all four muscle atrophy conditions. Furthermore, an analysis of lncRNA–mRNA correlations revealed that several lncRNAs affected small molecule biosynthetic processes during muscle atrophy. These results provide novel insights into the lncRNA-mediated regulatory mechanism underlying muscle atrophy and may be useful for the identification of promising therapeutic targets.

Accounting for Smoking in Forecasting Mortality and Life Expectancy.

Smoking is one of the main risk factors that has affected human mortality and life expectancy over the past century. Smoking accounts for a large part of the nonlinearities in the growth of life expectancy and of the geographic and sex differences in mortality. As Bongaarts (2006) and Janssen (2018) suggested, accounting for smoking could improve the quality of mortality forecasts due to the predictable nature of the smoking epidemic. We propose a new Bayesian hierarchical model to forecast life expectancy at birth for both sexes and for 69 countries with good data on smoking-related mortality. The main idea is to convert the forecast of the non-smoking life expectancy at birth (i.e., life expectancy at birth removing the smoking effect) into life expectancy forecast through the use of the age-specific smoking attributable fraction (ASSAF). We introduce a new age-cohort model for the ASSAF and a Bayesian hierarchical model for non-smoking life expectancy at birth. The forecast performance of the proposed method is evaluated by out-of-sample validation compared with four other commonly used methods for life expectancy forecasting. Improvements in forecast accuracy and model calibration based on the new method are observed.

Artikel Review: Produksi Gas Hidrogen dari Reaksi Elektrolisis Sebagai Bahan Bakar Non-Fosil

In carrying out various activities today, it cannot be separated from the fuel. As we all know, fuels that are still commonly used today are fossil fuels whose energy resources are running low. Not only that, fossil fuels have also been shown to produce air pollution. Unhealthy air conditions can certainly reduce human life expectancy. In order to make the clean environment and not polluted by the air pollution, there must be environmentally friendly fuels. The answer for this kind of fuels is hydrogen which comes from nonfossil. One way to obtain hydrogen is an electrolysis reaction. Water can produce hydrogen through electrolysis. Just a few liters of water, it can produce ten to twenty thousand liters of hydrogen gas per hour. The use of Hydrogen as a non-fossil fuel has been proven to be environmentally friendly and free of carbon monoxide. Healthy air and a clean environment are certainly our responsibility. It's time to switch by using hydrogen fuel.

User Experience and Potential Health Effects of a Conversational Agent-Based Electronic Health Intervention: An Observational Cohort Study in the Netherlands

Background: The average human life expectancy and prevalence of chronic disease have increased significantly. Adopting a healthy lifestyle can decrease the risk of getting chronic diseases. Virtual coaching systems can help older adults’ adopting a healthy lifestyle. However, little is known about the long-term use of virtual coaching systems among older adults. So, the primary aim of this study was to evaluate the use, user experience and potential health effects of a fully working virtual coaching system (Council of Coaches) implemented in a real-world setting among the target population older adults. Methods: An observational cohort study was conducted with older adults aging 55 years or older in the Netherlands. Participants were included for 5-9 weeks in which they had access to Council of Coaches. They completed three questionnaires: pre-test, post-test and follow-up questionnaire. After five weeks an interview was conducted, and participants chose whether they wanted to use the eHealth intervention for another four weeks during the facultative phase. Findings: The study population consisted of fifty-one older adults (70·6% female) with a mean age of 65·3 years (SD=7·4). 94·1% started interacting with Council of Coaches, of which most participants interacted once a week. During the facultative phase, 21 participants were still interacting with Council of Coaches. Minimal Clinical Important Differences in quality of life were found among the study population after interacting with Council of Coaches. Interpretation: Our results show us that eHealth interventions with virtual coaching can be used among older adults. This can increase older adults’ quality of life, and decrease their care needs. Future research into such eHealth interventions should take into account the inclusion of sufficient personalised content and the use of a mixed methods study for evaluating the eHealth intervention. Funding Statement: European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 769553. Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests. Ethics Approval Statement: This study was conducted according to the principles of the Declaration of Helsinki (64th WMA General Assembly, Fortaleza, Brazil, October 2013) and in accordance with the Medical Research Involving Human Subjects Act (Dutch law: Wet medischwetenschappelijk onderzoek met mensen). According to this law, this study did not require formal medical ethical approval. This was checked by the Medical Research Ethics Committee CMO Arnhem- Nijmegen (file number: 2019-5555).

The role of exosomal non-coding RNAs in aging-related diseases.

Aging is a biological process caused by the accumulation of senescent cells with a permanent proliferative arrest. To the influence of aging on human life expectancy, there is essential for new biomarkers which possibly will assistance in recognizing age-associated pathologies. Exosomes, which are cell-secreted nanovesicles, make available a new biomarker detection and therapeutic approach for the transfer of different molecules with high capacity. Recently, non-coding RNAs (ncRNA) which are contained in exosomes have developed as important molecules regulating the complexity of aging and relevant human diseases. The discovery of ncRNA provided perceptions into an innovative regulatory platform that could interfere with cellular senescence. The non-coding transcriptome includes a different of RNA species, spanning from short ncRNAs (<200 nucleotides) to long ncRNAs, that are >200 bp long. Upgraded evidence displays that targeting ncRNAs possibly will influence senescence pathways. In this article, we will address ncRNAs that participated in age-related and cellular senescence diseases. Growing conception of ncRNAs in the aging process possibly will be responsible for new understandings into the improvement of age-related diseases and elongated life span.

Susceptibility-Weighted Imaging in Neurodegenerative Disorders: A Review.

As human life expectancy increases, there is an increased prevalence of neurodegenerative disorders and dementia. There are many ongoing research trials for early diagnosis and management of dementia, and neuroimaging is a critical part of such studies. However, conventional neuroimaging often fails to provide enough diagnostic findings in patients with neurodegenerative disorders. In this context, different MRI sequences are currently under investigation to facilitate the accurate diagnosis of such disorders. Susceptibility-weighted imaging (SWI) is an innovative MRI technique that utilizes "magnitude" and "phase" images to produce an image contrast that is sensitive for the detection of susceptibility differences of the tissues. As many neurodegenerative disorders are associated with accelerated iron deposition and/or microhemorrhages in different parts of the brain, SWI can be applied to detect these diagnostic clues. For instance, in cerebral amyloid angiopathy, SWI can demonstrate cortical microhemorrhages, which are predominantly in the frontal and parietal regions. Or in Parkinson disease, abnormal swallow-tail sign on high-resolution SWI is highly diagnostic. Also, SWI is a useful sequence to detect the low signal intensity of precentral cortices in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Being familiar with SWI findings in neurodegenerative disorders is critical for an accurate diagnosis. In this paper, the authors review the technical parameters of SWI, physiologic, and pathologic iron deposition in the brain, and the role of SWI in the evaluation of neurodegenerative disorders in daily practice.

Health Monitoring System for Elderly Patients Using Intelligent Task Mapping Mechanism in Closed Loop Healthcare Environment

The ageing population’s problems directly impact countries’ socio-economic structure, as more resources are required to monitor the aged population’s health. The growth in human life expectancy is increasing due to medical technologies and nutritional science innovations. The Internet of Things (IoT) is the connectivity of physical objects called things to the Internet. IoT has a wide range of health monitoring applications based on biomedical sensing devices to monitor health conditions. This paper proposes elderly patients’ health monitoring architecture based on an intelligent task mapping approach for a closed-loop IoT healthcare environment. As a case study, a health monitoring system was developed based on the proposed architecture for elderly patients’ health monitoring in the home, ambulance, and hospital environment. The system detects and notifies deteriorating conditions to the authorities based on biomedical sensors for faster interventions. Wearable biomedical sensors are used for monitoring body temperature, heart rate, blood glucose level, and patient body position. Threshold and machine learning-based approaches were used to detect anomalies in the health sensing data. The proposed architecture’s performance analysis is evaluated in terms of round trip time, reliability, task drop rate, and latency performance metrics. Performance results show that the proposed architecture of the elderly patient health monitoring can provide reliable solutions for critical tasks in IoT environments.

Social Sciences and Education vs. Aging: A Sociological Appraisal

Social sciences as collective sciences including social work,sociology and many more defend and support aging; how peoplecan live to have longer lives. Social work as an independentsocial science deeply approaches people entering aging period tostay healthier and safer. Such an approach endows longer life topeople aged 60-65 and over. Similarly, studying human groups inqualitative and quantitative manners, contribute toupgrading human life expectancy. On the other hand, educationas a master discipline contributes to how people can better adoptmeasures to live more prosperously-leading to longer life. So, thetwo parameters have caused increasing longevity in majority ofthe countries in the world.

Subject of study—the aging brain

Progress in research aimed at combating neurodegenerative diseases requires a systematic biophysical analysis. It has been shown that the efficiency of cleaning the brain of metabolic and informational ‘toxins’ depends on the thresholds of excitation of neural networks and waves of ‘pollution and purification’ propagating inside the brain. This process affects the increase in the characteristic time of the normal functioning of the brain and, consequently, in human life expectancy.

Aging and age‐related diseases: from mechanisms to therapeutic strategies

Aging is a physiological process mediated by numerous biological and genetic pathways, which are directly linked to lifespan and are a driving force for all age-related diseases. Human life expectancy has greatly increased in the past few decades, but this has not been accompanied by a similar increase in their healthspan. At present, research on aging biology has focused on elucidating the biochemical and genetic pathways that contribute to aging over time. Several aging mechanisms have been identified, primarily including genomic instability, telomere shortening, and cellular senescence. Aging is a driving factor of various age-related diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, immune system disorders, and musculoskeletal disorders. Efforts to find drugs that improve the healthspan by targeting the pathogenesis of aging have now become a hot topic in this field. In the present review, the status of aging research and the development of potential drugs for aging-related diseases, such as metformin, rapamycin, resveratrol, senolytics, as well as caloric restriction, are summarized. The feasibility, side effects, and future potential of these treatments are also discussed, which will provide a basis to develop novel anti-aging therapeutics for improving the healthspan and preventing aging-related diseases.

Health care needs of elderly patients with lung, liver, or colon cancer in Taiwan

BackgroundGlobally, different age groups in the elderly population have experienced major shifts over time. Human life expectancy doubled from the 19th to the twentieth century and has increased to 80 years in the twenty-first century. These conditions imply economic challenges and the increasing prevalence of certain health conditions. Old age is associated with increased care needs in various aspects of daily life. This study assessed the health care needs of elderly patients with lung, liver, and colorectal cancer in Taiwan and analyzed the factors underlying their needs.MethodsThis cross-sectional descriptive survey assessed 234 elderly patients with diagnosis of lung, liver, and colorectal cancer in Taiwan. We investigated their health care needs and daily living functions by using the Supportive Care Needs Survey and Karnofsky Performance Status, respectively.ResultsPatients required the most assistance in physical functioning and daily living. Patients aged ≥85 years required more care than those aged 65–74 years in terms of information access and sexuality needs. Patients with poor functional status required more care than those capable of undertaking normal activities. Patients diagnosed as having liver cancer required more care than those with lung or colorectal cancer. Patients with advanced cancer required more physical and daily care than those with early-stage cancer.ConclusionsPatients’ health care needs differed with age, primary cancer site, and functional status. Patients aged ≥85 years and those with poor function, primary liver cancer, and advanced cancer had higher care needs.

Realization of humoral immunity against SARS-CoV-2 infections

Abstract The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), is a major ongoing challenge to global health. After being infected by SARS-CoV-2, a specific humoral immune response may be rapidly induced in the host to restrain the viral infection via the production of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs), which are also useful for preventing reinfection [ 1 , 2 ]. However, there is a lack of comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms underlying SARS-CoV-2 specific humoral immunity and alterations in immunoglobulin M (IgM) and G (IgG) levels in humans during viral infection. In this perspective, we have summarized several characteristics of the humoral immune response against SARS-CoV-2 infection and its potentially critical role in vaccine development. Additionally, we have discussed the antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) phenomenon in antibody immunotherapy, the current status of vaccine development, and public health strategies aimed at ending the global COVID-19 pandemic. Since the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 was reported as the causative agent of COVID-19 in December 2019, the subsequent spread of SARS-CoV-2 has led to the COVID-19 pandemic. SARS-CoV-2 continues to considerably impact human health and life expectancy and endangers the global economy and socio-economic stability. The gold standard technique used to confirm early SARS-CoV-2 infection is reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR)-based viral nucleic acid testing. However, previous studies conducted by our colleagues and other researchers indicate that virus-specific antibody detection for COVID-19 may be used as a complement to viral RNA detection for the diagnosis of suspected cases with negative RT-PCR results and/or for surveying asymptomatic infection in close contacts [3] . For theemerging virus, the characteristics and specific detailed mechanisms of how protective humoral immunity is developed in COVID-19 patients are not clearly defined. Herein, we compared the characterization of SARS-CoV-2-specific antibody responses in the COVID-19 patients conducted in different studies worldwide and further discussed the critical roles of specific anti-viral humoral immunity in virus clearance and vaccine development.

Modeling the length-of-stay of patients with geriatric diseases or alcohol use disorder using phase-type distributions with covariates

The hospital length-of-stay (LOS), as an important measure of the effectiveness of healthcare, represents the level of medical requirement and is highly related to the treatment costs. As the human life expectancy has being increased rapidly in the past few decades, there is a pressing need to improve health systems for geriatric patients. Similarly, the alcohol use disorder (AUD), as a chronic relapsing brain disease related to severe problem drinking, has caused negative impacts to society and put patients’ health and safety at risk. In both cases, more efficient hospital management is in demand due to increasing requirements for long-term hospital treatment and the continuously rising medical cost. In order to improve the healthcare efficiency, an accurate modeling of the LOS data and the further analysis of potential influencing factors are necessary. In this paper, we utilize the Coxian Phase-Type (PH) distribution and apply Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) to fit the patient flow information of both geriatric patients and AUD patients collected in a hospital. The influences of the covariates of age, gender, admission type, admit source, and financial class on LOS are assessed and compared through Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithms. The results show that the LOS data of both types of patients can be modeled well, and the differences with respect to covariates can be accurately identified by the proposed methods. Using the fitted Coxian PH distribution and the estimated coefficients of covariates will provide a guide for better decision-making in healthcare service and resource allocation.

Monitoring of the interaction of calcium phosphate cement and lidocaine hydrochloride by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy during the drug release process

Developments aimed at expanding knowledge in the health area make it possible to increase human life expectancy. Calcium phosphate cement is a good option as a carrier for drug delivery systems because it is possible to achieve biocompatibility and adequate porosity in the same material. Utilization of this ceramic matrix is necessary to control the drug dosage released during contact between the bioceramic and host organism, and to promote bone regeneration. The techniques currently used to calculate the amount of drug released from the calcium phosphate cement in a drug delivery test have some drawbacks, such as limited sensitivity and loss of sample during measurements. Considering the reduction of the amount of sample used to determine the percentage of drug released and the use of a non-destructive technique with high sensitivity, the proposed work uses electrochemical impedance spectroscopy as a method to determine the phenomenon of interaction between the drug and the matrix. The matrix immersed on the phosphate buffer solution (PBS) is calcium phosphate cement with 1% of lidocaine hydrochloride. The results show changes in the R(RQ)(RQ)(RQ) equivalent circuit values obtained by the Nyquist diagrams of the samples that had their resistance values elevated due to the interaction between the drug and PBS/calcium phosphate cement, which causes correlation between the drug released presented on the PBS and variation in the electrical properties of the system.

Evolution of cryogenics – A review on applications of cryogenics in medicine

Cryogenics is that discipline of engineering, which studies the behaviour of materials and their properties at shallow temperatures. The ultra-low temperatures change the chemical attributes which open a gateway for new applications of materials. These studies have not only contributed to the invention of different materials but has also laid a foundation for future technologies. Using cryogenic sciences, we can achieve new milestones in medicine and human-life expectancy can be significantly increased. Since ancient times, applications of cryogenic temperatures were implemented for medical treatment. Cryotherapy is one of the oldest methods known to heal wounds and relieve pain. Today, cryogenic freezing is being practiced to store blood and human organs for prolonged periods. Even surgical extermination of lethal tissues & viruses is being laid out using the principles of cryogenic freezing. This paper discusses the history of cryogenics and its advancements in the field of medical science.