Jeanne Calment's Unique 122-Year Life Span: Facts and Factors; Longevity History in Her Genealogical Tree

Do treats facilitate the interpretation of findings on caloric restriction?

Introduction

Food can build social bonds and enhance interpersonal relationships. An area of research perhaps at odds with food abundance, is caloric restriction (CR), intermittent fasting (IF) or short-term fasting (STF). We aimed to study the impact of offering treats on the audience during presentations on IF and STF and whether this impacted the audience's reception of the subject. The contradiction of the tempting nature of sharing brownies juxtaposed with the potential health benefits presented is a light-hearted subject in a world where nutritional intake and health outcomes are the object of intense academic discussion.

Objective

Investigate how treats influence hospital personnel interpretation of information presented on the potential benefits of CR, IF and STF.

Methods

This trial consists of a cross-sectional study (CSS) and a randomised controlled trial (RCT) conducted at three study centres. The CSS involved a survey administered to healthcare professionals to assess their knowledge, experience and willingness regarding IF and/or STF. In the RCT, brownies were randomly provided to healthcare staff attending a scientific meeting on restricting calories.

Results

135 participants were included in the CSS and 64 participants joined the randomised experiment. We found that the randomisation had no statistically significant effect. Only 2 out of 64 were aware of the irony of the provided treatment. In the CSS, participants most often cited the expected beneficial effects on their short-term and long-term health as important reasons for adhering to IF and/or STF. Perceiving fasting as beneficial was mostly influenced by knowledge on the topic and previously adhering to a fasting diet.

Discussion

In this light-hearted, holiday-inspired exploratory study, we found that providing your audience with treats does not influence participants' opinion of you or your research, even when it focuses on the benefits of reducing calorie intake. The recipients of the treat will remain critical of presented findings, and due to prior experiences will be receptive to the counterintuitive topic of fasting.

Censoring in the time trade-off valuation of worse-than-dead EQ-5D-5L health states: can a time-based willingness-to-accept question be the solution?

PURPOSE

The left censoring of values at -1 by design of the composite time trade-off (cTTO) tasks leads to excessive amount of -1 values in some EQ-5D-5L valuation studies. This study aimed to investigate whether a time-based willingness-to-accept (tWTA) question can be used to elicit values lower than -1 and improve the estimation of EQ-5D-5L values.

METHODS

At the end of each cTTO task in the Taiwanese EQ-5D-5L valuation study, if the value of the health state was indicated to be lower than -1, a tWTA question eliciting the indifference point between a hypothetical life (i.e. x number of years in full health followed by 10 years in the health state) and immediate death was used to estimate its uncensored value. We compared the statistical characteristics of the censored and uncensored data.

RESULTS

Four hundred and twenty-nine of 1,000 respondents were offered the tWTA question in a total of 1,071 cTTO tasks. In 79.55% of those tasks, indifference was not reached. Spearman's correlation with level summary score was -0.41 and -0.40 for negative uncensored and censored data, respectively. The logical inconsistency rates of the uncensored and censored data were 0.88% vs. 0.29%, respectively. Modelling of the uncensored data resulted in coefficients with greater uncertainty and much lower predictions.

CONCLUSIONS

The elicitation of values lower than -1 using a tWTA question that grants more time for trading seems not a promising solution to the value censoring of the cTTO tasks. Other strategies for valuation of very poor health states should be explored.

Macroautophagy and aging: The impact of cellular recycling on health and longevity

Aging is associated with many deleterious changes at the cellular level, including the accumulation of potentially toxic components that can have devastating effects on health. A key protective mechanism to this end is the cellular recycling process called autophagy. During autophagy, damaged or surplus cellular components are delivered to acidic vesicles called lysosomes, that secure degradation and recycling of the components. Numerous links between autophagy and aging exist. Autophagy declines with age, and increasing evidence suggests that this reduction plays important roles in both physiological aging and the development of age-associated disorders. Studies in pharmacologically and genetically manipulated model organisms indicate that defects in autophagy promote age-related diseases, and conversely, that enhancement of autophagy has beneficial effects on both healthspan and lifespan. Here, we review our current understanding of the role of autophagy in different physiological processes and their molecular links with aging and age-related diseases. We also highlight some recent advances in the field that could accelerate the development of autophagy-based therapeutic interventions.

If Jeanne Calment Were 122, That Is All the More Reason for Biosampling

This article discusses the need for biosampling as a way to test "super-duper" centenarians (persons aged >120 years) to identify biological pathways for Homo sapiens to live to their fullest biological lifespan potential (estimated by extreme value theory to be currently between 123 years and 128 years) and, by extension, the possibility of biosampling leading to the identification through scientific research testing and data analysis areas of potential life extension. Studies of twins have shown that the proportion of longevity attributed to heredity (genetic potential) versus environment increases substantially the higher the age group being tested, especially after age 75 years. Even among the oldest-old, the proportion attributed to biological factors continues increasing the higher the age category, which is a selective process as the genetically weaker of the remaining survivors continue to die off first, leaving a more and more highly selected remaining population. This self-selection process means that the very oldest individuals are already the "genetic lottery winners" who have the biological potential to come close to the maximum human lifespan. Testing of these persons may result in faster breakthroughs in the attempt to extend the human lifespan through biological testing and analysis. Indeed, it is possible that, just as some human lifespans are shortened due to random genetic mutations unique to the individual (such as persons with progeria), it is possible that there could be some humans whose maximum genetic potential was due in part to a genetic mutation unique to that particular individual. This remains an area of potential research that has not yet been thoroughly biotested-but one that could change soon, and biotesting a 122-year-old woman's biosamples would be a prime opportunity for such a test: Jeanne Calment. Because only one 122-year-old woman has been validated in recorded scientific history, the uniqueness of the case makes it a unique opportunity that should not be passed by. Herewith, I take a closer look at the Jeanne Calment case and the conclusion is the same as the start: Jeanne Calment was 122 years, her age is relatively unique but not impossible to repeat in the future; however, her samples may be available right now, and thus remains the only current opportunity to study a >120-year-old person from a biological perspective.