[HN Gopher] Japanese scientists develop vaccine to eliminate cel...
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Japanese scientists develop vaccine to eliminate cells behind aging
        
       Author : olalonde
       Score  : 309 points
       Date   : 2021-12-12 14:23 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.japantimes.co.jp)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.japantimes.co.jp)
        
       | hourislate wrote:
       | >When the team administered the vaccine to mice....
       | 
       | There is something that already exists that's free. Multi day
       | fasting to induce autophagy. It's not pleasant or as convenient
       | as getting a shot/taking pills but it's been perfected over the
       | last couple of million years with no side affects except
       | discomfort. You might also try adding a dose of exercise (more
       | discomfort) and cutting out things like Fructose (20% of the
       | American diet) completely.
        
       | manmal wrote:
       | Fisetin is quite cheap and has been shown to eliminate senescent
       | cells: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30279143/
        
         | inglor_cz wrote:
         | I tried fisetin once. No obvious effects (I am 43 only), save
         | one: in the week afterwards, I lost about 4 pounds of weight
         | effortlessly.
        
           | manmal wrote:
           | I don't recommend this, nor have I tried it: Some people
           | experiment with high doses, like 1-2g, within one day, twice
           | a week. Anecdotal reports of scars fading, but also scary
           | effects like hypocoagulation (won't stop bleeding). Just
           | internet rumors though, I'd wait for clinical studies.
        
           | arboghast wrote:
           | Doses used in the Mayo Clinic trial was about 1.5g to 2g for
           | humans, 5 days per month, iirc. Also keep in mind that if you
           | are young and healthy you won't notice much and it's the kind
           | of treatment like most that are long-term, meaning you can't
           | do it 3 months and expect results.
        
         | pcrh wrote:
         | >Fisetin reduced senescence in a subset of cells in murine and
         | human adipose tissue, demonstrating cell-type specificity.
         | 
         | As someone who works and publishes in a related field, this
         | particular phrasing should be interpreted as meaning that
         | Fisetin is unproven as a senolytic.
        
         | rp1 wrote:
         | From reading that paper, the purpose of senescent cells is to
         | prevent tumor growth. I don't know if I'd want to suppress or
         | eliminate that functionality over a long period of time.
        
           | salehenrahman wrote:
           | Senescent cells themselves do not exist to prevent tumor
           | growth.
           | 
           | Cells becoming senescent is a mechanism that exists to
           | prevent them from becoming a possible tumor, due to DNA
           | damage.
           | 
           | The problem with senescent cells is that accumulation of them
           | results in tissues not functioning correctly. Eliminating
           | them should make tissues function better.
           | 
           | After all, your own immune system gets rid of senescent cell,
           | but as we age, I believe your immune system is unable to keep
           | up.
        
             | rp1 wrote:
             | The paper says fisetin reduced the number of senescent
             | cells in a sample. It's not clear if that means the cells
             | were eliminated or if the were prevented from entering a
             | senescent state. Do you know the answer? The former sounds
             | better than the later.
        
               | salehenrahman wrote:
               | I have no idea.
               | 
               | All I can say is that the paper overwhelmingly uses the
               | term "senolytic", which means to "kill off the senescent"
               | (I'm assuming that it refers to senescent cells), as
               | opposed to "senostatic", which means to "delay
               | senescence".
               | 
               | Additionally, the concern brought up by the paper, is
               | that senescent cells are known to be resistant against
               | something called "apoptosis", which is a term to describe
               | "programmed cell death". The goal of the paper is to
               | explore a compound--fisetin--for its senolytic
               | capabilities. Whether it is successful at finding that, I
               | haven't fully read the paper to see if they have
               | identified fisetin as a senolytic, or a senostatic agent.
               | 
               | With that said, however, some of the graphs in the paper
               | does highlight that as fisetin dose increases, not only
               | do senescent cells get depleted, but so do total number
               | of cells. If we were working with a purely senostatic
               | agent, relative to a control, the senescent cells would
               | be much lower, but the overall cell count would be much
               | higher, which is not the case with fisetin. Does this
               | mean that fisetin is a senolytic? Maybe not; it could
               | just indiscriminately target all cells, resulting in
               | fewer cells. Or maybe it is. Who knows.
               | 
               | Or maybe my logic about cell counts regarding senostatic
               | vs senolytic may be entirely wrong.
               | 
               | Whatever it is, I haven't read the whole paper.
        
       | shon wrote:
       | Sometimes I hit the comments first because at times they've been
       | more interesting than the article as topically educated folks
       | weigh in on the content.
       | 
       | What happened?
        
       | penjelly wrote:
       | the comments saying they get any and every vaccine implying each
       | one is like a new superpower lmao.. society is in for a wild ride
       | the next 100 years
        
       | obblekk wrote:
       | 1. Removing senescent cells extends life by 30-40% with huge
       | quality of life improvements in the last 25% of the life
       | (relative to control), in mice. This isn't an elimination of all
       | aging, but quite a valuable thing regardless. Eventually, other
       | causes of aging would kick in and still cause death, without a
       | single senescent cell in your body (e.g. DNA methylation).
       | 
       | 2. I believe all governments should create Warpspeed for this
       | approach. At the depths of covid lockdowns, GDP was down 20%.
       | Imagine the massive GDP creation from making every 65+ year old
       | feel 40 again. They'd work, consume, and generally flourish. Even
       | if it's only 10 more years of quality life, this is the greatest
       | good that could be done for humanity. To avoid another 10 years
       | of my parents death is something I'd do a lot for. Economically
       | and ethically, we should prioritize this research above most
       | else.
       | 
       | 3. This approach is scientifically sound. Certain aspects of
       | aging cures are approaching engineering levels of work rather
       | than pure science. We simply know that many diseases are caused
       | or amplified by senescent cells. And we have ample evidence that
       | elimination of these cells reverses diseases in complex mammals,
       | as long as you don't remove too many, too quickly. The rest, is
       | the engineering problem of how to remove the right cells at the
       | right cadence.
       | 
       | 4. This is the kind of thing biohackers should hack on. Find an
       | aging part of your skin, and attempt to convince your body to
       | kill the senescent cells. If you succeed, you will have benefited
       | humanity, become beautiful, become wealthy, and be remembered
       | forever (is there any other fundamental need humans have, not
       | covered)?
       | 
       | Let the race begin!
        
         | abletonlive wrote:
         | I'm sorry but so many people are waiting for the boomers to die
         | and relinquish control over our lives. I'm not sure we should
         | warp speed this quite yet
        
         | mustacheemperor wrote:
         | >Economically and ethically, we should prioritize this research
         | above most else.
         | 
         | This research and all similar research (and sentiments like
         | yours, which I strongly agree with) remind me of the classic
         | Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant.[0] It feels as though we are
         | finally on the cusp of learning the shape of the armaments that
         | will one day slay the dragon. And I wish the world could band
         | together the way we attacked COVID to attack this problem.
         | 
         | >the king answered in a broken voice: "Yes, we did it, we
         | killed the dragon today. But damn, why did we start so late?
         | This could have been done five, maybe ten years ago! Millions
         | of people wouldn't have had to die."
         | 
         | [0]https://www.nickbostrom.com/fable/dragon.html
        
         | sumedh wrote:
         | > They'd work
         | 
         | So less jobs for young people.
        
           | ColFrancis wrote:
           | Jobs shouldn't be a limited resource.
        
           | novok wrote:
           | We also have to take care of old people, and the less we have
           | to do that for the period of their lives, the cheaper
           | everything could be because there are less dependents to
           | support. A countries economy is often reflected in their
           | dependent / non-dependent ratio, and the less non-dependents
           | you have, the better economies perform!
        
           | dennis_jeeves wrote:
           | >So less jobs for young people.
           | 
           | They can live in their parent's basement! ( rule for parent
           | =we make you young, in turn you house your brat in the
           | basement)
           | 
           | By seriously, raylad's and cblconfederate's comment are very
           | pertinent.
        
           | arcticbull wrote:
           | (a) In the current economic model jobs are simply not a
           | limited resource. For instance, immigration creates jobs
           | because among other things, you need more resources to
           | sustain more people.
           | 
           | (b) In the future, there will be more humans than jobs
           | _anyways_ thanks to automation and this is a problem we are
           | going to have to face one way or another. Social contract
           | will change, and the economy will need to be refactored
           | commensurately.
        
           | BurningFrog wrote:
           | This is a deep misunderstanding of what jobs are.
           | 
           | They're not "things" that exist in a limited supply.
           | 
           | You can think of them as relationships between people.
           | 
           | When population increases, no one worries that society will
           | "run out" of friendships or marriages. Jobs work the same
           | way.
        
           | raylad wrote:
           | Jobs are not the sole way to distribute resources. In fact
           | they are a rather recent way (in human history) to do so.
           | 
           | And they're going away anyway soon enough, as automation
           | develops.
        
             | cellis wrote:
             | Great, a gigantic underclass of people forever stuck with
             | no upward mobility!
        
               | arcticbull wrote:
               | Yes, what will we do without the famous upward mobility
               | of the factory worker?
               | 
               | Seriously though, the majority of humans never see
               | material upward mobility in their lifetimes, and a world
               | without mandatory low-wage jobs per se isn't necessarily
               | a world without upward mobility.
        
               | TOMDM wrote:
               | So, not much has changed?
        
           | cblconfederate wrote:
           | or less work for everyone
        
       | dane-pgp wrote:
       | > A Japanese research team said it developed a vaccine to remove
       | so-called zombie cells that accumulate with age
       | 
       | So it's designed to make humans immortal? Sounds like it's more
       | likely to create zombies than destroy them. I half suspected the
       | article to say that this vaccine was a product of the Umbrella
       | Corporation.
        
         | kiba wrote:
         | It will hardly make a human immortal. That's just fixing one
         | problem with the human body, if the vaccine's promise is to be
         | believed.
         | 
         | It will probably be incredibly cheap to make and administer,
         | but not a silver bullet.
        
       | JohnJamesRambo wrote:
       | Sign me up for this the second it is available.
       | 
       | As an aside, to spite anti vaxxers I'm on a mission to get every
       | vaccine I can. I want my bloodstream to be like the Library at
       | Alexandria before it burned down.
        
         | plumeria wrote:
         | Did you get the rabies vaccine, yet? Also, the Dengvaxia is
         | supposedly not recommended unless you've contracted Dengue
         | already.
        
         | slickrick216 wrote:
         | I hope this is satire. The medical industry doesn't always have
         | your best intentions at heart. From talcum powder to
         | thalidomide. Be careful.
        
           | freen wrote:
           | You assume thalidomide was intentional?
        
         | blip54321 wrote:
         | You already have the Library of Alexandria. That's your lymph
         | nodes.
         | 
         | What vaccines do is move some books to the front of the
         | building, so your dentritic cells don't have to spend a few
         | days finding them.
         | 
         | You want the right books at the front. A mission to move all
         | the books to the front is perhaps misguided.
        
           | catillac wrote:
           | I'm not sure this is fully accurate, but I would like the
           | analogy of vaccines being like an LRU cache.
        
           | lvs wrote:
           | No, your analogy is wrong. You have a million monkeys with a
           | million typewriters. Vaccination just reproduces the things
           | that look like books.
        
           | cma wrote:
           | I think it is more like the library of Borges, but with stuff
           | that would interact with self culled.
        
             | sdenton4 wrote:
             | We have an infinite library, but the literary criticism
             | section has been carefully curated to remove all criticism
             | of books in this library. The Library of Burges, though, we
             | are happy to criticize unto oblivion.
        
           | contravariant wrote:
           | The lymph nodes are more like the library of babel, endlessly
           | toiling to find those rare 'books' that actually contain
           | meaningful information.
        
           | tux3 wrote:
           | You have antibodies that will bind to just about anything
           | foreign, including viruses that your body has never seen
           | before, M-type immunoglobulin (IgM). It's the kind of
           | antibodies that responds in the first phases of an infection.
           | 
           | The problem is that IgMs are not very specific. They bind to
           | a lot of things, but they bind poorly. In the library of
           | Alexandria analogy, it's like a book that happens to mention
           | a subject you care about, but only in passing.
           | 
           | Vaccines (and infections) result in your immune system
           | developing IgG. That's the hyper-specific books for the
           | pathogen you care about.
           | 
           | So it's not that the book wasn't at the front. Your immune
           | system has to write the book on the fly, during the fight,
           | using chopped up pieces of pathogen gathered by antigen-
           | presenting cells.
        
             | mmastrac wrote:
             | Is there a good resource to learn more about this without a
             | Biology degree? I always assumed the body generated
             | matching snippets at random and the law of large numbers
             | would result in a match eventually.
        
               | therec wrote:
               | I like the videos of the Amoeba Sisters. I'm not a
               | biologist, but I feel they go really deep in the subjects
               | while still being relatively easy to understand. Immune
               | system: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fSEFXl2XQpc
               | Vaccines: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uVUf_pt7Sh0
        
               | tux3 wrote:
               | >Is there a good resource to learn more about this
               | without a Biology degree? Immunology is _complicated_.
               | Some people call it the second most complicated system,
               | behind the human brain.
               | 
               | Someone else has mentioned the Kurzgesagt resources,
               | which are great. If you want something more formal, OME
               | is also a great resource I think.
               | 
               | https://onlinemeded.org/spa/immunology
               | 
               | >I always assumed the body generated matching snippets at
               | random and the law of large numbers would result in a
               | match eventually.
               | 
               | Right. Antibodies have a Y shape, where the two tips of
               | the Y are variable, and the base is fixed. The IgM are
               | the completely random snippets that happen to match a
               | wide variety of things. However, because it's chemistry,
               | it's more subtle than match or no match. Think of it like
               | a variable degree of stickiness.
               | 
               | When a pathogen is found, your body is going to
               | iteratively mutate new antibodies and select those that
               | bind the best to the collected antigens, until you have
               | something very specific (= sticks very readily). I'm
               | simplifying a _little bit_ , but that's the process for
               | generating IgGs that I was talking about.
        
               | pas wrote:
               | Do we know how exactly this happens? How fast this
               | process "converges"? How big is the search space and how
               | fast new candidates are generated?
        
               | tux3 wrote:
               | About 3e11 combinations are possible, about 10 billions
               | different antibodies will be generated by a human body
               | (numbers I just sourced from Wikipedia).
               | 
               | The shuffling is done by recombination, which means
               | joining segments of DNA in a random fashion (a similar
               | recombination process is actually used for DNA repair,
               | though with somewhat less randomness!)
               | 
               | There's a lot more to say about all of this, but I don't
               | know how much immunology I can usefully describe in a few
               | HN comments =]
        
               | cipheredStones wrote:
               | (10 billion (1e9) / 3e11 ~= 3%, for those like me who
               | don't have powers of 10 memorized.)
               | 
               | Does that imply that there's a good chance someone's
               | immune system will just fail to generate any appropriate
               | antibodies against a novel intruder? Or does the "fuzzy
               | matching" aspect mean that exploring a small percentage
               | of the space mean you're very likely to get at least some
               | degree of success?
        
               | mmastrac wrote:
               | This is a very helpful start for me, thank you
        
               | brutuscat wrote:
               | This book was written by makers of the Kurzgesagt's
               | YouTube channel recently.
               | 
               | https://www.amazon.com/-/es/gp/aw/d/0593241312/ref=tmm_hr
               | d_s...
               | 
               | Pretty cool illustrations too.
        
               | Griffinsauce wrote:
               | Just read this, it's amazing and also funny, fits the
               | bill perfectly.
        
               | sova wrote:
               | Tangentially relevant is the way CRISPR works, and I
               | would recommend the Nobel acceptance speeches by Jennifer
               | Doudna and Charpentier.
        
               | mmastrac wrote:
               | I found a speech by Jennifer Doudna here:
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KSrSIErIxMQ
               | 
               | Listening now, thanks!
        
               | webwielder2 wrote:
               | https://www.amazon.com/Immune-Kurzgesagt-gorgeously-
               | illustra...
        
               | majkinetor wrote:
               | AFAIK it does.
        
           | BurningFrog wrote:
           | That implies that each new vaccine diminishes other
           | immunities, making it a zero sum game.
           | 
           | Is that actually how it works in any sense?
        
             | Retric wrote:
             | No
        
             | junon wrote:
             | No, the analogy doesn't really stand up tbh.
        
           | hn_go_brrrrr wrote:
           | Some libraries don't have certain books. Vaccines buy those
           | books for your library (and, as you say, put them in the
           | front).
        
             | majkinetor wrote:
             | Not those books. More like snippets of those books.
        
               | trhway wrote:
               | and then second edition of the book comes out with that
               | snippet deleted or updated to look completely different.
        
         | Jansen312 wrote:
         | Yeah, why be immuned when you can be invincible. Keep us
         | updated when you gotten all the vax injected. How you plan to
         | deal with recurring one that become ineffective fast like the
         | rabbies vax. You scheduled every couple of weeks? Maybe an
         | online blog and checklist to motivate others to compete who get
         | jabbed the most.
        
         | postsantum wrote:
         | That's tribal thinking, "us vs them". You want to spite "them",
         | who ostensibly don't know a thing about vaccine, but you never
         | bothered to learn it yourself
        
           | devmunchies wrote:
           | The worse part is that anti-vax can just mean anti-mandate.
           | Spiting in that context doesn't make any sense since anti-
           | vaxers still believe in effectiveness of vaccines.
        
         | anonuser123456 wrote:
         | I do not recommend getting vaccinated for dengue fever :P
        
         | web3fixescensor wrote:
         | Enjoy your heart attack in 3 to 6 months.
        
         | hnbrainwashed wrote:
         | Enjoy dying a slow painful dead you piece of shit :)
        
         | dr_dshiv wrote:
         | I'm with you. I've gotten vaccinated for everything my doctor
         | lets me. Japanese Encephalitis? Pshaw. I don't even know what
         | it is, but good luck with my immune system.
         | 
         | It's like getting a superpower in a video game!
         | 
         | And, vaccines have general positive effects of health:
         | https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-maga...
        
           | devmunchies wrote:
           | > It's like getting a superpower in a video game
           | 
           | It's more like rare candy in Pokemon, which isn't as good as
           | naturally leveling up your Pokemon.
        
           | NullPrefix wrote:
           | Were you hoping to get autism? To get programming superpowers
           | or something.
        
           | tux3 wrote:
           | I'm not going to tell you that you're wrong, but I would be
           | more careful than that.
           | 
           | Infections can be the trigger for auto-immune diseases. We're
           | not sure precisely how, but there seems to be a complex
           | combination of genetic and environmental factors.
           | 
           | Your immune system is very much not playing games, it's in
           | the business of reacting on a hair trigger, and doing more
           | damage to foreign bodies than it does to your own body. It
           | has an intricate system to avoid turning against yourself,
           | but the system can fail.
           | 
           | If a B cell that produces auto-antibodies falls through the
           | cracks, it will not die. You now have the problem of being in
           | a permanent fight against your own immune system, with a
           | variety of unfortunate results.
           | 
           | Now that's a lot of scary outcomes, and thankfully those
           | diseases are uncommon. The system almost always works well.
           | But it's a very complex system with ugly failure modes, so I
           | wouldn't encourage you to poke the beast too much.
        
             | kijin wrote:
             | The risk/benefit calculation depends on where you live
             | and/or plan to travel. I fear I'm beginning to forget what
             | life was like before Covid, but IIRC people used to travel
             | quite a lot.
             | 
             | For example, Japanese encephalitis is rare in Japan, but
             | only because many Japanese people have been vaccinated
             | against it. It's endemic in most other parts of east,
             | southeast, and south Asia. It kills 10K+ people every year,
             | and it spreads through mosquito bites just like malaria.
             | But most travelers only worry about malaria.
        
             | dr_dshiv wrote:
             | This would be like being worried about playing outside and
             | being exposed to germs. Yes, it's true that every new
             | infection has the possibility of killing you. But, now we
             | have evidence that exposure to diverse mild pathogens
             | actually makes your immune system less dangerous to the
             | self. Otherwise it would be safer to live in a clean room.
        
               | tux3 wrote:
               | I agree you should not try to live in a clean room, and
               | you shouldn't be worried about being exposed to normal
               | amount of germs.
               | 
               | When you say "exposure to diverse mild pathogens actually
               | makes your immune system less dangerous to the self", I
               | suspect you're referring to the hygiene hypothesis that
               | has become part of popular culture.
               | 
               | It's important to know that that hypothesis, nowadays, is
               | about early exposure to benign microbes. Meaning from in
               | utero exposure to early childhood at the latest.
               | 
               | I have seen no evidence that voluntarily exposing
               | yourself to pathogens is a good idea. The point to my
               | post was that you shouldn't understand the immune system
               | like an RPG element that needs training to level up.
               | 
               | Please do get vaccinated for relevant diseases, but I
               | would not go too far in the direction of treating your
               | immune system like a safe thing to play with.
        
               | freen wrote:
               | There is strong evidence that young children in
               | congregate daycare have substantially stronger immune
               | systems than children cared for at home who are only
               | exposed to family members.
        
               | tux3 wrote:
               | Could you link to that strong evidence?
               | 
               | A lookup of systematic reviews on Cochrane &
               | Epistemonikos paints the opposite picture, with a
               | positive correlation between daycare attendance and
               | respiratory tract disorders or asthma.
        
               | dr_dshiv wrote:
               | You got it: Roslund, M. I., Puhakka, R., Gronroos, M.,
               | Nurminen, N., Oikarinen, S., Gazali, A. M., ... & ADELE
               | research group. (2020). Biodiversity intervention
               | enhances immune regulation and health-associated
               | commensal microbiota among daycare children. Science
               | advances, 6(42), eaba2578.
        
               | tux3 wrote:
               | Thank you! Interesting to see an intervention trial. n=75
               | is what it is, given the possible confounders (could not
               | control home environment, etc) but I'll be interested to
               | read that in more details =)
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | ekianjo wrote:
           | > And, vaccines have general positive effects of health:
           | https://ec.europa.eu/research-and-innovation/en/horizon-
           | maga...
           | 
           | If you believe that vaccines may have potentially positive
           | effects beyond their original scope, you must also be ready
           | for the opposite, potential negative effects beyond their
           | original scope. If you don't, you are just being brainwashed
           | by big Pharma.
        
             | junon wrote:
             | I wish I had the time to make a chrome extension that
             | replaced all usages of "big pharma" with "a thing I don't
             | personally understand but hand-wave away because I refuse
             | to do proper research on my own".
             | 
             | It would make such comments much more meaningful and
             | honest.
        
               | Glench wrote:
               | Here you go chief: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/det
               | ail/replacerator/gaajh...
        
               | bavell wrote:
               | Does this apply to all usages of "Big Tech" as well? Or
               | is that different?
        
               | junon wrote:
               | Depends on the context. "Big Tech" can mean working for a
               | large, often FAANG company. But there are markedly less
               | conspiracies cooked up about big tech than there are
               | about big pharma.
        
         | aasasd wrote:
         | I opened Wikipedia to see what you mean with the mention of the
         | library, and there I read:
         | 
         | > _Despite the widespread modern belief that the Library of
         | Alexandria was burned once and cataclysmically destroyed, the
         | Library actually declined gradually over the course of several
         | centuries._
        
         | dukeofdoom wrote:
         | And yet you still won't be fully protected. Seems to me there's
         | lots of vaxx regret from the double dosed, when they find out
         | about omicron.
         | 
         | I'll check if you post in a few months. Otherwise, thank you
         | for your contribution to science. In the mean time, don't
         | recommend taking up competitive soccer.
        
           | mechanical_bear wrote:
           | Vaxx regret? Nah, I'm good.
        
         | natded wrote:
         | We are going to see just how much people love The Science when
         | they make mRNA vaccine to cure homosexuality.
        
         | bool3max wrote:
         | You sound as if your mental capacity is severely limited.
        
           | juanani wrote:
           | Signalling pride in your own ignorance is effective trolling.
           | One can always hide behind that one razor.
        
         | f0e4c2f7 wrote:
         | An old friend of mine used to compare getting a vaccine to
         | getting a power-up in Mario.
        
         | majkinetor wrote:
         | I am pretty sure this would lead to more faster aging. Immune
         | system ages itself, and collateral damage it does during fight
         | response is not 0. There is limited amount of resources for
         | stuff, it the only stuff you do is fighting various shit
         | around, the body will probably turn off other non important
         | stuff for immediate survival.
         | 
         | Also, you should think sometimes about aspirin and Spanish
         | fever phenomena.
        
           | pininja wrote:
           | For people like me who weren't familiar, aspirin toxicity may
           | have led to the extreme mortality at the peak of the Spanish
           | flu. [0]
           | 
           | > The hypothesis presented herein is that aspirin contributed
           | to the incidence and severity of viral pathology, bacterial
           | infection, and death, because physicians of the day were
           | unaware that the regimens (8.0-31.2 g per day) produce levels
           | associated with hyperventilation and pulmonary edema in 33%
           | and 3% of recipients, respectively.
           | 
           | [0] https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/49/9/1405/301441
        
             | majkinetor wrote:
             | Its more fact then hypothesis. There was also a control
             | group, something we don't have now with vaccines.
             | 
             | 5% death in military vs 1% in sanitoriums which used heat
             | therapy. Its amazing what modern medicine did back then,
             | and you know... history repeats.
        
         | Jimmc414 wrote:
         | Before signing up for this particular vaccine you might want to
         | read up on what inhibition of antiapoptotic & apoptotic
         | pathways means for your health.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | kiba wrote:
         | It's probably not a good idea to get every single vaccines
         | that's not recommended to you by the CDC/your doctor.
         | 
         | Vaccines could potentially trigger some dangerous side effects,
         | however rare it is.
        
           | Frost1x wrote:
           | Definitely. We have a _tremendous_ amount of risk aversion
           | these days and a culture that has disdain for risk, even
           | calculated abstract risks. What many don 't realize is being
           | too risk averse comes with its own risks, it also requires
           | accurate risk assessment so you can make the correct
           | decisions on when to take a risk and not. You could lockup in
           | complete fear akin to analysis paralysis where non-zero risk
           | keeps you from doing anything.
           | 
           | Just skimming the CDC list of common vaccines in use in the
           | US, do most _really need_ vaccines for everything: anthrax,
           | Japanese encephalitis, polio, rabies, smallpox, tetanus,
           | tuberculosis, typhoid fever, and yellow fever? If you 're not
           | traveling outside the US and living a fairly normal life,
           | most likely not and some of these have potentially nasty yet
           | rare side effects. If they were given/taken at the scale
           | COVID vaccines were, many would die from such side effect who
           | otherwise would have lived healthy lives, all because they
           | took an unnecessary risk trying to prevent a _very low_ risk.
           | COVID is an exception because of exposure and
           | transmissibiliy, the rare side effects are worth the risk for
           | most people because the chance of getting it and having a
           | life ending result is relatively high.
           | 
           | TB, tetanus, and rabies may be useful vaccines for some
           | professions or life exposures in high risk cases, say
           | veteranarians and healthcare workers, but for the most part,
           | _you_ probably don 't need it. If you travel a lot to certain
           | locations and say do missionary type work or whatever,
           | perhaps some others make sense as well. Should every sexually
           | active person take PrEP regularly since HIV is a potential
           | risk to everyone? No, there are populations of risk exposure
           | where it makes sense though. Your dentist only takes x-rays
           | every so often because the x-ray exposure increases risk of
           | various forms of cancer. You could get x-rays more frequently
           | to detect issues that might not be obvious to your dentist
           | but it's pretty low risk, there has been a lot of study into
           | the rate of progression of disease and risk tradeoff to help
           | your dentist determine a reasonable frequency for x-rays vs
           | radiation exposure.
           | 
           | If you start looking at your regular risks, you take many
           | risks across a lot of aspects of life every single day, even
           | in a modestly safe life style, from hopping in a car to
           | picking up takeout at a local resturaunt or even walking down
           | a street. A massive unknown asteroid could be on a collision
           | course with Earth right now that results in mass extinction
           | ending the human race or a gamma ray burst from inside our
           | galaxy could set the atmosphere on fire and radiate us all to
           | death near instantly... they are all non-zero yet incredibly
           | low risk to our understanding probabilisticly. They're so low
           | and some even inactionable that we need to ignore them and/or
           | treat them with low priority and continue on with life.
           | 
           | It's good to have a preventative mindset and take
           | preventative action to try and control and manage risk, but
           | in order to do this effectively, be sure you assess your
           | risks, or have someone knowledgable (like a doctor when it
           | comes to vaccines) lay it out for you so you can make a good
           | decision about what you should or shouldn't do. If you truly
           | can do the assessment yourself then by all means do it but it
           | doesn't hurt to explain your assessment and rationale to
           | someone knowledgeable to make sure you're not overlooking
           | something. It certainly is possible to perform a better risk
           | assessment for yourself than anyone else will be able to
           | because you can know your behaviors and exposures better than
           | anyone else but be careful playing this game.
        
             | CorrectHorseBat wrote:
             | We are very risk averse of taking vaccines, while they are
             | _incredibly_ safe and barely have any risk associated with
             | them. Probably more harm is done because people are too
             | afraid of taking a vaccine than the opposite (not only
             | looking at covid19 vaccines). The biggest harm done by
             | taking vaccines you don 't really need is probably that the
             | money could have been used for something more useful.
        
               | ekianjo wrote:
               | > while they are incredibly safe and barely have any risk
               | associated with them
               | 
               | Alternative explanation: nobody knows the risks in
               | details, and side-effects are widely under-reported
               | anyway. Ask any doctor how often they report even serious
               | side effects, you will be very surprised.
        
               | majkinetor wrote:
               | Barely have any acute risk. Its almost impossible to find
               | out what happens after long time, say a decade, with the
               | current approach.
               | 
               | > The biggest harm done by taking vaccines you don't
               | really need is probably that the money could have been
               | used for something more useful.
               | 
               | What kind of nonsense is that? Its the same as saying
               | "there is no problem in taking any drug, the worst it can
               | get is lose some money". You can't clamp entire
               | technology as good or wrong. Vaccine as technology
               | obviously has merit. Any particular vaccine may be
               | problematic or not. Think H1N1 and narcolepsy, anthrax
               | vaccine in gulf war etc.
               | 
               | This kind of trash talk is exactly the same as anti-vax
               | talk. I have no sympathy for either clan. As usual,
               | people convert complex topic into binary decision which
               | is madness.
        
               | derefr wrote:
               | > Its almost impossible to find out what happens after
               | long time, say a decade, with the current approach.
               | 
               | Most vaccines are much older than a decade. We know who
               | gets vaccines; it's in their medical record, if not
               | centralized anywhere. Longitudinal studies aren't
               | impossible. So any random hospital could do a
               | longitudinal retrospective data-collection study on the
               | consequences for their own patients of either having
               | received a given vaccination decades previous or not, no?
               | 
               | > What kind of nonsense is that?
               | 
               | I understood what they meant, and they're right. They're
               | making an incomplete-information decision-theory
               | argument. To rephrase them with more precision:
               | 
               | Selecting a person from the population at random; and
               | taking the category of "vaccines that will confer
               | absolutely no benefits to that person specifically", and
               | selecting a vaccine at random from that category; that
               | person will, with high probability, incur _more_ QALY-
               | risk from _paying_ for the vaccine (because they 'll then
               | have fewer dollars to pay for unplanned expenses, which
               | can be quite problematic for the median member of the
               | population), than they will from any iatrogenic illness
               | induced by getting the vaccine itself.
               | 
               | Outlier vaccines do nothing to change this, any more than
               | those few poisoned bottles of aspirin did anything to
               | increase the _non-contingent_ risk profile of taking
               | aspirin. Especially because, like the poisoned aspirin,
               | outlier vaccines aren 't on the market for very long
               | compared to safe vaccines.
        
               | majkinetor wrote:
               | > study on the consequences for their own patients of
               | either having received a given vaccination decades
               | previous or not, no?
               | 
               | No! If you think its possible to pin point exactly what
               | is the source of the problem with decade of various
               | stressors piling up on anybody you should think again. It
               | basically has infinite confounding variables.
               | 
               | > those few poisoned bottles of aspirin did anything to
               | increase the non-contingent risk profile of taking
               | aspirin.
               | 
               | Please educate more about this - do you know that
               | ibuprofen is result of long time search to replace
               | aspirin due to its toxicity (such as stomach bleeding
               | that you will get sooner or later).
               | 
               | Its insane that people outsource medicine. One should
               | strive to know as much as possible about it, with focus
               | on prevention.
        
               | kiba wrote:
               | That's why if you hadn't done your homework, I believe
               | you should just follow the recommendation of your doctor
               | and/or the CDC.
               | 
               | They likely laid all the groundwork for you in term of
               | cost/benefit.
               | 
               | But there's no point in blindly taking vaccines for the
               | sake of taking vaccines and increasing your risk of
               | becoming part of the fatality statistics.
        
             | derefr wrote:
             | A few "yes, but..."s:
             | 
             | > If you're not traveling outside the US and living a
             | fairly normal life
             | 
             | Globally, given an at-least-middle-class lifestyle (and any
             | other years than 2020-2021), "not travelling outside [your
             | home country]" is actually rather abnormal. It's mostly an
             | American thing.
             | 
             | I've seen it hypothesized that higher risk-aversion from a
             | media-inculcated culture of fear could be responsible for
             | Americans' unique disinterest in international travel.
             | 
             | If that were true, then "properly calibrating your risk-
             | aversion" as we're talking about here, would potentially
             | result in the average American desiring to travel a lot
             | more -- which would then mean that the extra vaccinations
             | would have rather more justification.
             | 
             | > Should every sexually active person take PrEP regularly
             | since HIV is a potential risk to everyone? No, there are
             | populations of risk exposure where it makes sense though.
             | 
             | I mean, if we just had a huge supply of PrEP laying around
             | so that we could afford to be wasteful with it, we _could_
             | just give it to every sexually-active person for a while to
             | stop transmission, and so effectively eradicate HIV.
             | (Everyone already infected would keep taking it until
             | death, but nobody new would be getting infected, so as soon
             | as all those people passed away, there 'd be no more HIV.)
             | 
             | Personally, I'd see it as my duty as a citizen of the world
             | to participate in a program like that. I want to live to
             | see that virus die.
             | 
             | But moreover, doing so would eliminate _the risk of anyone
             | ever contracting HIV again_ ; which doesn't just have
             | personal consequences for arbitrary individuals from the
             | population; but also has _societal_ effects (in any country
             | with socialized healthcare), and even _cultural_ effects
             | (in terms of changing the landscape of sexual mores.) Those
             | effects _could_ have net-positive utility that greatly
             | outweighs the personal calculus of  "am I more likely to
             | get HIV, or an iatrogenic illness from PrEP." (I don't
             | think anyone's done the true cost-benefit for the societal-
             | level effects. It'd be interesting to see.)
             | 
             | See also: the argument to eliminating homelessness. Where,
             | in that case, the societal-level "economically externalized
             | from the individual" effects (e.g. fewer unpaid ER visits
             | per homeless person) clearly _do_ come out highly net-
             | positive, such that we should strive to do that even if
             | such programs were economically net-negative per homeless
             | person. Thus thinking like  "just give every homeless
             | person a house."
             | 
             | > Your dentist only takes x-rays every so often because the
             | x-ray exposure increases risk of various forms of cancer.
             | 
             | X-rays are an outmoded technology, though. If we could make
             | MRI machines cheap enough, dentists could do what they do
             | now with X-rays, by instead taking MRI captures and using a
             | spectrum that highlights the bone-density sections.
             | 
             | In that hypothetical world, there'd be no downside to
             | getting a new MRI every time you visit the dentist.
        
               | simplestats wrote:
               | > Globally, given an at-least-middle-class lifestyle (and
               | any other years than 2020-2021), "not travelling outside
               | [your home country]" is actually rather abnormal. It's
               | mostly an American thing.
               | 
               | Japanese people don't leave Japan much either. And
               | between those two countries we've now called half the
               | developed world "abnormal". It may be just as accurate to
               | say Europe is the outlier, especially when you consider
               | all of humanity and all of civilized history. Also it
               | obviously depends where people travel to, developed or
               | otherwise.
               | 
               | Either way though, the vaccination recommendations in the
               | US (as I'm sure every country) vary depending on whether
               | you plan to travel or not. There isn't a fixed policy for
               | everyone, at least when it comes to recommendations.
        
               | DFHippie wrote:
               | > I've seen it hypothesized that higher risk-aversion
               | from a media-inculcated culture of fear could be
               | responsible for Americans' unique disinterest in
               | international travel.
               | 
               | I suspect it has more to do with the distance between
               | most of the US and other nations combined with the
               | variety Americans perceive within their own borders.
               | Hawaii and Alaska are very different climatically and to
               | a lesser degree culturally from Iowa. In many other
               | nations national borders are closer and there's no
               | intervening ocean, or perhaps only a narrow,
               | theoretically swimmable strait, separating you from the
               | next nation over.
        
               | jws wrote:
               | MRI is much lower resolution than X-ray. Dental
               | researchers are speculating about using MRI for some
               | uses, like implant planning, but the laws of physics are
               | not in favor of reducing the voxel size to match the
               | small features identified with X-rays.
               | 
               | My dentist just upgraded their gear, the tech no longer
               | leaves the room when shooting the image, and I didn't get
               | a lead blanket. Presumably that means the technology
               | improved again and the total X-ray energy went down.
        
               | derefr wrote:
               | I don't know much about MRI technology, but would you get
               | an improvement in resolution if the whole machine was
               | scaled down (i.e. because it only needs to fit someone's
               | head in it, rather than their whole body)?
        
               | Kliment wrote:
               | There's already head-only MRI machines. Like all MRI
               | machines, they are phenomenally expensive to operate, eat
               | shittons of energy, and only make sense if they're in
               | constant use. But yes, reducing bore size improves
               | resolution.
        
           | hasmolo wrote:
           | don't drive cars, they can crash and it can be fatal while
           | having other side effects, however rare they are.
        
             | hattar wrote:
             | Ignoring the sarcasm, more than 32,000 people are killed
             | and 2 million are injured each year from motor vehicle
             | crashes in the US. It's no heart disease (600,000+ deaths -
             | leading cause in the US) but for the healthy and young,
             | it's a leading cause of death/side effects (injury). So in
             | some sense you're probably right.
        
             | saltyfamiliar wrote:
             | Cars are the worst. Side effects include air pollution,
             | cancer, death of nearby pedestrians, municipal neglect of
             | sidewalks, extreme inefficiency of resources resulting from
             | rolling around a 2000 pound hunk of metal for every 180
             | pound person that wants get anywhere, sprawling asphalt
             | deserts, weight gain and death. Don't bother contacting
             | anyone if you experience one or more of these symptoms.
        
             | majkinetor wrote:
             | There seem to be a lot of "side effects" of driving cars,
             | in fantastic amounts, you isolated only 1:
             | 
             | 1. You can become invalid
             | 
             | 2. You can kill buss of kids
             | 
             | 3. You can go to jail
             | 
             | 4. It can be very hard on your finance
             | 
             | 5. You can have your car stolen
             | 
             | 6. You can lose your nerves
             | 
             | 7. There are bunch of diseases involved due to gasses
             | 
             | etc...
             | 
             | Basically, every single person I know had some problem with
             | the car. Probably the best not to have them.
        
             | newsbinator wrote:
             | I agree with that statement (not sarcastic)
        
             | TravHatesMe wrote:
             | One is a conscious decision the other is rolling the dice.
        
               | wesleywt wrote:
               | Both are rolling dice/die?
        
               | dunefox wrote:
               | Both are the same.
        
             | userbinator wrote:
             | I don't know anyone who finds getting vaccinated to be
             | pleasurable, unlike driving.
        
               | freen wrote:
               | Now you have an N of one.
               | 
               | I found it highly pleasurable.
        
             | nend wrote:
             | I mean driving is easily the most dangerous thing people do
             | on a daily basis. It's the leading cause of death for
             | Americans under 55. You're not really making the point you
             | think you are.
        
             | matbatt38 wrote:
             | This but unironically
        
             | kiba wrote:
             | Taking vaccine is a cost/benefit tradeoff, even if the
             | tradeoff is often lopsided in favor of vaccine.
             | 
             | However, vaccine for incredibly rare or non-existent
             | disease isn't likely worth the tradeoff. Or maybe a
             | particular vaccine is too dangerous or experimental.
             | 
             | Anyway, if the CDC recommend a vaccine for something, it's
             | likely that they had looked into it and decided that the
             | upside is worth more than the risk.
        
           | ralusek wrote:
           | Vaccines are also, themselves, not exactly GOOD for you.
           | They're just eliciting an immune response in order to obtain
           | immunological defense at a theoretically/hopefully lower cost
           | than the alternative infection.
           | 
           | Subjecting yourself to immune response, which for some
           | vaccines can have high amount of reactogenicity, is having
           | your body undergo heavy inflammation, a fair amount of tissue
           | damage, etc. The people that just treat vaccines like they're
           | a wheatgrass shot is pretty strange.
        
             | DeWilde wrote:
             | I have a rare condition related to insulin resistance and
             | diabetes, blood sugar spikes greatly worsen my health.
             | 
             | Discovered that vaccines spike sugar prety significantly
             | after getting my two shots this year. Won't be getting
             | boosters anytime soon as the side effects were gruesome.
        
               | NullPrefix wrote:
               | Wouldn't that make you an antivaxxer? You surely don't
               | want to be mixed up with that crowd, do you?
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | If someone has a demonstrated reaction to the vaccine --
               | e.g. much worse blood sugar levels -- they can rationally
               | decide that they may not want to get another dose based
               | on an earnest assessment of the risk from not getting
               | dosed vs. the risk of getting dosed.
               | 
               | People with e.g. allergies to polysorbate choosing not to
               | get vaccinated are not "antivaxxers".
        
               | bavell wrote:
               | I completely agree with you but I think OP is poking fun
               | at the overzealousness of some people accusing others of
               | being anti-vax when the covid vaccines are the only ones
               | those people oppose. Of course there are actual
               | antivaxxers out there who believe in microchips, etc but
               | now even people who have gotten the vaccine but oppose
               | mandates are labelled "antivaxxers" by dictionaries these
               | days: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anti-
               | vaxxer
               | 
               | I wish we could have a rational discussion around these
               | topics without accusations being fired back and forth in
               | bad faith. It just drives people further into their
               | existing positions and hardens them to criticism.
        
               | mlyle wrote:
               | > I wish we could have a rational discussion around these
               | topics without accusations being fired back and forth in
               | bad faith. It just drives people further into their
               | existing positions and hardens them to criticism.
               | 
               | Well, trying to "poke fun" like this, with Poe's law
               | being what it is, does nothing to bring the temperature
               | down.
               | 
               | Our choices are:
               | 
               | * "Poking fun" is intended and this is likely to provoke
               | people who label others as antivax without adding
               | anything to the discussion.
               | 
               | * or this is sincere.
               | 
               | Neither is a great look.
        
               | ncmncm wrote:
               | I would like to be able to discuss vaccines, side
               | effects, contraindications, without hysteria. But that
               | has become impossible.
               | 
               | E.g., I have seen a peer-reviewed RCT report that loading
               | up on argenine reduces side effects from COVID spike-
               | protein vaccines, in people who have trouble with those.
               | It seems like an easy choice, because argenine is easy to
               | spike -- just eat lots of nuts -- and is at worst mostly
               | harmless. That seems like something that could be
               | discussed sanely, but it draws trouble.
        
               | progman32 wrote:
               | Let's debate the merit of the poster's argument instead
               | of casting labels around. Do you think there's no scope
               | for medical exemptions for vaccine requirements? High
               | blood sugar is dangerous, and the OP specifically said:
               | 
               | > blood sugar spikes greatly worsen my health.
               | 
               | I'm curious what the condition is, and if there's
               | mitigations available or if one vaccine is worse than the
               | other.
        
               | DeWilde wrote:
               | It worsens my health by increasing the amount of insulin
               | my body secretes and if pushed too high this can cause
               | type 2 diabetes.
               | 
               | Other side effects include cysts and cystic acne. The
               | amount these occurred after both shots was pretty high
               | and the occurrence was pretty persistent for two months
               | after each shot (AZ with 3 months in-between shot).
               | 
               | While both times I had Covid, before and after the
               | vaccine, my insulin stayed within normal ranges. So maybe
               | the attenuated virus vaccines can be used for people like
               | me? Or maybe none, if no risk factors like obesity or old
               | age are present as the side effects are also life
               | shortening.
        
               | ncmncm wrote:
               | I wonder if you already eliminated fructose from your
               | diet.
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | eloff wrote:
               | My parents both reported consistent elevated blood sugar
               | levels after getting the Pfizer vaccine. Not sure if it
               | was related or just coincidence, but there seem numerous
               | reports of the same online. It should be temporary
               | though.
        
               | DeWilde wrote:
               | The immune response causes elevated blood sugar, among
               | other things, for around 2 weeks.
               | 
               | For most people this is not really harmful but for people
               | with blood glucose problems it can cause severe issues.
        
         | cblconfederate wrote:
         | I'd suggest the antispitefulness vaccine
        
       | pseudolus wrote:
       | In a somewhat similar vein on the mouse research circuit "Grape
       | seed extract found to extend lifespan of old mice" [0].
       | 
       | [0] https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-12-grape-seed-
       | lifespan-m... .
        
       | eezurr wrote:
       | The day we escape death will begin the descent into the longest
       | dark age humanity will ever experience.
       | 
       | Death is necessary to allow new ideas and change to be brought
       | into the world. Death is necessary to prevent wealth and power
       | accumulating into fewer hands. Death is necessary for others to
       | enjoy the right to bear and raise children.
       | 
       | EDIT: 2 minutes go by and this comment has already been downvoted
       | 3+ times. At least respond before you downvote.
        
         | namrog84 wrote:
         | Society won't stay the same if we don't die from age induced
         | problems. Lots of rules and laws will have to change. To say
         | death is only option undercuts the potential for humans to
         | change and become better.
         | 
         | Throughout history there have been plenty of people in power
         | and rule to see the errors of their ways and induce lasting
         | real positive change. Sure there will be growing and transition
         | pains but I for one welcome the impacts that human longevity
         | will bring longer term.
        
         | jhatemyjob wrote:
         | Death is still gonna happen, people will just kill each other
        
         | pas wrote:
         | Wtf is this deathcult bullshit.
         | 
         | Maybe in 2A Jesusland death is the only option, but in other
         | parts of the world there are taxes and proportional
         | representation and euthanasia.
         | 
         | Yes, there are problems, but saying that death (and more
         | specifically aging with all of its shitty slow painful
         | consequences) is great (okay, you said necessary), because it
         | somehow "solves" other problems is a logical fallacy.
         | 
         | Plus, "actually" aging is one of the things that causes
         | inequality, because wealthy people live longer thanks to having
         | access to better healthcare, food, lifestyle, etc.
        
         | speedcoder wrote:
         | Hmm. Do you mean to imply an external Dorian Gray effect may
         | happen:
         | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray?
         | Wonder if there would be any other biological intra-cellular or
         | inter-cellular Dorian Gray effects that may happen? Or, if this
         | may really be a new free lunch.
        
       | bsd44 wrote:
       | People spend their lives in misery and then go out of their way
       | to try and artificially prolong it. :)
        
       | bsenftner wrote:
       | If this is real, it will be huge, but my suspicions are on high
       | alert. Why only Japan Times, and not "Breaking News! Immortality
       | in humanity's grasp!" taking over the airwaves like O.J.
       | Simpson's car chase?
        
       | hirenj wrote:
       | Here's the paper:
       | 
       | https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-021-00151-2
        
         | hirenj wrote:
         | It's an odd protein they're hitting - GPMNB is expressed pretty
         | widely, so I wonder what the proteoform is that they're
         | targeting/recognising here.
         | 
         | Can't get to the paper using all the usual tricks, so it's hard
         | to say what exactly they're immunising with, which could answer
         | a lot of my questions.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | battles wrote:
       | *in mice
        
         | cinntaile wrote:
         | Haha of course it is... Whenever you see an amazing research
         | result you immediately know it's in mice.
         | 
         | If I want to be a bit cynical... In the future we will likely
         | find that these cells serve an important purpose and that we
         | can't just eliminate them. The research needs to be done
         | though!
        
       | booleandilemma wrote:
       | Imagine the costs of a vaccine that would make you immortal in
       | the US? Surely not everyone would be able to afford it.
       | 
       | But then we could implement an immortality lottery, to give
       | everyone a shot. That could be the devious slogan: "everyone gets
       | a shot". Devious because not everyone does, of course.
       | 
       | If you win you get the vaccine and live forever, but your friends
       | and family aren't included.
        
         | stjohnswarts wrote:
         | I think for immortality I might be convinced to save up for a
         | year and visit Japan...
        
         | dougmwne wrote:
         | Death represents a pretty serious destruction of human capital.
         | If people will work forever, then why not let them live
         | forever, much less retraining and less money spent on
         | recruiting. This is only semi-sarcastic;)
        
           | lordnacho wrote:
           | Thank you for your application for "Junior Developer".
           | Unfortunately we only take applicants with 100 years of
           | JavaScript experience, 100 years of c++, at least 2M stars on
           | GitHub contributions, and 4 PhDs in machine learning, and 200
           | StackOverflow points.
           | 
           | Feel free to apply again next time Halley's comet is visible.
        
             | NullPrefix wrote:
             | >200 StackOverflow points
             | 
             | You forgot to mention Excel and Word.
        
             | Andy_G11 wrote:
             | It would allow career diversification, though. Maybe
             | there's a bit part going in Sly Stallone's 'Expendables
             | 3194'?
        
           | no_way wrote:
           | Death does allow for new cultural shift in society, imagine
           | if all the politicians lived forever, the space for change
           | would be even more limited than it is now/
        
         | gremloni wrote:
         | Stop being a Luddite. That's how technology works. First it's
         | available to only the super rich because it is expensive, then
         | over time with advances and improvement or production it
         | becomes more widely available. It's cell therapy, it will
         | inevitable end up becoming cheap.
        
         | pengaru wrote:
         | The real affordability problem of immortality is resources to
         | support the population growth when people stop dying off.
        
         | lottin wrote:
         | I don't know why you assume it will be unaffordable.
        
       | MichaelBurge wrote:
       | There's a limit on the number of times a cell can divide(the
       | telomere length), so it seems like a "vaccine" against them would
       | decrease lifespan by reducing the limit by 1.
       | 
       | But it sounds like cells reaching that limit, cause other
       | effects(inflammation, etc.) that are perhaps even worse for
       | lifespan. So this wouldn't be an anti-aging vaccine, but would
       | reduce symptoms of aging.
        
       | zxcvbn4038 wrote:
       | Once US media sees this the headline will become "Japan
       | Researchers Cure Death" and then the article will be
       | disappointing to read. ;)
        
       | mensetmanusman wrote:
       | For the sake of discussion, which age would you want to pause at?
       | 16, 24 for insurance reasons?
        
         | X6S1x6Okd1st wrote:
         | This doesn't work like that
        
           | kyriakos wrote:
           | it works cause its just a philosophical discussion at this
           | point.
        
         | kyriakos wrote:
         | 16 is too young and you won't be able to do a lot of things
         | unless you walk around with paperwork all the time. 24 sounds
         | good but I'd pick 30 cause looking 30 people take you a bit
         | more seriously. You will be able to relate more with people in
         | their 30swhen you are 50 but look 30 than with people in their
         | 20s. Of course in this hypothetical scenario if everyone is not
         | aging then it all cahnges.
        
           | mensetmanusman wrote:
           | Yeah, maybe a separate question would be what the age would
           | be if everyone in society was forced to pause at that age.
           | 
           | I wonder what immortal oligarchs would even do...
        
             | clairity wrote:
             | they'd find other ways to kill each other. that's not
             | facetious--our egos depend on getting an edge, however
             | microscopic, over others, and when that doesn't happen, we
             | get angry (that is, desperate and irrational) and do things
             | we shouldn't. it's a tale as old as time.
             | 
             | that 'modern', 'developed' civilizations haven't devolved
             | this way yet isn't because we're all so cultivated now, but
             | because we've lived in an unusual period of extended growth
             | and excessive abundance which keeps destructive competition
             | at bay. but infighting (i.e., tribalism) has been rising
             | over the past 50+ years and is threatening to overthrow
             | that period of prosperity and civility.
        
           | eska wrote:
           | I bet that assessment would cease to be the case once we have
           | gotten used to 100 year olds that look 16
        
             | kyriakos wrote:
             | This assumes that treatment will be available to everyone
             | and not just to select few.
        
         | booleandilemma wrote:
         | 16 is way too young. Assuming brain development is paused at
         | that age, society would descend into some kind of Lord of the
         | Flies hellscape.
        
           | priansh wrote:
           | I would argue society is already a Lord of the Flies
           | hellscape.
        
           | silverpepsi wrote:
           | Speak for your own brain, I didn't make particularly
           | impulsive decisions at that age nor at 40 do I have a problem
           | with the logic behind the conclusions my 16 yo self made (I
           | obviously had less data to draw from which wouldn't be an
           | issue at year 50 of being 16). Just sayin'
        
         | gremloni wrote:
         | Probably around 28 so I'm done growing to my final height.
        
           | clairity wrote:
           | observing professional sports, you find that despite physical
           | fitness/attributes having already plateaued in the early-mid
           | twenties, people reach peak athletic performance in our late
           | twenties when our mental facilities have fully matured and we
           | have some modicum of experience.
           | 
           | 27-29 is probably exactly the maximizing range, for this
           | reason.
        
             | InvaderFizz wrote:
             | I'm not sure allowing the beginning of deterioration that
             | occurs after around 25 is a good thing in this scenario.
             | The mental maturity is most likely largely a result of
             | experience. I'm sure it has some hormonal impact, but that
             | doesn't automatically mean late 20s is superior if we can
             | maintain the healing capacity of a 18 year old while
             | increasing our experience and therefore ability to process
             | the whole picture.
             | 
             | I guess it comes down to: is the capacity of strategy
             | developed as a result of age, or as a result of experience?
        
               | clairity wrote:
               | physical deterioration doesn't really become evident
               | until after/around 30 (the end of the plateau). neural
               | development happens well into our 20s, with a long
               | plateau into our 30s and a gradual decline after that
               | (only becoming substantial around retirement age). growth
               | from experience seems to be substantial into the teens,
               | where it hits an inflection point and starts to
               | decelerate but still climbs, albeit more slowly over
               | time, well into our 40s at least but possibly our whole
               | lifetimes.
               | 
               | we'd still get the most bang for buck if our age was
               | 'frozen' in the late 20s because experience would still
               | accumulate regardless, but we'd have maximized the combo
               | of physical and mental growth. it's only obvious in
               | retrospect how immature we are at 18, both physically and
               | mentally, or even at 25. that's why sports is such a neat
               | test bed, because it taxes both facilities enough to
               | tease out these otherwise unnoticeable dynamics.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | mikotodomo wrote:
         | At 35. It's well known that human brain development does not
         | end until past 30. Even before scientifically proven,
         | intellectuals and teachers have observed anecdotes such as that
         | singing only can begun to be mastered around the age 35.
         | 
         | From Lilli Lehmann's How to Sing, page 108 (originally authored
         | in the late 1800s):
         | 
         | "No woman of less than twenty-four years should sing soubrette
         | parts, none of less than twenty-eight years second parts, and
         | none of less than thirty-five years dramatic parts; that is
         | early enough."
        
         | toomuchtodo wrote:
         | 35. Perfect balance between maturity and youth.
        
           | ogwh wrote:
           | Tell that to my hair follicles.
        
             | InvaderFizz wrote:
             | I started supplementing testosterone for reasons unrelated
             | to hair loss. It has completely stopped and even reversed
             | my thinning on top after just a few months.
        
               | germinalphrase wrote:
               | Presumably under the direction of a doctor?
        
         | myfavoritedog wrote:
         | If I could choose an age for my physical body that would last
         | indefinitely? I'd choose 29.
        
       | AtticHacker wrote:
       | How is this different from taking Senolytics? Is it that the
       | vaccine helps your body fight senescent cells rather than having
       | Senolytics remove them?
        
         | JamesBarney wrote:
         | I think the end result is the same.
         | 
         | But not all senolytics are created equal. They differ in what
         | cells they work on, how powerful they are, and how specific
         | they are (the ratio of senescent to healthy cells they kill).
         | 
         | Here's a quote from the article
         | 
         | > Many of the existing drugs to remove senescent cells are used
         | as anti-cancer agents and may cause negative side effects. Side
         | effects from the new vaccine were fewer, while its efficacy
         | lasted longer, the team said
        
       | silexia wrote:
       | What does HN think of the actual science behind this?
        
         | dharmaturtle wrote:
         | To not answer your question, here's the /r/science thread
         | https://www.reddit.com/r/science/comments/ren6cc/japanese_sc...
        
           | WillDaSilva wrote:
           | The title on that Reddit post is far better than the one on
           | this post. It'd be nice if Hacker News would increase their
           | title length limit.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | fithisux wrote:
       | Yeap and you can definitely eliminate cancer if you inject
       | chlorine. But .....
        
       | pezzana wrote:
       | > The team, including Juntendo University professor Toru
       | Minamino, confirmed that mice administered with the vaccine
       | showed decreases in the zombie cells, medically known as
       | senescent cells, and in areas affected by arterial stiffening.
       | 
       | By now this has become a trope. "Researchers develop new
       | treatment for {UNTREATED_DISEASE}" ... in mice.
       | 
       | Mouse models of human disease are very limited in their
       | predictive ability. There's a lot of research that needs to
       | follow this before there's even a hope of a human trial, let
       | alone vaccine. And the failure rate for treatments at the mouse
       | stage is quite high.
       | 
       | Some of the comments on this thread treat this research paper as
       | the announcement of an an imminent anti-aging vaccine. It's not.
        
         | twic wrote:
         | > By now this has become a trope. "Researchers develop new
         | treatment for {UNTREATED_DISEASE}" ... in mice.
         | 
         | And a twitter account:
         | 
         | https://twitter.com/justsaysinmice
         | 
         | https://jamesheathers.medium.com/in-mice-explained-77b61b598...
        
         | the__alchemist wrote:
         | This is basic science; early research. Not immediately
         | applicable, and harder for many people to see the benefit, but
         | important. Humans share much fundamental biology with other
         | mammals. Moue tests aren't guaranteed to be directly
         | applicable, but it's what we've got.
        
           | ekianjo wrote:
           | > Humans share much fundamental biology with other mammals.
           | 
           | It's like saying a rock and a plant share fundamental atoms
           | with each other. Biology even from one close specie to
           | another is so mindbogglingly unpredictable that we don't have
           | good models. In 2021.
        
         | midjji wrote:
         | Even the ever exaggerating pop sci article does not mention an
         | increase in lifespan... At face value this seems more like
         | evidence against the senescent cells theory of aging.
        
         | arboghast wrote:
         | There are many imminent aging therapies in clinical trials
         | though or upcoming. Not saying it will reverse it but it may
         | slow it down and compress the morbidity period. Such therapies
         | include the promising Mayo Clinic trial on using large doses of
         | Fisetin to get rid of senescent cells, or similarly Dasatnib +
         | Quercetin, gene therapy like PGC-1a for maintaining muscle mass
         | in older age, epigenetic reprogramming, mTOR inhibitors like
         | Sirolimus or other rapalogues, etc.
         | 
         | So it's very likely that some of the advances we see today that
         | are still in clinical stage will hit the market in 5 to 15
         | years.
         | 
         | Edit: typo
        
         | _ph_ wrote:
         | I keep wondering if future generations will assume we had a
         | special worship for mice considering how many diseases we tried
         | to cure in mice :p
        
           | simplestats wrote:
           | Oh no, future generations will curse our barbarity for doing
           | the experiments (from the comfort of their greatly-extended
           | lifespans).
        
         | hungryforcodes wrote:
         | So we should start with mould? What are you saying exactly? We
         | have to start somewhere...
        
           | loeg wrote:
           | I just want the breathless headlines to include "in mice" (or
           | appropriate animal) if it wasn't in humans.
        
             | hungryforcodes wrote:
             | OK got it! Both of you have well described it -- and I
             | agree with you. :)
        
           | hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
           | I didn't interpret the parent comment as arguing against mice
           | models, just that there is a _huge_ gap between finding
           | something that works in mice and then applying it to humans
           | (with tons and tons of false starts), that any pronouncements
           | that imply that human treatments are on the horizon are
           | premature.
        
         | Waterluvian wrote:
         | This is well known and very well established. We don't like
         | experimenting on humans. It's kind of ghoulish and evil.
         | 
         | I get what you're saying but it's safe to assume that this
         | concept is already baked into almost everyone's discussion on
         | matters like this.
        
           | pcrh wrote:
           | >It's kind of ghoulish and evil.
           | 
           | Experiments on humans happen very frequently. They're called
           | "clinical trials".
        
         | Aspos wrote:
         | I am curious, why are they still using mice and not tiny
         | monkeys? If they are using some animals, why use random mice
         | and not a primate? Any specific reason other than tradition?
        
         | Hokusai wrote:
         | > in mice
         | 
         | It will be interesting to know how long can we extend that live
         | of mice. I guess that before immortal human beings we should
         | achieve mice immortality.
        
         | rmbyrro wrote:
         | I guess if it does NOT work on mice, it's highly unlikely to
         | work on humans? In this case, it might be good predictor of
         | failure, which can save a lot of money. Just speculating...
         | 
         | Also, if something really bad goes on mice, we can avoid having
         | that happening to humans. Which I would also value a lot.
         | 
         | I mean, it seems to me experimenting on mice might be worth it.
        
           | ekianjo wrote:
           | > I guess if it does NOT work on mice, it's highly unlikely
           | to work on humans?
           | 
           | There is virtually no relationship whatsoever between what
           | works in mice and humans. Such headlines are completely
           | ridiculous by now: the track record of applicability is a
           | train wreck.
        
             | JamesBarney wrote:
             | This very much depends on the mouse model of disease.
             | Obesity drugs for instance are highly predictive.
        
         | kevinalexbrown wrote:
         | Yes and this response has also become a trope. It's generically
         | universal to nearly any early result.
        
           | glenstein wrote:
           | Completely agree that the response is a trope at this point.
           | 
           | I've seen more comment section finger wagging in response to
           | science articles, offering such wisdom as correlation isn't
           | causation, XYZ "isn't a panacea", research into treatments to
           | mitigate or avoid cancer "don't cure cancer", statistical
           | confidence of 95% falls short of absolute proof, and any
           | number of extraneous add-ons that make caricatures of the
           | research and then bat those caricatures down.
           | 
           | It reminds me of this quip from the Onion, back in 2009:
           | 
           | "All that in just six years? Wow, that's so amazing. If you
           | can't tell, I'm being sarcastic. And I'm being sarcastic
           | because I don't understand the significance of the study."
           | 
           | https://www.theonion.com/cow-genome-outlined-1819560275
        
         | dbcurtis wrote:
         | Gotta admit though, there has never been a better time to be a
         | mouse.
        
           | netizen-936824 wrote:
           | Really? Because they get experimented on and then slaughtered
           | by the thousands
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | majkinetor wrote:
             | You forgot tiny detail that they live in prison for entire
             | life eating equivalent of Mc Donalds or worse.
        
               | throwamon wrote:
               | Just knowing I'd have guaranteed food and housing would
               | make my life less miserable than it is now. Oh, and I
               | love McDonald's.
        
               | delecti wrote:
               | Unless they're "participants" in an experiment related to
               | McDonald's, it's probably closer to say they spend their
               | life eating the equivalent of Soylent.
               | 
               | Though 1/3 of my meals are Soylent, so even that doesn't
               | seem entirely terrible.
        
               | netizen-936824 wrote:
               | This is true. Everything held constant nothing changing
               | and its far too cold. Its worse than being in US prison,
               | somehow
        
             | rmbyrro wrote:
             | At least some get lucky and sometimes slow down aging - for
             | example - when things work out.
             | 
             | I don't want to think about what the others go through when
             | things go wrong, though...
        
               | sva_ wrote:
               | Pretty sure they'll still get killed once the experiment
               | is completed.
        
               | majkinetor wrote:
               | The term used in papers is often 'sacrificed'.
        
             | rixed wrote:
             | Actually, by the million (monthly)
             | 
             | https://www.science.org/content/article/how-many-mice-and-
             | ra...
        
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