CryoNet #33131 - #33133

CryoNet - Sat 25 Dec 2010

    #33131: Long dissertation from Mike Darwin [oberon]
    #33132: is trans-palmitoleic acid the longevity secret of Japanese [oberon]
    #33133: New Alcor CEO! [Kitty Antonik Wakfer]

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Message #33131
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:09:17 -0800 (PST)
From: [email protected]
Subject: Long dissertation from Mike Darwin

http://cryoeuro.eu:8080/download/attachments/425990/Cryonics_Failure_Analysis_Part_1_v3.0.pdf

http://cryoeuro.eu:8080/download/attachments/425990/Cryonics_Failure_Analysis_Part_2v5.2.pdf

http://cryoeuro.eu:8080/download/attachments/425990/Cryonics_Failure_Analysis_Part_3v5.4.pdf

I found part 3 of Mike Darwin's analysis to be particularly interesting. The
image provided of straight frozen brain tissue does indeed resemble a
tissue homogenate, and is dramatically poorer than that of fixed brain
tissue. Yet currently many corpses being stored at cryonics providers were
straight frozen.

Snip from Part 3>
"For my own benefit in charting progress in this area I developed a scoring
system based on ultrastructure following cryopreservation, rewarming and
fixation. I won?t pretend to argue its merits except as an approximate
yardstick for measuring progress.
At left is brain tissue from a healthy animal perfused with fixative while
under anesthesia and with no ischemia (e.g., beating heart). The fine
architecture of the tissue is beautifully displayed and at 9K magnification
it is possible to see intracellular organelles, such as the nuclei and
mitochondria, as well the myelin sheathing, cell membranes and axoplasm.
At right is tissue taken from the same anatomical area of the cerebral
cortex following straight freezing and rewarming. Cell membranes are no
longer visible and the field of view appears more like a tissue homogenate
than a section of brain tissue. I assign this level of injury a score of 15,
as opposed to a score of 100 for control brain tissue. It is not possible to
score higher than 75, regardless of the quality of ultrastructural
preservation, in the absence of viability; viability therefore counts for 25
points.
SLIDE 160
It is possible to do the same kind of scoring with respect to the
pre-cryopreservation parts of cryonics procedures, as well. A patient with
no peri- or post-arrest ischemia who was provided with immediate and
effective CPS followed by CPA perfusion within the window of demonstrated
viability (i.e., 5 hours of asanguineous perfusion at 5oC) would thus get a
score of 100 in terms of Clinical Services Delivery. In other words, that
patient would have received the best technologically available
pre-cryoprotective care it is currently possible to deliver.
Since all cryonics patients currently must be pronounced legally dead before
the procedure can begin, no patient can score 100. I have arbitrarily
decided that each minute of normothermic ischemia up to 5 minutes will count
for the loss of 1 point. Thereafter, I have used other,
more generous criteria for adjudging the adequacy of care which I will not
detail here. Suffice it to say that if the patient gets cryopreserved under
conditions where cryoprotection is not possible, the score is 3 points.
If we go back to Dr. Bedford, the first patient cryopreserved in 1967, we
see that the best possible score he could have achieved had he been
immediately straight frozen after pronouncement was 15; but because of
grossly inadequate post-arrest and pre-freezing care, his Patient Outcome
Score is only 8. You?ll have to decide for yourself how reasonable my
scoring system is as we go along. But keep in mind; it is designed to serve
only as a relative indicator, not as an absolute measure of performance, nor
of patient recoverability."

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Message #33132
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:12:30 -0800 (PST)
From: [email protected]
Subject: is trans-palmitoleic acid the longevity secret of Japanese

Dairy products contain trans-palmitoleic acid, which in turn is associated with higher HDL, lower C-reactive protein levels, as well as other longevity indicators. Survival of Japanese centenarians who favoured dairy products turned out to be highest in all dietary subgroups. Could trans-palmitoleic acid increase human maximum lifespan?

Ann Intern Med. 2010 Dec 21;153(12):790-9.
Trans-palmitoleic Acid, metabolic risk factors, and new-onset diabetes in u.s. Adults: a cohort study.
Mozaffarian D, Cao H, King IB, Lemaitre RN, Song X, Siscovick DS, Hotamisligil GS. Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts; National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland; University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington, Seattle, Washington.
Abstract
    Background: Palmitoleic acid (cis-16:1n-7), which is produced by endogenous fat synthesis, has been linked to both beneficial and deleterious metabolic effects, potentially confounded by diverse determinants and tissue sources of endogenous production. Trans-palmitoleate (trans-16:1n-7) represents a distinctly exogenous source of 16:1n-7, unconfounded by endogenous synthesis or its determinants, that may be uniquely informative. Objective: To investigate whether circulating trans-palmitoleate is independently related to lower metabolic risk and incident type 2 diabetes. Design: Prospective cohort study from 1992 to 2006. Setting: Four U.S. communities. Patients: 3736 adults in the Cardiovascular Health Study. Measurements: Anthropometric characteristics and levels of plasma phospholipi
 d fatty acids, blood lipids, inflammatory markers, and glucose-insulin measured at baseline in 1992 and dietary habits measured 3 years earlier. Multivariate-adjusted models were used to inv
 estigate how demographic, clinical, and lifestyle factors independently related to plasma phospholipid trans-palmitoleate; how trans-palmitoleate related to major metabolic risk factors; and how trans-palmitoleate related to new-onset diabetes (304 incident cases). Findings were validated for metabolic risk factors in an independent cohort of 327 women. Results: In multivariate analyses, whole-fat dairy consumption was most strongly associated with higher trans-palmitoleate levels. Higher trans-palmitoleate levels were associated with slightly lower adiposity and, independently, with higher high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (1.9% across quintiles; P = 0.040), lower triglyceride levels (-19.0%; P < 0.001), a lower total cholesterol-HDL cholesterol ratio (-4.7%; P < 0.001), lower 
 C-reactive protein levels (-13.8%; P = 0.05), and lower insulin resistance (-16.7%, P < 0.001). Trans-palmitoleate was also associated with a substantially lower incidence of diabetes, with 
 multivariate hazard ratios of 0.41 (95% CI, 0.27 to 0.64) and 0.38 (CI, 0.24 to 0.62) in quintiles 4 and 5 versus quintile 1 (P for trend < 0.001). Findings were independent of estimated dairy consumption or other fatty acid dairy biomarkers. Protective associations with metabolic risk factors were confirmed in the validation cohort. Limitation: Results could be affected by measurement error or residual confounding. Conclusion: Circulating trans-palmitoleate is associated with lower insulin resistance, presence of atherogenic dyslipidemia, and incident diabetes. Our findings may explain previously observed metabolic benefits of dairy consumption and support the need for detailed further experimental and clinical investigation. Primary Funding Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Instit
 ute and National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.
PMID: 21173413

After 7 additional years the only surviving Japanese centenarians were those who favoured dairy products.

J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo). 2003 Apr;49(2):133-8.
Dietary patterns and further survival in Japanese centenarians.
Shimizu K, Takeda S, Noji H, Hirose N, Ebihara Y, Arai Y, Hamamatsu M, Nakazawa S, Gondo Y, Konishi K.
Health Care Center, Shoko-Chukin Bank, 2-10-17 Yaesu, Chuo-ku, Tokyo 104-0028, Japan.
Abstract
    We have previously reported that centenarians (persons > or = 100 y old) in Tokyo prefer dairy products. Dietary preferences may be associated with longevity. The aim of the present study was to investigate the relationship between dietary patterns and further survival in centenarians. During 1992-1999, we examined the dietary practices of 104 centenarians (29 men and 75 women; mean age, 100.3 +/- 0.9 y) who lived in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Dietary patterns were classified by kappa-means cluster analysis. As clinical co-variables, we considered activities of daily living, cognitive function, nutritional status, presence of important disease, gender, and age at the time of the initial survey. Survival data were recorded yearly until 2001, and then tested with Kaplan-Meier analysis 
 and the log rank statistic. Four dietary patterns were identified: a pattern preferring vegetables (n = 33), a pattern preferring dairy products (n = 26), a pattern preferring beverages (n =
  10), and a pattern preferring cereals (n = 35). No clinical variables differed between the four dietary patterns. In 2001, 28 centenarians were still alive. The survival rate for those preferring dairy products was the highest of the four dietary patterns; in particular, being significantly higher than the pattern preferring beverages (p = 0.048). A dietary pattern preferring dairy products was associated with increased survival in Tokyo-area centenarians.
PMID: 12887160

Note that cis-palmitoleic acid is not beneficial.

Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Dec;92(6):1350-8. Epub 2010 Oct 13.
Circulating palmitoleic acid and risk of metabolic abnormalities and new-onset diabetes.
Mozaffarian D, Cao H, King IB, Lemaitre RN, Song X, Siscovick DS, Hotamisligil GS. Division of Cardiovascular Medicine and Channing Laboratory, Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School and Epidemiology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
Abstract
  BACKGROUND: Animal experiments suggest that circulating palmitoleic acid (cis-16:1n-7) from adipocyte de novo fatty acid synthesis may directly regulate insulin resistance and metabolic dysregulation.
OBJECTIVE: We investigated the independent determinants of circulating palmitoleate in free-living humans and whether palmitoleate is related to lower metabolic risk and the incidence of diabetes.
DESIGN: In a prospective cohort of 3630 US men and women in the Cardiovascular Health Study, plasma phospholipid fatty acids, anthropometric variables, blood lipids, inflammatory markers, and glucose and insulin concentrations were measured between 1992 and 2006 by using standardized methods. Independent determinants of plasma phospholipid palmitoleate and relations of palmitoleate with metabolic risk factors were investigated by using multivariable-adjusted linear regression. Relations with incident diabetes (296 incident cases) were investigated by using Cox proportional hazards.
RESULTS: The mean (  SD) palmitoleate value was 0.49   0.20% (range: 0.11-2.55%) of total fatty acids. Greater body mass index, carbohydrate intake, protein intake, and alcohol use were each independent lifestyle correlates of higher palmitoleate concentrations. In multivariable analyses that adjusted for these factors and other potential confounders, higher palmitoleate concentrations were independently associated with lower LDL cholesterol (P < 0.001), higher HDL cholesterol (P < 0.001), lower total:HDL-cholesterol ratio (P = 0.04), and lower fibrinogen (P < 0.001). However, palmitoleate was also associated with higher triglycerides (P < 0.001) and (in men only) with greater insulin resistance (P < 0.001). Palmitoleate was not significantly associated with incident diabetes.
CONCLUSIONS: Adiposity (energy imbalance), carbohydrate consumption, and alcohol use-even within typical ranges-are associated with higher circulating palmitoleate concentrations. Circulating palmitoleate is robustly associated with multiple metabolic risk factors but in mixed directions, perhaps related to divergent lifestyle determinants or endogenous sources (liver, adipose tissue) of fatty acid synthesis.
PMID: 20943795

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Message #33133
Date: Fri, 24 Dec 2010 21:25:00 -0700
From: Kitty Antonik Wakfer <[email protected]>
Subject: New Alcor CEO!

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I just happened across the 4 hour old announcement at Max More's blog - 
"My new responsibility as CEO of Alcor Foundation". He takes over Jan 1!
Read the entry - 
http://strategicphilosophy.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-new-responsibility-as-ceo-of-alcor.html

My comment at the blog is currently "awaiting owner approval" therefore 
I'll copy it here in case that is delayed/lost:
Wow! We (husband Paul Wakfer, friend David Jackemeyer and I) were just 
talking about you. I looked up what you were doing these days since you 
had terminated the Extropy Institute. I checked your blog; surprise is 
an understatement at what I saw for today's entry and then read to the 
two of them.

Since I and Paul have been signed with Alcor since Dec 2005 - after our 
individual experiences with CryoCare in the 90s - we are pleased to see 
you take on the job as CEO. We are not pleased with Alcor's use of funds 
these past years and had been seriously debating (almost decided) not to 
pay our dues this year, increased now and to be again next year. But we 
will likely now go ahead and pay again to see how things work out next 
year with this major change of leadership.

So welcome aboard, Max. We hope that you will succeed at making Alcor an 
at least more financially sound and cost-effective organization at 
promoting cryonics and processing cryopreservations. Paul says:
"Don't take orders from the board which tends to want to micro-manage 
everything. However, from my memory you are a person who can resist 
this. If there is anything I can do to help, let me know."
Note that we are in Casa Grande AZ (just 50 miles from Alcor) from 
November to April inclusive and the other 6 months at Paul's legal 
residence in Ontario Canada.
-----end of comment----------

 
**Kitty Antonik Wakfer

MoreLife for the rational - http://morelife.org
Reality based tools for more life in quantity and quality
The Self-Sovereign Individual Project - http://selfsip.org
Self-sovereignty, rational pursuit of optimal lifetime happiness,
individual responsibility, social preferencing & social contracting


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