Thursday, September 1, 2011

Can Young Blood Make You Feel Younger?

     I read an article in Popular Science where they were experimenting with mice.  With this experiment they had taken an older mouse and injected blood from a younger mouse.  They found that once they did this the mouse started acting younger.  Scientists reported the younger blood caused the older mouse to start producing new neurons and decreased inflammation.  The exact opposite happened when a younger mouse was injected with an older mouse's blood.  He started acting more like and older mouse because it stopped producing neurons and increased inflammation.
     Think about the possibilities that could happen if this became something that we could do to humans. If we could keeps neurons being produced in the human brain when someone becomes elderly then the effects of aging would not be as bad.  I don't think that this would ever prolong life but I believe that it could help the quality of life.  In the article it mentions that when neurons stop being produced is when a person starts forgetting the little things like where they parked the car or where they put the keys.  If this actually did work it could mean really great things.  It would help elderly people feel better about themselves mentally and physically.  Mentally it could help them not feel like they were literally losing their minds.  Physically it could help with the inflammation and aches and pains.  I am not usually one for this type of testing, but I think this one could really help.

Here is the link:http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2011-09/study-finds-injecting-old-mice-young-mouse-blood-has-rejuvenation-effect

1 comment:

  1. Fascinating--we'll see how the science progresses. Remember that when you write these kinds of posts to put the article's title and author (a good habit to be in when discussing a source). :)

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