Balls and Walnuts
more than you ever wanted to know
Life extension
Nature recently published a review on the science of life extension. TWe can make a nematode (C. elegans) live longer; we can make mice live longer. We now know enough about the genetics of aging to stimulate the drug companies into frenetic bursts of research (although the FDA has already stated it will not approve drugs exclusively intended to extend the lifespan). I often kid people that I have no intention of dying, but more and more, it’s beginning to look plausible.
We’ve known for more than 100 years that dietary restriction extends the lifespan in mammals. No one knows if this applies to humans, but that begs the question (would you want to live like that?) Free radical inhibitors like superoxide dismutase are not the answer; recent studies have shown these drugs do nothing to reduce disease, and may in fact inhibit our defenses against certain infectious diseases.
What would the perfect pill accomplish? Not enough to add more years, else we’d all end up like Swift’s Struldbrugs. We would need youth, too.
***
Season three of Dexter debuted tonight. He killed someone.
Shoot! I ruined it for you!
***
One thing I always hate about moving: many of our pets die. They simply can’t handle the change. My water dragon died while I was in Chicago — not unexpected, since she had been off her food for quite a while. And at least three of my poison dart frogs have died, too. I found one of them this morning in his cage, a withered corpse, his legs filamentous. Karen insisted I try to rehydrate him.
You have to warm drowning victims; sometimes their hypothermia saves them. You’re not dead until you’re warm and dead. With amphibians, you’re not dead until you’re wet and dead.
Other people’s bathrooms, you’ll find a flower floating in a bowl of water. In mine, you’ll find a frog.
The mammals are doing fine. Cats, ferrets, even the degus are healthy and happy. The cats and the ferrets are the only ones I really care about anymore. I’m becoming ordinary.
***
I tell myself that it’s the thought of the death of loved ones, family, friends — that’s what disturbs me the most. You’d think it would be my own death I’d worry about, but no. Is it that my own death is unthinkable?
Folks in my family have a real problem with the big D. Why is that?
D. (the little d, that is.)
On the Celebration of Life front: today, I found a wonderful, amazing, kick-ass grocery store, a grocery store so spectacular it made me feel genuinely glad to be here in Santa Rosa.
Lola’s, an Hispanic grocery.
Pork shanks (so I can make an ossobuco now that won’t make me violently ill!) Shrimp with the headsies on. SMELT! And OMFG, Carta Blanca!
The produce is way cheaper than any other grocery store in Santa Rosa. A bunch of cilantro cost me $.59. Elsewhere, you would pay more like $1.59 for a bunch of cilantro. Lola’s limes, 8 for a dollar. Elsewhere, something like 2 for a dollar.
Best of all, it’s less than a mile from home.
Folks in my family have a real problem with the big D. Why is that?
Because folks in most people’s families have a problem with the Big D.
Death, in one way or another, is the big driver in our lives.
I don’t worry much about my own death because, basically, I’m not going to have to deal with it. It will be Somebody Else’s Problem.
I used to worry a lot about death. Now, not so much. I didn’t know you could rehydrate frogs. Learn something every day on this blog.
So, are you saying that frogs are the “dinosaur plants” of the animal world?
Better hurry up with that life extension medication. We’re all going to need to live forever to pay off the national debt.
Bummer those frogs are too grand. Sorry they didn’t take the move well. But then we do know you love animals don’t we. I tried to do a C section on a fish once, never tried to rehydrate a frog though. Wish we had a Lola’s here, it sounds like a great little place. P.S. There is a FOR RENT sign in your old building. Makes a gal sad it does.