
Drug perks up old muscles and aging brains - justonepost
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/05/150513093609.htm
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tokenadult
No direct link to the University of California press release, which is the
original source for this story, and no link to the underlying journal article
published in a very obscure, low-impact-factor journal. It's a bit early to be
discussing this on Hacker News, methinks. Anyway, several other participants
here have previously identified ScienceDaily (a press release dissemination
service, nothing more) as a poor source for submissions to Hacker News.[1]

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8737181](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8737181)

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robot22
I don't think it is fair to write-off research based on the journal it was
published in.

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speechduh
I do think it's fair to call it out, though. Articles in second or third tier
journals deserve higher levels of scrutiny. I'd rather see this replicated a
couple of times before acting on it.

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robot22
This is spot on and holds for all scientific research.

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msie
I'm guessing that human trials are a decade away. :-( If something like this
were released today it would save trillions in elderly care. This should be a
priority for any government. No Manhattan project to accelerate delivery to
market?

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iamcurious
The Manhattan project and JKF's promise succeeded, but Nixon's promise to cure
cancer didn't. Maybe we would have more luck if we pretend another nation is
up to no good curing all diseases before the US.

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agumonkey
It's a bit sad how far can one go under 'negative' pressure. Nothing happens
unless there's a shiny carrot to eat.

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discardorama
"In 2005, Conboy and her colleagues infused old mice with blood from young
mice -- a process called parabiosis -- reinvigorating stem cells in the
muscle, liver and brain/hippocampus and showing that the chemicals in young
blood can actually rejuvenate the chemical environment of aging stem cells."

Wasn't there some horror movie (or story...) about some guy (Dracula?) staying
young by taking young people's blood transfusions? Or am I off base?

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agumonkey
I've read it has been done many times throughout history. I found it funny
that 21th century science is reaching folklore level of knowledge.

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spanktar
Image for the TGF-β pathway, in case you're into that kind of thing:
[https://www.qiagen.com/us/products/genes%20and%20pathways/pa...](https://www.qiagen.com/us/products/genes%20and%20pathways/pathway%20details.aspx?pwid=432)

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MiddleEndian
The real question, assuming it works (because eventually something will): Will
it be made illegal if people use it to "cheat" at sports?

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tvon
I am not aware of anything that has been made illegal to the general public
because it was used to gain an advantage in professional sports.

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MiddleEndian
IIRC, steroids became a controlled substance in the US in response to steroid
use in the Olympics.

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aidenn0
But you can still get a prescription for them.

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MiddleEndian
I guess maybe "forbidden" or "restricted" might be a better term than
"illegal," but that also applies to other schedule III drugs.

