
Scientists Discover a Bone-Deep Risk for Heart Disease - montrose
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/29/health/heart-disease-mutations-stem-cells.html
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mrob
I wonder if regular prolonged fasting could reduce the risk of this, or make
it worse. Prolonged fasting causes significant changes to the stem cells the
article discusses:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4102383/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4102383/)
(previous HN discussion:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8831739](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8831739)
)

If CHIP is as serious and common a risk factor as claimed, and there is no
known prevention or treatment, then testing anything that could interact with
it is very important.

~~~
moltar
I’m not a scientist. But from my surface research, fasting helps to clean up
bad and old cells. So if there’s a mechanism to detect these stem cells, then
they may be vacuumed out too.

Anecdotal evidence. I’ve had a weird, small bump on my arm. Like a large
pimple, but not gross. Got it checked. Dr said it was fine, not a toumor. Just
a knot or something like that. Said it’s conmon for men over 35. One day I
fasted on a bet for 2 days straight. Zero calories. Only water and coffee. The
bump went away by 80%. Only a slight dark mark left.

This evidence was enough to convince me that fasting is good. Now intermittent
fast every day. I get better focus. I have my first meal around 1-3pm.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _if there’s a mechanism to detect these stem cells, then they may be
> vacuumed out too_

From the article:

"But others, especially those linked to leukemia, seem to give stem cells a
new ability to accumulate in the marrow. The result is a sort of survival of
the fittest, or fastest growing, stem cells in the marrow."

One could make reasonable hypotheses that fasting has no effect, or a
deleterious effect, on the prevalence of these mutated stem cells.

~~~
mrob
Exactly. Maybe the mutation that helps the stem cells accumulate also helps
them survive fasting. But fasting is a cheap and relatively safe way to
perturb the cells and see what happens.

I think a good first step would be to track down people who regularly practice
prolonged fasting, and then find people who match them as closely as possible
on all other biometrics. We could then take blood samples and compare the
prevalence of the CHIP mutation in their white blood cells. If there's a
significant difference then it would be worth further investigation.

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graeham
There is an interesting additional link between cardiovascular disease and
bones: calcification (calcium deposits in arteries) also seem to have some
link with heart attacks and strokes.

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ilaksh
To me this reminds me of SENS and is an indication that even though most
scientists are not trying to cure aging, their efforts to target specific age-
related diseases are gradually aiming towards more fundamental issues. At
least to me it seems plausible that some technique found to be successful in
addressing mutations in these specific cells may be applicable or at least
lead to techniques for other cells.

If you haven't seen the site yet, check it out:
[http://www.sens.org](http://www.sens.org)

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zeristor
"Perhaps the most extreme example of how this can play out was reported in
2014, when researchers described a 115-year-old woman. Nearly her entire
supply of white blood cells was generated by mutated stem cells in her bone
marrow."

Erm... Getting to 115 sort of negates the argument doesn't it? She managed to
get through decades of 50% heart attack risk. A single counter example isn't
evidence, but given with all the given issues this does seem to be anomalous.

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agumonkey
Another paper about CHIP and cardiovascular diseases
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28636844](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28636844)

same team apparently

