Cognitive Labs

Gradually spreading throughout the world's oceans, Turritopsis, a tiny 5 mm creature has developed a unique response to physical stress. When conditions become bleak enough, either through injury, starvation, or environmental alteration and end of life is faced, a unique transformational process ensues. It is not known why most specimens, in the absence of extraordinary stress, simply die like other species.

Essentially, in those cases where excessive stress is accumulated by the organism, a process is triggered where its cells are empowered to convert themselves from one organizing form to another. Muscle cells may become nerve cells or even sperm or egg cells. The jellyfish turns itself into a bloblike cyst, which then develops into a polyp colony, essentially the first stage in jellyfish life.

Through asexual reproduction, the resulting polyp colony can spawn hundreds of genetically identical jellyfish, near perfect copies of the original adult.

This unique approach to hardship may be helping Turritopsis swarms spread throughout the world's oceans, according to Pia Miglietta, a researcher at Penn State.

The unique cellular conversion process of Turritopsis may offer potential to anti-aging researchers searching for chemical compounds and transmitters that can transform the aging process by neutralizing free radicals, possibly sweeping away lacunae and bugs in repetitively replicated DNA code (bad code leads to flawed cells as we age) and instigating cellular genesis. It seems to be an organism that can turn back the clock, literally morphing from an adult into a newborn state.

Article at Nationalgeographic.com

Labels: antioxidant, dna, free_radical, miglietta, penn_state, turritopsis

Both green and black teas have an estimated 10 times the antioxidant levels as most fruits and vegetables, including thearubigins, epicatechins, and catechins - all are considered polyphenols, a powerful type of antioxidant.

The difference between green and black teas, both from the same plant is mainly due to processing. Green tea leaves are dried and steam cured. Black tea leaves are crushed and fermented.

Numerous studies have shown that regular tea consumption improves LDL cholesterol levels and may protect against a variety of maladies. In laboratory test, green tea caused cancerous cells in rats to accelerate their lifecycle and then atrophy. Theorists believe that the antioxidant properties of tea prevent free radicals from attaching to healthy cellular tissues and beginning to homeostasize. Accumulation of free radicals is linked to blood vessel/valve damage, atherosclerosis, and cancers.

For example, in a study involving bladder cancer cells, green tea extract seemed to make the cancer cells behave oddly. They matured sooner, bound together tightly, and had a hard time multiplying. Another study found that men who drank oolong tea plus green tea extract lost more weight and total body fat, compared with men who drank plain oolong tea.

Other small studies have found that the antioxidants from drinking tea can help prevent skin cancer. There's also evidence that tea extracts applied to the skin can block sun damage that leads to skin cancer. Tea extracts have become an in-demand ingredient for various skin lotions and anti-aging treatments.

According to Dr. Jeffrey Blumberg at Tufts University, "Tea has no calories and lots of polyphenols. If you're drinking tea, you're not drinking soda, and that's a real benefit. Water doesn't give you those polyphenols."

What's the right amount?

Some benefit can be achieved with as little as two cups per day, while some tea cognoscenti (including medical researchers) drink eight to ten or more cups per day.

Labels: antioxidant, black, catechins, flavonoids, green, polyphenols, tea, thearubigins