It’s raining today, a good thing. We’re still at about 50% of our normal rainfall in Socal, so bring it on.
The UK Wildcats men’s basketball team start their one-game-at-a-time season tomorrow. Win, you move on, lose and the season is over. This is their last chance to salvage something out of the Worst Season EverTM, so I’ll be watching as usual, hoping for a miracle.
Perhaps just in time for my generation, the Israelis have proof that aging can be reversed. Using hyperbaric therapy, they’ve lengthened telomeres and purged bodies of other cellular deterioration. I have to admit, this is counterintuitive for me – we take antioxidants to get healthier, and in this study we’re exposing the body to high levels of pure oxygen…go figure. The article describes this contradictory effect like this:
“Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) utilizes 100% oxygen in an environmental pressure higher than one absolute atmospheres (ATA) to enhance the amount of oxygen dissolved in body’s tissues. Repeated intermittent hyperoxic exposures, using certain HBOT protocols, can induce physiological effects which normally occur during hypoxia in a hyperoxic environment, the so called hyperoxic-hypoxic paradox.”
I’ll check back in with the Israelis in a few months to see what else they’ve figured out. I will say that I’m not sure it’s a great idea to extend the life of my baby boomer generation by any great amount – we haven’t done so well as stewards of the environment or justice.
This guy (Michael Osterholm) was right about how bad the pandemic would be, way back in April 2020. He predicted things pretty much as they’ve turned out. Let’s hope he’s wrong this time. If he’s right, it’ll be another shitty summer with a lot more death.