Slowing Down Aging With Semen

Austrian scientists claim that a compound found in human semen may be useful for slowing the aging process.

Biochemists Frank Madeo and Tobias Eisenberg at the University of Graz led a team to test the effects of a substance known as spermidine. In yeast, spermidine was shown to increase life span by as much as a factor of four; in fruit flies, up to 30%; and in worms, up to 15%. When spermidine was applied to human immune cells, they too lived longer, with three times as many surviving after 12 days as in a comparison batch. Spermidine works, the researchers show, by promoting the cellular process of autophagy — a kind of self-cleaning that, Eisenberg says, "removes cellular garbage such as clumped proteins or damaged or defective cellular organelles." Those things might otherwise harm the body.

A super-complicated article about this is here. A debunking of the existence of semen-based moisturizer ("Just like the porn stars use!") is here.

(Tipped by JMG reader Ogam)