LONGECITY

http://www.dailymail...d-fillings.html

So where is it? Can we just run MSH and poly glutamine right on the gums/teeth? (My Fiancee is about to have some teeth pulled so I started looking into this)

My bad, looks like someone made it already...
http://smileregenera....com/about.html
Edited by zorba990, 14 June 2012 - 02:34 AM.

That is very interesting. I'd like your feedback.

These technologies are still experimental. MSH is a hormone. Do not play with hormones in Your body.

That is very interesting. I'd like your feedback.

I decided the risk was probably too high presently. I'm keeping my own teeth and gums healthy by rinsing with xylitol and calcium lactate (home-made mouthwash) and making sure my saliva pH is high enough to keep constantly remineralizing. It's funny, I remember my Uncle (one of the few who still has his own teeth) always eats a small piece of cheese after large meals. I always thought it was weird -- cheese after dessert? But maybe the calcium lactate helps preserve the teeth more than skipping dessert? :-)

Melanocyte Stimulating Hormone? Would it be paranoid to wonder about seeding melanomas all over the place?

I remember it from the neural melanocortin system in conjunction with "Dr. Kruse thermogenesis".

The neural melanocortin system controls body weight. It is now understood to comprise a series of peptides derived from proopiomelanocortin (POMC), including adrenocorticotrophin, endorphins, and melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH), that bind to at least 5 specific receptors. Thus the alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) derived from POMC acts on melanocortin-4 receptors to decrease appetite.

POMC action is balanced by another melanocortin, the neuropeptide Y (NPY), which is a neurotransmitter secreted by the hypothalamus. NPY is associated with a number of physiologic processes in the brain, including the regulation of energy balance, memory and learning. Higher NPY correlates with decreased physical activity and increases in food intake and the proportion of energy stored as fat.

Leptin is a hormone secreted by adipose tissue. It plays an important role in regulation of body weight through regulation of food intake and sympathetically mediated thermogenesis. Leptin has many effects on the body, including regulation of reproduction. One of its many actions is to stimulate release of melanocyte-stimulating hormone, which, as stated above, binds to melanocortin-4 receptors to increase energy expenditure. Leptin also binds to NPY neurons thus decreasing their activity. That's how leptin plugs into the melanocortin pathway.

According to Dr. Kruse, being in the dark and cold should stimulate the release of this hormone -?

This is interesting, but the website looks a little like a scam. I'll keep an eye out for news though.

So how hard would it be to modify some coral to grow in our mouth as a kind of symbiotic life form?

Will You please give e link to the quoted information.

So how hard would it be to modify some coral to grow in our mouth as a kind of symbiotic life form?

LOL you don't want coral growing in your mouth. Your immune sys will not like that.

Will You please give e link to the quoted information.

Did you address me? I quoted this from Dr.Kruse thermogenesis post #16, which, in turn, I took from 2 papers out of a bunch I had read for that post. I did not keep the refs, because those quotes were taken from the intro sections of the papers and were supposed to constitute the basic knowledge on the topic at the time when it was posted.

It's just a thought, but wouldn't having an independent organism that grows slowly on its own be great for teeth? Rat teeth grow for their entire life, though I'm not all that interested in getting my teeth shaved down on a regular basis. I think a smooth coral would work much better. I'm sure that if we can modify it to grow in our mouth we can modify it to fulfill some detox role and be invisible to the immune system as well. I know there will eventually be clone replacement teeth, but I really want something that I don't have to worry about replacing very often. Our first teeth are gone after no more than 8 years, then we keep the next set hanging together with plastic glue for decades... It seems we've been outliving our teeth for 10s of thousands of years... It's really time we got an upgrade.

Maybe teeth like a shark's that keep on replacing themselves throughout the shark's lifespan?

So how hard would it be to modify some coral to grow in our mouth as a kind of symbiotic life form?

LOL you don't want coral growing in your mouth. Your immune sys will not like that.

It's just a thought, but wouldn't having an independent organism that grows slowly on its own be great for teeth?

No, it would not. You don't seem to appreciate the role of the immune sys in keeping us alive, continuously defending us from the relentless assault of various organisms who try to make home in our bodies. When it stops working, for whatever reason, the remaining lifespan is measured by a few days.

So, to have another organism growing in your body, you'd have to seriously adjust the most complex and most complicated part of our physiology and that is our immune system. It is far easier to fix whatever problem with bacteria in the mouth one may have. Some people produce natural antibiotics in their saliva. They tend to have beautiful, white teeth. Naturally. It would be easier to have relevant genes expressed in those lacking them than go your route.
Edited by xEva, 03 January 2013 - 03:05 AM.

But do they have beautiful white teeth at 80? 800? Teeth seem to be a very week link in our health.

You're so right.. don't know about 800 but at 80 teeth tend to be weak and not so white. But that is just another facet of getting old..

That dental insurance is considered 'other than health' in the US is another peculiarity of the mainstream take on health. I believe that when people have healthy mouths, the cardiovascular disease will stop being the leading cause of death.

Why not just change the genetics off the coral so that the immune system accepts it?

Why not just change the genetics off the coral so that the immune system accepts it?

LOL are you guys serious with this coral idea? Do you actually mean coral or some coral-like creature? Corals don't grow in mouths.

Then, supposing you mean a generic 'creature', what if growing on your teeth will not be enough for it and it decides to take over your whole body, like, say, sacculina takes over a crab?

A semblance of a lymphatic system on this crab is parasite's tendrils that permeate its whole body. Sacculina controls crab's behavior and reproduction (it castrates the crab and enslaves it to tend for its own young). The crab's immune sys ignores the parasite, but is otherwise functional.

How's that for a side effect?


PS that would make a fun sci-fi story lol
Edited by xEva, 03 January 2013 - 10:48 AM.

I'm neither for or against the coral idea, just felt your counter argument seemed a bit weak. I am sure there are much better reasons for not trying to grow coral in place of teeth... Personally I'm in favour of stem cells being used to generate new teeth and later maybe nanotech can take over.

Well we could always build a kill switch into the coral. We are a smart species and won't sit idly by as coral takes over our body. Man I feel sorry for that crab! But I guess the best option is to really to just have teeth like a shark and shed them every thirty days or whatever. We could even recycle them into calcium supplements. In the mean time since that's a long ways off, I wonder how painful it will be to get stainless steel teeth or teeth made of some more pearly surgical metal or alloy.

My point is, cavities suck, I want a permanent solution for the future that won't require any kind of upkeep other than sonicating to keep them clean.

I am getting to like this evolving sci-fi story. We'll call it 'Pearly Whites' and it will involve a coral-like creature engineered as you guys intended. It will turn out similar to sacculina too, which is a genus of barnacles, and that's how it will tie into the 'Pearly' part lol. So, this crazy thing will be a cross between a coral and a barnacle.

When it takes over the human body, the victim will not know it, just like the crab does now know that it is possessed by sacculina. It goes about its feeding and protecting itself as usual. It only stops being interested in its fellow crabs in terms of his own procreation. Crab's raison d'etre becomes being a good nurse to sacculina's brood.

Similarly, humans will turn into zombie-like creatures appearing normal at a first glance --with excellent pearly-white teeth lol-- except that once a month or two, on a full moon, they will be driven to the oceans to release the larvae into the currents (corrals coordinate their spawning by doing it on a full moon).

The zombied-out humans will be driven to submerge their faces into the water with their mouths wide open to facilitate the release of larvae from their teeth and gums lol, which will cause some of them to drawn. etc. Fun, eh?

Sounds pretty good, though I might recommend using a name like, Parasite: Pearly Whites. There are alot of names that mean coral that you might find useful too. I certainly wouldn't want the sacculina coral though! I would assume that friends of the person would notice this happening and investigate and then seek to activate the genetic kill switch on the coral. Make it a mystery book? Do you have other books?

See, once infected, a human will stop being interested in friends and will start avoiding them and will certainly not listen to them or allow them to do anything to himself.

And, by the way, the new victims will become infected during their vacations on the beach, swimming or simply walking through the waters, just like crabs get infected with sacculina.

And the way this cross-engineered animal will be released into the environment will be as usual: it will escape from the lab during testing.. or better yet, simply mutate as a bona fide engineered symbiont while living in the mouth of a creepy guy with poor oral hygiene lol. That guy will be into some weird recreation on the beach...

like it?

Why pearly WHITE? Coral comes in some amazing colours.

alpha-MSH stimulating hormone exists. google Melanotan II.

I would never take the stuff, unless I was scheduled for a vacation in a very sunny location (coming from the barren, sunlight-lacking, cold of Chicago)

See, once infected, a human will stop being interested in friends and will start avoiding them and will certainly not listen to them or allow them to do anything to himself.

And, by the way, the new victims will become infected during their vacations on the beach, swimming or simply walking through the waters, just like crabs get infected with sacculina.

And the way this cross-engineered animal will be released into the environment will be as usual: it will escape from the lab during testing.. or better yet, simply mutate as a bona fide engineered symbiont while living in the mouth of a creepy guy with poor oral hygiene lol. That guy will be into some weird recreation on the beach...

like it?

So how do you resolve the story if the guy can't be given the coral's off switch? I don't generally read horror stories... Bad endings go contrary to my existential immortalism...

Why pearly WHITE? Coral comes in some amazing colours.

This is true!

alpha-MSH stimulating hormone exists. google Melanotan II.

I would never take the stuff, unless I was scheduled for a vacation in a very sunny location (coming from the barren, sunlight-lacking, cold of Chicago)

I would want an engineered cycle that I knew didn't cause harm. I don't like the idea of winding up with bad/no insurance and not being able to afford the treatment. The solution must sustain itself.