Putin Hopes This Biotech Will Let Him Live Forever

…and other items from this week’s health news:

Time for a replacement?

❝With the developments of biotechnology, human organs can be continuously transplanted, and people can live younger and younger, and even achieve immortality❞

~ Vladimir Putin, 72, this week, in a “hot mic” moment

This has clearly been on his mind for a while, as he upped the ante last year in 2024, funneling a lot of state money into his pet project, the New Health Preservation Technologies Initiative, after some years of close connection with the idea, starting 2019 at the latest, including per the company that his eldest daughter (an endocrinologist) works at, owned by his friend Kovalchuk. This too stems from earlier projects dating back to at least 2013, so it’s no flash-in-the-pan whim on his part.

He even oversaw increased funding into organ bioprinting and related technologies fivefold in 2022, when one might have expected his attention (and national resources) to be focused elsewhere.

But… will it work? Per current prevailing scientific consensus… Probably not, no.

This is because for now and the foreseeable future, transplantable organs are scarce, lab-grown full-size organs are still far from feasible, aging reduces recovery ability (organ transplant operations are not trivial), and brains cannot be replaced without losing identity.

Read in full: Putin says organ transplants could grant immortality. Not quite.

Related: Age & Aging: What Can (And Can’t) We Do About It?

Kidney disease deaths are on the rise

Deaths from hypertensive kidney disease in the US increased 48% between 1999–2023, and notably high blood pressure is the second leading cause of end-stage kidney disease and a major contributing factor to cardiovascular and renal morbidity and mortality.

In fewer words: high blood pressure is driving kidney disease and heart disease, which are killing increasingly many people in the US.

Men had higher mortality than women, with 22% higher mortality in those with renal failure, and the West had the highest regional rate, but the highest state-level rates were in Washington DC, Tennessee, and Mississippi. Black people had the highest mortality rates (more than 3x higher than others), and white people the lowest.

Researchers are urging more attention to be paid to early diagnosis and intervention:

Read in full: Deaths from high blood pressure-related kidney disease up nearly 50%

Related: Are your Kidneys Ok? Detect Early To Protect Kidney Health (Here’s How)

No hovering

Do you have kids (or grandkids) furthering their education this fall?

If so, it may be as well to let them fend for themselves unless they actively ask you for help. Researchers (Dr. Lidia Panier et al.) found that students with overprotective parents showed a stronger link between exposure to stressful events and higher anxiety levels.

One hypothesis is that overprotective parenting may limit their ability to develop coping and emotion regulation skills, leaving them more vulnerable to anxiety when facing stress.

Another hypothesis is that overprotective parents are, themselves, causing unnecessary extra stress—which makes other things harder to deal with rather than easier.

All this is consistent with past research linking overprotective parenting to insecure attachment, poor emotion regulation, and greater anxiety risk:

Read in full: Overprotective parenting linked to higher anxiety in first year university students

Related: If Your Adult Kid Calls In Crisis…

Take care!