Antidepressant drugs MAY make you live longer

American researchers are suggesting that antidepressant drugs may possibly lengthen a person's lifespan.

The researchers from the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, in Seattle have come up with this possibility following research with nematode worms which are a very basic life form.

In the study the tiny worms were exposed to as many as 88,000 chemicals drug compounds before four drugs were found that extended life span by 20 to 30 percent.

One of these drugs was Mianserin, which belongs to a class of drugs known as tetracyclic antidepressants, which proved to be the most effective in that it extended the lifespan of the worms by almost a third.

The drug apparently mimics the effects on the body of the only known animal long-life regime - virtual starvation.

Experts say the findings might indicate genes in humans that could be targeted to increase lifespan and possibly to identify additional genes important in ageing.

Dr. Linda Buck of the research center says it remains unclear why, depriving the body of all but the minimum amount of calories needed to survive seems to enhance longevity but the Seattle team believe they may have found an easier way to achieve the same effect.

Nematode worms are ideal subjects for studies into lifespan, they are similar in many ways to humans as they have a central nervous system and sexual reproduction; they also only live for only a matter of weeks.

Dr. Buck says they are unable to explain it but it is possible the drug disturbed the balance of two brain chemicals which help the nematode decide whether there is enough food around to justify laying eggs and this, might produce a "perceived, but not real" state of starvation.

Dr. Buck says that finding a chemical that increased lifespan in animals might point to genes in humans that could be targeted to do the same and it may be possible to identify additional genes important in ageing.

The researchers say such life-extending benefits however come at a cost with weight gain and increased appetite some of the side effects which is why the drugs are not popular antidepressants.

It's a bald fact...smoking makes your hair fall out!

According to new research apart from the plethora of illnesses associated with smoking the habit can make men prematurely bald.

Smoking has been linked to lung disease, heart and blood vessel disease, stroke and cataracts and cancers as well as impotence and tobacco-related diseases are some of the biggest killers in the world today.

Now a study by scientists, led by Dr Lin-hui Su, from the Far Eastern memorial hospital in Taiwan, has shown that smoking cigarettes can also encourage male hair loss.

Scientists say male baldness, or androgenetic alopecia, is a hereditary matter and caused in part by the male sex hormones.

Male baldness varies between different races and as a rule Asian men are less likely to become bald as they age than white Europeans or Americans but early hair loss in a smoker may be a warning signal of more serious damage elsewhere in the body.

The scientists became aware of the connection between smoking and baldness after conducting a survey of 740 Taiwanese men with an average age of 65.

The survey collected information on the age at which the men started losing their hair, the risk factors which may have affected their hair loss, and their smoking history and the men's height and weight were measured, and blood samples analysed.

The results showed that smoking led to significantly more baldness even after taking other factors into account.

The risk of hair loss though it increased with advancing age, nevertheless remained lower than the average risk for Caucasian men.

The researchers suggest that smoking may damage the micro-circulation supplying blood to the follicles.

The research is published in the journal Archives of Dermatology.