Science: Health: Longevity
longevity immunization   (+1)  [vote for, against]
Some studies show eunuchs live 19 years longer, it is possible that immunizing against testosterone could cause greater longevity

I read the eunuchs live about 19 years longer. At the right age immunizing against testosterone could have minimal effects on general health and lengthen lifespan.

Regarding sex drive, there is a drug called Foxy that increases it in both men and women so it is possible some of the side effects could be abated.

Also, there are a bunch of chemical variants on testosterone at the circulatory system, it is possible that some of these are non-libido effecting, and non-physique effecting, but if removed from circulation (immunization) still have a longevity effect.

Slightly supporting that is that some nonfeminizing estradiol, 17-alpha-estradiol, is published as increasing longevity, but I do not know in what laboratory animal.
-- beanangel, Oct 25 2018

"Well Mr. Fundle, the good news is that you'll live to be 105. The bad news is that you're rejecting your own testicles."
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 25 2018


It's funny, but in interviews, centennarian women often claim that they lived so long because they rejected other people's testicles.
-- 4and20, Oct 25 2018


19 years seems extreme. Women are a reasonable testicle free model system, and they live a bit longer. I think the biggest difference, which may be testicle related, is that testosterone makes you do things that get you killed YOUNG, that's how you end up with a big swing in the average.
-- bs0u0155, Oct 25 2018


There is a chance that metabolites of testosterone are part of the longevity effect; immunizing against those could have some of the activity of immunizing against testosterone.

Wikipedia says "as much as 90% of testosterone is converted into 5α-DHT [dihydrotestosterone] in so-called androgenic tissues with high 5α-reductase expression, [146] and due to the several-fold greater potency of 5α- DHT as an AR agonist relative to testosterone"

So it could be that immunizing against dihydrotestosterone could cause greater longevity without affecting tissues that produce it as much.
-- beanangel, Oct 26 2018


//that testosterone makes you do things that get you killed YOUNG//

There's also the fact that, if someone slices your balls off, you're probably going to be a lot more wary.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Oct 26 2018


//There's also the fact that, if someone slices your balls off, you're probably going to be a lot more wary//

True, although illogical in a "shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted" kind of way
-- hippo, Oct 26 2018


//as much as 90% of testosterone is converted into 5α-DHT [dihydrotestosterone]// "As much as" is the key there, a bit like "Some studies" I can show you "Some studies" that prove all sorts. Quite a lot of it can become a substrate for aromatase, which makes it into estrogen, so sort of automatic negative regulation of the androgenic effects while promoting an overall growth factor kind of environment.

If you wanted to tank your testosterone there are easier ways than developing a vaccine. Stress your liver, it'll put out sex-hormone binding globulin. That'll turn down male and female systems. You could do this with booze... (Some studies show alcohol lowers teen pregnancy risk... maybe... anyone?). Statins would be a good way, stress the liver and deplete the cholesterol that testosterone is made from. Shame about statins messing up ubiquinone synthesis. Quite important that.
-- bs0u0155, Oct 26 2018


If anyone would like to try this with pills cyproterone acetate is prescribed for chemical castration as well.
-- beanangel, Oct 26 2018


If you skip the "acetate" and just get cyproterone it is all kind of backward. I'm learning something here, often I ignore the bits on the end of drug names, usually, they're solubility aids or just the counter-ion. Here, it makes a difference. Cyproterone is a testosterone receptor antagonist... which, life being life, causes a response: massive testicles, more sperm and testosterone. Heh.
-- bs0u0155, Oct 26 2018


[bs0u0155] Putting some other thing on the cyproterone other than an acetate is a nifty thought. Perhaps there is testis-mostly/only version of cyproterone like diacetyl cyproterone that passes the testis-circulatory system barrier (I read about it, it is kind of like the blood brain barrier but for gonads, I do not know if ovaries have them as well) but mostly stays out of the rest of the body.

Or, aromatase is an enzyme, that to my perception is mostly in the testis, you could make some cyproterone with moeity molecule that only divides to release cyproterone where there is aromatase.
-- beanangel, Jul 16 2019


Testosterone is known for making men really stupid. Stupid people die early. I think that explains the difference in longevity of men with testosterone and those without, it just a matter of stupidity.
-- el dueno, Jul 17 2019


Nature is a strange beast, that eunuch is eventually going to break their wall and sire a genetic anomaly that human race wished had existed long ago. Around the corner is the infinite.

Then again, fiddling designs may play a part. Carry on.
-- wjt, Jul 18 2019


From the title I'm expecting something like suicide booths, now I'll read it & see how close I came.
-- Skewed, Jul 19 2019


Nope, not about immunizing people against longevity it seems, rather than opposite in fact.
-- Skewed, Jul 19 2019


Errr...according to the news in the DR Congo, fewer people will die from Ebola, because they will die of measles (there is large outbreak of measles there). All we need now is for the viruses to merge in a undiscovered tribe of flying monkeys.
-- not_morrison_rm, Jul 19 2019


Measles, really, are you sure?

My mother used to drag me around to disease parties when I was little (pre-school, under five, the idea was to immunize you against common childhood ailments b4 you started school), measles & mumps were definitely among them & I can't believe she'd have exposed me to something with a high risk of mortality attached.

[a Google later]

1900 mortality rates were around 13.3 per 100,000 in the population, so damn low, & at a time when science, living conditions & wotnot weren't exactly at peak performance..

So, did you mention the wrong disease there?
-- Skewed, Jul 19 2019


//disease parties//

Not sure what they were really called but if anyone had a kid with something contagious they used to have a party & everyone would bring their toddlers to spend time with the afflicted & 'hopefully' catch it too.
-- Skewed, Jul 19 2019


Ebola is poised to become quite a serious virus. Incidence has been increasing year on year, but not exponentially. However, the higher the incidence, the higher the probability of its learning some new tricks or swapping a few genes with other more common bugs.

Ebola at present is a bit of a limp biscuit, virally speaking, since it's not very transmissible and kills its human hosts quite fast - that's a naive strategy from a virus that has only recently taken an interest in humans. It will find its feet before long and adapt to its new host.

It would not be surprising if Ebola rates continue to trend slowly upwards for a few years more, then surge by a few orders of magnitude. There's a pretty good chance that vaccines will stay ahead of it, unless it also picks up some neat immune-evading strategies along the way. But "staying ahead" only applies to the subset of the population who have had the good sense to be born in wealthy countries.
-- MaxwellBuchanan, Jul 19 2019


[Skewed] How many brothers and sisters did you have?
-- wjt, Jul 20 2019


I see where you're going with this :) they're all still with us.
-- Skewed, Jul 20 2019



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