/oss/taxonomy/term/996/all en /oss/article/medical-history/life-and-death-soviet-era-search-longevity <hr /> <p><em>This article was first published in <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/the-right-chemistry-the-life-and-death-of-a-soviet-era-search-for-longevity">The Montreal Gazette.</a></em></p> <hr /> <p>Want to prolong life? To start with, you need three corpses from healthy young men accidentally killed in within the previous 12 hours.</p> Fri, 20 Sep 2024 22:41:00 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 10088 at /oss /oss/article/critical-thinking-health-general-science/reservations-about-resveratrol <p>In 1940 Japanese researcher Michio Takaoka submitted his thesis for a graduate degree in which he described studies of plants with a folkloric history of having medicinal properties. Such studies involve the extraction, isolation and identification of compounds that may have biological activity. This is a complex and challenging project given that plants are veritable chemical factories, churning out hundreds of different substances.</p> Thu, 14 Jan 2021 21:58:35 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 8556 at /oss /oss/article/health-videos/right-chemistry-how-live-longer <p><div class="media-youtube-video media-element file-default media-youtube-1"> <iframe class="media-youtube-player" id="media-youtube-tdpzy00wis4" width="640" height="390" title="Dr. Joe Schwarcz: How to live longer" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/TdpzY00wis4?wmode=opaque&controls=&enablejsapi=1&modestbranding=1&playerapiid=media-youtube-tdpzy00wis4&origin=https%3A//www.mcgill.ca&rel=0" name="Dr. Joe Schwarcz: How to live longer" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen>Video of Dr. Joe Schwarcz: How to live longer</iframe> </div> </p> Fri, 08 Nov 2019 20:04:59 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 7994 at /oss /oss/article/food-health/eating-less-and-living-more <p style="text-align:justify"><a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/2013/04/29/eating-less-and-living-more/bagette/" rel="attachment wp-att-5117"><img alt="" height="150" src="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/files/2013/04/bagette-150x150.jpg" width="150" /></a>They feast on croissants that ooze butter. They eat creamy cheeses and fat-filled pastries. Breakfast is pain-au-chocolat washed down with espresso. There is no oatmeal in sight. I suspect most of them have never heard of flaxseed. Yet, the French have the lowest death rate from heart disease in the European Union, and when we compare this rate to North America, well, there is no comparison. Our incidence of heart disease is double that of the French. Red wine consumption is the romanticized explanation that has been offered for this so-called “French paradox,” and there may indeed be something to that. Laboratory studies have shown that a compound in wine, called resveratrol, may reduce the risk associated with high cholesterol. But there is probably a better explanation as to why the French are protected. <a href="http://blogs.mcgill.ca/oss/2013/04/29/eating-less-and-living-more">Read more</a></p> Mon, 29 Apr 2013 22:30:23 +0000 Joe Schwarcz PhD 1927 at /oss