With more than 450 scientific publications under his belt (making him one of the most-cited scientists across all fields), Bruce Ames is working hard to elucidate the consequences of DNA damage for cancer, aging and mental health.

Casey and I recently attended a lovely dinner with Bruce and his wife Giovanna at Fior d'Italia in North Beach. Over the evening we discussed our emerging neurosociety and how his involvement in Juvenon, an "anti-aging" company, leverages his latest research.

Over the past decade, Ames has discovered that deficiencies of certain micronutrients appear to mimic radiation in damaging DNA. He and his group have found that folate deficiency breaks chromosomes due to massive incorporation of uracil into human DNA. Bruce asserts that micronutrient deficiency may explain why the quarter of the population that eats the fewest fruits and vegetables has double the cancer rate for most types of cancer when compared with the quarter that consumes the most fruits and vegetables. Sadly, only 9% of Americans eat enough fruit and vegetables each day.

The group has also found that aging may be caused, in good part, by oxidants produced as by-products of normal metabolism, which alter mitochondrial function. The mitochondria of old rats, when compared to young rats, were found to be impaired in many ways. Feeding old rats the normal mitochondrial metabolites, acetyl carnitine and lipoic acid, reversed much of the impairment. The group is investigating the effect of these metabolites on lifespan and brain function, and is exploring the extension of their studies to humans.

If you'd like to live long and prosper Bruce recommends getting some healthy exercise and to take your micronutrients – vitamins B12, B6, C, E, folate, and niacin, and the minerals iron and zinc - each day. According to Bruce, an optimum intake of micronutrients and metabolites, which varies with age and genetics, should tune up metabolism and markedly increase health at little cost, particularly for the poor and elderly.

Thanks David.

UPDATE: Only problem with this advice is the iron. Taking iron can be actively harmful to the half a percent of Caucasians with the genetics for hemochromatosis. (from Chris at CRNano)