Scientists are going beyond the thought-possible while proclaiming that aging can more than simply be gradually slowed down, it can end. It might even be plausible to rewind the aging process. New scientists of on aging are committed to overcome death and set longevity to an infinite limit.
Recently on a conference on aging, some maverick researcher on anti-aging declares the impossible as possible. They made their belief lucid that one day the human body could remain forever young.
This utopian statement remains contradictory to recent findings. Dr. Michael Fossel, professor of medicine at Michigan State University and editor of the Journal of Anti-Aging Medicine considered that research on anti-aging has been stagnant for the last 130 years. Since even earlier than the identification of microbial disease, aging has been accepted as an inevitably complex process.
Aging is a processes caused by ‘wear and tear’ of tissues and cells. According to Fossel, what research on anti-aging is doing is finding cure, vaccine and medicine to improve health standards at late-life. Dr. Leonid Gavrilov, from the Centre on Ageing at the University of Chicago, shares the same perspective as Fossel and mocks the ideology of immortality.
Dr. Leonid Gavrilov, says that aging is due to an unsystematic accumulation of damage, and these injuries can be controlled. For instance, in Japan, the survival rate of women during the last five decades has risen from 1 percent to 10 percent in the quest to become a centenarian. This drastic improvement has been achieved simply from enhancement in health care services. The health care service is where anti-aging is really focusing on.
According to Fossel, the cause of aging is innate in the concept of cell aging, which is caused by shortening of telomere, the protective end of each chromosome. In theory, enzyme telomerase can rejuvenate telomere and make cells practically immortal.
However, until science reaches such advancement many years of study will still be required. The major lacking are both regulatory and financial reasons. Yet, possibility of living longer without suffering from fragility of old age is a feasible target.
At the National Institute of Ageing in Baltimore, Dr George Roth is studying and trying to copy the positive effect that starvation has on the human body. It is until now the only certain way to prolong life without common shortcomings.
Dr Suresh Rattan from the Danish Centre for Molecular Gerontology thinks that hormesis is the answer. It consists of giving cells challenges such as exposing them to lower temperature, thus pressuring them to evolve and enhance their functionality.
Other gerontologists and anti-aging experts consider that the solution can be, injection of testosterone nutritional supplements, hormones DHEA, antioxidants or stem-cells. However the theories and findings conveyed at the conference were faced with skepticism.
Dr Gary Andrews, professor of aging at University of South Australia, said that laboratory success in research at a cellular level is a premature celebration to confirm longevity result for humans.
Moreover, Dr Robin Holliday, an Australian biologist, considers that finding a piece of a complex puzzle for longevity doesn’t say much. Dr Robin says, “Pigs might Fly” to give a dimension of the complexity we are dealing with. Aging is a caused by a multiple of reasons, and eventually the brain is incapable to repair predicaments caused to membranes, tissues, cells, DNA amidst other.
Paradoxically, life of humans is relatively long compare to other species such as rats. The reason for our longer life span is found in aging. For instance rats breed rapidly and therefore decease young. Human alike other mammals such as the whales, breed slowly and therefore die at a slow pace, giving us the ability to survive to an old age. In reality our life should practically stop at 50 as it is sufficient to assure the survival of our offspring. In evolutionary term, any age above fifth years of age is a bonus. Our life span is already extraordinary.
A radical increase in human life span according to Fossel and Holliday would be shattering to society. It would unfold population figures, cause pressure on resources distribution and eventually a great deal of this long-lived human might be having a disabled brain. The question that arises is what is the use to live longer without proper brain power?
Living to an unlimited age is certainly seductive. If science will be able to handle both longevity and health care problems, then late life might seem brighter.
Reference:
http://longevity-science.org/Sun-Herald-2004.pdf
Gerontology, Health And Aging, Immortality, Lifestyle, Longevity
Sun, Dec 13, 2009
Gerontology, Health And Aging, Immortality, Lifestyle, Longevity