There is a debate among life extension researchers that could lead to the same stagnation that so many other debates result in and that is a lack of goal advancement and split resources that otherwise could have fought the same good fight. Nevertheless, the longevity experts are determined to achieve their goal of engineered genetics and metabolism modification to slow the progression of aging. The problem with this vision is the finish line is so far off that enthusiasm is bound to falter and the science is so very complex. There is also the fact that any successful outcome will surely be attained when those who championed the research are long gone and unable to reap the benefits.
There are those who feel it is regrettable that so much prolonged life, aging research is being devoted to such an ineffective means of forward research that will inevitably lead to fewer advantages, specifically for those who require results soon. The research groups involved in this vein of science are convinced theirs is the only way to advance. It is a long and slow struggle to understand completely what is aging and its metabolic association. This would be followed up by a re-manufacturing of said metabolism so it would age more slowly. The depth of this study direction and difficulty level leaves many in the science community to question how much more research remains to see any worthwhile benefits and just how far away engineered longevity really is.
There is a faster method to achieve human longevity. It will be easier to achieve and certainly be less expensive to attain. Producing less pricey rejuvenation treatments rather than finding a means to slow the physical aging process would be easier. Rejuvenation does not need a modified metabolism or years of study to understand. It merely means we turn back to clear understood alterations of a metabolic form that we know and understand. It not only works but a few billion young people are using it already. These rejuvenation treatments stand to be more efficient than slowing the process of aging in regards to the amount of years we would achieve, because we could continue to return to the well. These therapies will also assist the elderly who do not have any advantage waiting for a slow aging process; it is too late for them.
There is another symptom of the “metabolism manipulation is the best and only way forward – there is no alternative” thought process. It is an intense arrogance this point of view that requires a counter opinion. Those in favor of the anti aging medicinal route want to modify the body to achieve prolonged life extension. In order to attain this goal it must turn around or at least by pass the many reasons why we age in the first place. Not an easy task when you consider the quantity of age related causes, all of which are currently under the microscope in labs worldwide. The leading scientists of anit aging medicine research state that it will succeed with greater achievement than by the joint effort of the countless researchers working on the studies.
From an evolutionary perspective, aging itself has a long record and it must be remembered that the anatomy and physiology of mammals is directly linked to their restricted life expectancy. The anti aging sect plans to change all of this in only a couple of decades, what has taken millions of years of evolution to get where it is. Such reckless thinking could only be a result of superior egotism. It is also the vision described earlier that aging can be slowed, doing so by altering human biochemistry daily using considerable methods and that it will never be achieved in a useable time frame. What causes aging is not the process or progression of aging or even its origin. The longevity experts or manufacturers of life extension models discuss the causes of aging, those things that result in biochemical damages that accumulate in out tissue and result in various types of pathology.
In order to accept the challenge of aging in an efficient manner, it needs to be understood that the entire argument is about efficiency, then the pathology of aging is not where this issue should commence from. By attempting to fix individual aging processes, you are walking into the wind. Not solving fundamental issues, your labors are destined to be inefficient and they will fail. The way we treat patients in geriatric environments today is like walking into the wind but this is because it is how things have been done for years and the treatments are all medical science has to offer. Basically, the model is to heave as much money and resources at therapies for dealing with the results of aging and nothing is achieved by it. Billions gone and yet it was better than nothing at all.
Science today is at the beginning of some breathtaking achievements in biotechnology. Scientific research is more about repair and prevention of disease and its cause, rather than what it has always done which is fix up the consequences of cause. Following a more efficient route to the engineering of prolonged life will mean successful extension of human life expectancy versus billions of dollars spent by researchers to raise the longevity bar ever so slightly. Using the previous examples as a roadmap to future progress is wrong headed research. It will be difficult to make it work since the future is usually better served by doing things a different way and learning from the past rather than continuing with it.
As for evolution versus medical research science, scientific research has been responsible for a number of reversed evolutionary results that took millions of years to formulate. Nevertheless, when has an evolutionary period for a particular characteristic had any bearing on the development medicine that works on it? This view of human evolution and resulting structures serves to illustrate the metabolic manipulation point of view. It verifies that biochemistry will have a difficult time reengineering for advanced longevity via slower aging. The truth in this should be obvious since the complexity of designing longevity therapies due to the intricate systems involved. Everything that is changed would be open to severe adverse reactions in every minute process involved and the progression of aging is directly in the middle of this amalgam of intricacies.
However, modern open minded longevity researchers, the frowned upon minority in this picture are taking a less encumbered path into the future. They are utilizing the metabolism, as it is when we are in our youth as the epitome model to strive for and are determined to reverse any alterations that occur to that model due to age. There is no reengineering or fixing A, only to now have to modify B, C is affected by changes to A and D etc., the difference is this novel method is plainly restoration and repair in a tactical sense. The goal is to rejuvenate or restore the metabolism to what we know works, not design a new model for the metabolism that we hope will work after it is researched and tested endlessly.
This is the efficient means of achieving a prolonged life. Efficiency in the longevity question is the primary debatable issue in biochemical and biotechnology research these days. More education and promotion is required to get the message out about efficient longevity science rather than reengineering the gene pool. How well this message is conveyed will determine just how long we will live and how healthy we will all be as we age chronologically.
Anti Aging Theories, Bioscience, Health And Aging, Longevity
Tue, Jan 26, 2010
Anti Aging Theories, Bioscience, Health And Aging, Longevity