maybe this should be in / Immortality News ?
Want to live forever?
Technologies exist today that not only promote anti-ageing, but also suggest death is not quite as inevitable as it seems. By Jeff Daniels.
It’s hard to imagine your grandmother looking like she was 25, getting around on a skateboard and hitting the town every night. But by the time you’re her age, this could be you. For centuries alchemists searched for the secrets of the elixir of life and the fountain of youth in a desperate but ultimately futile attempt to prolong life indefinitely. Now it seems that science is finally catching up with science fiction and the idea of immortality may not be as ridiculous as once thought.
Nanotechnology, DNA mapping, cloning, stem cell research and human genome studies are all challenging the notion that ageing is inevitable and unalterable. Ageing, it seems, is a potentially curable condition.
Speaking at the annual World Future Society conference in the US in 2003, Dr Michael Zey said that he thought immortality would be a reality by 2075, if not before.
are you old enough?
In the last 200 years, life expectancy has doubled worldwide. In Australia, female life expectancy has been rising at the rate of three months per year for the last 160 years. It’s also been happening with men, but not as fast.
In Japan in 1950, a 65-year-old woman had a one-in-1000 chance of surviving to 100. Today it’s one in 20. By 2070 it will be the norm. Australians aren’t that far behind, with 15 per cent of the current population over the age of 65.
There are a number of reasons for this increase in our life span, with better food, better water and better medical care being the most influential factors. People have always assumed that life expectancy would reach a ceiling and that we will be able to go no further. But it seems that we have underestimated ourselves.
weird science
Life expectancy is growing at such a rate that it is difficult to know when or if it will stop. Some scientists are predicting that people will soon be capable of living to 200. Others are saying that this is
a conservative estimate.
“The whole science of ageing is relatively new,” says anti-ageing expert, Dr Michael Elstein. “It’s only emerged in the last 10 to 20 years with the baby boomers trying to live beyond 80 years.
Scientists are attempting to reprogram the body clocks that slow down and eventually shut down our vital functions as we age. The secrets lie in our genes. Simply by manipulating genetic factors, geneticists have been successful in extending the life of human cells by 30 per cent. “With genetics and the discovery of the genome, we will be able to intervene and do things to dramatically delay the ageing process,” says Elstein.
Director of the Centre for Education and Research on Ageing, Dr David Le Couteur, is similarly excited by the recent developments in genetics.
“The main genetic influence on ageing is through telomers, which are the tips on the ends of the chromosomes that contain all your genes,” he says. “Basically, each time your cells divide these tips get a little bit shorter until eventually these tips get so short, your cells can’t divide anymore. Biotech companies have shown a lot of interest in stopping this happening so that, theoretically, cells can live forever and stop ageing.”
staying hungry
Then there are the life extensionists that look towards kilojoule restriction as the anti-ageing answer.
“It’s been shown in multiple species that if you reduce the total kilojoule intake you increase maximum life expectancy,” says Le Couteur. “The effect is substantial. If you take mice and rats, for example, and make them eat 40 per cent less, they live for about 40 per cent longer. If you took the average human that might be expected to live to 100, they’re going to live to 150 if they restrict their eating.”
However, it has proved to be extremely difficult for humans to get sufficient nutrients with such a dramatic restriction to kilojoule intake.
Nanotechnology appears to have no such limitations.
“Nanotechnology involves the development of small robots called nanobots,” says Elstein. “When these nanobots are inserted into the body they go around correcting any damage or structural defects. It’s like a super antioxidant.
“The capacity for nanobots to repair whatever damage exists in the body will enable us to live for much longer periods of time than we’ve ever imagined. They are predicting we will be able to live for 200 to 300 years based on this technology.
“And the technology is not that far away – about 30 to 40 years.”
In the meantime, there are plenty of things you can do now to delay the ageing process.
“Everybody needs to have an anti-ageing assessment, ideally around the age of about 40,” says Elstein. “As a part of that, you need to look at vitamin levels, whether you have risk factors for heart disease, cholesterol and homocystine tests as well as testing for hormone levels and free radicals and how the body is coping with those free radicals. Based on these tests you can plan
a strategy that will involve a dietary change, exercise, a vitamin and antioxidant program and, if necessary, a hormonal program.
testing 1,2,3 “We really need to be proactive. The sooner people know where they’re at, the sooner they can do something about their health before disease sets in.”
This type of health test is likely to become even more refined with the development of nutritional genomics. By simply supplying
a sample of your blood, you can match your unique DNA profile with a special diet designed specifically for you.
By living well now we are at least compressing the time we will be sick towards the end of our lives, giving us quality of life for longer.
cryonics – raising the living dead
Marta Sandberg made arrangements with her husband, Helmer, that upon his death he would be frozen and shipped to the US. Helmer had just been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour.
“When he died, nothing stopped me from grieving,” she said. “Nothing can remove the pain of grief.
“The fact that he isn’t here anymore. The fact that I can’t hold him. I can’t talk to him. When Helmer died it almost broke me.”
Twenty-eight thousand dollars later, Helmer is today in cryonic suspension, frozen in a vessel of liquid nitrogen, which preserves the tissues as well as the molecular and cellular structure of his body in the hope that one day he can be thawed out, brought back to life and cured.
“Firstly, you have to find a cure for what killed you in the first place,” says Sandberg. “Second, you have to repair the freezing damage. Thirdly, you have to repair whatever damage happened to your body as it was dying. Fourthly, I would like to fix up old age so I could wake up in a young body. There’s not much point dying at 97 of kidney failure just to be woken up and three years later die of liver failure.
“Let’s say that cryonics works. Let’s say we both wake up. I would have lived, maybe half my life without Helmer. We will have to fall in love again. Mind you, it was so wonderful the first time, I think we might be successful the second time around. I’m looking forward to it.”
how to delay ageing now•visualisation Our state of mind is very important. If we expect to decline when we hit our 70s, we will. Take 10 to 15 minutes every day to relax and visualise yourself as happy and healthy. Say to yourself: “I will be well for many years to come.”
•vitamins Vitamins C and E both work as antioxidants to fight off free radicals and prevent the degeneration of cells. Vitamin E, in particular, can reduce the risk of some age-related conditions, including some types of cancer, heart disease and possibly even Alzheimer’s disease.
•alexander technique Correcting your posture makes you more agile, energetic and in many cases, free of pain. You look better, too.
•evening primrose oil contains gamma-linolenic acid (GLA). The ageing body finds it difficult to convert fats in foods into GLA, crucial for many of the body’s functions.
•exercise aerobic exercise stimulates endocrine glands, stimulates circulation and prevents high blood pressure. It also helps to keep your weight down – there has not been an obese person that has lived to be 100. Weight-bearing exercise, such as walking and weight training builds and helps maintain strong bones and muscle mass.
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Seems like the idea of life extension and reversing aging is getting more attention lately !
