Forgive me for my ignorance but I had a very simple observation that makes me wonder if we already might have an answer to increase longevity.
Bear with me here.
By the way, I recently bought Aubrey's 'Ending Aging' and am enjoying it very much- (I was surprised that he basically threw out calorie restriction, saying he doubts it will have much impact at all on humans but anyway I digress...
I also recently got a copy of Michael Rose's book "The Long Tomorrow-How advances in evolutionary biology can help us postpone aging"
Then I just happen to pick up the LA Times (oct 15th) that had an article about longevity. In one article, it mentioned something that confirmed the basic premise of Michael Rose's book.
It said, (citing the New England Centenarian Study- 40,000 centenarians) that "Women who were able to conceive and give birth naturally in their 40s are 4 times as likely to reach age 100 than women who last gave birth in their 30s or earlier."
So, do we not already have a proof of concept (in humans) of something that will delay the aging process (late reproduction)???
And now to my basic point- Wouldnt a genetic profile of these same women, somehow identifying which genes are preferentially expressed, wouldnt this set us on a path, at least a direction for finding longevity genes???
I have no idea if this is even possible, hence, somebody 'set me straight'--