I just happened to come across an article discussing Biogerontologist Aubrey De Grey and his belief that humans could live to be 1,000 years old. I was intrigued by his ideas as I do believe that humans could live a great deal longer than we currently do if we learned how to properly take care of our bodies and utilized some of the great medical advancements we've made in regards to preventing disease, such as the field of stem cell research. The communion of positive lifestyle choices, good eating habits, physical awareness and wellness combined with the technological advances in my eyes really spell out the prospect of a much longer human life span. Here is a 22 minute video of Aubrey De Grey filmed in 2006 as he gave a lecture on his field of study and the seven steps to preventing aging. Enjoy!
Sunday, August 8, 2010
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1 comments:
I have the utmost confidence in the work of Dr Aubrey de Grey and his theories of why we age. In my opinion these theories will almost certainly be seen by future generations as the turning point in the war on aging. The reason for this is rather similar to the breakthrough when we realised a flying machines wings did not need to flap like a bird it was Aubrey's realisation that curing aging will be very difficult (I personally think it is 100+ years away) but that treating it with regular interventions to mitigate its effects might offer us a shortcut to extreme life extension. The evidence that he is correct is significant but I feel the single most compelling piece of proof to support Aubrey’s theory is that our risk of dying doubles every 7 years, for example your risk of death from disease at 21 is double what it was at 14 and at 28 double what it was at 21. Although this doubling every seven years does not become a major problem until you reach say 40 because it starts off at such a low level the growth is exponential meaning it accelerates rapidly with age. What is abundantly clear is that the only likely cause for this increasing risk of mortality is the accumulation of junk in the body and the genetic damage to our DNA which builds up over time. Aubrey's theory is that if we intervened and removed some of the damage we would make a person biologically younger and this certainly makes sense. As far as progress we are progressing quite well in some areas and where Aubrey scores highly is that he has brought together large numbers of experts from a variety of fields who normally wouldn't come across each other and share ideas. It is this factor which is driving things forward with great momentum through combining knowledge and research from a wide range of unrelated though complimentary fields of research.
I am pretty much certain there is nothing to indicate that the theory regarding the 7 fundamental causes of aging which Aubrey has put forward is not plausible. People often ask me in conversation "how do you know Aubrey is right and there are only 7 main types of damage and accumulated problems that arise through aging?" the answer to this lies in the fact that these seven were all discovered over a roughly 20 year period between the 1950s and 1970s, this means that in the last 30 plus years in spite of the human genome project and vastly increased scientific knowledge we have not found any further factors and this supports Aubrey's view (and mine) that these 7 are probably all there are. To understand the theory I recommend checking out this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-Qw3EcrAho
I view the conquering of aging in much the same way as beating any other disease albeit aging is a complex issue involving many different processes many of which we have only begun to understand. sometimes Aubrey is accused of making it sound simpler than it actually is by breaking the causes down to seven factors as set out below but Aubrey is certainly not deluded and is well aware that we are fighting a war and that victory will be far from easy but that does not mean that it is not a realistic proposition to render aging a treatable although chronic condition within 25 to 30 years! The key is funding in all the crucial areas and for more on that check out http://www.sens.org or http://www.methuselahfoundation.org/
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