The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old

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• medicine
• aging
• Glenn Reynolds
• health

Old age has always been like the weather: Everybody talks about aging, but nobody does anything about it. Oh, they’ve tried. For millennia, charlatans have been offering remedies for aging that didn’t work any better than baldness cures and virility restorers.

Now, however, with baldness cures and virility restorers that do work found as close as the nearest drugstore, researchers have started looking into ways to slow, stop or perhaps even reverse the changes that accompany aging. If these scientists succeed, their breakthroughs may lead to major changes in human society.

We’ve long regarded aging as something almost mystical or supernatural, and it’s easy to see why. Unlike, say, smallpox, aging doesn’t come on suddenly or spread from person to person. You also don’t recover from it, as you do from most infectious diseases. It happens gradually, and it’s pretty much unrelenting. Eyesight dims, joints get stiff and achy, teeth go bad and, in general, things just keep getting worse until death arrives.

But research demonstrates that aging isn’t a supernatural proc­ess; it’s a physical one that gradually occurs as systems wear out beyond the body’s ability to repair them. Cells fill up with metabolic debris called lipofuscin that they can’t digest, accompanied by decreasing functionality. They also undergo glycation, gumming up and caramelizing with sugars that have bonded to proteins. Mitochondrial DNA can suffer mutations, and the body slowly loses stem cells, which weakens healing and repair.

Aging is breakdown, but broken things can be fixed. After all, cars and airplanes tend to wear out as they get older, but with sufficient maintenance they can last far beyond their design life.

Biogerontologists like Aubrey de Grey, author of Ending Aging, believe that living longer is a fairly straightforward engineering problem: Find out what breaks and fix it. De Grey promotes an approach he calls Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence, or SENS. It identifies seven specific breakdowns and attempts to attack each of them in turn. He and others are researching longevity with support from nonprofits and an X Prize approach aimed at extending the life span of mice. (Researchers call it the Mprize, a reference to their quest to engineer the “Methuselah mouse.”) I certainly wish them well—after all, I’m not getting any younger—but de Grey says that it will probably be 20 or 30 years before we see effective antiaging drugs on the market.

Scientists have already identified more modest life extenders. It’s pretty thoroughly established that red wine’s resveratrol activates the SIRT-1 gene, which seems to clean out intracellular gunk. (The gene is also triggered by calorie restriction.) Studies show that rats dosed with resveratrol—or given low-calorie diets—seem to live longer and remain far more vital than ordinary rats. Sirtris Pharmaceuticals is currently conducting human testing of a drug called SRT501 as a treatment for diabetes, but it may also hold promise for retarding the aging process and alleviating a number of inflammatory diseases that go with getting older.

At Stanford, researchers have reversed the aging of skin in mice, making it look and act like young skin, which contains cells that reproduce rapidly. This treatment isn’t ready for humans, but it suggests an approach. And given the popularity of cosmetics that merely address the appearance of aging, it seems likely a product that actually produces new skin would sell like hot cakes.

Meanwhile, commercial res­veratrol supplements are available, and people are taking them, including some scientists in the field. As part of the research for this column, I started taking one. To find out if it’s working, click here for a follow-up on my experience.

On the flip side, people often see extended longevity as dubious, envisioning extra years in the nursing home. As Jay Leno says, “People tell you to eat right and exercise, but that only gives you more years in your 80s. Who needs that? What I really want are more years in my 20s.” New treatments for aging would give us just that—or at least healthier years in our 60s and 70s. The goal isn’t just more years in your life, but more life in your years.

If antiaging drugs eventually work, who could be against them? Well, Dr. Leon Kass, for one. Kass, former chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics, writes: “Is it really true that longer life for individuals is an unqualified good? If the human life span were increased even by only 20 years, would the pleasures of life increase proportionately?”

The obvious answer: It depends on the individual. But on a societal level, the extension of peoples’ productive working lives could pay huge dividends. If people stay youthful longer, we’ll see less pressure on the stressed-out social security systems of most industrialized countries. If 65-year-olds were as vigorous as 35-year-olds, or even 45-year-olds, there would be no reason to fund their retirement. Pushing the retirement age back a decade or two could save trillions. And, of course, if you can actually reverse aging, the whole notion of retirement becomes obsolete.

The reality is that Americans now live longer, healthier lives by several decades than the majority did a century ago. Most of us think it’s a good thing. Would extending this phenomenon by several more decades be good, too? Seems like it to me.

74. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
It's funny being a depressive. I can't understand why on earth would anyone want this life forever... but that's just me. I will tell you what medicine doesn't have a *real* clue about, though: depression. One thing I must quote was Leno's brilliant "more years in your 80s. Who needs that? What I really want are more years in my 20s".

73. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Website: myspace.com/uneed2balifeextensionist
This is a great article. Most pro longevity article Ive seen around. Anybody know of any other good prolongevity articles that dont come from the main foundations themselves? Is anybody around here from imminst? Be sure to check out the aging conference at UCLA at the end of june. Aubrey will be there talking about s.e.n.s. and everything.

72. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Suppose medicine and technology make such great advances in the next twenty years that some great proportion of Boomers can expect to live to 100. How will they support themselves? What kind of jobs can they hold? As a society we already have too many retirees living off the taxes of workers. Assuming I'm lucky enough to dodge the outsourcing and rightsizing and I get to keep my job until I'm 65, I expect my savings to run out about the time I'm 72 to 75. Earlier if price inflation keeps climbing. At that point either I'm homeless or it's time to die.

71. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Suppose medicine and technology make such great advances in the next twenty years that some great proportion of Boomers can expect to live to 100. How will they support themselves? What kind of jobs can they hold? As a society we already have too many retirees living off the taxes of workers. Assuming I'm lucky enough to dodge the outsourcing and rightsizing and I get to keep my job until I'm 65, I expect my savings to run out about the time I'm 72 to 75. Earlier if price inflation keeps climbing. At that point either I'm homeless or it's time to die.

70. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Suppose medicine and technology make such great advances in the next twenty years that some great proportion of Boomers can expect to live to 100. How will they support themselves? What kind of jobs can they hold? As a society we already have too many retirees living off the taxes of workers. Assuming I'm lucky enough to dodge the outsourcing and rightsizing and I get to keep my job until I'm 65, I expect my savings to run out about the time I'm 72 to 75. Earlier if price inflation keeps climbing. At that point either I'm homeless or it's time to die.

69. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Website: http://www.kidfromarmourdale.com
Earth is is very dynamic and challenging place to reside. It is a ball of congealed seemingly insurmountable problems for man to untangle and resolve,one by one. As has been recorded, we are terminal from birth, it is our challenge to make the most of this very diffiult world. To make life even more miserable, this world is afflicted with an abundance of educated morons who tend to make matters worse. To wit: those who claim man should die gracefully. I say fight for every breath and live til you die.Our gains in life extension have provided time for many to complete their mission here on earth , to the benefit of mankind.

68. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
#65."I think that scientists shouldn't try to stop the aging process. Its a natural process and it just part of life." My opinion to refute this argument: Why then should we try to stop cancer? Why do you take medicine or go to the hospital to cure your ailments? Is all this not part of the natural process? People like to pick and choose what they want modern medicine to fix. I say let them figure out how to stop it. If you don't want to interfere with the aging process, then do not look to medical procedures when you have a stroke or heart attack at 65 years of age. Just let nature take its course, right?

67. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
I am glad to see all of these comments on the idea of stopping the aging process. It amazes me that there are so many people that do not care about stopping aging. Perhaps it is that they have just resigned themselves to believe that it is impossible, but I am just as saddened and amazed at people that commits suicide. When the option to stop aging is available, I will absolutely accept it, and I hope it is soon Aquaman40s@aol.com

66. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Man who would want to live forever with some of the mean spirited people who responded to this article? I would just like to live long enough to see my grand kids and take them fishing a fiew times that would fulfill my life.So spend your money on cures for cancer. A 110 years would be plenty and theres proof out there its possible. People have been documented to getting that old study them!

65. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
I think that scientists shouldn't try to stop the aging process. Its a natural process and it just part of life. If everyone lived forever there would be major population crisis. The world already has enough issues but aging definitely isnt one of them. Lets focus on the ones that NEED to be fixed.

64. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Even if science stops aging and every one can live forever, if you get in a horrific car crash and you're decapitated - YOU'RE DEAD! This proves there's no such thing as eternal life.

63. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
#34: Perhaps you should learn how to spell "disease" and "journalistic" before commenting on who is and isn't stupid. Aging IS a dieease. Your cells are programmed to divide only a certain number of times, and then to die. In cellular biology, scientists have been able (by modifiying genes in cells) to make cells immortal. That is, they divide on and on over time and never die, nor do they become cancerous. This stuff is tough to understand but it's upon us and it's real, so let's make an effort to understand it instead of dismissing it because of how it sounds. As stated previously, if you don't want your life or you're relying on a God to save you when you die, that's fine, choose death. For everyone else, stopping aging and curing all disease should be the #1 priority of our culture - any resulting economic or overcrowding issues CAN be overcome. "a CURE to aging"??.. Since when is aging a decease? This is textbook example of Jurnalistic STUPIDITY

62. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
#52: It would indeed seem that we are on the cusp of eradicating all diseases, including aging, this century, through the use of stem cells, nanotechnology, gene therapy. If you want to insure that you'll benefit, and could be around for hundreds of years, you'll need to freeze your brain. Not enough people think this way -- yet -- even though cryopreservation of embryos, sperm, even rabbit kidneys, has been successful for some time now. Admittedly, the companies that offer cryopreservation of human brains (like Alcor.org) are tiny and the research into proper methods has been slow, but it's the best thing we have right now if you were to die before a) these anti-aging/anti-disease treatments are available or B) before human cryonics is taken seriously and developed better. The premise is that any damage done to the brain by lack of blood flow (prior to the brain being stored in a liquid nitrogen tank) will be able to be repaired by future technology. If you look at how far we've come in 100 years, 100 years from now it doesn't take a genius to predict that such technology will likely exist. Cryonics does not violate any religious belief anymore than taking pills to reduce cholesterol or having a heart bypass surgery - the idea is to extend life (and put your life on hold until you can be saved), just like ALL medical therapies available today.

61. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
In the article you ask us to come here to find out about the follow up on the author taking resveratrol. Then you tie it to 2 articles I don't want to investigate and advertising. This only prostitutes your reporting. Very disappointing. I won't head down this path again.

60. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
There will never be public access to a cure such as this. It would be available to a select few and possible some public people with very, VERY large bankaccounts. Even then, people in control wouldn't want this to happen because they want the population to decrease. Haven't you heard of chemtrails? They spray this crap to terraform the planet (global warming). Another 150 years or so earth will have a different atmosphere and will be suitable for aliens from the reticuli to live here. A small population of humans will survive and work as slaves underground. You can laugh all you want, but I have my sources..yeah I know everyone says that, but this time its true.. Mark my words, you'll start to notice the transition in the next 10 years or so.. Aliens will be public knowledge by 2012-2014.

59. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
This is a load of crap. if people were meant to live for 110-120 years, they would. people should live with what they have, and not make any changes like this. the way that the human population is increasing now is bad enough and if anything end of story

58. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
#53 - You're an idiot. If you actually had an IQ higher than a chair, you would've noticed the obesity epidemic in the U.S. Clearly, "we" aren't "smart enough" to know what does and doesn't work. Good luck with your innovative and evolved lifestyle of processed fast food.

57. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Read #50. I plan to live as long as possible. I do and will exercise as long as possible. I will watch what I eat and I will not eat McDonald's regularly. I will cook my own food that is not processed very much or at all. People can make their lives, their own and they can be sick all the time from eating processed food and not maintaining their body.

56. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Website: www.symmetrydirect.com/drose
Resveratrol has been making the headlines in so many newspapers and magazines! This miracle molecule is truly amazing. Then there is ellagic acid, vitamins and minerals which, when taken consistently will equip the body to maintain itself

55. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Website: www.symmetrydirect.com/drose
Resveratrol has been making the headlines in so many newspapers and magazines! This miracle molecule is truly amazing. Then there is ellagic acid, vitamins and minerals which, when taken consistently will equip the body to maintain itself

54. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
The true solution will come when they figure out how to "download" all of the "data" in our brains and then to subsequently "upload" that data into the brain of our own clone (clone being in the "prime"). It kind of gives new meaning to the old cliche "If I had known then what I know now".

53. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
#31 - People like you are the only reason I wouldn't want to live longer. I would hate to see our society degrade thousands of years of evolution and innovation. I guess you don't realize that when people were eating like you advise, they were dying much younger than we are now. Many of the advances you speak of actually extend our lives by reducing the likelyhood that we will become sick and die from some kind of disease or even a common cold. You are clealy in the lower one percentile when it comes to IQ or perhaps you ae just a loon. Good luck with the lifestyle that we used long ago before we became smart enough to realize it doesn't work.

52. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Website: www.PauseMe.com
If you believe that fixes for aging are coming, which I think is obvious, then the immediate question for all is - am I going to DIE JUST BEFORE then? There is a simpler thing that can be done than curing aging, which can make sure that you 'fall over the line'. Ultrahibernation (safely reversible pausing of human metabolism at a cold temperature) needs to be made as safe as a general anaesthetic, as 'insurance'. Please join in our thinking about the possibility of pulling the breakthroughs required to make this available within 10 years rather than when it will likely become available anyway, in 30 years. If you believe that your life is worth 'insuring', then help us make a plan for bringing it from a series of disconnected scientific discoveries, to something we are aiming for 'in case'.

51. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Website: www.PauseMe.com
If you believe that fixes for aging are coming, which I think is obvious, then the immediate question for all is - am I going to DIE JUST BEFORE then? There is a simpler thing that can be done than curing aging, which can make sure that you 'fall over the line'. Ultrahibernation (safely reversible pausing of human metabolism at a cold temperature) needs to be made as safe as a general anaesthetic, as 'insurance'. Please join in our thinking about the possibility of pulling the breakthroughs required to make this available within 10 years rather than when it will likely become available anyway, in 30 years. If you believe that your life is worth 'insuring', then help us make a plan for bringing it from a series of disconnected scientific discoveries, to something we are aiming for 'in case'.

50. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
i am 61 and looking foward to leaving as soon as i can't do for myself alot of older people starve themselfs.

49. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
To comment number 45, if vacation was added to the average americans work time, then we would keep asking for more, as is standard for human beings. And my view on this is that I have no problem with living a better life, people would first need to slow down the reproducing rate. If everyone lived longer, healthier lives, and they continued to reproduce at current rates, we would be certainly dooming ourselves as human beings.

48. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
To live longer, or forever, everyone's dream. To be free of natural death. Outside of the obvious benefit, let's get real. It would definitely turn our economies upside down. If people could work longer it would only put an even greater strain on the young coming into the job markets. There are already too many workers for the jobs we have. Or maybe we could just terminate all the units we don't need. Also, there would have to be some kind of population control in place. There is no way we could continue with the current birth rate. Next, I have noticed a trend over the last few hundrerd years. As our projected life expectency increases, we keep artificially increasing the legal age of maturity for our children. Think back. When people lived to 40 our children were married by 13-16 and old maids at 18. If we should one day live to be 800 would the age of maturity become 210? Just think, no one is responsible for their own actions for a couple of centuries. I could go on, but my last comment is to all those who brought up just eating anmd living right. I apologize that we forgot aboiut all of those who do that now and live to be 3 or 400 years old. We all know someone who eats only natural vegetables and remembers Abe Lincoln in person. Or maybe not.

47. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
To live longer, or forever, everyone's dream. To be free of natural death. Outside of the obvious benefit, let's get real. It would definitely turn our economies upside down. If people could work longer it would only put an even greater strain on the young coming into the job markets. There are already too many workers for the jobs we have. Or maybe we could just terminate all the units we don't need. Also, there would have to be some kind of population control in place. There is no way we could continue with the current birth rate. Next, I have noticed a trend over the last few hundrerd years. As our projected life expectency increases, we keep artificially increasing the legal age of maturity for our children. Think back. When people lived to 40 our children were married by 13-16 and old maids at 18. If we should one day live to be 800 would the age of maturity become 210? Just think, no one is responsible for their own actions for a couple of centuries. I could go on, but my last comment is to all those who brought up just eating anmd living right. I apologize that we forgot aboiut all of those who do that now and live to be 3 or 400 years old. We all know someone who eats only natural vegetables and remembers Abe Lincoln in person. Or maybe not.

46. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
tried to find the authors follow up on taking supplements, ???

45. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
We should be able to keep good jobs but work progressively less hours as we get older. Americans should all get six weeks vacation per year as do Europeans. It would do more than anything else to increase the joy of life.

44. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
I'm surprised that this article didn't mention telomeres, the cellular biological clocks that dictate how long a cell will live. Trying to address aging without taking telomeres into consideration is like trying to start a car without taking into account the empty gas tank. See: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/features/telomeres/

43. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
HEY, IDIOTS, WHO THINK WE WOULD BECOME OVERPOPLUTATED IF SOME OF US OVERCAME DEATH: JUST STOP OVER-PROCREATING! GIVE IT A REST!

42. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Website: http://transsurvivalist.blogspot.com
A proper 21st Century civilization should have cures for aging. That will compensate us for the absence of flying cars, hot babes in unitard catsuits, space colonies and all the other things the 21st Century should have given us.

41. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
There are many silly comments here! "Suicide rates increasing" -- suicide(voluntary death) would surplant aging(involuntary death, *worse*). It's not about living to 1xxx. It's about not being forced to get frail or die at any given moment. Aging is medically unjustifiable. To romanticise it is just a form of psychological self-management.

40. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
I think the question of whether to live longer is an easy one, but only if you happen to love your life now. I happen to love my life and it doesn't occur to me to want it to end - ever. Naturally, any technology to come along to help me extend the life I love would be greatly welcomed. Those who denigrate and fear ideas of life extension most likely hate their lives and welcome an end to them. Naturally, if you don't know what to do with the life you have, you'll have no idea what to do with a life that's even longer. At any rate, if one is looking forward to death or if one believes they deserve death, perhaps one ought to get on with it and leave those who love life and wish to see it continue in peace.

39. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
the whole idea of retirement becomes obsolete? oh great...the idea of being a corporate drone forever is enough to make me blow my brains out! no thanks!

38. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Like I said earlier, it is a very interesting futuristic topic, but its till vague and unclear. I don't like false hope and cultish-like predictions. Also we have yet to find a cure for a plethora of other more serious diseases.

37. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
I think the question of whether to live longer is an easy one, but only if you happen to love your life now. I happen to love my life and it doesn't occur to me to want it to end - ever. Naturally, any technology to come along to help me extend the life I love would be greatly welcomed. Those who denigrate and fear ideas of life extension most likely hate their lives and welcome an end to them. Naturally, if you don't know what to do with the life you have, you'll have no idea what to do with a life that's even longer. At any rate, if one is looking forward to death or if one believes they deserve death, perhaps one ought to get on with it and leave those who love life and wish to see it continue in peace.

36. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
We can see the effects of living longer already on American society. This is exciting stuff, but it borders on science fiction. I agree with the poster who wants us to eat nothing but raw veggies and fruits. Clearly many other animal species have extended their lives by eating nothing but wild produce. This is absurd. Obviously it sounds good, but has no real objective evidence.

35. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
#34 It is technically a disease(you spelled that wrong by the way) it has negative effects on the body and eventually ends up killing you with its complications. It's just a non-contagious disease.

34. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Website: www.popularmechanics.com
"a CURE to aging"??.. Since when is aging a decease? This is textbook example of Jurnalistic STUPIDITY

33. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Ugh... Screw Leon Kass, and his nay-saying about longevity. The answer to both of Kass's questions is an unqualified yes! Granted Kass was the chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics, but he's also a right-wing conservative nut job. As far as I am concerned he can get old and die if he wants (the sooner the better), but he has no business telling the rest of us that we shouldn't extend our lives by any means necessary (i.e. stem cell research, cloning, and all the other things that christian--or in Kass's case jewish--wackos have a problem with).

32. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
I think it's a good thing. As for population problems, Japan is currently projecting decreased population, and one of their issues is how to deal with a larger senior to worker ratio. If working years can be added, that would help reduce this problem. It is also possible this trend will spread to other industrialized countries.

31. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Website: http://raw4healing.com
I find it interesting that most folks look to science to cure the problem of old age, sickness and disease. Why? Because that’s what they get paid for, right? Our society is so programmed to look for answers to our questions from the experts. From the organizations that are paid to do research. They are paid to report a certain criteria for their findings. Let me get to the point. Sure there are creams, pills and potions to stop balding, reduce wrinkles, improve bone mass, etc. But there is no money to be made in telling people that if they stop eating the manufactured junk that our major food corporations, medical industries, and pharmaceutical industries want to stuff down our throats, literally! Think about it! If you want to live a LONG, productive and active life: listen to this: STOP EATING the junk food, stop eating animal products. Yes, you read that right!! Start eating all natural fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts, seeds, and sprouts. Reintroduce flavors like you never had before. Flavors that the food corporations are trying to copy, but only Nature can create. Our bodies were designed to live off of raw, fresh fruits and vegetables, not beef and chicken pumped up with pesticides, hormones and antibiotics, not dairy products that contain all of the above, but also casein and other toxic substances. We were not meant to eat canned, or frozen instant dinners filled with preservatives, MSG, hydrogenated fat, and way more protein than the body can process. We cannot build health on packaged, processed boxes of food, chips, soda, pizza, sweets, etc. All cooked food is considered 'dead food' and dead food does not build life. Only living food can build life. There is a cure for old age, as well as for many debilitating diseases, chronic ailments, obesity, and the most common disease of all: fatigue. It is true. When people reverse their addictive habits to cooked food, processed snacks, soda, fast foods, animal products, etc., they find that the benefits of raw food, (no, not raw meat!) truly does change their life. The weight literally falls off, the bones and joints stop aching, headaches are gone, they experience more energy, sleep better, sex is better, thinking is clearer, and health issues begin to disappear. When they are sacrificing less enzymes to digest food, because raw food contains its own enzymes to process the food, life is extended (any food cooked over 118 degrees has lost all enzymes). Aging is reversed. When the body no longer has to fight the toxins that are consumed from animal products and all processed, manufactured food, it is able to stay pure, and clean from toxins. Toxins are not allowed to build up in the body, thus it stays healthy, longer. This is just a short, very brief synopsis in response to this article about aging. There is no money being made in telling people to change our diet to raw, natural, fresh fruits and vegetables. To learn new and awesome recipes to create beautiful raw food dishes. To use a high-speed blender, a dehydrator, and a food processor to create awesome dishes that are healthy and delicious, too. To introduce your mouth to new, and incredible flavors. Here is a thought: Maybe the FDA, the food corporations, meat and dairy industries, the medical industries, and the pharmaceutical industries are more interested in keeping us minimally well. Sick enough to need the doctor on a regular basis (money for the doctors, right? On a raw food diet, you save money by not needing to see the doctor.), sick enough to require medications for whatever your ailments are (again, money for the big drug companies), and sick enough to die at a reasonably early age so you don’t deplete the Social Security money, or live too long to crowd the planet… Do you think the Cancer Society, and the Heart Association Society, and all the other gazillion ‘societies’ are really trying to find a cure for whatever they stand for? The CEOs are making too much money to sacrifice closing down their societies, because I read somewhere that the Cancer Society has in it’s bylaws that they will close down as soon as a cure is found. But wait, there is too much money to be made in looking for the cure, right? When in reality, there really already is a cure, but it’s kept secret. Because nobody is able to make money from something that was provided to humanity from God. Doctors won’t tell you to stop eating animal products and processed junk, because if you are CURED, they can’t make anymore money off of you. They are trained to prescribe a drug that ‘stops’ the issue temporarily, never cures it, so you’ll keep the pharma corporations in business, and you’ll be back to the doctor later when the symptom comes back. Meanwhile, your body is fighting off the toxins from the drugs you were prescribed, and are obediently taking. In most cases, a simple three day juice fast will cure whatever ails you. So you do the research. Check out websites that endorse the raw food lifestyle. Look at the thousands of testimonies online of people who lost tons of weight, cured their diseases and sicknesses, and gained tremendous amounts of energy. One can live to be easily 120 years old or more on a pure, raw food diet. Just cut out the crap that the grocery stores and media want you to consume, and learn about a better way to eat and live. Disclaimer: (I have to say this) If you are on medication, please do not stop without first consulting your doctor.

30. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
I have read that the present generation of our youth is likely to not even live as long as their parents. This is unprecedented so far. The reason is due to health problems caused by being overweight. Will this problem go away if we find a way to keep from aging? Doesn't seem likely.

29. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Listen, I know this is just my opinion. But number 5, the jesus remark. Really stupid. Why are you even reading articles related to science if that is your ideology?

28. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
So, it's "good" for me to be trapped in a job I hate that the only thing I had to look forward to was retirement so I could finally get out of wage slavery and at least do something with my life I really wanted to?

27. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
I think it's obvious that after aging was cured, the same kind of focus would need to be turned to providing more resources and using them more efficiently. Orbital colomies, for example, bases on the moon and Mars with terraforming to follow. These are all advanced engineering problems, after all. If the problem of aging can be solved, so can the resource problem.

26. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
I think they should look at Royal Jelly, corn meal,grape skins, Abrahamic oil, and other foods mentioned in the Bible. Many of these foods have been known to promote longevity since Biblical times.

25. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
I think its stupid that people would want to reverse aging in the first place. God made it so we get old and we die! DEAL WITH IT PEOPLE!!!! Alot of people just don't want to die because their scared they will go to hell. and they might, if they don't turn to Jesus!

24. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
NO.3 is being too narrow-sighted. generally, who would choose to end their lives? when this kind of treatment gets too popular and too common, who would choose the other way? technology couldn't solve everything. looking into the past, improvement in technology has made man more bastards than ever. scientists are more wild than ever. they even cloned sheeps, then they are going to clone humans. how do you think they could do that? brutal experiments! thousands, millions of them! and before you know it, they are going to alter genes, and soon, humans would no longer be like humans!

23. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Website: http://rdoctor.com/symptoms_disease/content/view/36/2/
Aging and rejuvenation are different things

22. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Let us old gracefully for birth, sick, old and death are natural processes. ALL of us have to go through those.

21. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
the world is overpopulated, the third world that is, he firstworld is fine, which is where this drug would b used, coldhard truth of it is, a homeless fella on the steets of Bangladesh cant afford it, it would be(or should be)free to homeless in Europe due to our system(not sure bout free health care in U.S) whereas the rest of us will happily pay for an exra few years of living th first world lifestyle

20. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
I would applaud any researcher who discovers a cure for aging. Aging is a disease-- a degenerative disease that nobody escapes. I can't believe people refer to old age as the " Golden Years ". I can't see anything good about aging. You become more prone to diseases like diabetes, heart problems, cancer, degenerative brain diseases, musculoskeletal breakdown, eyesight loss, the list goes on and on. Then there's the lifestyle changes you have to make when your body can't function any more: assisted living, powerchairs, nursing homes,depending on rides because you can't drive anymore. A day out might consist of a doctor visit followed by a trip to the drugstore to load up on all the prescriptions your doctor thinks you need to stay alive. Then it's bck home to watch tv, or sleep, because you don't have the energy to do anything else. Who want's to live like that? It's like aging is payment for the health and fun you had in youth No wonder so many older people are depressed.I'm pushing 60, and not looking forward to the years ahead, unless my health remains good. I'd like to see aging ended. If there are concerns about overpopulation, then send some of us to colonize Mars or something--- at least we'd be youthful again, and ALIVE.

19. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Reading all this I was thinking how much time people spend trying to find solutions for living longer. Wouldn't we all agree that there is a better way to allocate this time? Instead of worrying about the quality of life we are given (or self created) we are eager to extent our longevity. I find talks like these overrated, so what if you live till 100 or if you have been 20 for 4 times already? Do you really think that will make us happier? Cause that is what it is all about isn't it? Feeling good, great or even super! What would we want then,... to live forever? Don't movies have one end and not multiple ones? So we wanna live multiple lives, do lots of things...and still feel unsatisfied. We should get real instead and feel good about what we are doing today and don't think that grass is always greener on the other side. After all lets not forget that we are part of nature and somehow some of us think they are superior or they can alter themselves without any side effects. I would say instead of using all this funds for researching how we can live longer we should invest in teaching people how to understand better how they can have life quality and how to come in touch with their nature. Then we could say we have changed something for the best of this planet.

18. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Website: www.tropicalparadisepartners.com
Fantastic, the end of aging. Sure, there would be potential problems, but there has always been with major scientific advancement. But to be able to go to school again, to learn to play the piano or to become a medical doctor at the age of 90 or 100. This is a wonderful opportunity to learn, to be able to grow in so many ways that now are limited by our age & the need to earn money. The End of Aging can be a dream come true if we are optomistic, honest and become the caring beings we were ment to be. This is just my humble opinion, but to be an optomist to me means to get as much out of life for as long as I can. Thats what makes getting out of bed each morning easy, because I am excited about life & realize how lucky I am. To live to be 300 years old, YES, its terribly exciting.

17. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Website: http://emoryu21.deviantart.com/
I think this is a very good thing. Extending lives could have huge impacts on the human race. It could allow for us to become far more technologically advanced than we are now in a smaller amount of time. Imagine for a moment that the greatest minds of history never died and lived for all eternity. We would have technologies now that we may not have for another 200 years. The possibilities for this far out weigh any of the possible problems. In time we would even see bodies that we could switch into. Full prosthetic bodies... I don't fear death but that doesn't mean I want to die. I want to live forever like many others.

16. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
After 40-60 years of hard work, I want to continue working. Social Security is not going to be there in 2030 anyway. To survive, you must earn your keep. Besides, I'm just curious enough to see how everything turns out. That alone will keep you going.

15. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Website: http://www.imminst.org
It seems like ending aging would have so many societal goods that no one could be against developing the technology. Even if some people were against taking the drugs on moral or religious grounds, (like the Quakers and Mennonites today) surely they wouldn't be against the choice of having these therapies available for those who would want to use them. Live to 1000? Yes, thank you! Go Aubrey de Grey!

14. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
''The goal isn’t just more years in your life, but more life in your years.'' I think that statement is very important as it is quality over quantity. Plus we have a plethora of diseases we still have yet to find an answer for, cancer being a very big one. A lot of people die from accidents and other diseases long before they ever have to worry about the aging issue and the sagging skin and body wrinkles. It is indeed a thought provoking idea and while I do consider aging to be a form of disease I think the question is much more than how much do you want to live? or do you want to life forever?

13. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
It is exciting that people are starting to realize that we can end aging. The science is there, we just need to fund it. I address the issues of population growth, in a society that has ended aging--in the book I wrote about the future called '21st Century Kids'. We can change careers after decades, become specialists in other areas than interest us. To really end aging we will have to have brain back ups, also develop our space program. The Lifeboat Foundation looks at ways humans could be threatened, and how we can avoid them--necessary now--but also in a society where aging is ended. We must also support our Space program, and the eventual development of colonization of other planets. The Immortality Institute discusses ways that humans can become immortal, such as preserving their bodies with cryonics when medicine now can not keep them alive--in hopes that future medicine will be able to revive and repair them, even rejuvenate. I support the Mprize, I'm one of the 300 members, a director of the Immortality Institute, an author--I also teach Sunday School, have my family signed up for cryonics--and support many social action organizations. I hope to get a lot more time to do good in the world, I love giving back and feel strongly that we can increase education worldwide and help alleviate the vast inequalities we now have. I read Popular Science while growing up, I'm proud to see them covering such an important issue for our species :-).

12. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Where is this "too many people" comment coming from? I remember being told that we should be out of oil by now (2008). Not so. Then too cold; now too warm. Bring it on whatever "it" may be. Humans love to learn stuff and this will give us time to do just that.

11. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Basically, if the world is better off with you in it.. then why not stick around? Are you a "plus" or a "minus".. guess if you think you're a net drain on the world.. well by all means.. take a short cut outta here and do us all a favor... otherwise.. why not lend a hand and make this world a better place.. for as long as you can?

10. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
I think suicide rates would climb as thousands would wish to leave unhappy lives, get away from bad relationships, and seemingly stuck forever in a job they hate. The compition for jobs would be terribl; probably requiring replace lists to fill vacancies. Would the aging slowdown begin at an early age or in later years, that's the real question. And would individuals have an antidote medication to speed it up aging? Time passes slowly when you are young and speeds up proportionally as you get older. Let those who want to live forever pay the taxes -- as for me, I look forward to the long rest.

9. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
"Where does it end, do we go to college to get years more of training" -- Hey, that works for me. I'd love to go back to school and get my doctorate or perhaps a law degree (or -- why not? -- both!). I'm going to hit 65 in a couple of months and have no intention of retiring any time soon. All those who object to this are perfectly free to decline any medical advances or even to self-terminate and thereby reduce the excess population. (To quote Prof. Reynolds: Heh!)

8. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
Website: http://buttle.wordpress.com
To commenter #2 I'd have to ask, just what makes you think the world is over-crowded? Japan, Russia, and most of Europe have exactly the opposite problem. And it's blazingly clear that the U.S. is not crowded. Human capital is the most valuable there is. If life can be extended while keeping us in good health that can only be a good thing.

7. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
population control and not being a jerk in general would solve the problem brought up by comment number 1 :)

6. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
I think it would be alright to let people choose for themselves. If you believe it to be an unalloyed good to disappear from the face of the earth, don't take the therapies. Just refrain from making life and death decisions for others, as I assume you do now. Societal issues will sort themselves out in due course as our technology continues to make what was thought farfetched, ordinary.

5. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
This technology is 100+ years away at minimum, if ever. It sells magazines tho...

4. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
There is no question that making it possible to live decades longer would have huge impacts on society and culture, including retirement and fertility rates. I see no reason for assuming that these impacts would cause insoluble problems, however. Since there is no question that the scientific capability to slow down aging is coming, the real question is whether our government(s) are going to try to "regulate" or ban those advancements. To government, I say "Stay the hell out of it." You have no right to tell me that I must die.

3. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
I think it would be alright to let people choose for themselves. If you believe it to be an unalloyed good to disappear from the face of the earth, don't take the therapies. Just refrain from making life and death decisions for others, as I assume you do now. Societal issues will sort themselves out in due course as our technology continues to make what was thought farfetched, ordinary.

2. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
The one problem I can see with this is that the world is already over-crowded. Advances in science making our lives longer would only exacerbate that problem. Although, visions of living longer lives may seem like a good idea on the surface, the truth of the matter is it would more likely be the cause of many more problems.

1. RE: The End of Aging? Inside the New Hunt for a Cure to Growing Old
The biggest problem I can see with all of this is that after 40-60 years of hard work people want a break. Let us be honest it would rework how entire society as a whole. The Senior discount age would go up. When would we be able to tap into our 401 K's? When would retirement happen? How would people begin to end their lives? How much longer will the social security system have to pay for people/? Where does it end, do we go to college to get years more of training before entering the work force? or do we just specialize more, or for that fact get hired, fired and quit more jobs throughout our life time. We already have a population problem, do we now select who lives and dies at birth? Because what happens when this gets into countries who already can only have one child per house hold???? It could go on forever. On the other hand being a self-indulgent bastard (SIB) I would love to live for 20 more years to pass on my stories of greatness and give more to my life experiences, and sexual encounters. Lets be honest looking at it from a SIB perspective why not do it that way, but from an economical societal stand point (the good for the masses) it will only ruin our world even more than it is, we will become the super bug of parasites, draining the already depleted(sp?) resources that we have. Keep all of this in mind, and yes I am probably wrong about a lot, but I bring up a ton of good points.

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