As a kid my favourite television serial was “Star Trek”. I cannot forget Captain Kirk’s introductory speech at the beginning of each episode “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of starship Enterprise. Its five year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before.” Star Trek is set in the mid 22nd century.
As a kid my favorite television serial was “Star Trek”. I cannot forget Captain Kirk’s introductory speech at the beginning of each episode “Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of starship Enterprise. Its five year mission: to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly go where no man has gone before.” Star Trek is set in the mid 22nd century.
For now, in the 21st century, I believe, our mantra reads “Ageing: the final frontier” directing us to the path of conquering Biological Ageing. 1
But what exactly is ageing?
Ageing is nothing but accumulation of molecular and cellular damage in our body over time. As we grow in years, our body suffers regular damage at various levels, and finally when the damage reaches a level of no return, our body gives up and we die. This has been our understanding, derived from our experience and past history.
Scientists have now agreed upon 9 hallmarks of ageing – these hallmarks are basically classification of processes running in our entire body and each of these interconnected processes need to be halted, if we are to stop / impact the process of ageing.2
These hallmarks are:
1. Epigenetic alterations,
2. protein problems,
3. deregulated nutrient sensing,
4. mitochondrial dysfunction,
5. accumulation of senescent cells,
6. stem cell or cellular exhaustion,
7. altered intercellular communication or signal failure,
8. DNA damage / instability,
9. telomere attrition or trimmed telomeres.
And why do we age?
The common understanding is that our body is subject to continuous wear and tear, and renew and repair. At a basic level, as we grow in years, the renew and repair processes’ are unable to cope up with the wear and tear processes’, which manifests in negatively impacting the ageing hallmarks and this is what causes us to age as also suffer various ailments / diseases. This is the simple explanation of why we age.
Do we have to age?
The new thinking is – how do we extend the renew and repair processes and can we slow down the impact of wear and tear to our body? Scientists have been mulling with this idea since a long time, but research in this field has gained momentum only in the last 10-20 years. This has been possible due to the exponential advances in computing abilities, their reduced costs, artificial intelligence, machine learning, etc. in recent years.
Scientists and bio gerontologists are actively pursuing research in this area and there is general agreement between them, that we will find ways to do both – reduce the wear and tear and be able to continue the renew and repair processes such that we can slow and stop ageing, reverse ageing, and eventually reach and remain at a constant age, of say 30 (or whatever you want it to be) for all our life, if we want. It is expected that we will get to some level of age reversal in the 2030s itself.
In other words, we will soon have an option – we do not have to age!
The doyen of the life extension / age reversal community bio gerontologist Dr Aubrey de Grey believes that we as humans can expand our lifespans far beyond current expectations, and asserts that the first human to live to be 1,000 years old may already be alive!3
Why this changed / new awareness?
Success’ in recent years with various experiments on humans and animals have made us optimistic in believing that we can challenge ageing and win this challenge, it is only a matter of time.4
Scientists and the forward thinking community is hyper active in this space, as also evidenced by the XPRIZE Community, in 2019, announcing the setting up of the Age Reversal Prize design.5
Ageing: the final frontier
With new research, we are now able to ask some very pertinent questions:
• Is ageing the primary cause of diseases like cancer, heart disease, dementia, muscle loss, etc.?
• If we are able to stop or reverse ageing, will we overcome the so called diseases caused by ageing?
• Is ageing resolution an answer to a disease free, long and youthful life?
The answer is quite clear – a normal 30 year old person suffers far fewer ailments as compared to a 60+ year old person, implying that – as we age, we become a hot bed for diseases and ailments! Scientists believe that ageing is the mother of all ailments and resolving ageing will resolve a number of ailments suffered by us. Noted researcher Andrew Steele has put it so aptly “So, rather than tackle these individual problems one at a time, why not go after the real prize: the ageing process that causes them?”6
This, then, is the optimism in the Scientific community – resolve ageing and as a spin off – we will have a solution for a number of diseases as well! Imagine the immeasurable benefits: cost saving on health and disease management, the alleviation of suffering being experienced by patients and the general improvement to life quality and productivity for the entire population, to name just a few of the benefits that will accrue when ageing is resolved! It is clear that ageing resolution will accrue unimaginable benefits!
Ageing resolution is the final frontier!
Longevity escape velocity
Longevity escape velocity is defined as “where science can extend your life for more than a year for every year you are alive.”7 This is when we crossover into perpetual life extension!
In March 2021, Dr Aubrey de Grey predicted “I now think there is a 50% chance that we will reach longevity escape velocity by 2036. After that point (the “Methuselarity”), those who regularly receive the latest rejuvenation therapies will never suffer from age-related ill-health at any age.”8
So the first target is to stay in good health till 2036 and hopefully experience longevity escape velocity and various other established age reversal techniques.
Common arguments against life extension
Population explosion, non sustainability of available resources, inequality of benefits across the population, are some common arguments proposed by leading thinkers against the idea of human life extension / age reversal.
There is no doubt that we will face these and other unforeseen challenges, as we go along this path (and there is no turning back now), we must also remember that these challenges will not come upon us all at once. Rather, they will come into focus one step at a time and I am more than convinced that human ingenuity will enable us to find solutions along the way.
Do remember that:
• world average lifespan in 1900 was 31 years – we are now at 72.6 years,
• world population in 1900 was fewer than 2 billion – we are now at 7.67 bln, etc.
and we continue to thrive!
My take: our focus will turn to identifying the challenges and evolving solutions to the same. I have no doubt that the challenges will be met head on and overcome.
So what is the learning?
Ageing resolution is the ultimate challenge being tackled by us today and it appears that we are on our way to win this challenge. We must keep abreast of the continuous developments / the small and big wins on this front and be prepared and ready to experience the benefits that these success’ will yield. We must stay healthy and prepare for a healthy and long lifespan – plan your habits, life goals, finances, professional plans, partnerships, etc. keeping this in mind.
Finally, taking a cue from “Star Trek”, this then, is how I imagine the introduction in the serial on life extension and age reversal – “Bio Trek” – “Ageing: the final frontier. These are the research projects of our bio gerontologists. Their 15 year mission: to stop ageing and to seek out new pathways to enable age reversal. To boldly go where no man has gone before.”
Dare I say, only after conquering Ageing, can we conquer Space!
I cannot wait to experience these solutions to Ageing and to living a long, healthy and awesome life, and then, to conquer Space, perhaps on Starship Enterprise! What about you?
Akkshay Mehta
(Age Reversal Evangelist)
This blog is my effort to inspire you with the latest developments in the space of healthspan, lifespan and age reversal. In simple English! Do share and Stay tuned.
I would love to hear from you. I can be reached at agm@growyoungtech.com
References:
1 Ageing in this entire article refers to Biological Ageing. Biological ageing is the impact of the accumulation of a wide variety of molecular and cellular damage over time. Scientists now know the expected damage to our body for every age and compare the actual state of the body with the expected state, to determine biological age.
2 American Federation for Ageing Research lists these 9 hallmarks of ageing
https://www.afar.org/what-are-the-hallmarks-of-aging
3 Extreme longevity: Why Aubrey de Grey believes we may live to age 1,000
Written by Chris Findlay on 09/16/2020. Posted in Anti-Aging. https://www.supertrends.com/extreme-longevity-why-we-may-live-to-age-1000/
4 See my previous blogs: a. Will I be 25 again?
https://bit.ly/3p3IagI
b. It’s 2084 and…https://bit.ly/3got5lS
5 XPRIZE COMMUNITY link
https://community.xprize.org/t/about-the-age-reversal-prize-design/2108
6 Article by Andrew Steele in Science Focus dated 18 March 2021
https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/the-race-to-stop-ageing-10-breakthroughs-that-will-help-us-grow-old-healthily/
7 Article by Peter H. Diamandis and Steven Kotler on February 25, 2020 in Marketwatch
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/we-are-nearing-longevity-escape-velocity-where-science-can-extend-your-life-for-more-than-a-year-for-every-year-you-are-alive-2020-02-24
8 Aubrey de Grey @aubreydegrey
I now think there is a 50% chance that we will reach longevity escape velocity by 2036. After that point (the “Methuselarity”), those who regularly receive the latest rejuvenation therapies will never suffer from age-related ill-health at any age.
March 14th 2021
379 Retweets1,570 Likes
Disclaimers:
Views or opinions expressed in this blog are personal and belong to the author. The content on this blog is for informational purposes only and should not be considered to be a treatment plan for any individual situation. The author does not guarantee or warrant the accuracy or completeness of information in this blog and will not be held responsible for the same. The author will not be liable for any errors or omissions found on the blog. The author disclaims liability for any damage, mishap, injury or loss that may occur from engaging in any activities or ideas from this site. Any view or opinion on this blog is not intended to malign any organization, company or individual.
The material on this site is not to be used by any commercial or personal entity without expressed written consent of the author. Statements on this blog are not for personal medical care, but rather for the purpose of general knowledge. The statements on this blog are not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. Always consult your personal physician for specific medical advice.