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Medical research is generally aimed at the most pressing problems facing a society. Infectious disease was a focus for a long time, cancer is one of the biggest
by chrisamiller 10y ago
Medical research is generally aimed at the most pressing problems facing a society. Infectious disease was a focus for a long time, cancer is one of the biggest targets now. Aging has not been a priority yet, because the vast majority of people die of something else (infections, heart attacks, cancer, etc) before they die of the problems specific to extreme old age.
When we develop treatments capable of reducing the incidence of more common diseases, then focus will shift towards aging and the curve may very well start to bend towards longer lifespans.
If you want this to occur sooner, support more overall scientific funding through your donations, your votes, and your advocacy.
- eli_gottlieb 10y ago> Aging has not been a priority yet, because the vast majority of people die of something else (infections, heart attacks, cancer, etc) before they die of the problems specific to extreme old age. Eh, depends what we mean by "age". My grandma's doctors were quite frightened when she slipped over in the shower -- she broke her leg! And that was just in her 80s! Seems like a degrading resilience and healing ability against injury over time should qualify as a substantial "background problem" negatively impacting health among most adults.
- throwaway_xx9 10y agoHaving known people who lived in misery to 90 and 103 years, why would you want to increase life span exactly? There's no cure for ageing.
- D-Coder 10y ago"Aging has not been a priority yet, because the vast majority of people die of something else..." Also aging is a _very difficult_ problem. We are only now collecting the tools to understand it, much less fix it.