4 ms·
Biological age, as opposed to chronological age, is driven by the intrinsic processes of primary aging, the accumulation of molecular damage outlined in the SEN
by reasonattlm 9y ago
Biological age, as opposed to chronological age, is driven by the intrinsic processes of primary aging, the accumulation of molecular damage outlined in the SENS rejuvenation research proposals, but also by the influence of the environment, secondary aging. The important contributions to secondary aging are excess visceral fat tissue as a consequence of diet, burden of infectious disease, lack of exercise, and smoking, acting through a range of mechanisms that overlap with the intrinsic processes of primary aging. There are others, but their effects are smaller and it is harder to see them in the data in comparison to the points above.
In the paper here, researchers make an effort to map recent changes in secondary aging, picking combinations of metrics from past data that might offer insight into the biological age of patients. I would say that there is little reason to expect primary aging to have altered significantly in the past few decades, given the landscape of medical technology, but it is certainly up for debate as to whether medications that control blood pressure and cholesterol levels might have some effect. They have certainly become more prevalent and effective over the time covered by the study data.
Overall this is an interesting exercise, but of little relevance to the future of aging. Gains from here on out will increasingly arise from the development of rejuvenation therapies that can repair the damage of primary aging, rather than from lifestyle improvements such as reduction in smoking or obesity, or forms of therapy that selectively, partially override downstream consequences of aging (e.g. blood pressure) without actually changing the primary aging damage that causes those problems. Greater potential gains in health and life span might be achieved through addressing primary aging; the scope of increased longevity through better lifestyle choices is far more limited. Our remaining healthy life span will thus be determined ever more by progress in rejuvenation biotechnology as time passes.
- jcadam 9y agoAll I can do at the present time is focus on the things I can control, such as not treating my body like a dumpster and exercising regularly. Real rejuvenative treatments for aging seem to be like nuclear fusion - promising but always 20 years away.
- adrianN 9y agoThe research is also funded similarly, way below the level needed to make quick progress.
- jcadam 9y agoYou would think countries with looming demographic crises due to aging populations (Japan comes to mind) would be pouring money into anti-aging research.
- Sophistifunk 9y agoWouldn't that make it worse? But I feel Japan will deal with the ageing population the way they deal with everything else. Glorious self-sacrifice for order and the group.
- DennisP 9y agoIt'd make it better. Biologically old people are expensive, since aging tends to come with all sorts of horrible degenerative diseases. Reverse those and your old people are cheaper. If your treatments are really effective you might even be able to put them back to work.
- adrianN 9y agoGood luck explaining someone over eighty that thanks to this new drug they can go back to their exciting sarariman position.
- commandlinefan 9y agoI spent the past few years working for a cancer research startup (which unfortunately tanked), and the oncologists that I worked with were all skeptical about "anti-aging" research - apparently the thing that ages our cells is the same thing that slows down the spread of cancerous cells. Everything is pointing towards a choice between letting our cells age and dying relatively painlessly o fold age or halting aging and speeding up (a more painful death by) cancer.
- mr_toad 9y agoIf we had the technology to reprogram a cells DNA clock we might also have the technology to reprogram and repair DNA and prevent or even cure cancer.
- Erlich_Bachman 9y agoThis is just illogical. While it would be understandable to be skeptical of some specific form of anti-aging procedures or gene modifications, there is no way that science or especially anecdotal science can show why anti-aging measures would not work at all. In your specific example, even if that was the case that the same mechanism was used in cancer cells and aging - the science would of course find a way to modify that mechanism (not just speed it up or slow it down), or add another extra mechanism which would alleviate the effects of speeding it up. Body is a biological machine. When we finally understand this machine - we will be able to control such things as aging. Nature has already created animals which live for much longer than humans, which is a clear example that there are no fundamental reasons for why fighting aging could be impossible.