4 ms·

It's everything. It can work against cancer and cause cancer. Make you age slower, but kill you faster. It's immunosuppressant. Suppressing immune system for c

by nabla9 2y ago

It's everything. It can work against cancer and cause cancer. Make you age slower, but kill you faster. It's immunosuppressant. Suppressing immune system for completely health person decreases inflammation that comes with aging. Suppressing immune system makes person more vulnerable for infections (flu, sepsis, herpes, ...), and wounds heal slower. Also cancers.

api 2y ago
Humans are already among the longest living land mammals and rank pretty high among all large animals land or otherwise. We're already evolutionarily optimized for longevity. Trying to push further out seems to run into a lot of trade-offs. It seems from what I've read that there are mechanisms that cause aging but also are defenses against cancer, like telomere shortening which imposes a cellular division limit. The immune system causes inflammation which causes aging but turn that off and stuff eats you. And so on... Not saying it's not possible, just that it's going to require more than tweaking a few knobs. I highly doubt there will ever be a "longevity pill" that radically extends life span, though obviously there are medications that can have some positive effect especially on health span. Anything radical like taking the average well past 100-120 years is probably going to require genetic engineering or radical (and invasive) regenerative medicine.
TeaBrain 2y ago
It may leave someone more susceptible to bacterial infections, but the idea that it leaves a person more vulnerable to cancer is unsubstantiated. Tumor growth is dependent on the growth signaling mechanism that Rapamycin suppresses, which is why it has been suggested as a potential cancer therapy.
- nabla9 2y ago
  As I said it can prevent and cause cancer with different mechanisms. 1. Immune system kills cancers. T cells attack and try to destroy the cancerous cells and Rapamycin weakens T cell reactions. 2. Rapamycin inhibits the growth of several cancer cell lines.

by nabla9 2y ago

api 2y ago

Humans are already among the longest living land mammals and rank pretty high among all large animals land or otherwise. We're already evolutionarily optimized for longevity. Trying to push further out seems to run into a lot of trade-offs. It seems from what I've read that there are mechanisms that cause aging but also are defenses against cancer, like telomere shortening which imposes a cellular division limit. The immune system causes inflammation which causes aging but turn that off and stuff eats you. And so on... Not saying it's not possible, just that it's going to require more than tweaking a few knobs. I highly doubt there will ever be a "longevity pill" that radically extends life span, though obviously there are medications that can have some positive effect especially on health span. Anything radical like taking the average well past 100-120 years is probably going to require genetic engineering or radical (and invasive) regenerative medicine.

TeaBrain 2y ago

It may leave someone more susceptible to bacterial infections, but the idea that it leaves a person more vulnerable to cancer is unsubstantiated. Tumor growth is dependent on the growth signaling mechanism that Rapamycin suppresses, which is why it has been suggested as a potential cancer therapy.

nabla9 2y ago
As I said it can prevent and cause cancer with different mechanisms. 1. Immune system kills cancers. T cells attack and try to destroy the cancerous cells and Rapamycin weakens T cell reactions. 2. Rapamycin inhibits the growth of several cancer cell lines.