4 ms·

There were 2.5M deaths in US in 2010: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm If you take other leading causes ou

by xuhu 13y ago

There were 2.5M deaths in US in 2010: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm If you take other leading causes out (accidents 120k, diabetes 70k, influenza 50k, suicide 40k), it still leaves about 2M deaths related to ageing: heart, cancer, chronic respiratory, stroke, alzheimers.

YokoZar 13y ago
And this particular anti-aging therapy, if it works, will only treat a subset of those age-related diseases. There are many different mechanisms of aging, and each therapy we develop will only incrementally improve things. In that light, philosophical discussions about anti-aging therapies are somewhat doomed to only have a specific context such as "what's wrong with curing alzheimer's?"
VLM 13y ago
Cancer is a big treatment problem. Well here I am a tired old 95 year old cancer cell, too tired and sore to start reproducing madly and my hosts blood chemistry is too F'ed up anyway for me to grow, so I'll just sit here in my lung cell sized recliner and watch Fox News with my host... Ah I see now after some treatment I feel I'm in the body of a healthy 25 year old and I'm absolutely bursting with energy... lets get fissioning boys, there's a new sheriff in town and we're takin' this here place over.
- rquantz 13y ago
  Correct me if I'm wrong, but if this were an accurate metaphor, wouldn't cancer incidence decrease with age, rather than increase?
  - Filligree 13y ago
    No. This research addresses just one cause of ageing; there are many others. It's all of them together that causes increased cancer rates.
  - angkec 13y ago
    Cancer does decrease with age. I read it somewhere that it is some professor's pet theory but they do have some evidence.
yxhuvud 13y ago
A lot of diabetes and influenza related diseases could also be related to ageing.

4 ms·

There were 2.5M deaths in US in 2010: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm If you take other leading causes ou

by xuhu 13y ago

YokoZar 13y ago
And this particular anti-aging therapy, if it works, will only treat a subset of those age-related diseases. There are many different mechanisms of aging, and each therapy we develop will only incrementally improve things. In that light, philosophical discussions about anti-aging therapies are somewhat doomed to only have a specific context such as "what's wrong with curing alzheimer's?"
VLM 13y ago
Cancer is a big treatment problem. Well here I am a tired old 95 year old cancer cell, too tired and sore to start reproducing madly and my hosts blood chemistry is too F'ed up anyway for me to grow, so I'll just sit here in my lung cell sized recliner and watch Fox News with my host... Ah I see now after some treatment I feel I'm in the body of a healthy 25 year old and I'm absolutely bursting with energy... lets get fissioning boys, there's a new sheriff in town and we're takin' this here place over.
- rquantz 13y ago
  Correct me if I'm wrong, but if this were an accurate metaphor, wouldn't cancer incidence decrease with age, rather than increase?
  - Filligree 13y ago
    No. This research addresses just one cause of ageing; there are many others. It's all of them together that causes increased cancer rates.
  - angkec 13y ago
    Cancer does decrease with age. I read it somewhere that it is some professor's pet theory but they do have some evidence.
yxhuvud 13y ago
A lot of diabetes and influenza related diseases could also be related to ageing.