Humans are extremely put off by the concept of ageing, and why won¡¯t they be. No one wants to lose their youth and slowly but painfully trickle down to a phase of life with ailments and sickness where death seems better than living.
However, not all think this way. Some people wish to live for longer, maybe even forever. And while ageless life may seem like something that¡¯s only seen in fictional novels, according to Andrew Steele, this is very much in our grasp.
Reported first by the Economist, Steele, a scientist, writer and campaigner, who has specialised in the field of computational biology has shared this idea in his recent book, Ageless. He states that ageing is not a phenomenon but a disease that can be cured and we are soon approaching that future.?
He speaks about the giant tortoises of the Galapagos Islands who continue living for hundreds of years and how their body doesn¡¯t show any age-related decline that our body witnesses. A tortoise of 30 years of age feels just as young as one who is 130 years old. He calls this negligible senescence (the process of deterioration/ageing).
In his book he tries to ward off the idea that there is an upper limit to any age or longevity. He talks about how people who¡¯ve lived till the age of 70 seem like their lives was cut short and that passing away in the 90s is considered a life well spent.
According to Steele, this perspective has held back the field of biogerontology (research that¡¯s looking at unravelling biological mechanisms of ageing with the aim of achieving negligible senescence) for quite some time, however, now researchers are taking interest in the field, shifting focus from diseases in old age to tackling down the cause for those diseases in the first place -- ageing.?
Steele has observed a variety of methods that researchers are working on ranging from drugs that pause ageing to life-extending effects of dietary restrictions to gene-editing tools like CRISPR. He has also looked at computer models that simulate biological systems and could one day show the key to unlock the vessel to (sort of) immortality that¡¯s within us.
Steele also hints that we are not too far from this future. The first phase of this could begin in a matter of years in the form of senolytic drugs (drugs that slow down the process of ageing) that could clear the cellular waste that results in ageing.?
According to him, for every scientific endeavour, a year could be added to an average human¡¯s life, receding old age into the future at the same rate as the population today approaches it. He feels this will be a milestone on the road to attaining negligible senescence, like the tortoise.?
Do you think humans could ever attain negligible senescence or pause ageing? Tell us in the comments below.?