Posted on 11/18/2017 10:07:09 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
WASHINGTON, DC – Is old age a disease? Dan Weber, president of the Association of Mature American Citizens [AMAC], says a significant amount of scientific research indicates that aging is, indeed, a disease. “More important there are many who believe it is a disease with a cure.”
Weber cites the work of Dr. Aubrey de Grey, a well-known biomedical gerontologist. His focus is on extending life spans by intervening at the cellular level, repairing damaged cells and in turn extending life.
Some call de Grey a “mad scientist” but there is lots of independent study being conducted by those in the scientific mainstream to indicate that he is on the right track.
Most recently, researchers at the Universities of Exeter and Brighton in the U.K. released the results of a study that showed aging cells can be repaired. They used naturally occurring chemicals to treat aging human cells with remarkable results.
“When I saw some of the cells in the culture dish rejuvenating I couldn’t believe it. These old cells were looking like young cells. It was like magic. I repeated the experiments several times and in each case, the cells rejuvenated. I am very excited by the implications and potential for this research,” according to Exeter’s Dr. Eva Latorre, one the principal authors of the research report.
Meanwhile, notes Weber, the New York Times reports that the study of the human aging process has evolved to the point where the focus is now on what are called “supercentenarians,” individuals who live longest of all.
“It used to be that a person who reached the ripe old age of 100 was a rarity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, however, recently reported that the number of Americans over the age of 100 has grown by 44% since the year 2000. The U.S. today is home to more than 72,000 centenarians,” says the AMAC chief.
But the New England Centenarian Study at Boston University, a leading medical investigative group concentrating on how we grow old, believes healthy aging is all in the genes, particularly the genes of the very, very old. The Study says on its Web site “the genetic influence becomes greater and greater with older and older ages, especially beyond 103 years of age.”
Whether the cellular approach or the genetic approach is ultimately successful in increasing the life span of more people in the future, Weber points out that living an extra long life can be fraught with financial danger. It will require a whole new way of thinking about retirement. Modern medicine has already extended longevity and that has resulted in fewer of us being able to retire. Many more people these days have given up on the notion of full retirement at the traditional age of 65. We stay in our jobs longer than we might like or we find ways of supplementing our incomes.
But for many elderly Americans, finding work to supplement their incomes is not an option. Social Security is what puts food on their tables. It’s their principal source of income, meager as it might be, and they would face cruel hardships if their monthly checks were cut. For them, the fact that Social Security faces major fiscal challenges in the coming years is a scary prospect.
“We need to focus, as a nation, on how the less fortunate of us will cope in the brave new world of centenarians and supercentenarians. How will they cope with their everyday lives? For them, it is not a benefit—it is a necessity and it is imperative that our lawmakers find and enact the fixes that will keep Social Security viable for the long term. For our part, AMAC remains relentless in its pursuit of solutions in our ongoing meetings with Congressional leaders. We’ve vowed never to give up and we won’t,” says Weber.
ABOUT AMAC
The Association of Mature American Citizens [http://www.amac.us] is a vibrant, vital senior advocacy organization that takes its marching orders from its members. We act and speak on their behalf, protecting their interests and offering a practical insight on how to best solve the problems they face today. Live long and make a difference by joining us today at http://amac.us/join-amac.
I believe what’s going to be found is that it isn’t necessarily that simple. It will be like whack-a-mole. People might get more years, but then face worse exits at the end of them than they might otherwise. Like one doctor told me, if everybody lived long enough, everybody would get a cancer.
At which point people will be thinking euthanasia to head off that final worst battle, and we will lose all grounding in what being human is about.
Hello. This isn’t supposed to be about living forever on earth. That’s what the old refrain about “Thy kingdom come” is about. We welcome heaven on earth first, then we go to join it permanently, and it’s not such a bad trip after all because we understand where we’re going.
Nobody can afford to live forever while on a fixed income.......
The “devil food” of the day quite often turns out to be also an “angel” for a different purpose.
And certainly this is why a customization of diet that might work great for one group of people does not an entire population’s wise recommendation make. Our bodies all are subject to vagaries that vary from person to person. We should respect that, right down even to things like artificial sweeteners. Aspartame never caused me trouble but it has been alleged to make others black out. If people won’t even read modern food labels, they are needlessly sad sacks.
I for one would not take the cure. I will live out the life God has given me and move on ti his next plan of action.
Got the names off the voter rolls.
They forgot to take into consideration the “Hayflick” limit.
Aging and death, which were not part of Gods original plan, are a consequence of sin entering the world. But God is so merciful, he still gives us a way to have eternal life.
Eternal youth and life can not be found medically. It can only be found in Gods only son Jesus Christ. Admit you are a sinner, acknowledge that Jesus Christ suffered the penalty for all you sins on the cross, acceot Him as your savior and believe in your heart the God raised him from the dead and you will have eternal life in His perfect kingdom that is to come.
I always wondered about this, because scientists say that all of our cells are replaced on a regular schedule, about six months I believe.
God kicked mankind from Eden and then had the tree of life guarded by angels so man would not become eternal in our sin.
being eternal in a dead universe would make man in the image of Satan..
Why can’t we see, why can’t we learn to be one as reality..
It will take a rod of iron for those who do not have the laws written on their hearts..
thy rod and staff they comfort me..
“Aging is a disease” - be sure to tell the FDA that and get them fully agree...
Definitely. I hope it all hurries! The world looks very different when you see us as biomes! A lot of promise. Maybe a little less promiscuity once you start read by the risks of exposing yourself to OTHER biomes. Ha ha
Good for you. I actually hadn't even heard of “dietitians” telling people to stop eating potatoes. Sounds like either advice originally intended for certain diabetics or more fad diet nonsense.
By themselves potatoes are a very healthy food. It is when you load them up with oils, and other fats, and salt like in potato chips and French fries or mashed potatoes with tons of butter and sour cream that they can become problematic.
This is similar to people covering a healthy salad or other vegetables with a huge amount of dressing that is made with nearly 100% oil... and 120 calories per tablespoon. Many think that they are going to lose weight because they are eating a salad. I also think it is funny when people will eat nearly a pound of hamburger covered with bacon, cheese and mayonnaise but think they will lose weight if they leave the bun off.
Diet and exercise aside from genetics are the two most important factors in a persons health and longevity. Unfortunately, both areas have an incredible amount of misinformation associated with them. Who hasn't known an exercise fanatic that eats nearly a pound of “muscle building” soy protein everyday along with a hand full of testosterone boosting dietary supplements? And who hasn't known someone who weighs 300 or more pounds whose weight fluctuates constantly while they go from one high protein fad diet to another.
Maybe I have been exposed to this more because of my employment as a firefighter for many years? But I saw so many of my coworkers make so many bad choices and then pay the consequences. I also responded to so many people whose life style choices put them in an early grave.
Any hope for type 1 diabetics?
It isn’t currently of course so drugs would have to be marketed as a treatment for muscle degeneration or such. But scientists have a pipeline of anti aging compounds ready to test so our definitions of disease are going to have to be one of the first concepts to shift.
I need a 75 trillion year life span.
Now that would be cool! You’d get to see our Sun swell into a white dwarf and consume all the inner planets. Greatest show on (what used to be) earth!
then why do all animals on earth age; they all have the same “disease”? no.
cells do not replicate/reproduce perfectly
because of natural factors as well as years of accumulated cell/gene damage from environmental factors, “man made” and natural
it is not a disease
I see a terrible downside to this, being who is selected to live longer? Everyone? Those with a certain political affiliation? The rich? Celebs?
It certainly won’t be the common John or Jane Doe on the streets, they’ll be the ones “euthanized” to make room for the special ones.
God gave us term limits. Let’s just leave it alone.
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