LIVING MUCH LONGER WITHOUT AGING, Part 2

 DO WE REALLY WANT TO?

We are all terribly afraid of dying. If it is up to us, we want to live forever.

But have we given any thought to what challenges the society would face, if no longer employable and productive elderly population keep increasing by the millions? Wouldn’t we overpopulate the world with elderly?  Who would take care of them, with what resources and where? Who is going to work to support them? What would happen to human work force and labor since they can’t work? Would we have enough food resources for overpopulation? What would happen to our environment and climate with we try to raise more food?

Without answering these questions and making necessary organizational changes in the society, the increasing life span would create unsurmountable disasters for societies.

I believe getting old, aging, and dying is a heavenly solution designed by the Nature and our Creator to prevent these problems from occurring. Nobody should mess around with Mother Nature.

Nevertheless, advancement in science and technology can’t be halted. We must know and understand the biology of aging which is called “Gerento-Biology,” and research must continue. Along this line, Dr. Andrew Steele has written very interesting book entitled Ageless: The new Science of Getting Older without Getting Old, which describes many scientific innovations and interventions to slow down the aging process and recommendations for how to live longer.

Aging impacts the biology to be alive, in every level including molecular, cellular, tissue and organ functions in very negative ways. As we age, cells in our body continuously replicate and renew themselves to function. But our cells have a predetermined and limited capacity to replicate. After that capacity is reached, they become old and senescent cells. The majority of these frail cells die of a programmed death, and are cleared from the body by what is called “apoptosis.” The presence of senescent cells was discovered by renowned scientist Leonard Hayflick in cell cultures in 1961.

Besides the limited capacities to replicate, some cells become senescent by DNA damage, and by mutations. We have around 40 trillion cells in our body. Not all senescent cells could be cleared by apoptosis from the body. Some of them persist and instead of performing their assigned biological functions, they secrete a bunch of inflammatory molecules that cause diffused inflammatory reaction through out of the body and accelerate the aging process.

Yet, there are some animals in animal kingdom that live much longer than usual, without getting old. Among them, the giant tortoises of Galapagos Island who live around 150-to-175 years, comes first.  They are well- studied. They keep their sensory functions and their fertility rate intact during their entire life span. Their body is devoid of accumulation of senescent cells. They display a negligible capacity of senescent. It should be noted that they are vegetarian and slow-moving animals, there is no rush, no overwork in their life.

On the other hand, short living and fast aging animals and people with pregorias congenital syndromes, like Hutchinson – Gilford syndrome with a life span only 13 years, accumulate ore and more senescent cells.

Scientists who study the role senescent cells play in aging process have genetically designed fast aging laboratory mice. These animals age faster and accumulate senescent cells faster. When their senescent cells are removed from their body with certain medications, they not only look like their younger counter parts, but also act like them. Senescent cells also could be replaced by stem cells infusions. Studies on humans with pregorias syndromes started in 2018. They are not yet ready for wide – spread use on elderly.

The era of long life with slowdown aging is upon us. But all the news about living longer without getting old is not that gloomy. There is another school of thought that believes that aging is a disease and it should be treated like one. Curing aging doesn’t mean that we are going to live forever. We still will die but curing aging will significantly reduce the pain and suffering, disability, and the increased disease loads of aging. In addition, in the future, most human labor would be replaced by AI (artificial intelligence) and machine learning empowered automations and robotics. Not every single of us must work to make a living.

As assumed long life is not just due to our genetic makeups. It is also due to our lifestyles, living environment, the diet we follow, and good luck. Nevertheless, to live longer one should do the following:

-        Don’t smoke

-        Don’t eat or drink too much, follow a Mediterranean – type diet

-        Exercise on a daily basis

-        Get 7-to-8 hours of sleep every night

-        Socialize with other people

-        Have regular checkups, get vaccinated

-        Monitor your heart rate and BP at home

-        Maintain a good hearing and vision, it is silly not to wear a hearing aid

-        Take care of your teeth, see your dentist regularly

-        Don’t bother with supplements and longevity drugs

-        Have good luck