The Disease of Old Age : Defying Death

"One hundred will be the new 60."
"The average human health span will increase by ten-plus years this decade."
"The age of one hundred is easily in sight now. And kids born today can expect to live to 105."
Peter Diamandis, space, technology, aeronautics and medicine pioneer

"Aging is a disease, and that disease is treatable."
"You should feel hungry regularly [to slow down the aging process or avert damage]."
David Sinclair, professor of genetics, Harvard Medical School

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The Abundane360 conference held in Los Angeles last week revealed quite a few very interesting aspirational research programs along with plans to proceed at a fast pace to introduce a new kind of medicine in the treatment of humans suffering from the malady of aging. Mr. Diamandis outlined some fascinating facets about the new direction of medical treatments, in line with his belief, shared by others in Silicon Valley that aging is a "disease"; the result of "planned obsolescence".

If so, that planning can be attributed to our maker. God, science, nature, whatever you choose to believe in. And the novel sciences of human intervention are set to second-guess biology. The damage to certain critical bodily mechanisms, sensors and functions within the human body as they wear down and bring us ever closer to death, can all be ameliorated, and will, according to his prognosis of future health treatments.

This describes longevity research whose purpose is to identify core issues, then reverse or mitigate them. With the inestimable assistance of artificial intelligence, machine learning and computational heft breakthroughs and clinical trials are literally just 'around the corner' in terms of several years before they can be lunched on human subjects.

The research issues include stem cell supply restoration, regenerative medicine to regrow damaged cartilage, ligaments, tendons, bone, spinal cords and neural nerves, along with vaccine research against chronic diseases like Alzheimer's; and lastly United therapeutics, developing technology to solve organ shortage for humans through genetically engineering organs to be grown in pigs.

Courtesy of Thomas Leuthard

Ambitious? Yes! Feasible? Time will tell. The development of new, tailor-made medicines is being accelerated with the aid of new tools at a fraction of costs seen today. The conference was informed by Alex Zhavoronkov of Insilico Medicine that drugs that today take ten years at a cost of $3 billion to research, see a failure rate of 90 percent. His company, however, is able to test in 46 days with the use of human tissue, then model, design and produce with the aid of advanced computing, in mere weeks.

Diamandis asked his audience whether there was anyone awaiting a knee replacement operation among them. They could be wise to hold off on that operation until perhaps 2021, he suggested, when regenerative medicine innovator Samumed LLC of San Diego is prepared to complete phase three clinical trials of cartilage regeneration.

The company, according to its founder Osman Kibar, has been successful in injecting a protein to activate nearby stem cells to produce new cartilage in a knee or a new disc in a spine. Preliminary success to regenerating muscle and neural cells, retinal cells, skin and hair has also been completed. These near-miraculous manipulations of nature's creaking elderliness (senescence) in human bodies has seen the private company raise $15.5 billion for continued research and product development.

There is another emerging discipline called "epigenetic reprogramming"; identifying how reversal of deficiencies in proteins, stem cells, chromosomes, genes to repair DNA and damaged cells. David Sinclair, professor genetics at Harvard Medical School is a leader in this field. His book, Lifespan: Why We Age -- and Why We Don't Have To, offers advice, while it explains the science.

According to Dr. Sinclair, lifestyle habits can slow the aging process. Humans need to exercise and to sleep -- and to eat judiciously and less frequently.

Stressing our bodies with temperature changes by going from a hot sauna to rolling in snow invigorates the body's processes and cells, he explains. Eating plants that have been environmentally stressed, called "xenohormesis"; gaining benefits from consuming stressed plants that contain more beneficial nutrients such as wild strawberries enhanced with added antioxidant capacity and phenol content....

“Aging is a disease, and that disease is treatable,” says David Sinclair, professor of genetics at the Harvard Medical School.Getty Images/iStockphoto