Scientist Predicts A Cure For Aging (I predict I’ll still look like granny)

Biomedical gerontologist, Aubrey de Grey, predicts that the first person who will live to see their 150th birthday is alike and kicking. And the first person, who will live for 1,000 years, as they did at one point in Biblical years, is maybe only 20 years that other person’s junior.

Sounds to me like this would give me the possibility of looking like my grandma for 90years, instead of roughly 35 years. (The grandma that looked like a grandma, not the young fox she was before my mom her 7 siblings were born) Sure I’ll be healthy, but did I miss the part where you tell me that I’ll still look cute and be wrinkle free?

The chief scientist of a foundation dedicated to prolonged existence research, believes that during his own lifespan doctors will have all the tools they need to “cure” aging, and eradicate the diseases that come with it, therefore extending life indefinitely. De Grey explains that this is not a matter of keeping people alive in a bad state of health; this is about preventing people from getting sick as a result of old age. The therapies he’s working on “will only deliver long life as a side effect of delivering better health.”

Longevity already runs in my family on my mother’s side, the grandmother that I was named after lived to be 97 years old. My mother looks a lot like granny did back in the day, and I’m mother’s splitting image practically. So while I’d love to bypass the prevalent memory loss that also appears to be hereditary, I’m still not going to look like a spring chicken those extra 60 years am I?

 “De Grey sees a time when people will go to their doctors for regular “maintenance,” which by then will include gene therapies, stem cell therapies, immune stimulation and a range of other advanced medical techniques to keep them in good shape. The idea is to engage in what you might call preventative geriatrics, where you go in to periodically repair that molecular and cellular damage before it gets to the level of abundance that is pathogenic.”

The present trend is that averages of three months is being added to life expectancy every year at the moment, give or take obesity epidemic, and experts estimate there could be a million centenarians across the world by 2030.

“De Grey divides the damage caused by aging into seven main categories for which repair techniques need to be developed if his prediction for continual maintenance is to come true. He notes that while for some categories, the science is still in its earliest stages (example: cardiovascular diseases research has a long way to go), there are others where it’s already almost there.”

While the scientist remains reluctant to make solid predictions regarding how long people will be able to live in future, he does profess that with each major advance in longevity, scientists are buying more time to make even more scientific progress.