Have you heard of life science?
Life science is devoted to studying lifespan, including how and
why we age. Life science researchers have already made discoveries that may end
aging as we understand it today. But their studies are only effective if we follow
their learnings and do what is necessary to extend our longevity.
Part of ending aging as we know it today
depends on whether we hold tight to the belief that genetics is destiny when it
comes to our longevity.
Do you look at your family’s longevity as the barometer of how long you might live? If so, life scientists say it’s a false measure. Dr. Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, has been conducting a critical centenarian study to chronicle how people age healthfully well past age 100.
Dr. Barzilai asserts that genetics
plays an ever-decreasing role in how long we live. Further, he asserts that
aging can be cured. Dr. Barzilai is clear that we must not “stigmatize” aging
or old people by attacking aging. Instead, we must recognize that many of the
classic symbols of debilitating aging, such as memory loss and frailty, are not
inevitable but are caused by a cluster of chronic conditions that are preventable
and may be curable.
All this takes is a new attitude toward age itself. Start by recognizing that it’s not your birthdate that counts in determining your longevity—it’s your BioDate. Elysium Health, a life sciences company, has clinically validated an at-home-test to assess your biological age. It also measures your cumulative “rate of aging,” the average age at which your body is expected to perform. The test uses an epigenetic biomarker called DNAm PhenoAge to determine your BioAge.
Age research is not pie-in-the-sky immortalism, but real science
that seems fantastical only because it’s so new.
We are at the threshold of public understanding that aging can
be disrupted. In the past six months, I have attended conferences dedicated to
stamping out aging—the targets are not ageism, disease, heart attack, cancer or
even diabetes. The entire concept of “getting old” itself is under attack by
these researchers.
For example, the Metabesity Conference at the Carnegie Science Center in Washington, DC, brought together interdisciplinary speaker-panels to share collaborative solutions regarding diabetes, diseases of aging and aging itself.
Here’s the punchline…
“There is evidentiary support for viewing
cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, diabetes, obesity and
aging itself as sharing common metabolic roots that are susceptible to common preventions
and cures.” Metabesity co-chairs Dr. Alexander Fleming, founder
of Kinexum, and Dr. Lawrence Steinman, professor of neurology and neurological science,
pediatrics and genetics at Stanford University.
Of course, such scientific sentiment is not new, but
rather it is coming of age. (Pun intended.)
Understanding how we age…and more importantly, what we can do to stave off the aging process is garnering a great deal of attention and research dollars. Dr. Aubrey de Grey, who I interviewed on my radio show Generation Bold (show #42), is the founder of The SENS Institute in California. His book Ending Aging explains how we age, and his research is devoted to stopping aging.
Dr. Michael Lustgarten, who I interviewed on Generation Bold (show#40), is a scientist at Tufts University Center for Aging and Nutrition and author of Microbial Burden, a book about age-related diseases. He acts as his research guinea pig, experimenting with different foods and measuring his biological age. The 46-year-old is 29 biologically.
By writing books translating the scientific understanding
of aging in layman’s terms, these researchers hope to promote changes both in
government spending policy to target aging itself, as well as in generating
individual behavioral change.
As an age-boom journalist, I see real change in who is
joining up with the Stop Aging movement.
For example, in attendance at Metabesity were
representatives from PepsiCo R&D speaking on how commercial food and
beverage formulas can disrupt our nutritional lives and help stop or retard
aging. It’s exciting to see companies like PepsiCo, with so much influence over
our daily food habits, joining with life scientists to aid in a shift to the
concept of food as medicine.
With nutrition playing such an important role in retarding
decline as we age, a new discipline called medical nutrition is taking hold.
Chef Karl Guggenmos, WACS Global Master Chef, has trained 8,000 doctors in this
new antiaging cross-discipline. This training is itself a breakthrough, as
physicians get less than 20 hours of nutritional education over a four-year
program.
Check out the store at GenerationBoldRadio.com to learn more about how Chef Karl is getting anti-aging meals to the public.
Imagine if Pepsi, McDonald’s and mega-food companies used
some of their advertising dollars to promote aging as a healthy life stage with
education on how to eat to increase longevity! Given the power of advertising
over our personal habits and preferences, that could make greater change in our
behavioral health than all the health-care spending combined.
It’s not just scientific and medical research, but
lifestyle approaches that are deemed necessary to end aging as we see it today.
Consider the contribution of social scientists like Lucy Rose, director of the Cost of Loneliness Project. She, along with many researchers, equates loneliness with ill health and even death. Numerous studies show that “loneliness kills. For seniors, loneliness can be as large of a health risk as obesity, smoking, or alcoholism.”
Lonely seniors have a 64% greater risk for dementia than
those with two or more friends they contact regularly. Ms. Rose is determined
to create a dialog for prevention, rather than intervention, after loneliness
has taken a psychological and physical toll.
“Longevity communities” take health, wellness and
relationship into account to promote long life for their residents.
In the UK, Eric Kihlstrom, strategic director of Aging Analytics
Agency and secretariat for the UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Longevity,
promotes longevity communities like Ebbetsfleet, from its bricks and mortar to
its residents’ attitude and the amenities that support good behavioral health.
Ebbetsfleet is intergenerational, with children and older
adults sharing tennis courts, exercise classes and physical competitions.
Clubhouses are designed to meet humans’ needs to interact with nature by
bringing the outdoors in for the less mobile residents. Technology connects all
residents for parties, park events and physical competitions and games.
On October 10, I attended a closed meeting at the United Nations Day of Older Persons. Many countries are devoting health-care funds to stopping aging or at least increasing longevity. Denmark has an active aging national policy that funds individual and community exercise programs. Singapore offers a Special Employment Credit (SEC) to employers to help raise the employability of older Singaporeans.
The World Health Organization of the UN dubs countries as “age-friendly” if they excel in age-friendly community social infrastructure, productive opportunity, technological engagement, and health-care and wellness. As a region, Scandinavia takes the lead, but many other countries, including Australia and South Africa, are making a national effort to promote successful aging.
In the US, gerontologists are getting into the Stop Aging
field. Karen Tracy, vice president of strategic
alliances and integrated communications for the Gerontology Society of America,
is bringing pharmaceutical science, behavioral scientists, geriatric
professionals and the public together to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogues
that highlight ending aging.
Gerontology has historically focused on how to cope with
decline. This new marriage of gerontology and successful aging is a
professional breakthrough that mirrors other scientific discoveries we are
seeing.
The Bottom Line on the Future of Aging
I am witnessing a groundswell of research, funding, government
interest and private behavioral accountability that may mean an actual end of
aging or, at the very least, may allow many long years of vibrant health for
all of us.
Like many of the centenarians studied by Dr. Barzilai, we
will die healthy! That means without diagnosed disease, pain or cognitive
failure. Our cells will succumb to senescence and fail
to divide and grow. Our body will let go, after many, many years.
The fundamental question is—what will we do with those
extended years?
It has been my quest to make those years ones of
contribution not of languish. Are you with me? If so, join me in the sentiment
with which I end every radio show—“Get out there kids and make it happen!”