DailyDirt: How Old Can People Get?

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Some biblical characters lived for hundreds of years. (eg. Methuselah lived to be 969.) However, people living now don't quite get that old. Aging is a mysterious process that is slowly killing everyone, and there are more than a few projects working on ways to avoid death. Immortality could be a blessing or a curse, and maybe someday we'll find out which it is.

• Suspended animation is a real medical procedure, and some techniques are being tested in emergency rooms. The FDA has approved a procedure that will be used at UPMC Presbyterian Hospital to replace near-fatal patients' blood with a cold saline solution. The process stops the patient's body from doing normal things like breathing, but patients can be revived hours later from a death-like state. [url]
• The Methuselah Foundation has a few projects to develop regenerative medicine that might allow people to live longer, healthier lives. Regrowing organs, developing custom chemotherapies based on a patient's DNA, and studying long-lived animals could help extend human lifespans. [url]
• Google funded an anti-aging startup in 2013 called Calico. Larry Page noted at its launch that "curing cancer" might not be a good enough goal because death might only be delayed a few years, even with a cure for cancer. [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post via StumbleUpon.

Filed Under: aging, anti-aging, cancer, death, immortality, larry page, methuselah, regenerative medicine, suspended animation
Companies: calico, methuselah foundation

DailyDirt: Who Wants To Live Forever

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

Several discoveries in biology could lead to treatments that reverse the effects of aging and prolong lifespans. There isn't quite a magic bullet, but it's not unreasonable to think that people could live longer and longer lives. The Methuselah Foundation has several monetary prizes for researchers in the field of life extension interventions. Here are just a few other interesting research studies on aging.

• Little worms (Caenorhabditis elegans) on the International Space Station are actually living longer in a micro-gravity environment than their earth-bound relatives. Researchers have identified several genes that contribute to this unexpected lengthening of longevity, but living on a space station isn't the fountain of youth. [url]
• The cost of sequencing the human genome has fallen dramatically from $3 billion for the first one... to a few thousand dollars. Having access to the information in our DNA could lead to lifespans of 150 years, but getting hit by a bus would still be a problem. [url]
• Certain kinds of exercise may extend your life more than others. Aerobic exercise is correlated with living a bit longer than non-aerobic exercise -- so expect a few more infomercials to start plugging exercise equipment with claims of helping you live longer. [url]
• Senescent cells can no longer divide, and they might bring down neighboring cells and create various symptoms of aging. Eliminating these senescent cells could lead to more age-resistant organs -- and people living longer (perhaps as undead zombies). [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

Filed Under: aging, biology, biotech, exercise, human genome, immortality, life extension, lifespan, longevity, senescent cells
Companies: methuselah foundation