Humans May Stay Young For 400 Years
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Cynthia Kenyon, a biochemist, has demonstrated the theory in a lab by increasing the life span of tiny worms called Caenorhabditis elegan by up to six times their normal life span. How? Simply by suppressing a single gene.
This regulator gene named daf-2 along with other genes appear to control aging not only in worms, but also in flies, mice and possibly humans. If the same technique can be extended to humans, they can live as much as 400 years. Another benefit with this technique is the person stays young for longer periods of time and face fewer deadly diseases that afflict the elderly.
Diet is also a major contributing factor as proved in the worm study. Sugar intake turns on a genetic sequence that increases the amount of insulin produced by an organism, which in turn causes the body to demand more sugar. As a result, this damages the cells in the body leading to slow degradation of cells that contribute to aging. Red wine and green tea, on the other hand, has been shown to help repair cells and contribute to an increased lifespan.
The worms showed vigor with their increased lifespan until the very end of their lives. If extended to human, they will remain young for years, growing old only slowly. Since many diseases such as Alzheimer’s Huntington’s and some cancers affect only the elderly, this technique will enable to either put them off or delay their onset.
According to this blog post:
"Age is the single largest risk factor for an enormous number of diseases,' says Kenyon. 'So if you can essentially postpone aging, then you can have beneficial effects on a whole wide range of disease."
Kenyon also talked about immortality like some of the germs which live for longer periods. In the life span of a cell, two forces are involved, the force of destruction and the force of prevention, maintenance and repair. If the maintenance genes are increased a bit, they will be able to defend more against the damaging and the deterioration of the cells, making the cells live longer. If this can be done on a consistent basis then the cells will live for a long time.
She has proved this technique in worms, but to prove this on humans, it's going to take a long time. And do we really need a life span of 400 years? If there is a limited population then it is fine, but with a large population, it will be too much to manage resources, I think. Besides, one wouldn’t want people like Osama, Saddam, and Hitler, to live long and cause more destruction.
Here is a newspaper article, the author seemed to have met Dr. Kenyon. You can find more information about this topic.
The worms in question are transparent and about a millimeter long. A favorite of geneticists because of their simple anatomy and small number of genes, they wriggle around on a clear gel of worm-edible bacteria in the lab of Cynthia Kenyon, a molecular geneticist at UCSF's new Mission Bay campus. Normally, these roundworms (Caenorhabditis elegans) live for about 20 days. But when genetically tweaked by Kenyon and her team last year, they have lived an average of 125 days, six times normal -- the equivalent of you or me living to over 400 years old. .... She is a Herbert Boyer Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry and Biophysics at UCSF. She trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then at Cambridge University in England under the molecular biology pioneer Sydney Brenner, co-winner of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Nobel watchers expect Kenyon to win one someday, too.
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CommentsLoading...
Thanks, I wish they won't mess up the normal aging process. With current populations, living longer will make it a big problem. There are already too many people living on Earth.
Very interesting article cgull8m..
The Anti aging process is something most of us want. I hope these tests to enable longevity will far out weigh the possible negative side effects that scientists are always working on..
Yes, I agree if they find a balance it will be wonderful. This aging process might help space exploration and travel.
This is really interesting...but think of that: 400 years--we would have to stop procreating to control the population. Social Security in the U.S. is already going bankrupt.
Thats a great point Stacie, US will get very bankrupt with all the social plans.
I think I will stick with my allotted time, however long that may be..but this was really interesting reading!
Wow!. But why would anyone want to live forever(400 years seems eternity!)? LOL!
Great hub.
Best Regards
Very interesting, and a very valid point regarding over population, the single most deadliest thread to our planet's survival.
Imagine all the things you can do. All the stuff you could learn. It would be amazing. I'm sure there iwll be many problems though. With the population it's crazy. But this would be cool.
Jessica I agree, it will be too much when there is a high population. If one guy is bad like Saddam or Bush, you don't want him to live long for 400 years, the damages will be too much.
Oh no! Don't want to live up to 400. That'd be too much.
I agree, hundred is optimum for now :)
I can't believe all of the negativity on here. Are all your lives that horrible that you wouldn't want to live longer? I love life and would be happy for more. If I have to put off having kids (or not have them) to control the population, so be it.
Your Saddam, Hitler, and Osama argument makes no sense for two reasons. #1, more people like this will continue to be born, and #2, both Saddam and Hitler did not die natural deaths, and there is a good chance Bin Laden will not die a natural death either. Did I miss the part of the story that makes Bin Laden ammune to bombs and bullets?
Sorry my last comment double posted.
I forgot to add, in response to a few of the posts: Don't you think the current retirement age and social security system would be changed if suddelny the average life span increases six times? Those laws and programs are designed based on what we know now. Progress should never be stopped because programs like that, the programs have to be changes to adjust to the new reality.
Corey good points, you are right there is good and bad in every thing, we should focus on the good. The long life will be useful for space travel.
I have no idea why there are people who want to die at 100. I say let them. Just don't stop me from living forever. At 30 I have barely started to master 1 discipline. With a few more hundred years I could master many disciplines and the breakthroughs in science would be tremendous. Dying and restarting the learning process over and over is a huge obstacle to successfully attaining some level of control over our environment. One person has never even become an expert in every subject on Earth so we can't even speculate on the amazing breakthroughs that could bring. Currently we are orbiting the sun on a rock with little to no control over the forces that could destroy our entire species in an instant. I think it is selfish and irresponsible to insist on dying early.
Every problem associated with a larger population has an answer. There are infinite resources in space and no one is saying to continue multiplying at the current rate. China is having a lot of success in population control. Even all that being said there are plenty of resources left on Earth if used efficiently to feed a much larger population. If we built vertically instead of horizontally there would be much more efficient space use and most of the surface of the Earth could in fact be left as wilderness international parks to be enjoyed by everyone on Earth.
As always there is a legal and justice system so cases like Hitler and Osama can be handled in the usual way. That isn't even a related subject.
A longer lifespan is nothing less than a silver bullet to all our other problems. Increased lifespan means increased problem solving capacity. If people want to die then let them, but if people like myself feel they can contribute to society for many thousands of years to come then let us. We will not disappoint.
I wouldn't say that i look at being another way to improve life, besides that didn't we just find another planet like our own in the solar system? just saying.
cristina327 Level 6 Commenter 4 years ago
Great hub. Highly informative and educational.