Aging Effects Us All and Not in a Good Way!

My goal with this blog is to share and exchange information relating to anti aging research. I guess this blog will be a step into the unknown and I will be curious where it takes me. The fact is that I hadn't actually planned to start blogging at all until a couple of researchers I correspond with regularly told me I should get my finger out and make a start so here we go! 

I always think a fund starting point to getting people interested in anti aging research is to check out the aging process at the clip below.

 

See the aging process in action at this You Tube clip.

Aging is something which never really touches us in a positive way, granted we become wiser but the frailty, reduced cognitive function and other negative effects of the aging process are a high price to pay. Currently, we can't escape it and every day we edge closer and closer to the end of the road. There is, however, a great difference between ourselves and the millions who preceded us. In the past any possibility of an effective treatment for aging was not something that could be realistically contemplated by anyone who was in full possession of their senses. In the last 5 years, however, things have started to change very rapidly because Gerontologists have begun to overturn much of the conventional wisdom about getting old. Aging is not the simple result of the passage of time but the result of accumulated damage which builds up over a lengthy period of time.

I am often asked "how long before we can cure aging?" To understand let’s keep in mind that we are already adding two months to life expectancy every year (or 5 hours per day) and although this has been fairly consistent for the last 30 years or so there are indications that the rate of increase is beginning to accelerate. If you then consider that many people including myself see a better than 50% chance of controlling aging within 30 years the whole issue starts to become very interesting. As far as the time span for an actual cure, I would hazard a guess that it is at least 100 years away. The alternative approach is to aim at controlling aging and repairing the accumulated damage and this should be our primary goal because we understand how the damage is laid down even though we understand very little about actually slowing aging or influencing metabolism. 

I am keen to bounce ideas with anyone who is interested in this subject and feels it worth commenting uponany of the posts which will follow in future.