Jump to content

Drugs may let us live to 150


cnd

Recommended Posts

Drugs may let us live to 150

THE first drugs that can slow the ageing process are likely to become available within five to 10 years, raising the prospect of people eventually living to 150 or more, researchers say.

Peter Smith, dean of medicine at the University of NSW, said a girl born today in Australia could reasonably expect to live to 100 already, due to advances in medicine, lifestyle and public health. In addition, new drugs to help the body repair itself were in the early stages of development, along with new stem cell therapies.

"I think there is real hope we can extend human life by some decades further," Professor Smith said.

Living to 150 may sound unnerving, but it would be ''great'' if you were well until near the end, he said. "The aim is not just to eke out extra existence, but to facilitate a longer healthy life," he said.

"People aren't going to want to retire at 65 and spend many, many decades sitting at home."

Baroness Susan Greenfield, a neuroscientist at Oxford University, also foresees people starting second careers at 65, in knowledge-based jobs rather than physical ones.

But she said tackling dementia, which includes Alzheimer's disease, needed to be a priority. "Otherwise the social and economic implications could potentially be catastrophic."

David Sinclair, an Australian expert in ageing at Harvard University, said a network of genes controlled the pace of ageing. "Our bodies have an extraordinary ability to repair themselves."

Professor Sinclair has shown that resveratrol, a plant compound found in red wine, can extend the lifespan of yeast, worms, fruit flies and fat mice, by activating proteins called sirtuins.

The company he co-founded was bought by GlaxoSmithKline for $US720 million in 2008.

Clinical trials of synthetic molecules 1000 times more potent than resveratrol were under way in people with diseases of ageing, such as diabetes 2, he said. "And [they] are showing early signs of efficacy."

The immediate aim was to find medicines to treat elderly sick people, then later attempt to delay the onset of diseases of ageing.

It was still very early days, Professor Sinclair cautioned. But, he said, ''I think we're seeing the beginning of technology that could one day allow us to reach 150.''

British scientists last month challenged the link between sirtuins and longevity in worms and fruit flies in the journal Nature, concluding they had ''nothing to do with extending life''.

http://www.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/drugs-may-let-us-live-to-150-20111016-1lrm5.html#ixzz1b1ayXQLg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yea we learned about this in High School (I did anyway) because of the advances in medicine and because organic food and all this healthy stuff is finally getting noticed, its more than likely that in the next 30-40yrs living to be 100 wont be as much of a big deal as it is now, and hell when you think about it, even now 100 seems more common & reachable than it did 10 years ago, my aunt is 105, and can remember being a very little girl and is in really good health. My great-grandmothers 91 but she's in really good health too.

Yea I look forward to see these advances, I have no doubt in my mind that they are right.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...