AGING: Life extension

Twink (
Sun, 4 Jan 1998 09:47:46 -0500 (EST)

Chemical life extension thusfar has show much promise though
it suffers from many pitfalls. The promise is that animal and
human studies seem to prove that certain diet regimens and
supplementation increase lifespan. Also, as the chemistry of
aging and dying are better understood, means of avoiding them
are becoming better.

There are several pitfalls, however. These can be divided into
two major areas. The first is understanding the mechanisms of
life extending chemicals. Right now, there are several causal
models of aging. These models are not necessarily alternative
models. They do not always contradict one another. Thus,
aging does seem to occur from the accumulation of damage
from free radicals and glycolisation (actually, two models) AND
ALSO from hormal changes, etc. Sometimes a link between
a chemical - e.g., Vitamin E -- and a model -- here, free radical
damage -- is made. In this example, Vitamin E is a powerful
antioxidant which prevents free radical damage among other
things. Even so, for the most part, there is no general system
or systematic way of studying these processes. (This is a bit
of an overgeneralization and the human body is an extremely
complex system, but it is for the most part true.)

One would hope for models of aging processes to be developed
then for means of chemical interruption and reversal of these
same processes to be invented. This more proactive approach
would most likely spawn the creation of better antiaging
therapies. Further, interventions could be timed better so that
such therapies would be engaged in when they would be the
most beneficial and do the least harm.

The second is developing other approaches. Current delivery
systems are not very advanced. The body can take of itself
mostly, so injecting or ingesting a chemical often does work at
extending lifespan. However, when the oil filter in your car
gets old, you don't pour in some oil additives -- you change the
filter. Following the analogy further, when you can't replace a
car part, often you can have it repaired. Chemical life extension
is more like filling up with detergent gasoline then do major auto
repairs. Of course, if nanotechnology arrives, this will be much

In the interim, we need strategies that are a bit more sophisticated
than ingesting some neat chemicals, yet are not so advanced as
to be only workable in computer simulations. Where does this
interemediary between current life extension techniques and
nanotechnology lie?

Daniel Ust