The Secrets Of Aging: How Simple Biological Tweaks Could Improve Lives

The aging process is something that’s been around since time immemorial. It’s just an accepted part of life and has been for countless millennia. 

But science is now probing the fundamental realities of getting older and making some astonishing discoveries. It turns out that aging isn’t just the classic “wear and tear” you learn about in school. We’re not rusting vehicles, getting older with every passing winter. Instead, it seems like the seeds of rejuvenation reside in our bodies. 

The recent furor over IL-11 makes this abundantly clear. Removing the inflammatory marker from wild-type mice appeared to extend their lifespan by 25% (and non-edited mice also saw a 20% increase in lifespan when taking drugs to block the cytokine). 

However, this isn’t the first example of small tweaks making a massive difference. For example, you can remove the gene that codes for IGF-1 from some mammals and extend their lifespan that way. Or you can feed them all manner of chemicals throughout their lives and see additional life extension improvements, like spermidine or rapamycin. 

Changing single genes on drosophila flies and yeast can sometimes double or triple lifespan – something that was utterly unexpected until recently before researchers started tinkering. 

The research on aging, therefore, is no longer theoretical. It is something with proven merit in the laboratory, and will likely come to humans soon. 

For medical services that deal with patients with chronic diseases and permanent damage to their bodies, this development is tremendous. It means we’re getting our first glimpse of the possibility of full-scale rejuvenation, reversing years of aging, abuse, and other issues. 

Sober Maps, a platform that helps patients find the best addiction treatment center near them believes this change is promising. “It means that addiction treatment centers could not only help with the addiction but also potentially put patients on protocols that reverse the damage substances do to their bodies. It raises the possibility that when they go home, they’ll be able to lead normal lives again.”

Why We Age

Numerous theories in the scientific literature try to explain why we age. One idea is called the mitochondrial theory of aging. It says that aging happens because of damage caused to the DNA in the powerhouses of our cells. 

Another theory puts aging down to the accumulation of debris inside and outside the cell wall. This biological junk accumulates and harms signaling between various parts of the body, making it less able to do proper house cleaning. 

However, the most popular idea at the moment is that aging has to do with information loss from the epigenome – the layer of biological machinery that sits on top of regular genes. It’s not so much that the genes themselves are damaged (though that can happen) but more to do with the epigenome failing to express them properly. The apparatus gets tangled and confused, leading to the creation of the wrong proteins. 

At first, this process goes slow. The body is quite good at cleaning up damage and repairing errors. However, as people age, the tangles and knots become worse, and the repair systems themselves also begin to fail. 

The hope is that drugs and interventions can be developed that will deal with these issues and allow the gene structure to remain healthy. If that can happen, people might be able to live past 100 regularly with disease. 

Is Anti-Aging Technology Necessary? 

Given the current state of the world, many people are wondering whether such anti-aging technology is necessary. Will it cause more harm than good? 

Philosophy aside, anti-aging technology seems to offer hope to a world dominated by chronic disease. Since most of the major killers like heart disease and cancer are a function of aging, therapies that slow the aging process seem to be a good idea. The amount of money that health systems and governments could save every year is tremendous. 

“If such a technology became widely available, it could help patients across the spectrum,” Sober Maps says. “Substances can ravage the body and leave people looking and feeling older than they otherwise would be. But with longevity technology, you could stop that or put it into reverse, perhaps within a few months, giving someone their life back.”

The same is true, of course, of patients with elevated risk factors for the big killers. These individuals could also stand to benefit from investments in longevity technology. High cholesterol or blood pressure might not be such a worry if medicine or gene therapy were dealing with the underlying issues that make these elevated biomarkers so risky for older people. 

There are also social reasons why anti-aging technology could be beneficial. For one, an aging population puts a strain on younger people. Those of working age have to produce the goods and services to serve the older generation, which isn’t easy. 

And then there’s the problem of national decline. Some countries like Japan, Italy, and South Korea are at risk of being wiped off the map if current trends continue, with China and the rest of Europe not far behind. 

How Would Anti-Aging Technology Work? 

The first round of anti-aging technologies would likely be supplements or chemicals targeting specific pathways in the body related to cellular decline. Interestingly, some of these substances are already available to some patients for diseases like diabetes. Metformin is an excellent example. 

It’s also likely that a combination of substances would yield the largest effects. These could target different aspects of the body’s aging pathways and help shore it up from multiple angles. 

However, the most advanced technology would likely involve editing the epigenome and resetting it to a more youthful state. Some researchers are already doing this with mouse eyes and livers, but the hope is that the technology will be transferable to humans shortly. The concept works by scrubbing the epigenome clean and leveraging its latent youthful memory. Researchers don’t want to turn the clock all the way back to the stem cell state. But they believe they can make progress if they get part of the way there.