[Sc:masthead-soa]
[Sc:aanhef-soa]

Scientists now believe that the aging process is close to being cured, and people will regularly live forever or at least to be 1,000 jaar oud. Eigenlijk, treating aging and living forever will be as easy as visiting the doctor on a regular basis!

If I told you that we’re not too far off from seeing people live forever, you’d probably call me an idiot. Na alles, the oldest person ever was Frenchwoman Jeanne Louise Calment, who lived to be 122 jaar oud (1875-1997). And the oldest person alive today, 115-year-old Besse Cooper, is quite a ways from reaching Calment’s longevity milestone.

Dit gezegd zijnde, you would definitely label scientist Aubrey de Grey an idiot because he firmly believes that we’re within decades of seeing somebody live to be 1,000. And it doesn’t help De Grey’s cause that his long hair and Jesus beard make him look like the stoner hippie who fell out of the peace van.

Echter, the reality is that De Grey is one of the most respected authorities on anti-aging in the world, and his credentials (Chief Science Officer of SENS Foundation, editor of Rejuvenation Research academic journal) definitely speak for themselves. So when De Grey says that he believes we’re on the brink of an enormous anti-aging breakthrough, people tend to listen.

And listen people have since the Cambridge graduate has appeared on several major TV networks, and has been featured in numerous magazine and website articles. The largest reason for his mainstream popularity is the simple fact that the London native preaches what everybody wants to hear – extended life and vitality. Perhaps even more catching is the fact that he’s not just talking about extending human life, but also keeping people from becoming raisin-looking old prudes as they live to be several hundred years old.

Live Forever The Not-Too-Distant Future

Zoals eerder vermeld, the idea of somebody living to be hundreds or even thousands of years old is ridiculous. Verder, it sounds like a concept better-suited for a science fiction movie than for a serious discussion. But De Grey doesn’t seem to think so, and he believes we could be seeing a change sooner than later as he said, “I'd say we have a 50/50 chance of bringing aging under what I'd call a decisive level of medical control within the next 25 years or so.”

He continued by saying, “And what I mean by decisive is the same sort of medical control that we have over most infectious diseases today.” Essentially, Aubrey de Grey is saying that treating aging will be no different than going to the doctor to treat the flu or measles. Natuurlijk, it will require a little more thorough process such as stem cell and gene therapy, but the idea is that aging will no longer be considered this accepted natural process.

Live Forever Cause and Effect

From Juan Ponce de Leon searching for the Fountain of Youth to Simon Cowell wanting to be cryogenically frozen, people have always had a fascination with cheating old age and extending life. But the truth is that people might not have to believe in myths or extreme measures, given how we’ve uncovered a great deal of information on what actually causes old age.

As Aubrey de Grey says, aging is merely the damage that cells have acquired over the years. Verder te gaan, he also says that cells are constantly being affected by the byproduct garbage that’s left behind from the body’s day-to-day operations. De Grey has talked about this topic before by saying, “The garbage accumulates inside the cell, and eventually it gets in the way of the cell's workings.”

Helaas, there is no way to stop the “garbage” from accumulating, and a large buildup often leads to heart attacks and strokes. Echter, De Grey is hard at work at the SENS Foundation (anti-aging science facility) trying to find a way to prevent the garbage from building up in cells so people don’t suffer from heart attacks and other life-threatening problems. He explained the basis behind this by saying, “If we could do that in the case of certain modified forms of cholesterol which accumulate in cells of the artery wall, then we simply would not get cardiovascular disease.”

As for preventing the aforementioned cell damage, De Grey also commented on this by stating, “The idea is to engage in what you might call preventative geriatrics, where you go in to periodically repair that molecular and cellular damage before it gets to the level of abundance that is pathogenic.” He went into detail about stem cell therapy too by saying, “Stem cell therapy is a big part of this. It's designed to reverse one type of damage, namely the loss of cells when cells die and are not automatically replaced, and it's already in clinical trials.”

Here's a link to Part 2 van dit artikel: How to Live Forever, Onsterfelijkheid voor u