Rock-Stars-of-Aging-by-Marc-Middleton

Rock Stars of Aging
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modifying or even reversing the aging process is only a matter of
time. “Researchers are closer than ever before to unlocking the door
to life extension,” says Dan Perry, Executive Director of the Alliance
for Aging Research organization in Washington, D.C. “With genetic
intervention, expect to see many more people -- half the population --
with life expectancy to 100.”
And that’s the conservative view. The wildly outrageous view is now
being presented by an increasing number of doctors and researchers.
Dr. Terry Grossman, author of Transcend: Nine Steps to Living Well
Forever, believes that in less than two decades, for each year we live,
medical science will add more than a year to our life expectancy.
That’s approaching immortality or what British researcher Aubrey de
Grey calls Longevity Escape Velocity. De Grey says that aging is a
disease and that gene therapies will soon “cure” it. He seriously
believes that the first human to live to be 1,000 may already be alive.
Simply stated, de Grey’s plan involves periodic repairs using stem
cells, gene therapy and other technologies that already exist. This
longevity “tune-up” will be good enough to add 10 years to our
lifespan. During that 10-year period, emerging medical technologies
will increase so rapidly that we’ll soon be able to get a new “tune-up”
that will last another 30 years. And during that period, science will
once again advance enough by the next "scheduled service" that
death can be put off indefinitely.
While this makes for great conversation at the dinner table, not
everyone believes this is either possible or desirable. While potential
lifespan is a fascinating subject, life expectancy -- the age to which
most of us can expect to live -- is far more meaningful. So where do
we look in our efforts to discover the prescription for a long life? We
look to the living laboratory all around us. We look to centenarians,
the Rock Stars of Aging.
Rock Stars of Aging
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