Dr. Mercola November 18 2008 59,200 views
Nature doesn’t specifically want you to die -- there is no “death gene”. People perish not because of some internal clock counting down to death, but because nature doesn’t bother to promote self-healing past a certain point.
In other words, it is typically benign ignorant neglect, not intentional malice, that results in your life ending prematurely.
There is at least one animal that scientists believe is immortal. The hydra, a microscopic freshwater animal shaped like a squid, does not seem to die from age-related causes. Planarians, a kind of flattened worm, may also be immortal. Among more complex animals, turtles may be immune to the effects of aging. They can die from disease or injury, but do not seem to grow old.
Biogerontologist Aubrey de Grey, Cambridge researcher, and chairman and chief science officer of the Methuselah Foundation, has a plan to engineer immortality for humans as well.
His “strategies for engineering negligible senescence” (SENS) plan focuses on finding the main causes of age-related damage and using science to prevent or reverse them.
According to Dr. de Grey, there are seven major known cases of aging:
If these conditions are treated as diseases with a cure, immortality just might be achievable…
You may not know this, but Cambridge researcher Aubrey de Grey is one of the leading anti aging researchers in the world. This interview was originally slated for my Inner Circle, but it’s so good, I simply had to share it with everyone.
In it, Dr. de Grey shares fascinating insights into what the world’s top scientists and anti-aging pioneers are thinking on this subject.
As radical as it may sound, Dr. de Grey believes immortality is achievable.
And he’s not alone in his thinking. The World Transhumanist Association (WTA) is slowly but surely beginning to gain ground. Their membership has risen from 2,000 to almost 5,000 since 2000, and transhumanist student groups have sprung up at university campuses from California to Nairobi.
To others, these ideas are as frightening as they are amazing. Political scientist Francis Fukuyama singled out transhumanism as the world‘s "most dangerous idea."In Pursuit of Radical Life Extension
From a strictly biological standpoint, the maximum lifespan of human beings seems to be set at around 120 years. However, I do believe it’s possible to extend your lifespan well beyond this with the regenerative technologies that Dr. de Grey discusses.
While regulating your insulin pathways and all the other important lifestyle changes I advocate would clearly increase not only the quantity of your years but the quality of them as well, Dr. de Grey does not believe that will be the biggest improvement in longevity.
In this 30-minute interview, Aubrey de Grey explains how aging is a preventable phenomenon, and much like a disease, merely a side effect of being alive.
He believes humans could live for several centuries, if only we approach the aging process as an “engineering problem.”
According to de Grey, the “7 Deadly Things” listed above are responsible for your physical aging, and are the basis of his “engineering approach” solutions.
Essentially, de Grey’s hypothesis states that if you can keep these seven deadly cell-damaging processes below the threshold of pathology – the state where processes start to break cells down until your body dies from the cumulative damage – you will be able to extend your life indefinitely.
He focuses on technologies that actually reverse the damage that aging causes, and he is confident that it will be possible one day to not only reverse the internal tissue damage but the physical external appearance as well (which he believes will be much easier to do).
Adult (not embryonic) stem cell technology is one of these approaches. I am actually in the process of beta testing some topical stem cell factors that promises to provide me with a full head of original hair in the next three months. I am taking pictures daily so it will be fun to document the process.If you want to see how emerging science will someday transform elderly people to better versions of their former young selves––and if you want to learn what simple steps you can take now to help ensure you will be alive to take advantage of tomorrow’s age-reversing medical miracles—bookmark this web site. www.MaxLife.org. That’s Maximum Life Foundation’s site where you’ll be able to access a revolutionary book in January called “Life Extension Express, 7 steps you can take now, to catch the emerging wave of medical breakthroughs… for a youthful, indefinite lifespan.” Meanwhile, visit the site now for extreme life extension information. www.MaxLife.org.
With an ever-increasing population, is it really a good idea that we should all live longer? The planet will be bursting at the seams!
Although I am a flexible, open-minded, forward-thinking person, at age 71 I already find it hard sometimes to accept the changes that have happened in the world. I think if I lived another 40 years I would find it dificult to adapt, especially to new technology. I don't even have a cell phone! Just think - in my lifetime I have gone from seeing coal delivered by horse and cart to space travel and a computer in nearly every home.
Nevertheless, I still want to remain healthy until it is my time to go, and I am vain enough to still look after my skin and figure. My main reasons for wanting to stay around are to see my grandchild grow up, and to pass on any knowledge I have gained over the years. Isn't that what everyone wants?
Very well put Julieanne! I've often felt this way also. If we make the most of every day we are given on this earth but contributing positively to the quality of life for others, we will in turn receive so much more than focusing on the amount of time we have left. Children and grandchildren make us want to hang around longer to enjoy being in their lives, as well as finding other wonderful souls to share this journey with. Joyful anticipation of the next journey is motivation for me personally for just being happy with being here for the time I'm suppose to be, not trying to push the envelope to make it longer. That doesn't mean I don't try to take care of this old body while it's carrying me around, that's part of the fun of being here, and certainly challenging at times!
This is actually the UN brain washing that mother earth cannot sustain the present population.....This is an out right false hood. The entire population can fit in the Republic of Texas with 5 sq. ft. of space each.
Sound land management and food policies can sustain the population. Corporate greed will not allow the earth to fallow every seven years for the micro nutrients to entire the soil from natural decomposition. Earth worshipers value animal life over human life.
Personally I prefer quality of life and plan on using body weight exercises and Tai Chi and EFT for keeping those goals and will go when I'm called to go.
I just can't stand the falsehoood of the earth not sustaining the population.....which is why we have so many justifiable deaths in the form of: wars, abortions, lack of DDT to eradicate Malaria, etc. and the list goes on, vaccines, AIDS, etc. yah'll git the picture right.......good.......we should strive to live life to the fullest.....I don't care to live any longer then what I am allowed to live but will make the best of what time I'm allowed.....but this may allow cures for diseases that will help many achieve that quality of life, I'm all for that.......
I'd like to contest that fallacy about fitting us all into Texas. Gray Stroke points out that we'd each have a roomy 5 square feet. May I point out that that's not enough space to swing a cat without hitting your neighbor? Sounds like standing room only.
Parts of Texas are uninhabited for a reason: lack of resources. Gray Stroke forgets that people have to eat and drink and, er, eliminate. Shoehorning us all into Texas would result in the human version of a laying hen CAFO, each hen having enough space to turn around but not to stretch her wings. Can we put a stake through the heart of this fit-into-Texas meme?
There is an Irish curse that goes something like this, "May you live a long life and in interesting times."
That said, I always feel like there is something more I want to get done...that I'm not finished yet. Dr. Mercola appears to have that to the nth degree, he is so excited and fascinated about so many things. He's a "do-er." Thank God for do-ers...they make life so much better for the rest of us and for themselves too.
Dr. Emanuel Revici, who I wrote about in "The Doctor Who Cures Cancer," was a do-er, too. Despite a viral lab injury that put him in an iron lung when he was in his early forties, he got himself out and lived to be 101. When I asked him if he used his medicines to get out of the iron lung, he would only shrug...at 98 he wouldn't tell me.
I found out his top assistant was in her sixties. By the looks of her skin and lack of any wrinkles, she looked to be in her mid forties despite being overweight. She tried to open up a local retail business for skin care in New York City but that was beyond her know how.
Revici only slept 2 to 3 hours a night. I wonder if his inventions are what enabled him to do that. If you count the time one is awake, Revici lived the equivalent of 150 years.
In any case, Dr. Revici had some powerful anti-aging compounds.
The best to you.
Kelley Eidem
Together we can cure cancer - one person at a time!
It doesn't matter if the world's population could fit into Rhode Island as long as they all stood on each other's shoulders, the fact is that without death, there is no meaning to life. And we are already immortal, our spirit was before we were born and will be after the vehicle we know as our body dies. BTW, that is not a 'Christian' view, it is stated from a Uiversal Spiritual perspective.
The prevention of alzheimers and other debilitating diseases of old age is a worthy goal; that's what Dr. Grey states as his goal.
You are right that that is not a Christian view; it actually comes from Greek philosophy and mythology. The biblical Christian view is that a man is a soul and his breath is the spirit. Man used to immortal, but when he sinned, he lost his immortality. Genesis 2:7 "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Job 27:3 "All the while my breath is in me, and the spirit of God is in my nostrils;" Genesis 6:3 "And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." This was in the days of Moses before all the pollution, but now we are blessed if we live past 70 years. Psalm 90:10 "The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away."
You make an interesting point about population. There is almost no public discourse on worldwide population control. I feel that the earthlings here are entitled to the best life humanity can provide. Unfortunatly exponential increases in population are inevitable without world wide public policy on birth control. I have always felt that education is the best policy, but all that is falling far behind and the subject being ignored to the peril of all.I feel that longevity is everyones right to pursue without guilt. Reproduction however is controllable via various methods and no harm is done to anyone already living. If we could educate the world regarding the effects of overpopulation on the planet and it's citizens, the world would be a much more pleasant place to live in. I don't understand why the heads in the sand attitudes about this very serious subject.
While there ie endless speculation re life extension, it is known by a few people that fasting detoxes the body and is the best anti aging option available at the moment
.To see how someone who regularly fasts -looks like visit www.jimbernard.org
As far as whether it would be good to have ever more people living on the planet.
Does it matter - to us as individuals as long as we are not tripping over people in the street ?
five square feet per person is not realistic when you can live in high rise buildings thus increasing space per person.
Remember also that three quarters of the surface of the earth is sea water.
Eventually there may be large floating cities on the seas and people would live quite happily in that situaion.
Food production is inexhaustable if food is produced with hyponics etc and housing is unlimited when internal walls are made from mud which also is inexhaustable .
As for excessive CO2gases - well we will probably fing that this notion is more myth than reality and anyway scientists have discovered that additional co2 improves the quality of plastics.
Plastic sheeting is going to be a big industry in the future - so CO2 is likely to be a benefit not a disadvantage imagine the water saved in rivers if large stretches of rivers and dams are covered in plastic sheeting to prevent evaporation, which is a major cause of water loss.
> Isn't that what everyone wants?
Hi Julieanne. Sorry, no that's not what everyone wants.
Take me for example: I have chosen not to have children (thereby helping to solve the problem of overpopulation that you are worrying about) and therefor won't have grandchildren. I want to live as long as possible because I like life and don't want to stop existing.
But you're right that if people live longer, decisions will have to be made about at which rate we can afford to procreate without ruining the planet.
As a matter of fact those decisions should have been taken a long time ago because we're already asking more of the planet than it can keep delivering.
Do you really think not having children is a solution? We need new perspectives from young optimistic un-corrupted minds. Children remind us of the good in ourselves. I also value the elderly. They are our sages. We learn from illness and death just as much as we do from living. How far will this go? How time consuming will self-preservation become? Will we be so consumed with daily practices to live forever that we forget to just live and be thankful for every moment? Not to mention the fact that the environment around us may not allow for us to live this long despite what measures we take on our own behalf. I do see the value in Dr. Grey's research. Let's balance that with efforts to heal the environment and eliminate some of negativity around us. This harmony alone will help us live longer healthier lives.
Sorry, but the sound quality is pretty poor on Dr. Grey's end. Lots of clipping. Thanks for the video, but it would be nice to hear some actual tips to this anti-aging rather than these vague generalities.
It would be great to have a transcription of the interview (I have trouble understanding what is said on the recording).
Thanks for interviewing Aubrey de Grey, without people like him things wouldn't get moving. Thank you for bringing progress to the people and bypassing the sclerotic mainstream medical community.
This was discussed not long ago:articles.mercola.com/.../is-immortality-in-your-future.aspx
One answer follows:
exerpt from "I wish you enough!"
By Bob Perks
"I wish you enough sun to keep your attitude bright.
I wish you enough rain to appreciate the sun more.
I wish you enough happiness to keep your spirit alive.
I wish you enough pain so that the smallest joys in life appear much
bigger.
I wish you enough gain to satisfy your wanting.
I wish you enough loss to appreciate all that you possess.
I wish enough "Hello's" to get you through the final "Goodbye."
It is not the numbers of years in a life life that are important, but the life lived in those years.
And who gets to choose who is gifted with longevity - and whose spans are shortened?
And there was indeed a suggestion of the latter in the first article.
Would it be on the basis of social position? Political power? Contributions to humanity? Wealth? Beauty? Sporting achievement? Charisma?
Is longevity to be purchased with the diminishing of 'lesser lives'?
Because - even if the gift of increased longevity came at the cost of being unable to produce children - the burden on this planet's resources would increase unless those not chosen were progressively culled.
Even Jesus did not offer extended life on the planet, but by removing the fear of eternal death he made it possible to live this life more abundantly.
apologies- I meant to leave more spacing between the exerpt and my own opinion!