Ageing drive has long way to go

A group of British scientists has come up with a tantalising idea. They aim to stop the human body-aging clock. That would mean centenarians with 50-year-old bodies strutting and gyrating their bottoms.

The BBC reported last Monday experts at Leeds University plan to spend £50 million in five years to seek innovative ways of achieving this “50 active years after 50”. However, expectations the feat would herald the beginning of an end to aging are misplaced.

Customers abound

Life expectancy predictions in Britain make 50th maintenance desirable. Half of babies now born should expect to reach 100, thanks to higher living standards and advances in medicine.

That goes for some other developed nations. Consequently, customers abound. Promotional budgets wouldn’t be necessary.

The BBC report said the experts plan to provide pensioners—why pensionable with a 50-year-old body isn’t clear—with own-grown tissues and durable implants.

New hips, knees and heart valves, presumably to facilitate sporting in the leisure life-to-come, would be the starting point. Eventually, the experts “envisage most of the body parts that flounder with age could be upgraded”.

The university’s Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering boasts an impressive indicator of the way ahead. It’s a hip joint able to withstand the 100 million steps expected of a 50-year-old on 100th birthday. Currently most hip joints expire in 20 years.

Recorded history

Sceptics will respond: “We’ve heard all this eternal youthfulness nonsense before.” Evidently, that’s a minority view. The search for anti-aging agents has existed in all recorded history.

Ancient Egyptians sought spices and herbs for beauty, long life, and aging reversal. Greeks and Asians civilisations, including Indian, Chinese, and Japanese used turmeric, milk, honey et cetera for the same purposes. Of all parts of human body to take a beating, and with some success, in the pursuit of long youthfulness, the skin is.

Today, the search for lasting beauty and youthfulness has created a multibillion industry. For those lacking Hollywood-size wallets, information on home agents is readily available. For example, raw coconut oil, avocado, turmeric powder, honey and, oh yes, potato, will mask aging.

Scientifically, misinformation abound. This forced 51 of the world top researchers in the field of aging to write a position paper. Scientific American magazine published it in June 2002.

“Our language on this matter,” they wrote, “must be unambiguous: there are no lifestyle changes, surgical procedures, vitamins, antioxidants, hormones, or techniques of genetic engineering available today that have been demonstrated to influence the process of aging.”

The scientists wrote that if people in general are to live longer than it’s possible now, it would mean adding “manufactured survival time” only to those who are likely to live for or have lived for 70 years or more. That’s a feat yet to come.