Will we figure out how to live forever?
Our heart will go on but not our mind
JoeUser Forums
"Oh we're getting quite close to cracking the secret to immortality"
So we hear anyway from scientists who are exploring the secrets of anti-aging. Basically there are a handful of theories on what causes aging and how we might stop it. One of the more promising ones is gene therapy. Through gene therapy we can restore our tissues to the healthy adult level and hence delay or completely stop the onset of old age. I have a number of books around here that talk about various strategies, today, that can be used to slow down aging (caloric intake being the biggest - those empty calories will wear you down my friends).
Many on-line sellers are now selling human growth hormone (HGH) as a mechanism to delay the onset of old age. I don't know if they work or not. There's a site dedicated to keeping up with news on whether we will be able to eventually stop aging or at least slow it down to live hundreds if not thousands of years.
But according to a neurologist friend of mine, don't expect to live more than 120 years. The reasons are ones that rarely get talked about. What he said was that the brain begins to break down pretty rapidly in most people around 80 years (with a few exceptions). What we call Alzheimer's is just one of an entire world of forms of dementia waiting for us.
He contends that it's quite likely that we'll figure out some way at some point to make it so that we're no longer dying of organ failures, heart disease, or even cancer. But in the end, dementia will get us. To that I asked, "Well, don't you think we'll cure Alzheimer's?" Which he responded, "Oh sure of course. And then something else will pop up similar to Alzheimer's that will take decades to cure. And then something after that, and another after that, and so on with each one getting harder and harder to treat."
Or put another way, we may solve our heart problems but our brains are going to be the death of us yet. So if you're thinking you may live to 150 years due to medical technology, think again. At best, your body may last to 150 years but your mind won't.
