Why do we age, and why do we die? Biogerontology hopes to one day answer these questions. This new field explores the biological processes that occur inside living things as they age. The scope of the field is broad — it can cover molecular protein damage occurring inside the smallest cells, or arterial atherosclerosis in a full-grown adult — and replete with future implications to the study of medicine and health in general.
The Body's Response to Aging
Is aging designed into humans and other animals at the DNA level, or mainly a byproduct of decades of exposure to wear and tear from the outside world? The answer is likely to be a complex mixture of both, but a better understanding of the mechanical processes behind declining health might allow scientists and doctors to alleviate some of these negative symptoms, long thought simply unavoidable.
As the human body ages, calcium deposits accumulate on bone joints, restricting movement and increasing brittleness. The wiring of the brain begins to lose its plasticity and new tasks become more difficult to learn (picking up a new language or musical instrument is much harder at forty than twenty). Vision starts to fade at the edges and the ears begin to lose the subtleties in the tapestry of sound. If the processes behind these changes are understood more clearly, effective treatments and possibly reversals may be on the medical horizon.
Biogerontology Research and Potential Treatments
Consider macular degeneration, a significant cause of center-vision blindness in the over-fifty age group. Studies into the process by which the retina breaks down are paving the way for anti-angiogenesis drugs to halt the onset of blindness in high-risk patients.
Going further, research into stem cells at the Bernard O'Brien Institute of Microsurgery under Dr. Wayne Morrison has indicated the cells may be able to form heart replacement tissue for cardiac repair or bone marrow transplants for late term cancer patients. Currently in the process of being developed into working treatment procedures, these breakthroughs and others like them could bring sweeping change to the face of modern medicine.
The Future of Biogerontology
Even this might be only the beginning. Scientists at the Methuselah Foundation believe biogerontology research may one day allow for specific attacks on the biological mechanisms that cause aging — a cure for growing old, in so many words. These enthusiasts envision drugs that prevent the destruction of telomeres (the tiny caps at the end of chromosomes that are inevitably shortened as cells divide and grow) and other creative genetic therapies to eliminate the causes of aging at the molecular level, allowing for substantially increased lifespans. Here the aim is not merely life extension, but healthy life extension, with the vitality and strength that goes along with it. This side of biogerontology research aims to make 80 the new 40, and then on from there.
These advanced breakthroughs are still only hopeful ideas, and any product sold today ‘proven’ to have anti-aging properties should be treated with, at best, a tablespoon of salt. Yet biogerontology as a discipline is young and full of promise, and it remains to be seen just what may be possible once the hugely complex mechanisms by which animals age become understood. The door has just begun to swing open and with careful, intelligent exploration, great advances may be on the other side, for the whole human race. Because who doesn’t want to stay young for a long, long time?
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