1861- Abraham Lincoln took office. Several southern states seceded from the Union. The Civil War began. That was 150 years ago. Can you imagine if a person born in 1861 were still walking among us today?
That should give you a sense of how striking Aubrey de Grey’s claim is: He predicts that the first person to live to the age of 150 has already been born! Within a few years, he claims, we will essentially have discovered the fountain of youth. Modern medicine will win the battle against aging– doctors will be able to treat and manage the effects of aging the way they treat infectious disease today.
De Grey has an interesting explanation of how aging works and why it can be controlled, suppressed, and very nearly eliminated! According to him, aging is not so much a phenomenon unto itself; instead, it’s the accumulation of a lot of little cellular and genetic damage over time. Understood this way, eventually medical advances will let doctors fix the little damage before it becomes a serious issue. With regular therapy, de Grey says that humans can live to be 1,000 years old!
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That might sound a little far-fetched, but consider this: the average life expectancy extends by three months every year. We are living longer and longer already, so it should come as no surprise that major breakthroughs in science will also cause major breakthroughs in life expectancy. Just think– if you asked someone in 1861, it’s likely they’d be surprised that people would start living past 100!
De Grey and those like him might make aging a thing of the past, but we are all aging! It’s important to know how to embrace and cope with the aging process, and to be sure that we take the best practices towards healthy aging. Would you want to live to be 150 years old?
Marla Levie, BSW, MA, President and Founder of Focus on Aging, has successfully been providing marketing consulting, social media and recruiting services to the elder care market and to other service-related professions in the Chicago area for over 20 years. Use the contact tab to email Marla for additional information about her services.
