Image: Jon Krause
In Brief
- The average life span of humans continues to lengthen, and some scientists have begun to ponder whether this trend will continue indefinitely.
- Not every species ages, and some research suggests that drugs or changes in diet may slow metabolism or alter basic aging processes so that we can live longer. All proposed longevity strategies remain unproved, however.
More In This Article
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Overview
The End
If you were given a free hand to plan how your life will end—your last weeks, days, hours and minutes—what would you choose? Would you, for example, want to remain in great shape right up until the last minute and then go quickly? Many people say they would choose that option, but I see an important catch. If you are feeling fine one moment, the very last thing you would want is to drop dead the next. And for your loving family and friends, who would suffer instant bereavement, your sudden death would be a cruel loss. On the other hand, coping with a long, drawn-out terminal illness is not great either, nor is the nightmare of losing a loved one into the dark wastes of dementia.
We all prefer to avoid thinking about the end of life. Yet it is healthy to ask such questions, at least sometimes, for ourselves and to correctly define the goals of medical policy and research. It is also important to ask just how far science can help in efforts to cheat death.
This article was originally published with the title Why Can't We Live Forever?.
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31 Comments
Add CommentI really don't like the term " cheat death". I suggest the term "cure death". To treat it as disease. Maybe if we lived much longer lives we would be kinder to each other and able to pass on lifes lessons better.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a Bible student, I know that everlasting life is possible. It soon will be a reality. Only, most people won't be here to enjoy it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf we do manage to make our work in regenerative medicine a reality over the next decade or so, we could potentially live longer and in a body that is perpetually youthful (and thus with less of the suffering and cost associated with age related disease). We'll have to consider a choice between a planned euthanasia scheme or discontinuation of anti aging therapy. But there are limitations to what the mind can handle and we're not nearly as close to expanding the mind such that we could remember 1,000 years of our lives (of course we could theoretically video tape the whole thing and store it on Facebook but it just wouldn't be the same).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@taylor6072, "As a Bible student"... you KNOW nothing. You've been brain-washed into believing an evolved set of memes. Now, like a good vector, you're passing those memes onto anyone you can contaminate. But don't let my negativity rain on your delusion. If god calls you to his side, please don't hesitate. Rush head long into that bright light. By the way, please let me know which church you attend so I can show up there and tell everyone why you are all wrong. If it works for you, it should work for me.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@Schmidt: WOW! That was one helluva comment.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI guess even if you increase the longievity of a human life, the balance between life and death is interrupted, which will lead to more environmental problems and disasters. It would be better if they would concentrate on age related diseases rather than aging as it is.
@jwexler: I'd consider death the end result of the condition of aging. Death itself isn't the disease, the aging process is and that's what we're fighting against. That we also delay death is the benefit.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisBah, semantics! I agree with you in essence on the rest, though.
The root cause of most of the world's environmental and economic problems is overpopulation. Lengthening life spans will only exacerbate problems unless accompanied by significant drops in the birth rate and changes to economic policies that rely on never-ending growth to work.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust wondering when or what date you wanted to end it all?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJwexler, Actually I had an idea for a science fiction novel (that I'm too lazy to write) about just the opposite. Humanity cures aging and everyone lives with no death in sight, but the murder rate becomes 100%... if you think about it, if natural death didn't occur, that would be the case due to the law of large numbers. If you have an infinite number of chances, your "number" will come up! Would make a great movie! We could call it "The Eternals" or something like that.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA very nice article, thanks to Thomas Kirkwood.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can see this one grow to the 100+ post.....Me, I want to live forever...(no offspring so don't use the over population one on me;-)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs a neo-pagan Druid, I know that I will live many lifetimes until I learn what lessons the Universe has to offer.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMakes as much sense as believing Bible stories, no?
Personally I've always been a fan of the Tony Montana; dying while insanely high off cocaine and engaged in a gun battle with dozens of assassins.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPersonally I've always been a fan of the Tony Montana; dying while insanely high off cocaine and engaged in a gun battle with dozens of assassins.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThen again if you believe in the theory of Quantum immortality then facing you're own death is nothing to worry about!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI have a comment on the graph entitled "How much more can Life Span increase?"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisUpon closer inspection, it is obvious that both curves are leveling out, rather than heading toward the extrapolated points shown for 2050. Just lay the straight edge of a piece of paper on the 1900 data point and the 1950 data point for each curve in turn and notice how the 2010 data points indicate a curve. Also, notice how the US curve is leveling off more rapidly than the World average curve.
It is clear to me that this indicates the historical trend in longer lives does in fact have a limit that will not be surpassed by disease control or other means. Each biological creature does indeed have a preprogrammed life span that better health can help attain. But, forget about the extrapolations! They are always very suspect.
Thomas Kirkwood espouses the old "wear and tear" theory of aging I learned in graduate school and accepts "that aging does not stem from a genetic program that specifies how quickly we become frail and die." However, most likely both play important roles in aging. For example, how would Dr. Kirkwood explain age related sarcopenia? It is a multifaceted condition involving loss of satellite cell function, motor unit remodeling, loss of protein synthetic function, loss of anabolic signals, etc., which result in reduced muscle mass and strength with age. Resistance training (weight lifting) is the most accepted therapy for reducing sarcopenia and may actually reverse it to some extent. However, muscle loss continues precipitiously after 65 years of age--even in extremely physically fit individuals and those on hormone therapy, strongly suggestive of a programmed decline.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThomas Kirkwood espouses the old "wear and tear" theory of aging I learned in graduate school forty years ago and rather surprisingly dismisses an arguably important mechanism by saying ,"aging does not stem from a genetic program that specifies how quickly we become frail and die." To be sure aging is an extremely complex interaction of myriad processes and for a scientists claim only a single cause is rather naive. How would Dr. Kirkwood explain sarcopenia, the age related lost of muscle mass and function? The underlying causes are multifaceted involving loss of satellite cell function, loss of anabolic signals, diminished protein synthesis, motor unit restructering, etc . Resistance training and anabolic hormone replacement can lessen dgenerative loss but sarcopenia has never been shown to be fully reversible. Muscle loss becomes precipitous after 65 years of age even in extremely physically fit individuals. Affected muscle groups degenerate in a fairly predictable sequence across individuals. These observations suggest a strong genetically programmed component. Tom Ogle, SC
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisadorei o jeito que voce colocou sobre a morte fatima machado
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDon't cure aging, cure overpopulation. Instead of talking about making plans for 9 billion people in 2050, talk about 4.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThat might make me want to live longer!
Or, as John Keynes used to say, in the long run we are all dead!
The author states that the life expectancy "in richer countries [...] lengthens five hours or more every day" (p.26). This seems unbelievably fast and would mean that humans will be reaching 100y on average in the next century (in 150y). Can this be right or is a mistake in the article?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLook who is being brainwashed about Bible Students being brainwashed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisliving an active life.working out at the gym three times a week using the progressive overload principle.i now press 360 pounds on the hammer incline and 5oo pounds on the leg press machine .at 5 ft 7in 180 pounds with 10% body fat .i am still waiting for sarcopenia to start.seems i get stronger each month I just turned 70 five months ago.my advise excercise eat everything in moderation and live to help others .also only believe 50 % of what the doctors say.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLongevity is not something that can be activated at the end, it is something that is established at the very beginning. It is a ratio between the production of growth promoting substances and growth inhibiting substances. See: GERAERT, E. (2004) Int. J. Dev. Biol. 48: 271-274. "Constant and continuous growth reduction as a possible cause of ageing"
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf we did find a way to cure aging maybe we could grow a second brain in our body cavity to store all our memories, or telelink them to memory databanks. Could be a better way than showing boring holiday slides to the neighbours to share the memories.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe cause is for the short view of our sight as it may sometimes easy to reduce in order to engage another factors that help us up to satisfication.Once you born you involved with the surrounding environment which you can accept.After a few years you got an interisting role in this life which you interact with. Soon you devolped by no relation to any body.You make your choices and move with the possible energy. Here you are supposed to take chances to configure your path filled with patience,emotion's and faith.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFirst start you drink,after developing you seek firstly for food then drink.Common language we have is the way of time that you based your article or book on,while the really difficult and hard way is consits of two referncing back to one believe and many unstability facings in addition to turns that take part in our life.Finally the common end is one such as digestion folloed with excreation,Exiting from your only narrow vision to general and wider view :witnessing to people,wind , trees;what about the previous which you refered in your explnation as getting redoff old and damaged cells,Does it return enormously to another life in universe which give us the chance to start once again?!
That's all because we need to be very hounest and good which is hard to achiefe in this life without a dept which you may hate to agree with in this moment but finally being sure that you will get your salary after patience.
*استعذ بالله من الشيطان الرجيم
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this*بسم الله الرحمــان الرحيم* الحمد لله رب العالمين الرحمــان الرحيم مالك يوم الدين ﺇياك نعبد و ﺇياك نستعين اهدنا الصراط المستقيم صراط الذين أنعمت عليهم غير المغضوب عليهم ولا الضالين* و العصر ﺇن اﻹنسان لفى خسر ﺇلا الذين ءامنوا وعملوا الصالحات وتواصوا بالحق و تواصوا بالصبر
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توكل على الله
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Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSpare us your biblical eternal life. I want real answers about life extension and immortality on Earth!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPerhaps you should study something else.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLiving forever and cure for aging is totally different things. Peoples roaring about environmental problems when discuss about living forever. Let me clarify that if somebody lives forever, it means this person will live forever no matter what. With or without oxygen, with or without traditional food, in outer space, or inside the sun. Yes, body can melt down, but then it instantly comes back no matter what and in good living forever condition. And yes, all will be perfectly physically correct. Do not ask how, i do not know too.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNow about living "forever" using aging cure medicine. Is it living forever? No, somebody can decide when this N*1000 years end up, and there will be many problems that is difficult to imagine. Buying, selling, killing. But maybe it can be useful somehow, for outer space programs, etc., but can be easily go out of the control.
Maybe peoples must and can live forever, as it is necessary for living in space, to build and create not only on Earth. And of course sometimes in living forever future anybody can come back and see Mother-Earth.