Last night, BBC breakfast viewers were unimpressed with a feature about tech entrepreneur Bryan Johnson spending $2million annually to reverse his biological age and beat death. As it turns out, he’s not alone in his efforts.
Scientists have successfully revitalized old cells to behave more like younger ones, with hopes of doing the same for people.
What is Biological Age?
Biological age refers to your overall state, which is determined by organs and tissues within your body, which are affected by lifestyle factors, genetics, and environmental influences. Biological age tends to be lower than chronological age and can be altered through exercise, nutrition, sleep patterns, stress levels and personal lifestyle choices. Biomarkers that can help measure biological age include blood sugar, cholesterol, triglycerides, oxidative stress levels, muscle mass measurements, DNA methylation levels and grip strength tests. Some biomarkers decline with age while others may remain stable or even increase; some markers have even been proven to predict heart disease and dementia risk – though independent validation is required before they can be recommended as reliable aging markers.
Telomere length is currently the best-known aging marker, yet it lacks predictive power and does not take into account disease processes or environmental influences that influence aging. Other markers, like Metabolic Age Score and Epigenetic Clock have stronger associations with mortality but require independent validation for use as markers of aging.
Researchers are creating next-generation biological ages that combine multiple biomarkers into a more comprehensive test that better correlates with aging outcomes. Although expensive and not widely available yet, their development is promising.
Individuals can greatly extend their biological age by following healthy habits and following an intensive exercise regime, including strict dieting, aerobic exercises and various treatments. Technology entrepreneur Bryan Johnson achieved this feat over 22 years through diet, exercise regiment and various treatments as he featured on BBC’s The Results Are In with Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Biological ages can help health professionals identify those at greater risk for health challenges, but resilience should also be considered. Resilience refers to one’s ability to adapt and overcome an illness more than its biological age does and thus more accurately reflects functional health than biological age.
How can we reverse aging?
Scientists are making strides toward understanding how to halt aging in mice. Rejuvenating them, they have been able to rejuvenate their animals by flushing out retired cells that accumulate with age and can disrupt tissue function.
Salk institute for biological studies researchers discovered that by activating embryonic-like conditions in cells through gene manipulation, they were able to reverse cellular aging without uncontrolled cell growth. This approach proved successful at increasing longevity and healing for mice suffering from an accelerated-aging condition as well as improving vision in another.
These results demonstrate that gene therapy-based methods can rejuvenate somatic cells in vivo without the uncontrollable growth seen with induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Our lab is currently working to identify an inhibitory factor to reprogramming somatic cells, in order to quickly develop improved chemical methods for age reversal or other applications.
How can we improve our healthspan?
Over the last century, improvements in health care, sanitation, diet and education have substantially extended life expectancy. Unfortunately, however, this increase hasn’t translated to an increase in healthy life expectancy (healthspan), which measures how long one is free from major disease or disability. This lag is increasingly recognized as an enormous global challenge.
Therefore, researchers have shifted from looking to extend lifespan to expanding healthspan. This has given rise to a new research field known as “healthspan extension.” This field aims at maintaining biological, physical, and mental wellbeing throughout life without treating specific conditions that arise later. Researchers in this area investigate environmental factors which may help slow or even stop age-related decline.
Exercise increases skeletal muscle strength and cardiovascular function while the Mediterranean diet reduces dementia risk and cognitive impairment risk. Other interventions involve modulating cellular stress responses like oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction; there are also emerging technologies promising to extend healthspan, such as stem cell therapy and regenerative medicine.
Although anti-aging pills might add years to our lives, their pursuit could come at a price both human and societal health-wise. An extended lifespan could increase chronic illness and disability rates which puts additional pressure on healthcare systems already struggling under their own weight. They could even lead to an “illness society”, whereby individuals defined as being sick at a certain age tend to spend most of their healthcare budget on elderly patients.
Expanding healthspan through collective societal, clinical and research efforts offers a better solution. To do so will require multidimensional development of curative perspectives using anti-senescent and regenerative technology alongside modern decision making to responsibly bridge the healthspan-lifespan gap for equitable global wellbeing in future. LSC reports funding from UKRI (BBSRC and MRC) for UK Ageing Network and its subnetworks such as BLAST ageing network where she serves as co-director; Public Health England; Diabetes UK for supporting these networks respectively.
How can we live longer?
Scientists have long shown their ability to extend healthy lifespans of animals such as worms, mice and monkeys; however, much work still needs to be done on humans to replicate these successes. At present, however, one way you can increase your odds of living longer and healthier life is through eating well, getting plenty of rest, exercising regularly and avoiding bad habits like smoking and vices. Jogging and weight training both reduce inflammation that causes disease while at the same time increasing longevity; adequate sleep, staying away from toxic materials while managing stress relief strategies as well as strong social ties are all proven success strategies in helping prolonging lifespans over time.
Genetics plays an integral part in how long we live, but other factors like diet, exercise, exposure to pollutants, stress levels, regular medical checkups and personality traits like agreeableness also can play an integral part. All things considered, we have the power to slow our biological clock if necessary – the question remains as to whether doing so would be worth the effort required and how many more years of health would result from doing so.
