Res earc her Published by CQ Press, a Division of SAGE CQ www.cqresearcher.com Prolonging Life Should scientists try to increase the human lifespan?

he number of elderly Americans is rising sharply. More than 1 million people will be at least 100 years old by 2050 — up from just 50,000 centenarians in T 2000. With more and more Americans living longer, policymakers worry that Social Security and Medicare costs will drain money from health and education programs for the young. Meanwhile, researchers are trying to prolong life even more, mak - ing old age a time of health and activity, not sickness and frailty.

Some envision a future when people routinely live in good health José Temprana celebrates his new citizenship with a kiss in Miami on June 29, 2007 — at age 105. Born in to 100 or longer, aided, perhaps, by drugs that turn on “longevity” Cuba, he was a sponge diver and lobster fisherman before he was jailed for 30 years for opposing Fidel Castro. He fled to Florida after his release. genes, newly discovered secrets of long-lived people and even computer chips and tiny robotic devices implanted in humans to help them remain vigorous. But many gerontologists and ethicists I argue that the human body is far too complex for such drastic N THIS REPORT changes and that scientists should focus on improving health care S THE ISSUES ...... 807 for all Americans, not increasing longevity. I CHRONOLOGY ...... 815 D BACKGROUND ...... 816 E CURRENT SITUATION ...... 820 CQ Researcher • Sept. 30, 2011 • www.cqresearcher.com AT ISSUE ...... 821 Volume 21, Number 34 • Pages 805-828 OUTLOOK ...... 824 RECIPIENT OF SOCIETY OF PROFESSIONAL JOURNALISTS AWARD FOR BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 826 EXCELLENCE N AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION SILVER GAVEL AWARD THE NEXT STEP ...... 827 PROLONGING LIFE CQ Re search er

Sept. 30, 2011 THE ISSUES U.S. Ranks 50th in Life Volume 21, Number 34 809 Expectancy • Can the human lifespan The average American can MANAGING EDITOR: Thomas J. Billitteri 807 be extended? expect to live to age 78. [email protected] • Should the human ASSISTANT MANAGING EDITOR: Kathy Koch lifespan be extended? A Glossary on Aging [email protected] 811 From and cellular • Should the government CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Thomas J. Colin to free radicals [email protected] invest in extending life? and telomeres. BACKGROUND ASSOCIATE EDITOR: Kenneth Jost More People in U.S. Living STAFF WRITERS: Marcia Clemmitt, Peter Katel 812 Past 110 Lure of Eternal Youth Seventy-four Americans were CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Sarah Glazer, 816 Humans have sought long 110 or older in 1999. Alan Greenblatt, Barbara Mantel, Tom Price, life since ancient times. Jennifer Weeks 813 ‘Best and Brightest’ Kids DESIGN /P RODUCTION EDITOR: Olu B. Davis Cellular Aging Reveal Longevity Secrets ASSISTANT EDITOR: Darrell Dela Rosa 819 Normal human cells are Those with good habits lived not immortal, but cancer the longest. FACT CHECKER: Michelle Harris cells are. Chronology 815 Key events since 1825. CURRENT SITUATION 816 Futurists Reach for The Magic Pill Immortality 820 Researchers are searching “Human life will be irre - A Division of SAGE versibly transformed.” for drugs that delay aging. VICE PRESIDENT AND EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Jayne Marks The Oldest Old 821 At Issue 822 Will U.S. life expectancy DIRECTOR, ONLINE PUBLISHING: Scientists are studying continue to rise for the rest Todd Baldwin lifestyle patterns that con - of the century? tribute to healthy aging. Copyright © 2011 CQ Press, a Division of SAGE. FOR FURTHER RESEARCH SAGE reserves all copyright and other rights herein, OUTLOOK unless pre vi ous ly spec i fied in writing. No part of this For More Information publication may be reproduced electronically or Many Unknowns 825 Organizations to contact. otherwise, without prior written permission. Un- 824 Some say the public au tho rized re pro duc tion or trans mis sion of SAGE copy - should be encouraged to 826 Bibliography right ed material is a violation of federal law car ry ing adopt healthy lifestyles. Selected sources used. civil fines of up to $100,000. CQ Press is a registered trademark of Congressional The Next Step Quarterly Inc. 827 Additional articles . SIDEBARS AND GRAPHICS CQ Researcher (ISSN 1056-2036) is printed on acid- Citing CQ Researcher free paper. Pub lished weekly, except: (May wk. 4) U.S. Life Expectancy 827 808 Sample bibliography formats. (July wks. 1, 2) (Aug. wks. 2, 3) (Nov. wk. 4) and Rose Steadily (Dec. wks. 4, 5), by CQ Press, a division of SAGE. Americans live 30 years Annual full-service subscriptions start at $803. For pric - longer than a century ago. ing, call 1-800-834-9020. To purchase a CQ Researcher report in print or electronic format (PDF), visit www. cqpress.com or call 866-427-7737. Single reports start at $15. Bulk purchase discounts and electronic-rights licensing are also available. Pe ri od i cals post age paid at Wash ing ton, D.C., and ad di tion al mailing of fic es. POST MAST ER: Send ad dress chang es to CQ Re search - er , 2300 N St., N.W., Suite 800, Wash ing ton, DC 20037.

Cover: AFP/Getty Images/Robert Sullivan

806 CQ Researcher Prolonging Life BY BETH BAKER

a professor of cell biology THE ISSUES at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. dith Furstenberg lives “The revo - in her own apartment lution that started in the 1970s E in a Baltimore retire - is realizing its potential now. ment community. She has to The tools that we have and use a walker now, but over - the pace at which things are all she is healthy and feels being discovered are explod - positive about life at her age. ing. It’s mind-boggling.” She’s 103. Scientists are delving into “The good things are that the changes that occur at the you can still enjoy life, and cellular and molecular level as like food, and like to meet people age. Researchers have people,” she says. “I have discovered that dozens of gene enough money to not worry mutations may be associated about my next meal or where with longevity, and they are I’m going to sleep.” testing new compounds for Centenarians like Fursten - their effects on aging and dis - berg are now the fastest- eases of the elderly. growing age group in the Many researchers share the . By 2050 the goal of “compressed morbid - l l

United States will have an e ity” — keeping people healthy h c estimated 1.1 million cente - t until a ripe old age, when i M narians, up from just 50,000 they would die painlessly . J

1 f in 2000. f and quickly. Reaching that e J

Not all will be doing as / goal, though, is extremely s e well as Furstenberg. g difficult. Researchers at the a m

Dorothy Barnthouse, for I University of Southern Cali -

y t

example, celebrated her 100th t fornia found that as life ex - e birthday in June in the Kansas G pectancy continues to rise, nursing home where she has Century-old Fauja Singh, an Indian-born Sikh, is the the length of time that older lived for seven years. Ex - first runner to officially enter next year’s Edinburgh people are sick or disabled Marathon. With seven 26-mile marathons under his belt tremely frail, her memory all since his 89th birthday, he says it will be his last. In the increases. In fact, the average but gone, she has no diag - United States, where life expectancy has been steadily number of healthy years has nosable disease and takes no rising, more than 1 million people are expected to be actually decreased since 1998, medication, says her daughter, at least 100 years old by 2050 — up from just they found. 2 Anne Baber. 50,000 centenarians in 2000. The answers to basic But her mother is nearly questions about aging are deaf and has no friends. “I think it’s a Meanwhile, gerontologists, bioethi - not fully understood. Why do people horrible life,” says Baber, who regular - cists and demographers are wonder - age, and can the process be manipu - ly visits. ing how successful scientists will be lated? What is the role of genes in The expected growth in centenar - and whether having millions more aging? Will average life expectancy con - ians is part of a continuing, dramatic very old people benefits either indi - tinue to grow? Can the maximum increase in the number of elderly viduals or society. human lifespan — now about 120 — Americans. Yet even as politicians The biology of aging — biogeron - be significantly increased? and policymakers worry about their tology — was once a backwater of The questions are not just theo - impact on Social Security and Medicare research, but today it’s hot. “This is retical. Understanding the basic costs, many researchers hope to ex - the amazing golden age of biology,” mechanisms of aging is fundamental pand the ranks of centenarians even comparable to Einstein’s golden age to determining if older people’s vul - more significantly. of physics, says Woodring E. Wright, nerability to age-related diseases —

www.cqresearcher.com Sept. 30, 2011 807 PROLONGING LIFE

enjoying life at 103, while most die U.S. Life Expectancy Rose Steadily closer to 80? Americans born today can expect to live to 78 — nearly 30 years “There’s not a clearly identified sin - longer than a century ago. Scientists attribute the increase largely to gle mechanism that underlies or me - diates aging,” says Richard J. Hodes, medical advances and improved access to public health measures. director of the National Institute on Life expectancy for females is five years longer than males’. Healthier Aging. “On one end [of the spectrum] habits and stronger social connections may help women live longer. are those who think that aging reflects a series of largely random events over Life expectancy Life Expectancy at Birth, 1900-2009 a period of time. . . . On the other 100 are those who think aging is a bio - U.S. Overall logically programmed event. It’s hard 80 Male to imagine that the truth isn’t a com - Female bination of these two.” Throughout history, most people did 60 not live long enough to reach old age. Death was usually accidental and quick. It came, for example, from an attack 40 1900- 1909- 1919- 1929- 1939- 1949- 1959- 1969- 1979- 1989- 1999- 2006 2009* by a saber-toothed tiger, an infection 1902 1911 1921 1931 1941 1951 1961 1971 1981 1991 2001 or childbirth. In the United States, av - erage life expectancy in 1900 was only * Preliminary data about 45. Old age was much rarer Sources: Elizabeth Arias, “United States Life Tables, 2006,” National Vital Statistics than today, and high childhood mor - Reports , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, June 2010, www.cdc.gov/ tality kept the average low. nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr58/nvsr58_21.pdf; Kenneth D. Kochanek, et al. , “Deaths: U.S. life expectancy is now about Preliminary Data for 2009,” National Vital Statistics Reports , Centers for Disease 78 — 75 for men, 80 for women. 4 Control and Prevention, March 2011, www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr But it varies considerably by region, 59_04.pdf race and economic status, with the poor and least educated dying earlier including cancer, heart disease, processes such as metabolizing food. than others. Alzheimer’s and diabetes — can be Over time, though, damage to the cells Much of the increase in life ex - altered. At the same time, accurately accumulates and the familiar signs of pectancy over the 20th century projecting life expectancy influences aging appear: gray hair, wrinkles and stemmed from advances in public planning for Social Security, Medicare difficulty reading small print. Even be - health, such as cleaner air and water, and Medicaid, which helps shape fore those outward manifestations, as well as improved maternity care today’s discussions over tax policy and though, aging is well under way. At and vaccines and antibiotics for in - the federal deficit. age 20 the lung tissue begins to stiff - fectious disease. To better answer these questions, en and rib cage muscles to shrink. More recently, advances in modern researchers look at aging in biologi - Contraction of the thymus gland, im - medications and procedures such as cal rather than chronological terms. portant in the immune system, begins coronary bypass surgery and kidney “Aging is a biological process and not in the first few years of life, and by dialysis again extended lives. Whether a disease,” says S. Michal Jazwinski, age 30 most of the decline has oc - the rise will continue is hotly debat - director of the Center for Aging at curred. After reproduction, the body’s ed in circles. ( See “At Issue,” Tulane University in New Orleans. natural repair mechanisms cannot keep p. 821. ) “Aging is characterized by the decline up with the cellular decline that comes Many researchers believe that be - in the ability of the organism to with - with aging. cause old age is a relatively recent stand stress, damage and diseases.” “Aging is wear and tear minus re - phenomenon, there is no genetic pro - That decline can occur at different pair,” as Walter M. Bortz, M.D., clini - gram that instructs the body to age. ages for different individuals. cal associate professor of medicine at Instead, they view aging as a byprod - When people are younger, the , puts it. 3 uct of advances in medicine and pub - body can keep up with normal wear- But what causes this decline? Why lic health — or, as geriatrics re - and-tear that occurs from everyday are some like Edith Furstenberg still searcher Bruce Carnes of the University

808 CQ Researcher of Oklahoma calls it, living past “our biological warranty.” U.S. Ranks 50th in Life Expectancy Biogerontologist , The average American can expect to live to age 78, placing the a professor of anatomy at the Uni - United States 50th worldwide in life expectancy at birth. Japan versity of , , says ranks first among industrialized nations, or about 15 years more the question is not, why don’t humans live longer, but rather why do they than the global average. Scientists say genetics, healthy living and live so long past reproductive matu - quality of life play central roles in longevity. rity? In other words, once child rear - ing is over and children have left home, Life Expectancy at Birth for Select Countries why do people keep on living for (2011 estimates and world ranking) decades? The answer, Hayflick says, is that to ensure survival of the species Japan (5) 82.25 years to reproductive maturity, all — Australia (9) 81.81 including humans — evolved with ex - Italy (10) 81.77 cess capacity, much like a wristwatch Canada (12) 81.38 with a one-year warranty that might keep ticking well beyond 365 days. France (13) 81.19 Other scientists believe that the aging Spain (14) 81.17 process is not so random, but instead Germany (27) 80.07 is influenced by genetic regulation and United Kingdom (28) 80.05 evolution. Greece (30) 79.92 Whether or not there is a genetic program for human aging, most re - Belgium (37) 79.51 searchers agree that genetic mutations South Korea (41) 79.05 influence individual longevity. Nir Barzi - United States (50) 78.37 lai, director of the Institute for Aging Cuba (57) 77.70 Research at Albert Einstein College of Libya (58) 77.65 Medicine in New York City, has been Argentina (68) 76.95 following nearly 500 Ashkenazi Jews — those of Eastern European descent China (95) 74.68 — ranging in age from 95 to 109. In Iraq (145) 70.55 a recent study, he and his colleagues Iran (146) 70.06 found that these very old people did North Korea (149) 68.89 not have healthier behaviors than oth - Russia (161) 66.29 ers of their age in a national survey group. 5 Only 43 percent of men in Global average 67.07 the study group reported regular mod - erate physical activity, for example, Source: “Life Expectancy at Birth,” The World Factbook , Central Intelligence Agency, compared to 57 percent in the com - 2011, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2102.html#us parison group. Barzilai was not surprised by the estimate that up to a third of longevi - Whether living longer means more results. “I have a woman who is 107 ty is determined by genetic variations years of health or sickness is the ques - years old now,” he says. “She’s been and two-thirds by environment and tion gerontologists hope to answer. smoking for 95 years. People say, then lifestyle. “The big challenge of our time will it must be the diet. What diet? Chick - The message, says Barzilai, is not be, is aging a resource or a liability?” en fat?” that healthy behaviors don’t matter. says Bortz, who is 80. “Are [elderly He believes the answer lies in mu - Not smoking, eating right and exer - people] going to suck energy from tations of genes associated with longevi - cising help protect most people from our communities and governments, or ty that are two or three times more illness. But those who hit the genet - are we going to add to it?” common in centenarians than in peo - ic jackpot might live healthily past 100 Here are other key questions ple who don’t live so long. Scientists no matter their lifestyle. being debated by citizens, policy -

www.cqresearcher.com Sept. 30, 2011 809 PROLONGING LIFE

makers and health-care and medical roundworms’ “insulin signaling path - Ray Walford, a pioneering researcher professionals: way,” which also plays a role in age- at the University of California at Los associated diseases in humans, such as Angeles, believed humans could live Can the human lifespan be ex - diabetes and cancer. to 140 by reducing their caloric intake tended? “We don’t know yet, but to me it by 30-40 percent. The longest documented human seems possible that a fountain of youth, Brian M. Delaney, president of the lifespan is 122 years, a record held made of molecules and not simply Society, in New - by Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, who dreams, will someday be a reality,” port, N.C., acknowledges that Wal - died in 1997. This limit is not set in writes Kenyon. 6 ford’s theory cannot be scientifically stone, but neither is it likely to change But it’s not clear if genetic manip - proved without following a group of significantly, say many researchers. ulation could extend the lifespan of people for 140 years and comparing “A maximum lifespan is like the humans. “A genetic intervention that them to those on a regular diet. “That Olympics,” says Carnes, the Universi - increases a worm’s lifespan by four - said, there’s a lot of reason to believe ty of Oklahoma geriatrics researcher. fold might have a significantly less im - that people who start this diet in their “A world record gets set, and at some pressive effect in a mouse’s lifespan,” mid-to-late 20s and follow it relative - point it will be broken, but probably according to the National Institute on ly strictly probably would be able to not by very much.” Aging. “For similar reasons, a finding live much longer,” he says. ( See p. 820 Geriatrician and aging pioneer in mice might be promising, but does for more on caloric restriction. ) William H. Thomas of Ithaca, N.Y., not mean that it will work the same On the outer fringe of lifespan- founder of the Eden Alternative and way or at all in humans.” 7 extension advocacy are futurists such Green House projects, agrees. “The Similarly, Tulane’s Jazwinski, who has as and human being has an encoded arc, a spent much of his career studying aging (See sidebar, p. 816. ) De Grey, a British lifespan that’s written into the genetic in yeast, cautions that while animals pro - biogerontologist trained in computer sci - code,” he says. “The same is true for vide clues for researchers, each species ence, believes that scientists will soon dogs and cats and whales and lions has significant differences. In humans, figure out how to repair age-associated and mice. If you look around you, for example, variants of a protein called damage to the body’s cells, allowing what you find is that every creature of apolipoprotein (APoE) are associated some people who are alive today to a certain species has an arc of lifespan.” with both longevity and Alzheimer’s dis - survive for thousands of years. Indeed, He does not believe the lifespan is very ease. “It seems likely this lipoprotein he maintains, therapies will soon be in - malleable. and the processes it supports, which in - vented to not only stop but actually re - University of Texas cell volve fat transport, are very important,” verse aging and associated diseases. Wright is among those who dis - he says. “This is something that you “People 60, 70 or even older would agree. “I’d be surprised if we were would not have found even in [higher- be quite suitable for these therapies,” not able to make a significant ex - level animals such as] mice.” he wrote in an email. “These thera - tension of the human lifespan in the Researchers focus on extending the pies will [do] repair and maintenance next 20 or 30 years,” he says, point - lifespan of animals, he adds, because at the molecular and cellular level, so ing to studies that have successful - it is measurable. But that doesn’t mean people will be restored to the condi - ly extended the lives of laboratory an ever-longer lifespan is the goal of tion of a young adult, irrespective of animals, including fruit flies, round - science. “What we’re trying to do is how old they were when they re - worms and mice. probe the aging process,” he says. ceived the therapies.” , a renowned bio - “Once we start studying this in hu - Believing that science can so dra - chemist and biophysicist at the Uni - mans, we no longer try to extend the matically manipulate the complex versity of California, San Francisco, lifespan. We’re trying to figure out why systems that make up the human body played a key role in discovering that people live as long as they do. Un - is hubris, others say. In a lengthy cri - genetic r egulation affects the aging derlying that, we’re really also inter - tique of de Grey in 2005, 28 promi - process. Kenyon has conducted ested in healthy aging — not just long nent researchers, while noting their groundbreaking work on the small life, but healthy life.” wide range of views on aging, wrote, roundworm, C. elegans , extending its Some researchers, though, are inter - “None of us, however, believes that lifespan sixfold through genetic ma - ested in extending the human lifespan. plans to ‘engineer’ the body to pre - nipulation. In addition, the animals ap - Caloric restriction, for example, is vent indefinitely or to turn old pear younger and healthier. Some of known to extend the lifespan of ani - people young again have the remotest these gene mutations influence the mals and perhaps humans. The late chance of success.” 8

810 CQ Researcher Researchers must be wary of unin - tended consequences of their work, A Glossary on Aging cautions Thomas Kirkwood, director for aging and health at England’s New - Antioxidants — compounds that may protect cells from damage castle University. “The complexity of by “free radicals” by slowing oxidation. the aging process is so great that we Cellular senescence — point at which a cell stops dividing and should not be so arrogant as to as - producing new cells; may contribute to aging. sume we will solve it all quickly or that we will be able to solve it all Free radicals — unstable molecules in the body that break apart without great difficulty,” he says. “We when they encounter oxygen. Free radicals damage cells and may are learning a great deal, but there is contribute to aging. still so much more that we don’t know Life expectancy — average number of years a person is expected than that which we know. No one to live. U.S. life expectancy at birth in 2009 was 78.2 years. At age would thank us for screwing it up. 70 it was 15.1 years, meaning that 70-year-olds, on average, could There’s nothing worse than medical treatment that turns out after a while expect to live to 85. Those reaching 100 years could expect to live to have horrible side effects.” another 2.2 years. Says the University of California’s Maximum or potential lifespan — the greatest age reached Hayflick, skeptically: “The probability by any member of a given population or species. The oldest that we’ll all live to be 200 has always human, Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment, lived to 122. been 25 years in the future.” Telomeres — substances at the end of chromosomes of cellular Source: Department of Veterans Affairs Should the lifespan be extended? DNA that act as caps; the caps prevent the ends from fraying, Would it be desirable, or ethical, if which can damage an organism’s genes and lead to disease. Over scientists extended human life by time, telomeres become shorter, hastening aging. decades? “I don’t believe in radical life ex - tension,” says bioethicist Daniel Calla - nomic establishment would be direct - in a nursing home or with dementia. han of the Hastings Center, a bioethics ed toward the narcissistic notion of In the future they foresee age no longer research institute in Garrison, N.Y. “I extending human life is just a bizarre being accompanied by a vulnerability think it’s silly and irresponsible — silly way of looking at what our real needs to diseases such as diabetes and because I don’t think biology will let are on this Earth.” Alzheimer’s. us get away with it and irresponsible Investing in research to radically ex - “People’s first reaction to extending in that it could raise all sorts of so - tend human life is a distraction from the lifespan is based on the current med - cial problems and justice issues be - the primary goal of keeping people ical model, where you’re not affecting tween the age groups.” healthy, says Thomas Perls, an associ - aging, all you’re doing is pre venting dying Callahan, an octogenarian, has writ - ate professor of medicine and geri - — the Dorian Gray model,” says Uni - ten extensively on the societal problems atrics at Boston University and direc - versity of Texas cell biologist Wright. “If associated with an aging population, tor of its New England Centenarian the average lifespan were 20 years which he sees as using more and more Study, one of the oldest and largest longer, there would be changes that resources and leaving less for young of its kind. “What we need to worry have to occur, and those are going to people’s education and health care. about is that we’re going to have 7 bil - produce some disruptions. But the fact Physician and author Sherwin Nu - lion people on this planet,” he says. that there are disruptions does not mean land agrees. “There are so many far “We have to figure out how to feed it’s not a good thing to do, since every - more important things that scientific them, how to keep them healthy and one would like” a long, healthy life. (See funding should be applied to that we safe, and worry about their quality of “At Issue,” p. 821. ) don’t have enough money for,” says life — and not worry about some stu - The main question, says S. Jay Ol - Nuland, whose best-selling books in - pid pill” to increase lifespan. shansky, a professor of public health clude How We Die. “Obviously, there But advocates of lifespan extension at the University of Illinois at Chica - are diseases that will require gigantic stress that their goal is not just for go, is whether longer life is lived in amounts of funding — to think that people to live decades longer, but to good health or sickness and frailty. Al - the resources of our scientists and eco - live longer in good health, rather than though he doesn’t think it’s a realistic

www.cqresearcher.com Sept. 30, 2011 811 PROLONGING LIFE

though, is adding to what he sees as More People in U.S. Living Past 110 today’s global overpopulation. Those Thirty-six people in the United States reached 110 years of age in seeking to manipulate the aging process, he writes, “have an obligation 1999, bringing the number of supercente narians alive then to 74. to deal with the consequences before Scientists largely credit advances in medicine and preventive treat - they begin to tinker.” 9 ments for the rising figures. Robert Engelman, executive direc - tor of Worldwatch Institute, an envi - No. of Supercentenarians in the U.S., 1981-1999 people ronmental research organization based 80 in Washington, says that generally, liv - 70 People celebrating ing longer translates into later child - their 110th birthday 60 bearing, which has a good effect. 50 People alive at age 110 and above “When you raise the average age of 40 childbearing, you slow down popu - 30 lation growth even if women have as 20 many children,” he explains, “because 10 you’re slowing down successions of 0 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 generations.” At the same time, Engelman says, Source: “The Emergence and Explosion of Supercentenarians,” Max Planck Institute there’s no question that if people live for Demographic Research longer they will leave a larger envi - ronmental footprint, from consuming goal, he says, “I don’t have any issue ferential impact in terms of developed more food that removes critical nutri - with extending healthy life. Actually, and developing nations? Who is it really ents from the soil to adding to green - we’d benefit tremendously by the ex - accessible to?” house gases or destroying woods and tension of healthy life.” Oklahoma’s Carnes foresees equity farmland to build retirement commu - But what about the economic im - problems in the United States, as well. nities. If older people continue to work, pact? With millions of workers unem - “I believe the wealthy people will have the environment might suffer, he says, ployed, manufacturing dwindling and interventions to extend their healthy because economic growth is “at the the economy stubbornly sluggish, lives, and the poor and middle class root of environmental degradation. If what effect would legions more older will die at regular ages because they everybody is going to live decades people have? Would they work longer, will not have the money to benefit longer, it will be a greater challenge making it even more difficult for from these interventions, and they will to find ways to make longer life and young workers to find jobs? Or would not be mass produced and equitably economic growth environmentally sus - they be retired for many more decades distributed.” tainable,” he says. “But I don’t know and still expect their monthly Social But de Grey envisions such inter - if it will be impossible.” Security checks? ventions would be universally avail - Nuland also has environmental ob - Robert H. Binstock, a professor of able. “Paying for them is not going to jections to extending the human lifespan. aging, health and society at Case be a problem at all, because people “We live in a very delicate balance,” he Western Reserve University in Cleve - who receive these therapies will there - says. “Our climate, our atmosphere, land, is an optimist. “That’s a lot of by avoid being a drain on the econ - our cells have evolved over billions of consumption, to live to be 100,” he omy — they will remain contributors years to this balance. I’m scared silly says. “There could be enough jobs to the nation’s wealth,” he says. “Thus, to play with it, which we certainly right there, in and of itself, generat - whether it’s paid for by taxation or by would be doing by prolonging the ed by demand.” insurance or whatever, the money will lives of this generation.” He is among those concerned, how - be a no-brainer investment.” ever, about the thorny ethical issues The University of California’s Hayflick Should the government invest in that might emerge if a life-extension raises other questions. What if one extending longevity? therapy went on the market. “Suppose spouse wants to take the potion to The federal government supports this capacity, whether delivered through stop aging or extend life, and the other research on aging, much of it using a pharmaceutical or however, costs does not? Could individuals choose animals, through the National Institute money,” he says. “Would it have dif - when to stop aging? His greatest fear, Continued on p. 814

812 CQ Researcher ‘Best and Brightest’ Kids Reveal Longevity Secrets Those with good habits lived the longest.

n 1921 Stanford University psychologist Lewis Terman began Another surprise was the limited benefits of cheerful opti - an unusual quest. At elementary schools throughout Califor - mism, which is often touted as a boon to better health and a I nia he asked teachers to select one or two of the brightest boost for people facing a medical crisis. Martin and Friedman children — 1,528 youngsters in all. He planned to track each found that lifelong optimists were often risk-taking devil-may-care child into adulthood. types. “What we’re able to see in a longitudinal study like ours He wanted to find out two things, explains Leslie R. Martin, a is that if every decision is overlaid with extra optimism, it influ - professor of psychology at the University of California (UC), River - ences the way you make decisions and the way you evaluate side: “Were they normal people? It was thought if you were too risks,” says Martin. “These cheerful, optimistic kids were doing smart you’d be an egghead and be maladjusted. He also wanted more negative health behaviors — they were heavier drinkers, to find predictors of greatness — to groom future leaders.” more likely to be smokers and tended to have riskier hobbies.” Each year, Terman collect - Indeed, it was no surprise ed data on the children, first that smoking was far and from their parents and later away the biggest predictor of from the subjects themselves early death, she says. The study /

— everything from their per - m did not gather information on o c

sonality traits to how many . diet, but it did look at exer - n books were in their home a cise and other activities. “It m

when they were growing up d didn’t matter how active you e / i t r c to their favorite games and f were as a kid. If you became s e j d o r

their parents’ marital happiness. r sedentary, it wasn’t like you’d a p w Terman died in 1956, but y put good health in the bank,” t o i h v .

his study of the remaining e she says. “It essentially erased w g n members of the group con - w itself. But if you were seden - o l w tinues. The “best and bright - Leslie R. Martin and Howard S. Friedman are taking a tary as a kid and became ac - est” in childhood ended up fresh look at Lewis Terman’s landmark study. tive in adulthood, it gave you pursuing a variety of career benefits over time.” paths, including janitors, The type of activity did truck drivers, movie directors, business owners and professionals not matter, she adds. What seemed to count most was pursuing of all kinds. something the study participants genuinely enjoyed and sustained, In 1990, Martin teamed up with Howard S. Friedman, a dis - whether it was swimming, woodworking or gardening. tinguished professor of psychology at UC, to take a fresh look The study also confirmed the strong importance of social at the “Termanators,” as they call the study group. They de - connections and helping others, a finding Martin finds espe - cided the vast trove of information about such a large group cially encouraging. “It takes a long time and a lot of effort to offered a unique opportunity to identify traits that might pre - change your personality,” she says, “whereas helping others is dict who lives to old age. relatively easy to adjust. You can volunteer an hour or two a Martin and Friedman found, to their amazement, a disconnect week. That brings you into contact with other people, and between the subjects’ long lives and the common medical advice you’re also doing for others and getting a sense of meaning.” typically doled out today. Friedman and Martin think there is more to be learned from “Surprisingly, the long-lived among them did not find the secret the two-dozen Termanators in their 90s who are still alive. Mean - to health in broccoli, medical tests, vitamins or jogging. Rather, they while, from a public-policy perspective, Martin believes that more were individuals with certain constellations of habits and patterns attention should be given to simple, inexpensive strategies that im - of living,” they write in their new book, The Longevity Project. 1 prove not only longevity but also quality of life for older people. Above all, they found, those who lived longest tended to be “How do we set in place a healthy path, a healthy trajectory?” the most conscientious. “These were individuals who are respon - she asks. That “doesn’t mean that you’ll never have a health sible, who are organized, persistent, honest — that constellation problem but that you’ll have fewer, so that fewer interventions of characteristics was the strongest predictor of long life,” says Mar - will be needed.” tin. They also were less likely to smoke or drink heavily, had more — Beth Baker stable marriages and moved steadily in their careers, rather than jumping from job to job. “That gave them a great deal of satis - 1 Howard S. Friedman and Leslie R. Martin, The Longevity Project (2011), faction,” she says. “It makes sense, but we hadn’t anticipated that.” pp. ix-x.

www.cqresearcher.com Sept. 30, 2011 813 PROLONGING LIFE

Continued from p. 812 mechanisms make older people more cent of the increase in health costs,” on Aging (NIA). The ultimate goal is vulnerable to disease. But the institute he says. “What accounts for the in - helping people live longer and health - has to balance competing goals and creases are new procedures and prod - ier rather than simply pushing the interests, he says, explaining that both ucts, their overutilization and their lifespan boundary. the biology of aging and finding treat - prices. Medicare is not the problem.” “It’s about extending the health ments for age-related diseases must be Current projections, based on only span,” says Albert Einstein College’s supported. a modest increase in life expectancy, Barzilai, who receives NIA funding. Jazwinski at Tulane’s Center for are that Medicare as a share of gross “Our goal is to prevent age-related, Aging agrees. Even as search domestic product will rise from 3.5 chronic debilitating disease.” If in to understand the mysteries of aging percent in 2009 to 5.5 percent by doing so scientists also succeed in pro - and find ways to keep us healthy, he 2035. 13 But the impact of a signifi - longing the lifespan, “We’ll have to apol - says, “You still need to take care of cant spike in life expectancy on ogize for that,” he jokes. the disorders and diseases that appear Medicare would depend on whether Other researchers say NIA and the during aging while we’re waiting for older people became healthier than National Institutes of Health (NIH) that. You can’t leave people dangling they are now. would get further toward the goal out there, with the idea that someday A recent study sheds light on the of a long and healthy lifespan by you’ll be able to cure everything. question. If Americans reduced their shifting priorities. NIA’s annual bud - There should be a balance.” obesity and smoking, they would catch get of roughly $1 billion is consid - Others challenge the disease focus up to Western Europeans’ life ex - erably smaller than that of institutes of NIH on different grounds. Stanford pectancy, which is 18 months longer. focused on diseases such as cancer University’s Bortz advocates a para - Although pension and Social Security ($5 billion), heart, lung and blood digm shift away from diseases and to - costs would go up, they would be off - ($3 billion) and allergy and infec - ward wellness and prevention. “We set by health-care costs going down tious diseases ($4.5 billion). 10 Only have warehouses full of gene infor - nearly $18,000 per person because of a small portion — $174 million — mation, but almost nothing about improved health, the researchers esti - of NIA’s budget goes to the Biology health promotion and the communi - mated. They projected that by 2050 of Aging Program while nearly half ty,” he writes. 12 The most important savings from gradual health improve - — about $500 million — goes to thing for healthy aging, he says in a ments in middle age could total more Alzheimer’s disease. 11 phone interview, is “meaningfulness. than $1.1 trillion, of which more than But aging is the common risk fac - Why get out of bed in the morning? half — $632 billion — would come tor for the major causes of death in If you don’t have meaning, then life to the U.S. Treasury in the form of modern society — heart disease, can - is nothing more than billiard balls Medicare and Medicaid savings. 14 cer, diabetes, Alzheimer’s — and much knocking around.” Moreover, scientific evidence sug - more funding should be put into fig - What if researchers were to suc - gests that the same genes that likely uring out why, say many biologists. ceed in their goal? What would the allow centenarians to live so long also Get to the root, they say, and perhaps impact be on federal spending if may protect their health. If researchers a common cause — and solution — older people actually lived signifi - can mimic those genetic mutations in would be discovered. cantly longer? others, better health might result. “If “The most important question is, Binstock of Case Western Reserve you look at real data from CDC [the why are old cells more likely to incur coined the term “apocalyptic demog - Centers for Disease Control and Pre - pathology than young cells? That’s raphy” to describe fears that an aging vention], the medical costs in the last not investigated at all,” says the Uni - population is ruinous for the federal two years of life for people who die versity of California’s Hayflick. “The budget. He dismisses the doomsayers when they’re 100 are about one-third problem is a very serious one be - and argues that minor adjustments in of those who die in their 70s,” says cause of the failure of most of the Social Security could ensure the pro - Albert Einstein College’s Barzilai. “Not scientific community and many of the gram’s solvency for the next 75 years only do they live longer, their med - policy and decision makers to un - — well after baby boomers have spent ical costs were less.” derstand the difference between age- their entitlement. If the nation is concerned about associated diseases and the funda - As for Medicare, it, too, is not the the costs of an aging population, mental biology of aging.” problem, Binstock argues. “People who then much more attention should NIA director Hodes agrees that it’s study this say that the increase in the be paid to health disparities among important to learn what underlying elderly population accounts for 10 per - Continued on p. 816

814 CQ Researcher Chronology

1950 telomeres, helping to explain why 1800-1930s Life expectancy in the United cancer cells become malignant. Modern demography and bio - States is about 68; the top three logical studies of aging emerge. causes of death are heart disease, • cancer and stroke. 1825 British actuary Benjamin Gompertz 1952 1990s-Present observes that after puberty the British biologist Peter Medawar Researchers identify longevity chance of death doubles every 10 theorizes that natural selection genes and compounds that may years until age 80. cannot eliminate genes that be - promote healthy aging. come harmful later in life. 1891 1992 German biologist August Weismann 1956 Cynthia Kenyon of the University proposes one of the earliest evolu - of the University of California discovers that muta - tionary theories of aging, that the of Nebraska theorizes that unstable tions in the gene daf-2 could ex - longevity of species is shaped by molecules known as “free radicals” tend the lifespan of a roundworm. their environment. produced through oxidation are a prime cause of aging. 1997 1900 Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment dies Life expectancy in the United States • at 122, the longest-lived person on is about 45 years; the top causes record. of death are pneumonia and in - fluenza, tuberculosis and intestinal 1960s-1980s 2000 problems. Researchers advance their un - Life expectancy in the United derstanding of aging at the States is about 77 years; the top Early 1930s cellular level and in healthy, three causes of death are heart Researchers Barbara McClintock of older populations. disease, cancer and stroke. the University of Missouri and Her - mann J. Muller of the University of 1961 2003 Edinburgh in Scotland independent - Biogerontologist Leonard Hayflick dis - Human Genome Project is com - ly discover that chromosomes have covers that normal cells can divide pleted, giving researchers new end caps to protect their stability. only about 50 times before they die. tools to study longevity. Muller calls them telomeres from the Greek words for “end” (telos) 1975 2006 and “part” (meros). Okinawa Centenarian Study begins David Sinclair publishes finding that in Japan. the compound resveratrol, found in 1931 red wine, improves health and sur - Biologist of Johns 1977 vival of mice on a high-fat diet. Hopkins University finds that peo - Evolutionary biologist Michael Rose ple who live to be 90 or older of the University of California, 2009 tend to have long-lived ancestors. Irvine, extends the lifespan of fruit Researchers report that the drug flies through selective breeding. . . . rapamycin, used by transplant pa - 1934 British biologist Thomas Kirkwood tients, extends the lifespan of middle - Nutrition researcher Clive McCay theorizes that evolution forced or - aged mice. . . . Blackburn, Grei - of Cornell University discovers that ganisms to “choose” between invest - den and Jack Szostak win Nobel restricting calories extends the ing energy in producing offspring Prize for work on telomeres. lifespan of laboratory mice. or living longer. 2011 • 1984 Pharmaceutical companies conduct Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol clinical trials of new drugs to Greider, then at the University of combat age-associated diseases. . . . 1950s Mortality is California, Berkeley, discover the Researchers search for common linked to aging, not infection. enzyme telomerase that lengthens traits of centenarians.

www.cqresearcher.com Sept. 30, 2011 815 PROLONGING LIFE

Futurists Reach for Immortality “Human life will be irreversibly transformed.”

wo scientists have gained notoriety in recent years for Research on this agenda is carried out by scientists work - predicting that humans will be able to drastically ex - ing at the SENS Foundation lab in Mountain View, Calif., and T tend their lives — or even become immortal — within at universities that have received grants from the foundation. 40 to 50 years. Aubrey de Grey, a biomedical gerontologist in Although a great many scientists find de Grey’s agenda wild - Cambridge, England, puts his faith in biological advances, while ly unrealistic, his SENS Foundation has drawn an advisory board Ray Kurzweil, a Boston-based inventor and futurist, envisions of experts from major universities. In 2006, MIT’s journal, Tech - the melding of artificial and human intelligence in what he nology Review , offered a $20,000 prize to any molecular biol - calls “the Singularity.” ogist who could demonstrate that the SENS agenda was “so De Grey, a waifish figure who eschews business attire and wrong that it was unworthy of learned debate.” A panel of in - sports a Rasputin-like beard, has as his life’s goal to “defeat dependent experts did not deem any of the five entries cri - aging,” which he equates with age-associated disease. tiquing de Grey persuasive; at the same time, the panel found He has written that people in wealthier countries who are de Grey’s rebuttals to the critiques “somewhat fanciful.” 3 born in 2100 could expect to live to be 5000. 1 But in an email Kurzweil, meanwhile, unapologetically seeks immortality. In he says immortality is not his goal. the documentary film “Transcendent Man,” Kurzweil says that “My goal is to keep people healthy as long as they live. when he contemplates death, “It is such a profound, sad, lonely Chances are that people will indeed live a lot longer as a re - feeling that I can’t bear it. So I go back to thinking about how sult, but we must always keep in mind that that’s what it is I’m not going to die.” — a result, a side benefit.” He envisions people living to ex - Kurzweil invented the flatbed scanner and a voice-recognition treme ages in the future, then dying from the same causes as tool for blind people to hear books, among many other suc - young people do today. cessful ventures. He was awarded the National Medal of Tech - De Grey has developed a research agenda dubbed SENS nology in 1999, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. presi - (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence) that focuses on dent for technological achievement. seven types of therapy to repair an equal number of categories The foundation of his theory lies in the exponential growth of cellular and molecular damage caused by aging. For exam - of human intelligence. For example, he writes, in 1990 it had ple, AmyloSENS is aimed at “destroying junk between cells” that taken scientists one year to transcribe one ten-thousandth of may contribute to Alzheimer’s disease and other problems, while the human genome. Many biochemists, thinking linearly, as - MitoSENS focuses on “preventing damage from mitochondrial sumed it would take a century to complete; it actually took 13 mutations” that occur through oxidation and metabolic stress. 2 years. Similar exponential growth occurred with the Internet. 4

Continued from p. 814 mortality since ancient times. The Baby - regions, races and people with less lonian story of Gilgamesh, from 3000 education and income, say others, BACKGROUND B.C., describes the hero’s futile efforts and that would lead to longer life to win immortality. “If the superhuman for all. Nations that reduce health dis - Gilgamesh was barred from eternal life, parities in the young tend to have Lure of Eternal Youth it is clear that ordinary men should higher life expectancy. avoid futile yearnings and accept fate “Healthy longevity is a prime dri - n a Greek myth recounted in with as good grace as possible,” wrote ver of a country’s wealth and well- I Homer’s epic poem “The Iliad,” the the late Gerald J. Gruman in A Histo - being . . . [and] premature deaths goddess Aurora asked Zeus to grant ry of Ideas about the Prolongation of bring little benefit and impose major the gift of immortality to her lover, Life. 16 A physician and college pro - costs,” writes James Vaupel, founding Tithonus, son of Troy. Tithonus lived fessor in Ohio, Gruman coined the term director of the Max Planck Institute forever but grew so old, shriveled and “prolongevity,” which he defined as the for Demographic Research in Rostock, demented that Aurora turned him into significant extension of the lifespan by Germany, and also a professor at a grasshopper. “Even Zeus couldn’t human action. Duke University. “Moreover, equity stop aging,” says geriatrician Thomas, Some early advocates of prolongevity in the capability to maintain good author of What are Old People For? interpreted literally the Old Testament health is central to any larger con - Humans have sought the secrets of stories of patriarchs like Adam and cept of societal justice.” 15 eternal youth, long life and even im - Noah living nearly a thousand years

816 CQ Researcher Human intelligence will continue pensive raw materials and information.” 6 expanding, he says, and within 40 years In this vision, “nanobots” — tiny ro - or so, people will have the ability to bots the size of a blood cell — will pa - reprogram their bodies away from dis - trol the body, repairing cellular damage ease and aging. He envisions rapid and “reversing human aging.” m

advancements in genetics, nanotech - o Like de Grey, Kurzweil views the ef - c . nology and robotics. In this century, s fort to end aging as a “war” to be won. n a

people will back up their brains, as m Ultimately, the body will become cum - u

they do now with computers, and will h bersome and useless, and “humans” (or l a t

become more of a machine than a r whatever the new beings would be) will o

biological organism, he claims. m exist on a different plane, connected to m “What, then, is the Singularity?” he i the thoughts and feelings of others writes. “It’s a future period during British scientist Aubrey de Grey says his through a technological, global network. which the pace of technological life’s goal is to “defeat aging.” In “Transcendent Man,” he prophecies, change will be so rapid, its impact “We’ll look back on having one body so deep, that human life will be irreversibly transformed.” 5 and no memory backup as a very primitive time.” To make sure he’s around to take advantage of these break - throughs, Kurzweil takes some 200 pills a day that he claims re - — Beth Baker program his cells to be young. He regularly has his blood ana - lyzed for levels of nutrients and has a line of supplements he sells. 1 Aubrey de Grey, “The War on Aging,” The Scientific Conquest of Death Through this regimen, along with changes in his diet and exercise — Essays on Infinite Lifespans, The Immortality Institute, 2004, p. 38, www.imminst.org/SCOD.pdf.. practices, he said he conquered his diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes. 2 See the SENS Foundation website, www.sens.org. Kurzweil dismisses the notion that radical would 3 Jason Pontin, “Is Defeating Aging Only a Dream,” Technology Review , July 11, lead to overpopulation and exhaust natural resources. This view 2006, www.technologyreview.com/sens/index.aspx. “ignores comparably radical wealth creation from nanotechnolo - 4 Ray Kurzweil, The Singularity is Near — When Humans Transcend Biology, gy and strong [artificial intelligence],” he writes. “For example, Viking (2005), p. 13. 5 Ibid. , p. 7. nanotechnology-based manufacturing devices in the 2020s will 6 Ibid ., p. 13. be capable of creating almost any physical product from inex -

as evidence that humans have the ca - Sages such as Wang Chen were In the 13th century in Western Eu - pacity for such long lives. Other tales said to eat very little, mostly roots, rope, alchemists in pursuit of longevi - of extreme longevity are found in Per - berries and other fruit, and avoid ty began sowing the earliest seeds of sian, German, Japanese and Chinese meat, wine and many vegetables. They modern chemistry. English philoso - literature. Some recount a fountain of diligently practiced a physical exer - pher Roger Bacon wrote that medi - youth or other special waters that would cise routine that was frequently in - cine could only offer people “the reg - restore the loss of “vital” moisture as - terrupted by holding one’s breath twice imen of health,” while the “experimental sociated with old age. or having a couple of rounds of sex - art” offered the promise of life exten - Ancient Taoism in China sought both ual intercourse. Celibacy, they believed, sion. 18 Imbibing secret concoctions extreme longevity and immortality. “An caused agitation, which led to the with precious metals or drinking from illustrative story is that of a certain spirits becoming fatigued and longevi - a golden goblet were thought to con - Wang Chen, who began Taoist stud - ty declining. fer long and healthy life. ies at the age of seventy-nine; after By the 4th century B.C., the Some 500 years ago, Venetian noble - some thirty years of diligent practice, philosopher Epicurus put forth the man Luigi Cornaro lived to be 98 — he was able to restore his appearance idea that death may actually be a good remarkable in the 16th century — to that of a young man of thirty, but thing. He and others came up with after, at age 50, going on a diet of it was not until several hundred years the theory that without the older gen - small amounts of bread, meat, broth later that he finally became an im - eration departing, the Earth would soon with eggs and new wine. But it was mortal,” wrote Gruman. 17 become overpopulated. what he didn’t eat that mattered most,

www.cqresearcher.com Sept. 30, 2011 817 PROLONGING LIFE

he thought. “The food nostrums to stop or re - from which a man ab - verse aging continue to stains, after he has flourish in new forms, from eaten heartily, is of more melatonin to benefit to him than that supplements and hormone which he has eaten,” injections. Indeed, Ameri - Cornaro wrote . 19 He cans spend an estimated also considered old age $80 billion a year on anti- an immensely satisfy - aging products, including ing time, writing, “I have cosmetic procedures such an ardent desire that as Botox injections, with every man should strive a projected increase to to attain my age, in $114 billion by 2015, ac - order that he may enjoy cording to a market re - . . . the most beautiful search firm. 24 period of life.” 20 Scientists from a variety In the mid-1930s, Cor - of disciplines reject these nell University researcher modern efforts as no more Clive McCay demon - beneficial than crushed

strated what the ancient o goat testicles. “There are n u

Taoists and Cornaro had s no lifestyle changes, sur - T

suggested: that reducing u gical procedures, vitamins, z a

food intake — caloric k antioxidants, hormones or i h restriction — could ex - s techniques of genetic en - o Y tend life by up to 40 per - / gineering available today s e cent, at l east in mice. g that have been demon - a m

Since then, researchers I strated to influence the

y t have observed many t processes of aging,” said a e changes in other animals G 2002 position statement by /

P 25 put on sharply re duced F prominent scientists. Ac - A diets, such as improved A Japanese woman celebrates Respect-for-the-Aged-Day in Tokyo cording to the University sensitivity to insulin, re - with a good workout on Sept. 19, 2011. Life expectancy in Japan of Illinois’ Olshansky, one duced risk of cancer and is 82, the highest among industrialized nations and of the scientists, nothing arthritis and lower blood about 15 years higher than the global average. has changed in that regard pressure, not to men - over the last decade. tion maintenance of sexual activity and farm animals into his patients and But scientists like de Grey and cognitive functioning. himself. He and others claimed sharp - Kurzweil are striving to push the lifes - Some studies, though, find a de - er thinking, greater vigor and even pan envelope in even more extreme cline in reproductive ability. Studies in better bladder control. Thousands of ways. ( See sidebar, p. 816. ) In prepa - humans, while not yet able to demon - physicians followed suit with their ration for the not-too-distant day when strate extended life, have shown some patients. Brown-Sequard gave away they believe humans will be able to improved health benefits. 21 (Persuad - his method, but others choose immortality, some have opted ing Americans to reduce their calories began selling it. 22 for — to be frozen after to 1,500 a day, however, may be hard.) Just a few decades later, Eugen death, with the hope scientific advances Other researchers hoped to draw Steinach, a Viennese professor of will allow them to be thawed and re - on the vitality of mammals to incul - physiology, became rich by giving turned to immortal life. cate humans with youthful vigor — men vasectomies as a method of re - In July, cryonics pioneer Robert what the University of California’s juvenation. Even electricity and X-rays Ettinger, who wrote The Prospect of Hayflick calls “scrotum hokum.” In the were applied to the sex organs, to in - Immortality in 1964, died at age 92. late 1800s, Charles-Edouard Brown- crease vitality. 23 According to a blog posted on the Sequard, a French physician, injected Such methods may sound prepos - website of the nonprofit Immortali - a concoction of crushed testicles from terous to modern sensibilities, but ty Institute, Ettinger “believed death

818 CQ Researcher is only for the unprepared and unimaginative. . . . Mr. Ettinger’s frozen body is being stored in a vat of liq - uid nitrogen at a nondescript build - ing outside Detroit, home to more than 100 fellow immortalists — in - cluding his mother and two wives — who are awaiting revival. Intro - ducing what he called the Freezer Era, Mr. Ettinger described a world in which people would become nobler and more responsible as they were confronted with the reality of liv - ing forever.” 26

Cellular Aging

n 1952 the British biologist Peter I Medawar theorized that natural se - lection — the evolutionary process by which the fittest of a species survive to pass on their genes — accounts for many genes becoming harmful only later in life, after an organism has suc - cessfully reproduced. Since most peo - ple throughout history did not live to old age, did not “care” about eliminating these potentially harmful gene variations. “For example, if you carry a gene that causes lung cancer but the gene is not expressed until you reach age

120, you probably would not be too ) h t concerned, knowing that your chances o b (

of living that long are slim. Natural se - e l d

lection would not be too concerned e a

27 R

either,” write Olshansky and Carnes. e o

In the 1960s, Hayflick added an J / s

important piece to the aging puzzle. e g Until then, it had been assumed that a m I

cells in a Petri dish could be kept y t t alive and dividing indefinitely. This e G had important implications for aging. “If normal cells removed from ani - How to Age Quickly mals are ‘immortal’ when grown in Eating foods with high fat content (top) and smoking cigarettes (bottom) laboratory cultures, the reasoning went, are sure ways to limit life expectancy, health experts say. To achieve then aging cannot be the result of better health, and a longer life, they recommend such steps as incorporating events that occur inside individual cells. movement into everyday routines; limiting consumption of meat and Aging, therefore, must be the result processed foods; having a sense of purpose; making family a priority, of events that occur outside of cells,” and staying in touch with others who share those behaviors. Hayflick wrote. 28

www.cqresearcher.com Sept. 30, 2011 819 PROLONGING LIFE

He discovered that normal human on natural selection, not random and Tobacco smoke and sun exposure cells are not immortal but that cancer progressive cellular damage, as the also can produce free radicals. 31 Sci - cells are. Normal cells can divide only great driver of aging and longevity. entists have experimented with alter - about 50 times, now known as the In 1977 Rose began trying to ex - ing antioxidant properties in the cells Hayflick Limit, and die soon after, a tend the lives of fruit flies through of animals. Although some studies process called cellular senescence. selective breeding, allowing only those showed health benefits and an in - Other researchers added to this flies to reproduce that were toward creased lifespan, others did not. Many knowledge with the discovery of the end of their natural reproductive had hoped that if people took an - telomeres. Likened to the tips of life. This was based on the evolu - tioxidant supplements, such as vita - shoelaces, telomeres are caps found tionary theory that a species will live mins C and E, the molecular damage at the ends of strands of cellular DNA as long as it can reproduce: the older could be reduced. Based on several that keep the strands from fraying, the age of reproduction, the longer large-scale clinical trials conducted in which leads to disease. Telomeres short - the lifespan. Over many generations, the 1990s, however, antioxidant supple - en with each cell division, becoming Rose was able to create “Methusalah” ments do not appear to have an impact less and less effective as people age. flies that lived much longer than nor - on cancer or on the aging process Cancer cells, however, prevent that mal, with high reproduction rates. His of humans. 32 Research continues in shortening by making an enzyme called famous experiment has been repli - this area. telomerase, which in some circum - cated many times. stances allows cancer cells to replicate More recently, Rose has turned to uncontrollably. ( See glossary, p. 811. ) studying why organisms, including hu - Another important development mans, seem to reach a plateau in CURRENT came with the “disposable soma” the - aging, with their mortality rates level - ory of Newcastle University’s Kirk - ing off instead of increasing expo - wood in 1977 to explain why most nentially the older they get. 30 SITUATION cells in the body, called soma cells, He says he is now “trying to find are destined to die. (Other cells, called environmental manipulations that will germ cells, are considered immortal in stop aging processes early,” such as The Magic Pill that they are passed on to offspring diet. He argues that the modern through eggs and sperm.) Western diet is so contrary to the esearchers are trying to find drugs “Under the intense pressure of nat - way humans evolved that it affects R that will delay aging, perhaps by ural selection, species end up placing the aging process and longevity. He mimicking the effects of caloric re - higher priority on investing in growth favors a diet closer to that consumed striction. Many are backed by phar - and reproduction — and the perpet - by the earliest humans — a “paleo” maceutical companies. uation of the species — than on build - diet that avoids agriculturally pro - Resveratrol, a compound found in ing a body that might last forever,” duced foods including dairy, grains red wine, received considerable at - writes Kirkwood. 29 and processed food. If you are 70 tention in 2006. Obese mice given More recently, Kirkwood’s team and begin a paleo diet, he says, “You daily doses of resveratrol were in bet - discovered that in addition to apop - will stop aging in substantially better ter health, and their functional decline tosis — the process by which dam - health than present day 70-somethings . was delayed, compared to overweight aged cells protect the body by es - You might in fact stop aging at a mice in a control group. sentially committing suicide — cells level of health comparable to that of “Even more arresting, the animals have the ability to lock themselves a 50- or 60-something on an indus - had shown amazingly youthful vigor down, stopping perhaps malignant trial diet. That means your life will as they had aged, as if their funda - replication, yet continuing their valu - no longer be an odious burden.” mental life force had been strength - able function in the body. Another important area of research ened and their aging process slowed At the same time, other researchers called oxidation or metabolic stress, down,” science writer David Stipp notes were looking at models to learn began in the 1950s, gathering steam in The Youth Pill. 33 what role genetics and the environ - in the 1980s. This occurs when mito - In August, the NIA announced ment might play in the aging process. chondria in the cells convert food similar results from a study involving Michael Rose, a professor of ecology into energy, producing oxygen mol - the compound SRT1720. Mice that and evolutionary biology at the Uni - ecules called “free radicals” that can normally lived three years were put versity of California, Irvine, focused damage proteins and DNA. Continued on p. 822

820 CQ Researcher At Issue:

Wilyes l U.S. life expectancy rise until the end of the century?

WOODRING E. WRIGHT , M.D., PH.D. S. JAY OLSHANSKY , PH.D. SOUTHLAND FINANCIAL CORP . D ISTIN - PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC HEALTH , GUISHED CHAIR IN GERIATRIC RESEARCH , UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS SOUTHWESTERN MEDICAL CENTER WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER , SEPTEMBER 2011 WRITTEN FOR CQ RESEARCHER , SEPTEMBER 2011 o matter how hard we try or wish it to be so, life ncreasing lifespan during the 20th century was accomplished expectancy in the United States won’t continue to by preventing people from dying prematurely, without rise. Here’s why: affecting the fundamental processes that cause aging. Fur - n i Biodemographic forces: Raising life expectancy by one ther advances in preventing the major causes of death in indus - year today is far more difficult to accomplish than it was a half- trialized societies, such as heart disease and cancer, will make century ago, and it will inevitably become exponentially more progressively smaller contributions to lifespan because they difficult as time goes by. occur at later ages. Biological clocks: Evolution could not have given rise to Preventing one late-onset disease doesn’t make much of a aging or death programs orchestrated by genes, but we do difference in overall lifespan in the face of the general aging have fixed genetic programs for growth, development and re - process that is causing many tissues to function less effectively. production. Biological aging is an inadvertent byproduct of From this perspective, U.S. life expectancy is unlikely to make these fixed programs for early life developmental events. By dramatic increases during the next 90 years. However, the way of example, there is no genetic program that limits how rules of the game are changing. fast we can run; yet no one disputes such limits exist. Upper A new peyrspective on tehe evolutions of aging has emerged bounds on risinng life expectancy o exist for the same reason. from the realization that our bodies invest a lot of resources Biomechanical constraints: Our body parts wear out at in maintaining healthy tissues, and that it is wasteful to invest varying rates with time and use. Our Achilles’ heels are non- enough to keep us healthy for 200 years if most of us would replicating cells that make up muscles and neurons — imply - be dead by 35 under Stone Age conditions. As a consequence, ing that living machines have a biological warranty period, evolutionary forces have acted to limit many “quality control” and most of us already live beyond it. systems, so that we are reasonably healthy during our expected Observed worsening health: Forecasting life expectancy lifespan in the wild, but not forever. based on linear extrapolation is like driving a car by looking Dramatic advances in our understanding of these systems in the rear-view mirror. If we look in the right direction, have been made over the past several decades. Many of these health indicators for the U.S. suggest that younger cohorts stem from genetic studies in model organisms such as round - today are less healthy than their predecessors. This is especially worms, flies and mice. These organisms possess feast-and- true among minorities, where recent declines in life expectancy famine strategies: When times get tough and the probability of have already been observed — a drag on life expectancy that offspring surviving is small, it makes sense to shut off repro - is likely to increase. duction and invest as much as you can in keeping yourself Life expectancy does not rise unabated: There has healthy enough to survive until times get good again. never been an entire century in recorded history when life This is why dietary restriction (severe enough to mimic tough expectancy rose steadily — including the century in which we times) has been found to induce a large number of stress resis - now live. Fluctuations in death rates are a normal and consis - tance/repair/quality-control pathways and extend lifespan in tent part of human mortality dynamics. The fact that life ex - many different species. Phenomenal advances have been made pectancy failed to rise unabated even in this century suggests in defining the molecular pathways that regulate these responses. we’re in for a rocky ride ahead. Given the rate of progress, it is almost inconceivable that over Duration of life is fundamentally driven by our biology, not the next 90 years we will not be able to intervene and manipu - by past trends. I am optimistic that many of the dampening ef - late these pathways, slowing the aging process and producing fects on life expectancy can be ameliorated through behavior both increased years of health span and life expectancy. modification, biomedical technology and the development of in - We face many challenges, and global disruptions due to cli - terventions that slow aging. However, until these miracles of the mate change, limited fossil fuels, famine and war all have the 21st century are invented and disseminated, available evidence potential to derail optimistic future predictions. However, if we suggests that life expectancy in the United States will soon level can avoid these catastrophes, the prospects for increasing off and perhaps even begin declining. It most certainly will not human health span/lifespan by at least 20-30 percent in the continue unabated throughout the remainder of this century. 21st ceno ntury are very rosy indeed. www.cqresearcher.com Sept. 30, 2011 821 PROLONGING LIFE

Continued from p. 820 Although mimicking the effects of found that variants of some of the on a high-fat diet at 1 year, along with caloric restriction is a hot area of re - genes were more common in women daily doses of SRT1720. “The damage search, NIA’s Hodes urges caution. “If over 92 than in those under 80. Re - induced in the liver [by the high fat one looks at multiple species, it’s not searchers say there are likely many, diet] was almost oblit - many genes that influence erated by the com - aging and other processes pound,” says Rafael de and that the likelihood of Cabo, a researcher with being able to increase NIA’s Laboratory of Ex - longevity by tinkering with perimental Gerontology, just a few genes is slim. who led the study. There The Holy Grail is to find was also a beneficial drugs that will not just pre - reduction of the in - vent a particular disease but flammatory response. also buffer the body’s vul - What really sur - nerability to all major age- prised de Cabo was the related conditions, includ - effect on lifespan. “We ing cancer, heart disease, got a tremendous ef - Alzheimer’s and diabetes. fect on the mean lifes - “The idea is to postpone pan and also the max - the onset of all these t

imum lifespan — e chronic diseases as much b much greater than with o as we can, all at once,” says G

s

resveratrol,” he says. e de Cabo. “We are now very g r

(Although the obese o good at treating a particu - e

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died sooner than mice m this is a problem when a I

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fed a normal diet.) t drug company and inves - t e

Both resveratrol and G tigators are trying to de - /

P velop interventions that af - SRT1720 are being de - F A veloped by Sirtris, a Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment celebrates her 120th birthday in fect aging. There’s nothing start-up founded by 1995. When she died at 122, she was the world’s longest-lived in the FDA [Food and Drug Harvard University re - person. “She was someone who, constitutionally and biologically, Administration process] that searcher David Sinclair was immune to stress,” a biographer wrote. “She once said, will allow you to do a clin - and now owned by ‘If you can’t do anything about it, don’t worry about it.’ ” ical trial on aging.” To win GlaxoSmithKline. Sirtris FDA approval for clinical researchers were among those col - a universal effect,” he says. “It extends trials, researchers must target a poten - laborating on the study. lifespan in a fraction of mice species, tial drug toward a disease. Another compound that mimics and in some it has a deleterious ef - De Cabo’s NIA lab is studying not caloric restriction is rapamycin, a drug fect. How do we know when it would only the effects drugs might have on approved for organ transplant patients have a positive effect in humans or the aging process but also the role ex - that acts on a different genetic path - when negative? It emphasizes the need ercise and genetics play. way than reseveratrol. A study by the to be cautious.” NIA’s Intervention Testing Program in Scientists are also identifying longevi - 2009 found rapamycin extended the ty genes, some of which accelerate The Oldest Old lifespan of mice by about one-third. aging, while others slow it down. Re - The mice were not given the treat - searchers have identified three “path - esearchers are studying very old peo - ment until they were 20 months old ways” in a cell by which genes seem R ple in search of lifestyle patterns that — late middle age for this species. to influence longevity: insulin/IGF-1, contribute to healthy aging. But in humans, rapamycin has serious sirtuins and mTOR. In an NIA-funded One hopeful finding, says Perls, the side effects, suppressing the immune study of 30 genes associated with the director of the New England Cente - system in complex ways. insulin/IGF-1 pathway, researchers narian Study, is that it appears “the older

822 CQ Researcher you get the healthier you’ve been. We • limit meat and processed foods; book about her. “She was someone found that 90 percent of our centenar - • regularly have a drink or two of who, constitutionally and biologically ians are independently functional at 93.” wine or beer; speaking, was immune to stress. She Even if they have age-related diseases, • have a sense of purpose; once said, ‘If you can’t do anything he says, they are able to manage them • make time for relaxation and so - about it, don’t worry about it.’ ” She well for 20 years or more. The study cialization; also kept a sense of humor. At age participants fall into three categories: • join a spiritual community, and 117, “when somebody took leave by “survivors” of a life-threatening illness be - • make family a priority and sur - telling her, ‘Until next year, perhaps,’ fore the age of 80, “delayers” of a seri - round yourself with others who share she retorted: ‘I don’t see why not! You ous health problem until late in life and these behaviors. don’t look so bad to me.’ ” 36 “escapers” who reach 100 without any serious medical problem. 34 Increasingly, many researchers be - lieve that the oldest-old have some ge - netic protection. “It’s like the lottery Seventh-day Adventists “don’t smoke or drink, that’s so hard to win because you’ve got to get all seven numbers right,” they’re generally vegetarian, they regularly exercise says Perls. “But in our case it may be 200 or 300 numbers. And it’s not just and spend a lot of time with family and religion, the interaction of genes but the in - which may help them manage their stress well. teraction of genes with each other and with the environment — and then You put all that together and you get average life throw in a little luck.” Lifestyle is important, though. Perls expectancies eight years longer than the points out that Seventh-day Adventists, whose life expectancy is in the high rest of the country.” 80s, demonstrate what may be an op - timal lifestyle for longevity. “Their re - — Thomas Perls ligion dictates healthy habits,” he says. “God has endowed people with this Associate Professor of Medicine and Geriatrics, wonderful body, and they feel it’s a Boston University sin to not take care of it. They don’t smoke or drink, they’re generally veg - etarian, they regularly exercise and spend a lot of time with family and religion, which may help them man - A Japanese woman from Okinawa The lessons from “the blue zones” age their stress well. You put all that epitomized this lifestyle, Buettner wrote. confirm what Stanford geriatrician Bortz together and you get those average At 104, Ushi Okushima had recently argues: that having meaning, along with life expectancies that are eight years taken a job bagging fruit at a nearby regular exercise, are keys to a long, longer than the rest of the country.” market. She spent plenty of time with healthy life. Octogenarian Bortz is a Similar lessons come from com - her grandchildren and three close friends, marathon runner and has treated and munities around the globe where peo - ate a dinner of mostly vegetables and studied older people for decades. “I plan ple are known to live far longer than then drank a cup of mugwort sake be - to be 100,” he says. Bortz maintains that average. In his 2008 book on these fore bed. 35 Working hard, sleeping well genetics and accidents play only a small communities, The Blue Zones , author and drinking sake were the secrets to role in living long and well. Dan Buettner identified nine behav - longevity, she believed. “The rest of it is decisions made and iors that he believes contribute to The 122-year-old Frenchwoman Cal - not made,” he says. “Most of it is choice.” healthy longevity: ment, the world’s longest-lived person, His plan includes not costing Medicare • incorporate movement into your still rode a bike at 100 and “walked “anything,” because he will take no pills, everyday routine; all over Arles to thank those who con - get no medical tests and maintain his • eat about 80 percent of your nor - gratulated her on her birthday that year,” passion about life. In his book, Next mal diet; a public health researcher wrote in a Medicine , he argues for a paradigm shift

www.cqresearcher.com Sept. 30, 2011 823 PROLONGING LIFE

that would dramatically lower medical Max Planck Institute demographer the interplay between genes and the spending by focusing on wellness and Vau pel predicts life expectancy will con - environment — to shed light on aging. prevention, rather than disease. tinue to rise indefinitely at about three What people eat, drink and smoke months per year. “Experts like me have and what toxins they’re exposed to in a deep knowledge of the past,” he says, the air and water, for example, influ - “but we’re remarkably bad at forecasting ence their genes and how they age. OUTLOOK the future.” But because there are so Researchers also will try to move for - many unknowns, the only tried and true ward with “regenerative medicine,” with way is to extrapolate from the past, he the hope of using stem cell therapy says. “The future is going to be turbu - to restore function in damaged tissue. Many Unknowns lent, but the past was also turbulent,” he Although much remains unknown, says. “In the 20th century we had a smok - says NIA’s Hodes, “There’s an incredible, s the Social Security Administra - ing epidemic that killed a lot of people dramatic, unthinkable amount we have A tion looks to the future, it must — many more than obesity will. Nonethe - learned. We have the skills and tech - balance many unknowns. What new less, life expectancy went up by a lot.” nical abilities that are capable of sus - breakthroughs that manipulate the aging Meanwhile, Stanford’s Bortz and taining quite an incredible pace of dis - process or cure major chronic disease others are working to persuade in - covery. We are going to learn how it might appear? Will increased access to surance companies to offer incentives can be translated into more practical health care, promised in the 2010 Af - to their customers to adopt lifestyles applications. It won’t be simple, but fordable Care Act, improve longevity? that would bring many more years of that doesn’t mean it’s not going to be Demographers disagree on what to good health to older people. accomplished.” expect. Olshansky, the University of Others suggest disincentives for un - Illinois professor of public health, is healthy behaviors that reduce life ex - among those who believe life ex - pectancy. “We can put a tax on french pectancy will reach a plateau. ( See “At fries,” says psychiatry professor Gary Notes Issue, p. 821. ) In 2005, in a study pub - Small, director of the UCLA Longevity 1 lished in The New England Journal of Center at the University of California, Jacob S. Siegel, “The Great Debate on the Outlook for Human Longevity: Exposition and Medicine , he predicted that life ex - Los Angeles. “When you have a tax on Evaluation of Two Divergent Views,” pre - pectancy might actually go down in cigarettes, cancer rates go down. It’s not sented to a 2005 symposium sponsored by the future because of long-term effects rocket science. Make it harder for peo - the Society of Actuaries, p. 8. [based on U.S. of childhood obesity. Already more ple to do bad things to our bodies. It’s Census data], www.imminst.org/SCOD.pdf . than 60 percent of adults in the United going to save health-care dollars.” 2 Eileen M. Crimmins and Hiram Beltran- States are overweight or obese. 37 On the research front, drugs are al - Sanchez , “Mortality and Morbidity Trends: Is “Those who forecast indefinite in - ready in clinical trials that may mimic There Compression of Morbidity,” Journal of creases in life expectancy close their caloric restriction. 38 In other areas, Gerontology Series B , December 2010, pp. 75- eyes to the living population,” he says. NIA expects the field of epigenetics 86. 3 “They look only at historical trends.” — an emerging science that looks at Walter M. Bortz, “Biological Basis of De - terminants of Health,” American Journal of Public Health , March 2005, pp. 389-392. 4 Statistical Abstract of United States , U.S. Cen - About the Author sus Bureau, 2011, p. 76. Beth Baker is an award-winning freelance journalist in 5 Swapnil N. Rajpathak, et al. , “Lifestyle Fac - Takoma Park, Md., whose articles appear in numerous pub - tors of People with Exceptional Longevity,” lications, including The Washington Post , AARP Bulletin , Ms. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society , and BioScience , where she is features editor. She has re - “Brief Reports,” August 2011, pp. 1509-1512. 6 See Kenyon Lab, “Lab Overview for Non- ceived two National Mature Media Awards for her report - Scientists,” http://kenyonlab.ucsf.edu/html/ ing on aging and media fellowships to study aging and non-scientist_overview.html . cancer issues from, respectively, Case Western Reserve Uni - 7 “Biology of Aging: Research Today for a versity and the National Press Foundation. Her books in - Healthier Tomorrow,” National Institute on Aging, clude Old Age in a New Age — The Promise of Transfor - 2011, p. 10 [to be released in November]. mative Nursing Homes (Vanderbilt University Press, 2007). 8 Huber Warner, et al. , “Science Fact and the She is a former hospice volunteer. SENS Agenda,” EMBO Reports , November 2005, pp. 1006-1008.

824 CQ Researcher 9 Leonard Hayflick, How and Why We Age (1996), p. 338. 10 National Institutes of Health Overview by FOR MORE INFORMATION Institute, p. 1, for FY 2011, www.nih.gov/about/ Buck Institute on Research and Aging , 8001 Redwood Blvd., Novato, CA 94945 ; director/budgetrequest/NIH_BIB_020911.pdf . (415) 209-2000 ; www.buckinstitute.org . Independent research facility focusing on the 11 National Institute on Aging, FY 2011 bud - relationship between aging and chronic disease. get, p. NIA-14, www.nia.nih.gov/NR/rdonlyres/ 169BAC4D-FDF9-4FB4-8CB9-1D323F0F83F9/ Caloric Restriction Society , 187 Ocean Dr., Newport, NC 28570 ; (877) 511-2702 ; 13985/NIACJ.pdf . www.crsociety.org . Promotes low-calorie diets as a means of increasing lifespan. 12 Walter M. Bortz, Next Medicine — The Sci - ence and Civics of Health (2011), p. 199. Duke Center on the Demography of Aging , Social Science Research Institute, 13 “Report to the Congress, Medicare Payment Duke University, P.O. Box 90420, Durham, NC 27708 ; (919) 681-1972 ; www.dupri. Policy 2011,” Medicare Payment Advisory Com - duke.edu . Examines the “biodemography” of aging, including papers on human mission, p. xi, http://medpac.gov/documents/ health and survival and on the biology of aging in plants and animals. Mar11_EntireReport.pdf . 14 Pierre-Carl Michaud, et al. , “Differences in Eden Alternative , P.O. Box 18369, 1900 S. Clinton Ave., Rochester, NY 14618 ; health between Americans and Western Euro - (585) 461-3951 ; www.edenalt.org . Nonprofit working to change the traditional peans: Effects on longevity and public finance,” nursing home culture by introducing more development and growth opportunities Social Science & Medicine , 2011, p. 254. for residents. 15 James W. Vaupel, et al. , “Life Expectancy and Disparity: An International Comparison International Longevity Center , 722 W. 168th St., New York, NY 10032 ; (212) 305-3927 ; www.mailman.columbia.edu/academic-departments/centers/international- of Life Table Data,” BMJ Open , 2011. 16 longevity-center . Columbia University research center conducting studies on Gerald J. Gruman, A History of Ideas about healthy aging, ageism, caregiving, financial longevity and health care. the Prolongation of Life (2003), p. 11. 17 Ibid. , p. 60. National Institute on Aging , National Institutes of Health, Building 31, Room 5C27, 18 Ibid. , p. 82. 31 Center Dr., MSC 2292, Bethesda, MD 20892 ; (301) 496-1752 ; www.nia.nih.gov . 19 Leonard Hayflick, “Lessons from 3,500 Provides information on the biology of aging and the latest on healthy aging and Years of Gerontological History,” Contempo - many age-associated diseases. rary Gerontology , 9(1) 2002, p. 25. 20 Gruman, op. cit. , p. 119. New England Centenarian Study , Boston Medical Center, 88 E. Newton St., 21 Brian M. Delaney and Lisa Walford, The Robinson 2400, Boston, MA 02118 ; (888) 333-6327 ; www.bumc.bu.edu/centenarian . Longevity Diet (2010), pp. 30-35. Ongoing research about individuals who live 100 years or more. 22 Hayflick, How and Why We Age , op. cit. , pp. 272-273; S. Jay Olshansky and Bruce A. Okinawa Centenarian Study , okicent.org/index.html . Offers research findings on Carnes, The Quest for Immortality (2001), p. 25. aging, practical advice, dieting tips and videos of people who are among the oldest 23 Ibid. , p. 26. in the world. 24 David Crary, “Antiaging Industry Boom for Baby Boomers,” San Francisco Chronicle , Tulane Center for Aging , Tulane University School of Medicine, 1430 Tulane Ave., Sept. 4, 2011, http://articles.sfgate.com/2011-09 - New Orleans, LA 70112 ; (504) 988-3369 ; tulane.edu/som/aging . Dedicated to im - proving training and service in geriatric medicine and gerontology. 04/business/30111730_1_antiaging-retirement- age-dietary-supplements . 25 S. Jay Olshansky, et al. , “Position Statement It Can Stop,” posted on his website, http://55 Profiles of Centenarians: Survivors, Delayers, on Human Aging,” Journal of Gerontology , theses.org , Sept. 7, 2011. Adapted from “The and Escapers.” 57A(8), 2002, p. B292-7. End of Ageing — Why Life Begins at 90,” 35 Dan Buettner, The Blue Zones — Lessons 26 See Immortality Institute, www.imminst.org /, www.newscientist.com , Aug. 10, 2011. from Living Longer from the People Who’ve July 25, 2011 posting, www.longecity.org/forum/ 31 “Biology of Aging,” National Institute on Lived the Longest (2009), paperback edition, topic/50538-robert-ettinger-founder-of-the-cry Aging, op. cit. , p. 21. pp. 231-59. onics-movement-dies-at-92 /. 32 National Cancer Institute, “Antioxidants and 36 Craig R. Whitney, “Jeanne Calment, World’s 27 Olshansky and Carnes, op. cit. , p. 60. Cancer Prevention: Fact Sheet, www.cancer. Elder, Dies at 122,” The New York Times , 28 Hayflick, How and Why We Age , op. cit. , gov/cancertopics/factsheet/prevention/antioxi Aug. 5, 1997. p. 2. dants . 37 “Preventing Chronic Disease — The New 29 Thomas Kirkwood, “Why Can’t We Live 33 David Stipp, The Youth Pill: Scientists at Public Health,” Alliance for Health Reform, Forever?” Scientific American , September 2010, the Brink of an Anti-Aging Revolution (2010), September 2011, p. 1, www.allhealth.org/publi p. 47, www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm? pp. 2-3. cations/Public_health/Preventing_Chronic_Dis id=why-cant-we-live-forever . 34 See website of Boston University School ease_New_Public_Health_108.pdf . 30 Michael R. Rose, “Aging Isn’t Cumulative of Medicine New England Centenarian Study, 38 See for example, Sirtris Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Process of Progressive Chemical Damage — www.bumc.bu.edu/centenarian /; “Morbidity — www.sirtrispharma.com/discovery.html .

www.cqresearcher.com Sept. 30, 2011 825 Bibliography Selected Sources

Books Kenyon , Cynthia J. , “The Genetics of Ageing,” Nature , March 25, 2010 , www.nature.com/nature/journal/v464/ Bortz II , Walter M. , MD , Next Medicine — The Science n7288/full/nature08980.html . and Civics of Health , Oxford University Press , 2011 . A University of California researcher explains how genetic A geriatrician critiques the U.S. approach to medicine and manipulation of animals’ lifespans relates to humans. argues for a transformation that would lead to people liv - ing longer and healthier. Kirkwood , Thomas , “Why Can’t We Live Forever?” Scientif - ic American , September 2010 , pp. 42-49 , www.scientific Buettner , Dan , The Blue Zones — Lessons for Living american.com/article.cfm?id=why-cant-we-live-forever (sub - Longer from the People Who’ve Lived the Longest , Na - scription required). tional Geographic , 2008 . A British biologist explains the latest research on aging. A writer shares lessons from his travels to countries where people live the longest. Lockett , Hudson , “Natural Causes: Untangling the Mys - teries of Aging,” Reporting Texas , June 25, 2010 , http:// Delaney , Brian M. , and Lisa Walford , The Longevity Diet , reportingtexas.com/natural-causes-untangling-the-mys Da Capo Press , 2010 . teries-of-aging /. Leaders of the Calorie Restriction Society International ex - The author offers a useful summary of major paths scientists plain why sharply reducing food consumption may slow are pursuing to understand longevity and aging. aging; they offer diet strategies. Perls , Thomas T. , “Anti-Aging Medicine: What Should We Friedman , Howard S. , and Leslie R. Martin , The Longevity Tell our Patients?” Aging Health , 2010 6(2), www.future Project , Hudson Street Press , 2011 . medicine.com/doi/pdf/10.2217/ahe.10.11 . Two University of California psychologists discuss their find - The director of the New England Centenarian Study critiques ings from an 80-year study of 1,500 people. The popularly anti-aging hormones and offers commonsense advice. written book includes quizzes to help readers compare their behaviors with those of long-lived participants. Reports

Greenbaum , Stuart , ed., Longevity Rules — How to Age “Biology of Aging: Research Today for a Healthier To - Well into the Future , Eskaton , 2010 . morrow,” National Institute on Aging , to be published Renowned aging experts examine longevity through the lenses November 2011 , www.nia.nih.gov . of politics, medicine, society, behavior and demography. The NIA provides a clear, layman’s explanation of the latest research on the biology of aging. Kurzweil , Ray , The Singularity is Near — When Humans Transcend Biology , Viking , 2005 . “Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2009,” National Vital Sta - A prominent inventor and futurist theorizes how scientific tistics Reports , Vol. 59, No., 4, March 16, 2011 , www.cdc.gov/ breakthroughs will deliver immortality to humans. nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr59/nvsr59_04.pdf . The report presents up-to-date statistics and trends related Olshansky , S. Jay , and Bruce A. Carnes , The Quest for to causes of death in the United States. Immortality , W.W. Norton , 2001 . Two top academic researchers explain why and how we Kulkarni , Sandeep C. , et al. , “Falling Behind: Life Expectancy age, including a brief history of the research, and argue in Counties from 2000 to 2007 in an International Context,” against the feasibility of extreme lifespan extension. Population Health Metrics , 2011 , www.pophealthmetrics. com/content/pdf/1478-7954-9-16.pdf . Articles Researchers at the University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation compare life expectancy dis - Callahan , Daniel , and Sherwin B. Nuland , “The Quag - parities county by county in the United States and contrast mire — How American Medicine is Destroying Itself,” them with those of other nations. The New Republic , May 19, 2011 , www.tnr.com/article/ economy/magazine/88631/american-medicine-health-care - Pan , Cynthia X. , et al. , “Myths of the High Medical Cost costs? (subscription required). of Old Age and Dying,” International Longevity Center-USA , A bioethicist and a physician argue that pursuing sophis - 2007 , www.globalaging.org/health/us/2007/mytholdage.pdf . ticated medical technology is an expensive and futile effort This report challenges commonly held beliefs about an to stave off aging and death. aging population overwhelming the U.S. health-care system.

826 CQ Researcher The Next Step: Additional Articles from Current Periodicals

Health Some studies suggest the aging process can temporarily stop at certain intervals later in life. Cassiday , Laura , “Restricting Calories May Boost Longevity,” Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press , Jan. 23, 2011 , p. H8 . Ward , Steven , “Some Secrets of Living Long Life Remain Studies suggest that calorie restriction may help to extend Mystery,” The Advocate (Baton Rouge, La.), Aug. 8, 2011 , human life, but other factors may also come into play. p. A1 , theadvocate.com/home/535771-82/some-secrets-of- living-long.html . Kahn , Dean , “Notes on Turning 60: Studies Suggest Ways Genetics and lifestyle are factors in longevity, but doctors and to Live Longer, Healthier Lives,” Bellingham (Wash.) Her - scientists still aren’t sure why some people live to 100 or older. ald , March 27, 2011 , www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/03/ 27/1931947/notes-on-turning-60-studies-suggest.html . The Longevity Project Several studies conclude that people who avoid smoking and drug abuse and maintain good relationships tend to live Lloyd , Janice , “5 Ways to Live Longer — Or So You Thought,” longer than others. USA Today , March 1, 2011 , p. B10 , www.usatoday.com/ printedition/life/20110301/longevity01_st.art.htm . Kotz , Deborah , “Fight These Four Causes of Aging,” U.S. Optimism, marriage and exercise do not necessarily lead News & World Report , July 29, 2010 , health.usnews.com/ to a longer life, according to the scientists conducting The health-news/family-health/living-well/articles/2010/07/29/ Longevity Project. fight-these-4-causes-of-aging . Up to 80 percent of the aging process has to do with how Shea , Jim , “Serious People May Live Longer, But What For?” people treat their bodies, according to a book on longevity. Hartford (Conn.) Courant , March 5, 2011 , p. B10 , articles. courant.com/2011-03-05/features/hc-shea-longevity-0305- Levin , Jay , “How to Reach 100: Don’t Worry,” San Jose 20110304_1_single-women-life-expectancy-exercisers . (Calif.) Mercury News , May 26, 2011 . The Longevity Project leaves unanswered why some demo - A positive outlook and ability to manage stress are good graphic groups live longer than others. predictors of a long life, according to the New England Cen - tenarian Study. Whatcott , Andrea , “Study: Divorce Harder on Children Than a Parent’s Death, Shortens Children’s Own Lives,” Deseret Science (Utah) Morning News , May 12, 2011 , www.deseretnews. com/article/700134424/Study-Divorce-harder-on-children- Allday , Erin , “Stem Cells a New Front in Fight Against than-a-parents-death-shortens-childrens-own-lives.html . Aging,” The San Francisco Chronicle , June 17, 2011 , p. A1 , The Longevity Project concludes that children of divorced articles.sfgate.com/2011-06-17/news/29668623_1_cell- parents die an average of five years earlier than those whose research-stem-cell-antiaging . parents stayed married. The stem-cell industry is exploring ways to slow or even reverse some of the worst effects of aging. CITING CQ RESEARCHER Sample formats for citing these reports in a bibliography Freeman , Liz , “Geneticist: Aging Should Be Focus of Re - search,” Naples (Fla.) Daily News , Feb. 26, 2011 , p. A3 , www. include the ones listed below. Preferred styles and formats naplesnews.com/news/2011/feb/25/harvard-medicine- vary, so please check with your instructor or professor. Ronald-DePinho-aging-dana-farber /. A leading genetics researcher from Harvard Medical School MLA STYLE says further scientific research on aging could help reveal Jost, Kenneth. “Remembering 9/11,” CQ Researcher 2 Sept. the genetic causes of many diseases. 2011: 701-732.

Pollack , Andrew , “A Blood Test May Offer Aging Clues,” APA S TYLE The New York Times , May 19, 2011 , p. B1 , www.nytimes. Jost, K. (2011, September 2). Remembering 9/11. CQ Re - com/2011/05/19/business/19life.html?pagewanted=all . A Spanish company is selling blood tests designed to pro - searcher, 9 , 701-732. vide people with their biological age, possibly offering clues CHICAGO STYLE to their longevity and how healthy they will remain. Jost, Kenneth. “Remembering 9/11.” CQ Researcher , September Rose , Michael R. , “Evolutionary Theory: Aging Can Plateau,” 2, 2011, 701-732. The Washington Post , Sept. 6, 2011 , p. E6 .

www.cqresearcher.com Sept. 30, 2011 827 In-depth Reports on Issues in the News

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