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The economic value of targeting aging

nature.com

1–10 of 162 posts

Re: The economic value of targeting aging

#2
A cure for aging only needs to get through human clinical trials for treating one aging-associated condition like osteoporosis. Once it has FDA approval for treating that one condition it can be prescribed off-label by a willing physician. If the osteoporosis treatment has unusual side effects of also making skin appear more youthful, improving short term memory, and increasing libido, then there will probably be a lot of off-label prescriptions written a few years later.

So if you have a great way to cure aging but are worried that the FDA does not recognize aging as a condition, that's how you get the treatment to market.

Re: The economic value of targeting aging

#4

A cure for aging only needs to get through human clinical trials for treating one aging-associated condition like osteoporosis. Once it has FDA approval for treating that one condition it can be prescribed off-label by a willing physician. If the osteoporosis treatment has unusual side effects of also making skin appear more youthful, improving short term memory, and increasing libido, then there will probably be a l…

> if you have a great way to cure aging but are worried that the FDA does not recognize aging as a condition, that's how you get the treatment to market

If you have a cure for aging, I'm decently sure you can earn your ROI without respect to the FDA.

Re: The economic value of targeting aging

#5
post #3

The average age of university presidents and members of Congress in the USA is in the 70s. At the risk of sounding callous can we fix our gerontoctratic system and then fix aging?

Honestly why is that a problem? Wouldn't one thing that we'd want the people with the most experience in higher level management positions.

I don't think the problem with Congress is that members are in their 70s. The problem is that ideally they would have real jobs till their 60s THEN run for government. Instead they bum around various government roles till they get elected in their 30s and once they are there dig in like tics.

Re: The economic value of targeting aging

#6
post #3

The average age of university presidents and members of Congress in the USA is in the 70s. At the risk of sounding callous can we fix our gerontoctratic system and then fix aging?

These sound like two separate problems. That is only 500 people you are talking about. What about the other 7.4B of u s?

Also, they are the ones who are supposed to fix that problem.

Re: The economic value of targeting aging

#7
post #3

The average age of university presidents and members of Congress in the USA is in the 70s. At the risk of sounding callous can we fix our gerontoctratic system and then fix aging?

I suspect gerontocracy would be a distinct without a difference after someone invents any real fountain-of-youth category of tech (mind uploading included), in much the same way that land ownership went from being a requirement for voting to merely one of many ways to hold wealth as the USA went from an agrarian to an industrial society.

Big difference going from 50 to 70; proportionally less going from 600 to 700, even if the world isn’t changing in a way that makes recent experience count for more than ancient experience.

Re: The economic value of targeting aging

#8
"the WTP at birth for the initial 1-year increase in remaining LE from 78.9 to 79.9 years via rectangularization is US$118,100, the WTP at age 60 for the first 1-year increase in remaining LE from 21.7 to 22.7 years through lifespan improvement is US$257,700."

Who the fuck did they get to determine willingness? Most people don't have the money to spend. If it takes you years of extra work to pay for a one year life extension, why not just retire years earlier and enjoy that time? After all, you could still die from an accident after paying the sum at birth/60. It seems highly inappropriate to use a population based metric like life expectancy to have individuals decide if they want a one year increase (likely the individuals don't understand life expectancy as well as).

Re: The economic value of targeting aging

#9
I know some really spry older (60-80) people. Good diet and exercise is what they have in common.

It also helps with mental health (which we have an epidemic of in the US).

By all means, this research should continue. But we do already have very good solutions to aging which are sorely overlooked.

Re: The economic value of targeting aging

#10
post #3

The average age of university presidents and members of Congress in the USA is in the 70s. At the risk of sounding callous can we fix our gerontoctratic system and then fix aging?

But if we extend life then we can have these wonderful rulers for even longer.

(Sarcasm)

Edit: I forgot HN does not enjoy sarcasm

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