Anti-Aging: State of the Art • Hacker News Board

Re: Anti-Aging: State of the Art

#11

Post by novok » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 12:30 AM UTC

domenicd wrote: post #4

As someone already totally on board with ending aging, I found this article not terribly helpful. My main questions are "what should I be doing right now to stop my own body from aging?" and "when will more stuff be available for me to do that is not currently?" The article didn't help much in this regard. As far as I can tell, there are a number of clinical trials I should watch to see if those drugs work in humans?…

Do you avoid sugar, fructose, calorie free sweeteners? Do you do strength training & cardio? Are you overweight? Is your waist to hip ratio ideal for your gender? Do you monitor your blood glucose? Get 8 hours of sleep consistently? Avoid stress? Do not live close to a highway / live in a place with high air quality? Get consistent screening for issues that your family has to catch them early? Get enough sunshine? Resolved depression or anxiety disorders? Have social connections you enjoy? Drink enough water? Do not smoke or drink alcohol? And sorry, the negatives of wine outweigh the benefits.

All of that is already hard to execute consistently in this society and is our most well known age reducing things we can do currently.

Edit: Some more: Do you fast semi regularly? Eat clean fish? Get outdoors in nature? Avoid allergens to stop triggering your immune system? Live in a dry and mold free house that still gets enough air circulation?

Re: Anti-Aging: State of the Art

#12

Post by frongpik » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 12:33 AM UTC

kkoncevicius wrote: post #7

I find majority of anti-aging articles to be way too optimistic. Consider the following: We still cannot treat many well understood diseases, including tuberous sclerosis, allergies, asthma, etc. We don't know the exact cause of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes, etc, despite studying those diseases for decades. We can't help you keep the color of your hair or regrow your missing teeth, despite…

IMHO, that's because to answer these questions, we need to research fields that are labeled as pseudoscience for no good reason. For example, no serious scientist who cares about career and reputation can study things like "animal magnetism" - he would be labeled a lunatic and get ousted from the community (no more grants, no more employment in academia). Plus the state of things in academia doesn't encourage big bets.

Re: Anti-Aging: State of the Art

#13

Post by elihu » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 12:38 AM UTC

Parabiosis (blood exchange), if it works, would seem to have a lot of societal implications around the question of where the good blood comes from.

The most obvious implementation would be for old, rich people to pay for the blood of young poor people. That could conceivably work, but it's also more than a little dystopian.

Some follow-up questions if this actually works are: how much blood are we talking about here? and is there a way to grow/manufacture blood in a lab, perhaps by growing human bone marrow outside the body?

Re: Anti-Aging: State of the Art

#14

Post by drcode » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 12:39 AM UTC

elihu wrote: post #13

Parabiosis (blood exchange), if it works, would seem to have a lot of societal implications around the question of where the good blood comes from. The most obvious implementation would be for old, rich people to pay for the blood of young poor people. That could conceivably work, but it's also more than a little dystopian. Some follow-up questions if this actually works are: how much blood are we talking about here?…

The other question is whether a young person loses any lifespan, by forcing their body to generate additional blood at a younger age, by being a blood donor. I suppose this could be tested experimentally by performing frequent phlebotomies on a mice and observing if it affects life span.

Re: Anti-Aging: State of the Art

#15

Post by frongpik » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 12:40 AM UTC

novok wrote: post #11

domenicd wrote: post #4

As someone already totally on board with ending aging, I found this article not terribly helpful. My main questions are "what should I be doing right now to stop my own body from aging?" and "when will more stuff be available for me to do that is not currently?" The article didn't help much in this regard. As far as I can tell, there are a number of clinical trials I should watch to see if those drugs work in humans?…

Do you avoid sugar, fructose, calorie free sweeteners? Do you do strength training & cardio? Are you overweight? Is your waist to hip ratio ideal for your gender? Do you monitor your blood glucose? Get 8 hours of sleep consistently? Avoid stress? Do not live close to a highway / live in a place with high air quality? Get consistent screening for issues that your family has to catch them early? Get enough sunshine? Re…

I do all that because I'm relatively wealthy and have plenty of time and freedom. And that does show. Aging still manifests as a slowly increasing suspectability to various damages like a minor allergy that puzzles doctors, minor hair loss, minor pain here and there, but this all adds up and wears the body out. The cause of aging must be a lot deeper than excessive consumption of sugar.

Re: Anti-Aging: State of the Art

#16

Post by domenicd » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 12:43 AM UTC

novok wrote: post #11

domenicd wrote: post #4

As someone already totally on board with ending aging, I found this article not terribly helpful. My main questions are "what should I be doing right now to stop my own body from aging?" and "when will more stuff be available for me to do that is not currently?" The article didn't help much in this regard. As far as I can tell, there are a number of clinical trials I should watch to see if those drugs work in humans?…

Do you avoid sugar, fructose, calorie free sweeteners? Do you do strength training & cardio? Are you overweight? Is your waist to hip ratio ideal for your gender? Do you monitor your blood glucose? Get 8 hours of sleep consistently? Avoid stress? Do not live close to a highway / live in a place with high air quality? Get consistent screening for issues that your family has to catch them early? Get enough sunshine? Re…

My point wasn't that I lack the knowledge of how to fight aging in these typical wealthy/time-rich-person ways. My point was that the article was not helpful in giving new information.

Re: Anti-Aging: State of the Art

#17

Post by mlthoughts2018 » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 1:03 AM UTC

Like many virtuous science applications, curing disease, fighting child abuse, feeding the hungry, unless we start seeing either profitable business models around it or charitably funded research organizations that actually pay competitive salaries to attract and retain talent, this is all just aggrandizing. It’s usually pet projects of certain gurus or career researchers with extreme personalities and penchant for drumming up funding hype.

When the science is real and we’re talking about professional, legitimate deployment of a medically revolutionary technology, it won’t show up as fractious riff-raff biotech startups built on the back of post-docs and super cheap labor hoodwinked by idealism. Rather it will be companies or non-profits that actually pay high compensation to get results.

Re: Anti-Aging: State of the Art

#18

Post by jokethrowaway » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 1:21 AM UTC

tasty_freeze wrote: post #5

My estimated lifespan is probably close to 90 years, but very likely the last 15 to 20 will be marked by health issues of increasing difficulty. If the various modalities of life extension leave the shape of the healthy/sick profile but simply stretch it out another 30 years, I'm not sure I'd be happy about that. If it could simply remove sickness and I died healthy at 90, say of a massive stroke, that would be a gre…

Ditto. I'll kill myself when I'm done with life, if I ever will get to that stage, no matter the age. If I can prolong a healthy life, I'll do that.

I've seen too many old relatives tired of living or living in pain.

I don't see the point of making a big deal out of it, thinking that human life has some intrinsic value is like thinking the universe revolves around earth or that we're the chosen ones instead of some very advanced monkeys.

Re: Anti-Aging: State of the Art

#19

Post by phkahler » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 1:21 AM UTC

kkoncevicius wrote: post #7

I find majority of anti-aging articles to be way too optimistic. Consider the following: We still cannot treat many well understood diseases, including tuberous sclerosis, allergies, asthma, etc. We don't know the exact cause of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes, etc, despite studying those diseases for decades. We can't help you keep the color of your hair or regrow your missing teeth, despite…

I cured my asthma with Iodine and Magesium.

Iodine also seems to help type II according to some doctors.

Progress is slow, and I agree that most anti-aging results are over hyped.

Re: Anti-Aging: State of the Art

#20

Post by woliveirajr » Sat, Jan 02, 2021, 1:23 AM UTC

phkahler wrote: post #19

kkoncevicius wrote: post #7

I find majority of anti-aging articles to be way too optimistic. Consider the following: We still cannot treat many well understood diseases, including tuberous sclerosis, allergies, asthma, etc. We don't know the exact cause of multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes, etc, despite studying those diseases for decades. We can't help you keep the color of your hair or regrow your missing teeth, despite…

I cured my asthma with Iodine and Magesium. Iodine also seems to help type II according to some doctors. Progress is slow, and I agree that most anti-aging results are over hyped.

Could you give more details, please?