The Mortality Games

The Mortality Games

It is possible that the quest for human immortality is in vain. It is also possible that vanity alone will keep propelling it. But the quest for increased healthspan, meaning longer, healthier, better lives, is not just human hubris. It is rooted in the desire to reduce suffering, and it is somewhere in the minds of all good doctors, even the ones who think anti-aging medicine is pure quackery.

It has been interesting to me to see how the “pure quackery” has slowly made its way into the public consciousness, and lagging by a few decades but not completely ignoring it, traditional allopathic medicine.

I believe that the quest for better healthspan requires improvement in longevity. Not because I think people should simply live longer, but because in order to live better you have to address what is causing us to die before our time. Our time, in my view, is the Hayflick limit, around 125 years. Jeanne Calment proved it was possible without telomerase activation. Going beyond that limit will, I suspect, require healthier, longer telomeres and the activation of telomerase.

So what really kills us?

The first cause of death has hit close to home in the last few years. I lost two close friends, one 64, the other 69, both before their time, to heart disease. That is the first cause of death: vascular inflammation and the consequences of free-radical damage. The whole cholesterol thing that obsesses doctors these days is about that issue. Higher-dose omega 3s, lower calorie intake, and reduced refined carbs will attenuate that problem for many. Yet doctors still tell you to eat “low fat.”

The second cause of death is immunosenescence. If you escape the first cause, that is what is waiting for you. That means cancer and infection. How do you address that? One way that has at least been studied is to lengthen the telomeres in your white cells. That has been observed in a subset of users of TA-65.

All I can tell you for sure is that if you do nothing, you will get nothing. I cannot make that choice for you.

Stay young and stay healthy, so you can buy yourself some runway for the next discoveries.

Dr. Dave