The extension of life expectancy isn’t something that can happen overnight. Those of you reading this article will live, all things being well, about as long as the typical lifespan relating to your gender within your respective countries. With any individual, however, genetic factors and lifestyle can affect specific life expectancy outcomes. So that pitches it somewhere between 75 and 85 in advanced industrialized countries. Longer if we’re lucky and don’t become too frail or develop a neurodegenerative disease.
But suppose medicine continues to advance at its current rate. Lets suppose we can grow any artificial organ or use life extending medical implants on a far wider scale? Also consider how many more diseases humankind can combat. Under this scenario, in maintaining health, for how long could a typical human body keep going?
The answer, according to Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, is 150 years with 120 years becoming the new norm. Dr. Blackburn was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2009 for research on telomeres and the genetics of ageing. She currently President of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.
Interviewed by The Daily Telegraph, Dr. Blackburn stated: “”We are not talking about something ridiculously ambitious or unrealistic or visionary.”
For the Nobel Prize, Elizabeth Blackburn discovered telomeres get shorter as we become older. Telomeres are small caps designed to protect chromosomes and DNA. Moreover, telomeres shorten more rapidly when people are subject to high stress. Dr. Blackburn speculates that if medics can find a means to limit damage to telomeres, using an enzyme called telomerase, then it could be possible to slowdown cellular ageing and increase lifespan.
In relation to this, Dr. Blackburn has succeeded in achieving this with mice. Such studies, if considered for people, throw up some interesting ethical considerations. Furthermore, living for longer will, however, create social problems from more medical care to people needing to work longer in order to save for their retirements. In addition, population levels will rise. Medical advancements will need to go hand-in-hand with social and economic planning.
