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[Guest guest]

Could We Live Forever? Or Even Come Close?

Our Life Spans Are Already Increasing And Technology

May Help Us Live Even Longer

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/sunday/main3475140.shtml

Nov. 11, 2007

New genetic research may make it possible for

scientists to find ways to extend our life spans.

(CBS/AP)

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(CBS) In a quiet Boston suburb, on the appropriately

named Elder Road, Esther MacKay has made it to 102

years old - and counting.

Born in 1905, MacKay traveled the world during a long

career in the military. Lately she’s been honored as

the Air Force’s longest-living chief master sergeant.

For MacKay, there’s no mystery about what’s gotten her

this far.

" I had three no-no’s in my rules growing up, " she told

CBS News technology correspondent Sieberg. " One

was no smoking. Two was no drinking, no alcohol I

should say. Three, no sex. That’s it, one, two,

three. "

Even though she abided by her rules, she was surprised

that she made it this far, but has enjoyed it all.

" It's all been fascinating, interesting, " MacKay said.

" And I wouldn't change a minute of it. "

Her rules may not be everyone's keys to the good life,

but even if you don’t follow the Esther MacKay

prescription, your prognosis for living a long life is

improving.

Consider how life expectancy has increased over the

last two centuries. An average man born in 1800 had a

life expectancy of 35 years. In 1900, he would have

made it all the way to 47. By 1950, average life

expectancy was up to 68 years, and now it’s up to 78.

Although Ponce de Leon never found the legendary

fountain of youth, today in labs like the one at the

University of California, San Francisco, scientists

are trying to stop the clock or at least slow it down.

Some are tantalizingly close to succeeding.

In San Francisco, Professor Kenyon is

conducting experiments on microscopic worms. Their

usual life span is little more than 13 days, but she

has been able to get some to live as long as six times

that by altering one specific gene.

" And here is the long-lived mutant when it’s also 13

days old, " she said, showing Sieberg her handy-work.

" But you can see, look at that! It’s still living a

productive, active life. I would say it might be

heading out to play tennis. "

Kenyon believes her work shows that the rate of aging

is not fixed. Rather, it can be slowed dramatically.

" The important thing for people to understand is that

this is new, " she said. " Fifteen years ago, and from

15 years ago on back, to when we were cavemen,

cavewomen, people thought aging just happened. There's

nothing you can do about it. That was it. And then

along came these animals where you make a little

change and they live twice as long...Something we

never thought can happen, can happen. "

At the University of Wisconsin, scientists are using

rhesus monkeys for similar purposes. They haven't

altered the monkey's genes, but simply cut down on

some of their food. For example, two monkeys are the

same age, but one has eaten normally and the other is

on a restricted-calorie diet and appears to have spent

time at a monkey spa.

Calorie restriction research goes back more than 70

years to pioneering experiments on mice at Cornell

University. Restricting your food intake does appear

to extend life, although no one's totally sure how.

" If we base ideas on calorie restriction, in animals,

and even in monkeys, which are relatively close to us,

we see that calorie restriction slows down virtually

all diseases of aging, " Researcher on aging at Harvard

Sinclair said.

Delaney is the president of the Calorie

Restriction Society. He says it's easy to live on a

calorie restricted diet, simply figure out what your

normal intake of calories would be and reduce it by 20

to 30 percent - or maybe even a bit more.

" But then you don't want to take it too far because

then it's frankly starvation, " he said.

Members of Delaney's group generally consume fewer

than 2,000 calories a day and some go as low as 1,000

calories. Will they live longer? Is what's good for

dessert-deprived monkeys also good for people?

" The CR diet could allow a human being to live to be

maybe 135 or 140 years, but we don't know yet because

we have not done that long a study in humans, " Delaney

said.

But of the course the main obstacle is: hunger. For

most people, cutting calories is anything but easy.

Which is what's brought Harvard's Sinclair to

his latest project: trying to put the apparent

benefits of calorie restriction-in a pill. He's now a

director at a company called Sirtris Pharmaceuticals

along with Dr. Christophe Westphal.

" We're not telling you eat whatever you want and then

take our pill, " Westphal said. " What we're saying is,

" Do the best you can on behavior, but we think we can

turn on that same pathway with small molecule drugs. "

The pill they've developed is based on a

naturally-occurring substance called Resveratrol,

which is found in red wine. But don't think you're

going to guzzle your way to longevity: one pill has

the potency of 1,000 glasses of wine.

So far the tablets are doing great things for mice. In

a Sirtris video, two mice are the same age. But one

mouse been taking Resveratrol and he is thriving. But

it's not fair to call Resveratrol an anti-aging drug,

Sinclair said.

" I sometimes slip and call it that, " he said. " But

actually, this is not about slowing down the aging

process. It's about treating diseases that are caused

by aging. And if we are successful at that, of course

people will live longer, healthier lives. "

The first disease they're targeting is diabetes. They

hope to get Resveratrol on the market in about five

years.

" Imagine a future where you're a diabetic, and your

doctor prescribes you a drug, " Sinclair said. " And the

doctor says, 'Well, as a side effect, I have to warn

you you're also protected against heart disease,

cancer, and Alzheimer's.' Well, you know, if we can

get there, that'd be great. But that's the future that

we're aiming for. "

But to some people, like inventor Ray Kurzweil, a pill

like that is just the first of innovations that he and

others think could extend our lives for hundreds of

years.

" We've gone 20,000 years without significantly

changing the software that runs in our body. We have

the tools now to do that, " he said.

Kurzweil - you may have heard of his keyboards -

foresees what he calls " the singularity, " when

technology and human biology merge. He's banking on

the advance of technology continuing to accelerate,

yielding devices like nanobots - microscopic robots

that would roam your blood stream, curing what ails

you.

The only problem for Kurzweil is living long enough to

see it all happen. To that end, he carefully watches

what he eats and takes 200 supplements throughout the

day.

" You can never prove forever, because no matter how

long you live, whether it's 100 or 1,000 years, that's

not forever, " he said. " But we can get to a point

where as time goes by, you're really not aging. "

But of course, mention life-spans of hundreds of

years, and people usually seem to have one question:

why would they want to live that long?

" Well, there's two negative thoughts that come up: One

is, 'Okay, I'm gonna be a 90-year-old' as we think of

them today, 'and that I'm gonna live like that for

another 200 years,' " Kurzweil said. " And that's really

not what we're trying to achieve. We're trying to stay

in good health and really not age, so we can stay 30

or 35. We're not only going to have radical life

extension, we're gonna have radical life expansion. "

Dr. Perls, at Boston University, runs the

world's largest study of centenarians. He's learned

from subjects like Esther MacKay that long life isn't

just a matter of genes. It has a lot to do with

lifestyle.

" You know, there is no such thing as a fountain of

youth, " he said. " There may be a fountain of aging

well. And the fountain of aging well has to do with

your good health habits and knowing that things like

smoking are truly terrible for you and can knock 20

years off your life expectancy. "

And to nudge you in the right direction, Perls has

developed an on-line calculator that's a bit of a

crystal ball. You punch in your family history, your

health and lifestyle choices and it predicts how long

you might live.

Perls, for one, is looking forward to many more

healthy, happy years.

" It looks like I'll live to 94, " he said. " And given

what I know, that means I'm gonna be spending a big

chunk of that in good health. I would love to do

that. "

© MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. .

[Guest guest]

That is a very real question to olders.

One of the questions at livingto100.com:

"Do you regularly engage in brain activities that are both new and challenging to you (e.g. learning a new subject, playing someone in a hard game such as chess or scrabble, solving crossword or Sudoku puzzles)?"

We kinda had a problem with what to do with our old age - games are well, silly.

There seems to be a persuasion to learn Spanish, vital here if you want to hire a yard person.

So we're learning Spanish - a local at community college for seniors - non credit, and a more local public HS which has a secretary that learned in Mexico - after hours.

She employs techniques you'd use with a 5th grader, ie, anyone can learn.

The diffs in the language helpers like tapes, videos, eg, is amazing - part of the problem we must learn to deal with.

It is rather challenging without a constant contact with Spanish speakers. We often talk to each other in Spanish now. I see we can learn this easily (5 weeks) and I hope to get others in our family to do the same.

Once we've done that, we will learn French.

Regards

[ ] CRON on CBS Sunday Morning

Could We Live Forever? Or Even Come Close?Our Life Spans Are Already Increasing And TechnologyMay Help Us Live Even Longerhttp://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/08/sunday/main3475140.shtmlNov. 11, 2007New genetic research may make it possible forscientists to find ways to extend our life spans.(CBS/AP)But of course, mention life-spans of hundreds ofyears, and people usually seem to have one question:why would they want to live that long?

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