Continuing his recent string of fascinating guests, Jason Hartman invites Dr. Aubrey de Grey to episode #49 of The Longevity & Biohacking Show. The good doctor is point man for a foundation involved in the scientific pursuit of how to eliminate aging by controlling life threatening diseases at the cellular and molecular level. Is de Grey offering the Fountain of Youth? Not exactly but he has some fascinating things to say about processes already under way.

How Soon Until We Live Forever?

Since the dawn of humanity we’ve scratched our collective heads and tried to figure out how to live longer lives, maybe even forever, if it’s not too much to ask. According to Dr. de Grey, the SENS Research Foundation is about 25 years away from achieving medical control over aging. Does this high falutin phrase mean we’ll never die? Not exactly but maybe. In order to wrap your mind around the concept of aging intervention you must first banish the vision of a Spanish explorer swigging down goblets of water dipped from a fanciful stream and start to udnerstand what aging actually is.

Medical Control Over Aging

Let’s say it together. “Medical control over aging.” It sounds so clinical. Not nearly as exciting as, “I’m going to live forever,” but it’s the former that is de Grey’s specialty. According to the doctor, the aging process is defined as a collection of the early stages of diseases. As time goes by, some progress slower and some progress faster. Eventually, one races ahead of the pack and kills you. If you’re especially unlucky maybe a few of them do you in simultaneously.

These diseases manifest themselves as molecular and cellular deterioration. This deterioration is analogous to moving parts of a machine that wear out and stop working over time. Consider the human body a machine. A vastly complicated machine! When a car engine wears out, you might have your local mechanic rebuild it, leaving it practically new and good for several hundred thousand more miles. That’s essentially what Dr. de Grey is proposing – to periodically restore a person to a previous age by repairing accumulated damage at, say, 30 year intervals.

How Will Aging Intervention Work?

The project began with de Grey and his scientist buddies classifying the damaging effects of disease into seven categories. An encapsulation of all the categories goes far beyond the scope of this short interview, but de Grey offers an example of how it might work. Let’s consider a truly terrible disease known as Parkinson’s. It begins when a certain type of brain cell stops automatically regenerating as cells die. The process continues, more brain cells die, and the symptoms of tremor and spasmodic movements arise. With the SENS approach, stem cell therapy will be able to fix the cell loss problem, thus nipping the onset of Parkinson’s in the bud.

Stem Cell Ethical Problems Are Going Away

Dr. de Grey was quick to agree with Jason that past approaches to stem cell therapy encountered quick ethical opposition because it involved the destruction of embryos, an action some equate with outright murder. But according to the doctor, a big breakthrough occurred about five years ago that now allows scientists to approximate stem cells without  destroying the embryo. De Grey admitted that the solution wasn’t perfect yet, but he believes the problem is in the process of working itself out.

Obstacles Standing in the Way of Immortality

While the scientific obstacles are daunting and shouldn’t be minimized, the real issue at present is locating resources to fund the admittedly expensive work. Dr. de Grey estimates that forward progress towards the goal has been slowed by about 30% over the last 6-8 years because of funding issues. Money to the aging intervention project comes from three sources: private sector, government, and philanthropists.

Private Sector: Not much interest from the private sector when it comes to funding the foundation’s work. The problem is that investors generally want a quick return on their money and are more interested in medical technologies that are closer to going on the market than the 25 year estimate for aging intervention.

Government: According to de Grey, the problem with stimulating interest in government money is that the general public seems to be ambivalent about the idea of living forever. Granted, it’s a huge shift in thinking. Some people worry that the whole social contract of pensions and retirement, as practiced in today’s culture, would have to change completely. Environmentalists worry about over-population and its effect on finite resources. As de Grey rightly points out, society as a whole tends to view huge leaps forward with suspicion at first.

Philanthropy: So far, philanthropic giving has provided the vast majority of money to pursue de Grey’s ideals.

What Will Aging Intervention Treatments Be Like?

At first, aging intervention will likely take the form of surgery, perhaps replacing malfunctioning organs with those that have been genetically created. As time goes on and procedures are refined – de Grey estimates a decade after the first treatments begin – injections for gene and stem cell therapy will become the preferred way to roll back the biological clock. Eventually, as foretold by television shows and movies like Star Trek, reclaiming youth from the hazards of aging will be as simple as popping a pill.

The Brain Remains the Same

Jason expressed some misgiving that this age reset might wipe clean all the accumulated wisdom and experience of our years of life. Dr. de Grey assured him that a three decade rollback would not change the elasticity our memory already enjoys. We would continue to retain new experiences as they happen and forget items that are in the distant past or just not very important. There will continue to be an equilibrium.

To learn more about the mind-blowing advancements in this field, please visit www.SENS.org . (Image: Flickr | NWABR)

More from Jason Hartman:

Increase Your Life Span With Stem Cell Therapy

Have You Been Measuring Your Temperature Wrong All This Time?

The Longevity Show Team