THOUGHTS WHILE SHAVING

Not that long ago, perhaps just a couple of decades, some people actually thought that the research on aging would soon produce a miracle. Research into aging had its eye firmly on the prize – immortality. Scientists were discovering more and more about the mechanisms of cellular aging, and a lot of people figured that soon, we would be able to stop the individual cells from breaking down at all. But because scientists have run into some roadblocks along the way, things are not working out the way it was planned. The point is, at least for the time being, aging will remain the same.                                                                             

The problem with looking for miracles is that any setback results in huge disappointments. Science has however come a long way in the past thirty years or so in terms of aging. Nowadays, people live longer, healthier lives than ever before in human history, and the prospects for improvement are better all the time. Research into aging can treat previously incurable forms of cancer, set back the clock on skin aging, and allow older people to live more active, healthy lives than ever before. So who can say what the future holds.

The very science concerning aging varies greatly. Although it seems like we will not be able to stop cells from growing old and dying the way we thought we could, we do understand a lot more about cell health than we used to. One of the byproducts of aging research is that we can now check the uncontrolled growth of some sorts of cancer cells in a way that we never could before. We now understand what makes a healthy and an unhealthy diet, and how those diets affect cell regeneration. We know foods which can slow down the aging process dramatically, and even undo some damage that we have done to our cells in the past.

Still, the most fascinating fields of aging research are the ones that we haven’t gotten very deeply into yet. What do we do with genetic engineering, for example? Could aging researchers possibly reformulate the genetic code to slow down the aging process or stop it altogether? What about nanotechnology? Will it ever be possible to build miniature machines that can repair cell damage when they are injected into the bloodstream? Aging research has yet to answer these questions, but when we do find the answers, it is likely we will make great strides. Even every failure yields new question and opens new doors.

The Aging Process

by Paul Davidson

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