How Much Can Human Life Span Be Extended?

Fight Aging!

Do you want to live a longer life in good health? Simple practices can make some difference, such as exercise or calorie restriction. But over the long haul all that really matters is progress in medicine: building new classes of therapy to repair and reverse the known root causes of aging. The sooner these treatments arrive, the more lives will be saved. Find out how to help »

Science Magazine recently put together a list of "125 big questions that face scientific inquiry over the next quarter-century" with an article for each question. Coming in the top 25 is our favorite: "How Much Can Human Life Span Be Extended?" As the article notes, "Just 2 or 3 decades ago, research on aging was a backwater. But when molecular biologists began hunting for ways to prolong life, they found that life span was remarkably pliable. ... Can these strategies help humans live longer? And how do we determine whether they will? Unlike drugs for cancer or heart disease, the benefits of antiaging treatments are fuzzier, making studies difficult to set up and to interpret." The more these concepts are discussed, the more funding we will see for further, better healthy life extension research.

Link: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/309/5731/83