“Life Extension” is a Narrow Brand

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 »

I'm noticing, now that the discussion of healthy life extension research is spreading, that "life extension" - as a label for the sort of results we'd like from medical science - is a pretty thin brand. Run a Google news search or blog search for the term every few days for a month or so and count the number of distinct talking heads; there aren't that many. In the past year, writers in the mainstream press have settled on any number of other terms to describe the lengthening of the healthy human life span; "life extension" has little mindshare out beyond the core community of supporters.

This means that it's pure speculation as to the banners under which the future of meaningful anti-aging research will be conducted. "Anti-aging" would be the obvious contender if not for all the history and baggage it drags with it. "Life extension" is all but falling by the wayside in the wider discussion. As an example, take a look at the Longevity Dividend article in The Scientist - each term is mentioned once, and only where it couldn't be avoided.

So what shall the brand of the future be? Speculation is encouraged.

Technorati tags: life extension