Plan B Forum

THE first drugs that can slow the ageing process are likely to become available within five to 10 years, raising the prospect of people living to 150 or more, researchers say.

Peter Smith, dean of medicine at the University of NSW, said a girl born today in Australia could reasonably expect to live to 100 already, due to advances in medicine, lifestyle and public health.

Also, new drugs to help the body repair itself were in the early stages of development, along with new stem cell therapies.

''I think there is real hope we can extend human life by some decades further,'' Professor Smith said.

Living to 150 may sound unnerving, but it would be ''great'' if you were well until near the end, he said. ''The aim is not just to eke out extra existence but to facilitate a longer healthy life.''

Such longevity, however, would raise serious issues for society, which are the subject of the UNSW Medicine Dean's lecture tonight, titled Happy and healthy ageing: paradox or possibility?

''People aren't going to want to retire at 65 and spend many, many decades sitting at home,'' Professor Smith said.

Baroness Susan Greenfield, a neuroscientist at Oxford University, also foresees people starting second careers at 65, in knowledge-based jobs, rather than physical ones.

But she said tackling dementia, which includes Alzheimer's disease, needed to be a priority. ''Otherwise the social and economic implications could potentially be catastrophic.''

David Sinclair, an Australian expert in ageing at Harvard University, said a network of genes controlled the pace of ageing. ''Our bodies have an extraordinary ability to repair themselves.''

Professor Sinclair has shown that resveratrol, a plant compound found in red wine, can extend the lifespan of yeast, worms, fruit flies and fat mice, by activating proteins called sirtuins.

The company he co-founded was bought by GlaxoSmithKline for $US720 million in 2008.

Clinical trials of synthetic molecules 1000 times more potent than resveratrol are under way in people with diseases of ageing, such as diabetes 2, he said. ''And [they] are showing early signs of efficacy.''

The immediate aim was to find medicines to treat elderly sick people, then later attempt to delay the onset of diseases of ageing. It was still very early days, he cautioned. But ''I think we're seeing the beginning of technology that could one day allow us to reach 150'', he said.

British scientists last month challenged the link between sirtuins and longevity in worms and fruit flies in the journal Nature.

Professor Sinclair said ageing was still ''one of the most controversial areas of science'', but he was confident his team's research was soundly based.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/health/n ... z1ayftcTR5

What do you want for your 150th Birthday?

bigskygal wrote:

What do you want for your 150th Birthday?

To be dead 60+ years, thank you very much.

Lord Jim wrote: So long as at 150 I was still living a physically active life with what's left my mental faculties intact...

When God takes me, I'm gone!

Lord Jim wrote: When Mr. Death comes looking for me...

He'll find me ready...

Lord Jim wrote: I will not go quietly into that good night....

Gob wrote: I do hope death is like Terry Pratchett's "DEATH", who "TALKS IN CAPITALS".

President Thomas Whitmore: Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. "Mankind." That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!

Lord Jim wrote:Actually, I didn't get the quote wrong; I was just quoting a different source...

I was quoting President Whitmore: