As this stn2 video reports, some unusually long-living mice may have the
answer.
Extending healthspan
Scientists have known since the 1930s that they can extend lifespan in
laboratory mice and rats by restricting the animals' diets. More recent
studies
have proven that caloric restriction also prolongs life in fruit flies,
nematode worms, yeast and nonhuman primates. The goal of all this research, of
course, is to learn how to increase human longevity.
"When we're talking about delayed aging we are not talking about creating an
increasing number of, you know, individuals with age-related problems, but we
are talking about prevention of age-related problems," says Andrzej Bartke,
professor and chair of physiology at Southern Illinois University School of
Medicine. In a word, Bartke says, he wants to learn how to prolong
"healthspan."
Bartke's group wanted to know why Ames dwarf mice, whose dwarfism is caused by
a mutation in just one gene, also live longer than their normal siblings. Both
caloric restriction and the dwarfism mutation increased the prolonged
healthspan in mice from an average of two years to an average of three, Bartke
says. "If you put it in terms of human life, if the average lifespan in the
human in industrial society is somewhere around 75, an increase of 50 percent
would bring you to somewhere around 110 to 115."
Full text and video
http://www.stn2.com/articles/view.php3?language=english&type=article&article_i
d=218391731
--- --- --- --- ---
Useless hypotheses, etc.:
consciousness, phlogiston, philosophy, vitalism, mind, free will, qualia,
analog computing, cultural relativism, GAC, Cyc, Eliza, cryonics, individual
uniqueness, ego, human values, scientific relinquishment, malevolent AI,
non-sensory experience, SETI
We move into a better future in proportion as science displaces superstition.
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