The field of longevity biotech is a mess
There&#x27;s an anecdote from AIDS research that I&#x27;m frequently reminded of. People started off not knowing what was causing symptoms, then they began to understand the virus, then they started to produce chemicals to attack HIV, prevent its spread, reduce it&#x27;s harmful effects, until one day when results of a study of a cocktail of these drugs was released showing dramatic reduction in symptoms and increased survival rates. People in the audience when the results were presented  had access to these drugs individually and went home and started taking the cocktail regime themselves. They got better.<p>This was only the successful path, along the way innumerable theories were tried and refuted, chemicals produced which did nothing or caused harm, and hopes were raised and dashed over and over.<p>Aging research is in the world before solid theory, before we understand the <i>many</i> causes, but chemicals are being developed and people are taking them. It might be that one of the proposed theories is right, and self-medicators will be the first to know. More likely though is that it will take years and billions of dollars in basic research to develop good theory and better drugs.<p>Unlike HIV&#x2F;AIDS there probably won&#x27;t be a single cause and aging (by definition) doesn&#x27;t impact a young, healthy, active population. In fact, we are so conditioned to accept aging as <i>normal</i> the fight for resources is the fight to convince funders that there is a problem worth addressing. It&#x27;s a pretty big, and terrifying, mindset change to go from &quot;death from old age is natural and to be accepted&quot; to &quot;death from old age is preventable and tragic.&quot;