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Friday, 22 February, 2002, 10:16 GMT
Anti-ageing drugs: Would you take them?
Scientists have rejuvenated ageing rats by giving them a cocktail of dietary supplements.
The breakthrough raises hopes that it might one day be possible to develop an anti-ageing drug for humans.
The rats were given two natural chemicals available in health food stores to the animals - which were in the rat equivalent of their seventies.
Lead researcher, Bruce Ames said: "With the two supplements together, these old rats got up and did the Macarena."
The researchers estimate that the effect on the rats was the equivalent of making a 75 to 80-year-old person act middle-aged.
Would you take the drug cocktail to prevent ageing? Is it a scientific breakthrough?
This debate is now closed. Read a selection of your comments below.
I would like to know whether these wonder pills will prevent senility. What good is a young and health body if you have lost your marbles?
Agreed, immortality has more than its share of drawbacks. The thing that terrifies me, though, is the thought of going senile - Larkin was nastily spot-on about death when he said "Most things may never happen: this one will." But I'd take any number of drugs to avoid "the whole hideous inverted childhood" whilst waiting.
We are all just a blip on the timeline of 12 billion years of universal history. Accept this as a matter of physics and nature. In any case, the Earth's resources are rapidly becoming depleted.
It will probably be those rich "Hollywood" types who have all the spare money to get ridiculous cosmetic surgery done who will be at the front of the queue. With the botox injections, Viagra, Xenical (fat loss) pills, sunlamps, etc, we end up with a lot of old people who look younger in a phoney type of way. No healthy outlook - just loads of pills for this and that as well as the surgeons knife. Meanwhile millions of poor people are having their lives shortened by Aids.
What a world!
I aim to grow old disgracefully anyway but any help would be gratefully accepted!
I take regular exercise, and participate in outside group activities. The fresh air and routine exercise is all I need to stay as young as I feel! No anti-ageing drug will give the same 'feel good' factor as taking part in a football or netball match. I think these type of pills should stay in the realms of comic books and sci-fi.
If I can have eyes that see as they did 20 years ago, ears that hear as they did 20 years ago, joints that move like they did then, plus as much hair and as slim a waistline ... then I might consider it!
Is this a good idea? I'd agree with Dylan Thomas:
"Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light"
A lot of people on here say that "population growth" would be a problem, but then if you look at the statistics most people don't die from old age, its disease. Longer life expectancy doesn┐t mean much, you can expect any thing, doesn┐t mean you will get it.
Well, I'm only 25, so I can afford
to wait until they're absolutely proven safe!
Paul Charters, England
Interestingly I find taking supplements already significantly enhances my quality of life although doctors say they have no effect. I would certainly take others.... and well before doctors agree which is usually about 20 years after everyone else.... bit like acupuncture
I would imagine these are the much hyped super-anti-oxidants that everyone is currently chucking down their necks. If they really do manage to extend youth and prolong life, we will have to have a think on matters such as retirement age. Imagine being told that you will retire when you are 90, what a nightmare. But population growth does not appear to be a problem. In countries where life expectancy is high, the birth rates drop almost in line. The only down side, we'll all be old and cynical and we'll still only be young upstarts.
Developments such as this are, if true, likely to lead to in indirect form of social engineering! Most likely only the rich western world will be able to afford the treatment/s. Thus you end up with a further distorted wealth distribution. Its possible that we'll end up with a rich old population in the west and a disenfranchised 'young' population in the rest of the world. Were this to happen it would make the worst sort of science fiction nightmares come true. I for one hope the so-called breakthrough turns out to be a false one. We do not at present have the collective wisdom and humanity to handle the power and responsibilities presented.
Speak for yourself Richard T. Ketchum of the USA. You may quiver and quake at the thought of death, but I don't. If you think death equals extinction then I can certainly see that you would want to do anything and everything to prolong this life, no matter how miserable it may be, since by your understanding any life is better than no life at all. But when you know what death really is you don't fear it, you welcome it as a natural and proper part of the cycle. And no this is not bravado speaking and nor am I religious.
Not only will I take them, but so will all of those who are now saying they won't. It is easy to refuse a longer life in the abstract, but when you are actually faced with dying it will be different.
I doubt that these food supplements would significantly increase our lifespan. What they might do, though, is improve our health and vigour so that we may live more comfortably, actively and fruitfully in our later years. If we are healthy old people, we can be productive old people who are more able to support themselves.
It depends if the drugs make you live longer or prolong your youth. Personally I would not want to live any longer than I'm going to, but if the drugs allowed me to live a more active life in old age and continue to do the sporting activities I currently do I'd definitely welcome them.
Might I point out to Roger Robinson that the likelihood of his "living longer than he's going to" is, by definition, zero.
On the face of it, this is a brilliant idea as it could relieve the pain and loss of independence that are part and parcel of growing old.
If it would prolong active life then yes, I would take it. The thing that terrifies me is not dying, but of living for 20 years as a physical and/or mental wreck incapable of independence.
Humans will never live forever. Our life expectancy may be tampered with genetically but we would only get a few more year or a decade extra. If a pill is available to make the later years of my life as active and illness free as it is now when I am in my thirties, yes, I would take it. I don't want to live forever but I do want to keep playing badminton the day before I die.
Definitely. My Grandmother is 70. She is as fit as a fiddle and still working. I would love her to still be around to see her great great grandchildren.
My Granny at 94 years old has more experiences and tales than you could shake a stick at. She is itching to learn more every day but it is finding life a little harder every day now she has fewer friends to call on. Just imagine if she still had her old crowd around. What a laugh they would all have!
I would happily take anti-ageing drugs, but not necessarily
those to extend life. I don't know that I want to live
longer than my friends/peers, but I would
want to be healthy and active till I pop off.
I have no desire to do the Macarena, either now or in my dotage!
The idea of growing old gracefully taking drugs like these rats does appeal to me, but I am rather put off by the long whiskers, huge ears and long tail!
Who wants to live to 120 years old? Someone who's 119 of course. Where do I sign up?
I welcome any developments that may give the elderly a better standard of life. I don't worry about whether I'll die in my nineties or my seventies but rather about how much my quality of life and independence will decrease in my later years.
With the dire forecasts for retirement income, the lack of young workers coming through to pay my future State pension, with my current defined benefit scheme under threat, my few stock market investments falling daily, I think I need to start rejuvenating myself now so I will be fit enough to carry on working past current normal retirement age!
I can't think of anything worse - I am assuming that the supplements would suddenly become extremely expensive, and so it could be that you could afford them, but other friends and family can't, so you could watch them all die. It could be a very lonely place!
Tim McNulty, Isle Of Man
Life is miserable enough knowing that a working class person will struggle to succeed. Nepotism, social divisions and disharmony, is ever present. If I live longer I will probably witness the total collapse of society. Not nice.
M Maguire, UK
It's to be welcomed of course. We all want to look and feel as young as we can.
19 Feb 02 | Health
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18 Feb 02 | Boston 2002
Hunting 'longevity genes'
01 May 01 | Health
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