Everyone knows that everything gets old. But perhaps no longer? Will it soon be possible for science to reverse aging?
Exploring the topic of aging and whether or not we are on the brink of being able to stop and even reverse it is this latest episode of the Munk Debates podcast. Host (and executive director for The Hub) Rudyard Griffiths is joined by Joanna Masel, professor of evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona, and David Sinclair, a tenured professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, to debate either sides of the proposition: “Aging is a reversible disease.”
Arguing in favour of our coming ability to effectively reverse ageing is Sinclair, who touts some recent breakthroughs that promise revolutionary effects. These include stem cell rejuvenation, oxygen therapy to lengthen our telomeres and prolong the life of our chromosomes, and boosting the functioning of our mitochondria with NAD.
“There are technologies that definitely allow us to reverse ageing. We’ve just published a paper showing you can reverse the age of a mouse’s eyeball and make it function like it’s young again,” he says.
While impressive, these breakthroughs are not actually enough to overcome the full aging process, believes Masel. An old nemesis looms. “The issue is cancer. A huge part of the aging process is the tendency for new cancers to appear and that tendency is not a reversible disease, unlike making individual cells younger.”
