X-Message-Number: 30866
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2008 09:37:46 -0700 (PDT)
From:
Subject: Slowing Aging Is Way To Fight Diseases In 21st Century
[Preaching to the choir.]
Slowing Aging Is Way To Fight Diseases In 21st Century
ScienceDaily (July 10, 2008) - A group of aging experts from the United
States and the United Kingdom suggest that the best strategy for
preventing and fighting a multitude of diseases is to focus on slowing
the biological processes of aging.
"The traditional medical approach of attacking individual diseases --
cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's
disease -- will soon become less effective if we do not determine how all
of these diseases either interact or share common mechanisms with
aging," says S. Jay Olshansky, professor of epidemiology at the University
of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health and senior author of the
commentary.
Middle-aged and older people are most often impacted by simultaneous but
independent medical conditions. A cure for any of the major fatal
diseases would have only a marginal impact on life expectancy and the
length of healthy life, Olshansky said.
The authors suggest that a new paradigm of health promotion and disease
prevention could produce unprecedented social, economic and health
dividends for current and future generations if the aging population is
provided with extended years of healthy life.
They note that all living things, including humans, possess biochemical
mechanisms that influence how quickly we age and, through dietary
intervention or genetic alteration, it is possible to extend lifespan to
postpone aging-related processes and diseases.
Further research in laboratory models is expected to provide clues and
deeper understanding of how existing interventions, such as exercise and
good nutrition, may lead to lifelong well-being.
The authors also propose greatly increased funding for basic research
into the "fundamental cellular and physiological changes that drive aging
itself."
"We believe that the potential benefits of slowing aging processes have
been underrecognized by most of the scientific community," said
Olshansky. "We call on the health-research decision-makers to allocate
substantial resources to support and develop practical interventions that
slow aging in people."
An increase in age-related diseases and escalating health care costs
makes this the time for a "systematic attack on aging itself," the
authors write.
Olshansky and colleagues contend that modern medicine is already heavily
invested in efforts to extend life, and they argue that a fresh emphasis
on aging has the potential to improve health and quality of life far more
efficiently than is currently possible.
The analysis is published on http://www.BMJ.com
Olshansky's co-authors include Dr. Robert Butler of the International
Longevity Center in New York, Dr. Richard Miller of the University of
Michigan, Daniel Perry of the Alliance for Aging Research in Washington,
Bruce Carnes and Dr. Marie Bernard of the University of Oklahoma,
Dr. T. Franklin Williams of the University of Rochester, Dr. Christine
Cassel of the American Board of Internal Medicine in Philadelphia,
Dr. Jacob Brody of UIC, Linda Partridge of University College London,
Thomas Kirkwood of Newcastle University and Dr. George Martin of the
American Federation for Aging Research and University of Washington.
___________________________________________
Published 8 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a399
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a399
Analysis
New model of health promotion and disease prevention for the 21st century
Robert N Butler, president 1, Richard A Miller, professor 2, Daniel
Perry, executive director3, Bruce A Carnes, professor4, T Franklin
Williams, professor emeritus5, Christine Cassel, president6, Jacob Brody,
professor7, Marie A Bernard, professor4, Linda Partridge, director 8,
Thomas Kirkwood, director9, George M Martin, scientific director10, S Jay
Olshansky, professor 7 1 International Longevity Center, New York, USA ,
2 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA , 3 Alliance for Aging
Research, Washington, DC, USA , 4 University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City,
OK, USA, 5 University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry,
Rochester, NY, USA, 6 American Board of Internal Medicine, Philadelphia,
PA, USA, 7 University of Illinois at Chicago, 1603 West Taylor Street,
Chicago, IL 60612, USA , 8 Institute of Healthy Ageing, University
College London, London, 9 Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle
University, Newcastle, 10 American Federation for Aging Research, Seattle,
WA, USA
Analysis, doi: 10.1136/bmj.a414
Our susceptibility to disease increases as we grow older. Robert
Butler and colleagues argue that interventions to slow down ageing could
therefore have much greater benefit than those targeted at individual
disease The first 150 words of the full text
</cgi/content/full/337/jul08_3/a399> of this article appear below.
Many countries now have ageing populations and are facing an increased
prevalence of age related diseases and escalating healthcare
costs. However, if ageing is combined with extended years of healthy
life, it could also produce unprecedented social, economic, and health
dividends. In recent decades, scientists have shown that the underlying
biological processes of ageing, which give rise to most diseases and
other age related health problems, can be delayed. We argue that a
concerted effort to slow ageing would provide a broad strategy for
primary prevention that would greatly enhance and accelerate improvements
in health at all ages.
Rise of human longevity
Life expectancy at birth rose by a remarkable 30 years in developed
countries during the 20th century, initially because of reductions in
infant, child, and maternal mortality and then because of declining
mortality in middle and old age.1 2 In 1900, about 40% of babies born in
countries for which reliable data existed . . .
[Full text of this article
</cgi/content/full/337/jul08_3/a399> ]
Diminishing returns from disease specific model
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