As a political theorist who works on issues that intersect the biological sciences and medicine, I frequently get puzzled looks when I tell students and colleagues I am working on aging and longevity science. Their puzzlement is understandable, as these topics do not currently receive much attention in the discipline.
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Posted by
CygnusX1 on 09/24 at 04:15 PM
It would be good to hear your ethical considerations concerning your investigations and interest into longevity and anti-ageing. For example, if the plan succeeds to overcome these evolutionary barriers of chronic disease and ageing, how would the world cope with this increase in ageing populace?
If these advances in medicine are shared throughout the entire world and with the third world populace, (as they should be), how would the worldview need to change to incorporate a sustained increase in population through longevity? What are the implications concerning birth control, especially throughout the third world? How would world economics have to change to sustain these increases in population? How would we support an increased ageing population that is non-productive? How would we offset the problems faced with an increased ageing population, and balancing a decreasing birth rate?
Eventually these ideals concerning longevity may run us into very serious problems if we do not take care : imagine a New World where an ageing populace slowly begins to outnumber the working or productive populace and where the birth rate may be suppressed for the sake of population control? There will eventually be a critical point in the curve where there may in fact be a real existential risk posed, and a point on this curve where serious damage to world health may occur, if birth rates are not increased to counteract the affects and results of longevity. And all this may happen regardless of our best of intentions?
The narrow view regarding advances with disease, longevity, and decreasing infant mortality in western developed countries seems to neglect or negate the real issues regarding the complete opposite happening in Africa today. In fact you may conclude that a world populace is somewhat repressed or even loosely held in balance by high mortality rates and early deaths throughout Africa and similar poorer nations? And this is today, what if your ideals for longevity for the future are achieved?
Welcome to the ageing future..
“By 2025, more than a third of the UK’s population will be over 55. We’re living longer and staying active until much later in life. So why the pessimism about the rise of Britain’s ageing population?”
More here > http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4012797.stm
The British Society for Research on Ageing (BSRA) promotes research to understand the causes and effects of the ageing process. BSRA encourages publication and public understanding of ageing research, publishes its own e-journal “e-Lifespan”, a monthly electronic newsletter and holds an annual scientific meeting.
More here > http://www.bsra.org.uk/
Note!! > the link at this site is for a large pdf file “An Ageing World” [11.55MB, 204 pages]
Excerpt “Population aging represents, in one sense, a human success story of increased longevity. However, the steady, sustained growth of older populations also poses many challenges to policymakers.1 In a few years’ time, just after 2010, the numbers and proportions of older people (especially the oldest old) will begin to rise rapidly in most developed and many developing countries”.
U.S Census Bureau : World population summary and stats
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/worldpopinfo.php
http://www.census.gov/ipc/www/idb/informationGateway.php
Posted by
Colin Farrelly on 09/24 at 11:01 PM
Dear CygnusX1,
Thanks for your comment. You note that you would like to hear my ethical considerations concerning my investigations and interest into longevity and anti-ageing. So I’ll offer a few reflections here, some which bear directly on the points you raise and some that address related points one often encounters in these debates.
You ask: “if the plan succeeds to overcome these evolutionary barriers of chronic disease and ageing, how would the world cope with this increase in ageing populace?”
Much of course depends on what we envision when one says “if the plan succeeds to overcome these evolutionary barriers”. My “plan”, to the extent that I have one (it’s rather an aspiration than a detailed plan), would be to reduce, to the greatest possible extent, the risk of morbidity and mortality caused by the inborn aging process. And my reason for wanting to do this is simple- it is a logical extension of our attitude towards all other risks of disease and death- these things are bad for us and we try to prevent and avoid them. We try to minimize the risks of death by traffic accidents, homicide, infectious disease, starvation, cancer, AD, etc. I just think we ought to apply that same attitude to the leading cause of death:aging itself.
As for coping with the increase in an aging populace, the challenge is much more enormous for the aging “status quo” scenario. So the real crisis is what will happen if we do nothing about aging. By the middle of this century there will be 2 billion people over the age of 60. And the consequences of the inborn aging process mean these aged persons will suffer chronic disease and a prolonged period of frailty and disability.
You say “imagine a New World where an ageing populace slowly begins to outnumber the working”...but that is where we are already heading. Slowing aging would help mitigate this as it would keep people healthier for longer. So a deceleration of aging would help keep a larger portion of the population healthy and capable of working (although I don’t think we need to assume that working (at least fulltime) for a living we be as vital to the prosperity of many economies in 50 years’ time).
You claim “The narrow view regarding advances with disease, longevity, and decreasing infant mortality in western developed countries seems to neglect or negate the real issues regarding the complete opposite happening in Africa today”.
But the claim “what is happening in Africa today” is unhelpful, as it is a gross simplification. It implies there is one just one thing happening to the billion or so people living on the continent. There are *many things* happening in Africa, and many of these things are not the opposite of what is happening in developed countries.
In some African countries, the population is living just as long (even longer) as populations in the United States. For example, the 6.3 million people in Libya have a life expectancy at birth of 77 years, as do the 10 million people living in the state of Michigan. And the 10.5 million people living in Tunisia have a life expectancy of 76 years, which is 2 years higher than the life expectancy for the 3 million people living in Mississippi.
Of course at the lowest end of life expectancy in Africa things are very different. The 1.1 million people living in the last absolute monarchy in the world (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/country_profiles/1069035.stm), Swaziland, are ravaged by HIV and have a life expectancy of 32. See the life expectancy for different US states here: http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/sep2006/db20060913_099763.htm
Contrary to what many people in the developed world believe, millions of people in Africa live long enough to have their vision fade, to go through menopause, suffer arthritis, cancer, stroke, heart disease, etc. Of course aging research will not solve all the problems in Africa. But it doesn’t have to purport to do that before it is labelled a stringent moral imperative nonetheless. Tackling obesity and smoking will not solve all the problems in Africa either, but they are still important public health aspirations.
So we shouldn’t simplify what the challenges facing Africa are. There are many distinct challenges, and the chronic diseases of aging are among the important challenges that continent will face this century.
And if one considers the world as a whole, and its 6.7 billion people, the chronic diseases of aging are the greatest challenge facing humanity this century . Indeed, more people die of these diseases in lower and middle income countries than in rich countries. The following WHO factsheet estimates that 80% of chronic disease deaths occur in lower and middle income countries because that is where most of the world’s population is. http://www.who.int/chp/chronic_disease_report/media/Factsheet3.pdf
Cheers,
Colin
Posted by
Abraham on 09/30 at 02:47 AM
Have you seen the 16 year old girl who looks like she’s a year old? She might possess the key to the aging problem.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brooke_Greenberg
Posted by
Abraham on 01/18 at 08:57 AM
Some more research into communities with very high longevity:
http://videos.komando.com/2010/01/17/
“What is the optimal lifestyle of longevity? Do you need to eat a special diet, take vitamins or do a specific exercise?
In this video, Dan Buettner and National Geographic studied so-called “Blue Zones.” These communities are elders full of vim and vigor. They reach age 100 at rates 10 times greater than in the United States. And they suffer a fraction of the rate of heart disease and cancer. What are the secrets? Watch and learn!”
Posted by
Rosemond Opare-Kumi on 02/09 at 06:13 AM
Generally life expectancy in Africa is lowest in the world and ageing does not seem to pose an immediate threat but with progressive improvements in health and develepment, we expect the current situation to change…how do we age slowly, healthily and productively? evidence-based approaches? what can we learn from the developed counties? we should be prepared for it and not to be overtaken when it occurs. We need to be proactive! how is Libya and Tunisia doing it? the African way? how different is that from the west and Asia?
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