The Cutting Edge: Computing / Technology / Innovation : Let’s Look Before We Leap Into Longevity

The sweet sound of immortality.

Most of us would like to live long, healthy, prosperous lives, with a special emphasis on long. We don’t dwell on the subject when we are young, because we feel immortal. It becomes a little more important when we reach that stage in life when we suddenly realize the boss is younger and college kids look like kids. When stairs begin to seem steeper, distances longer and the waistline bigger, it can become an obsession.

For centuries, scientists--who age along with the rest of us--have searched for that most elusive trophy of all, some miracle drug that would slow or even halt the physical and mental deterioration of aging. No one has found a “fountain of youth” yet, but progress is being made and the search for anti-aging compounds has emerged from the lunatic fringe and joined the mainstream of medical research.

It all sounds great, especially in a culture that seems to worship youth. And given the rapid rate of medical research these days, help may be upon us sooner than we might think. But as is so often the case, the medical breakthroughs will probably come before we have thought out the real implications of extending human life.

Scientists tend to leave the sticky problems of social and economic consequences to others. But we are talking about a sociological revolution here, and we need to start thinking about what it will mean to this already crowded and stressed planet if people start living longer lives.

I’m not suggesting the researchers should lay aside the antioxidants and steroids and genes they’re using to prolong life in rats and plants in the search for anti-aging compounds. But for once, let’s start talking about the consequences of their probable success before we find ourselves engulfed in a crisis.

A review of medical abstracts from around the world offers a microcosm.

No nation seems more intent on finding the fountain of youth than China. Yet China already has a staggering overpopulation problem. A significant increase in longevity for those citizens who are already crammed within China’s borders could worsen their quality of life, not enrich it.

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Anti-aging medications, coupled with improved treatment for such things as cancer and heart disease, could push the world’s population over the limit sustainable by this planet far sooner than we might think.

Gains in life expectancy for this century confirm that. In 1900, the average person could be expected to live 47.3 years. Today the average is more than 75 years, and today’s children are likely to see that extended considerably, even without the use of anti-aging drugs.

If the researchers succeed, life expectancy could take a quantum leap within the next couple of decades.

Some of the most promising research involves the search for a better understanding of the “genetic programming” that tells some of us to age more quickly than others. Scientists hope to isolate the “aging gene” and perhaps re-engineer the human body to slow the aging process. That could take many years, if it succeeds at all.

On the more immediate front, there are chemical compounds already available that seem to retard aging. The New York Academy of Sciences recently held a two-day symposium on the potential anti-aging effect of one of the compounds, illustrating just how mainstream this line of research has become. Researchers reported on work with the steroid DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone), which is secreted by the adrenal cortex. It is already used in Europe to combat some effects of aging, such as menopause.

S.C. Yen of the Department of Reproductive Medicine at UC San Diego, has been giving the steroid to a group of more than 50 men and women above the age of 50 to test its effect on aging. He reported that his subjects felt better, had healthier blood cells and were more immune to disease.

But scientists attending the conference warned they need far more time to test the compound. One problem they cited: If it works at all, they don’t know why.

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And so it goes around the world, with some researchers claiming their subjects are not only healthier, they look and feel years younger than they are.

Nearly all researchers caution that the aging process is so complex that no single breakthrough is going to keep all of us around a lot longer. But some drugs already being tested will probably work, at least some of the time for some of us.

And that means we need to start thinking now about what it will mean to have a world population that is made up of older and older people.

In my case, I expect it will all come to pass a little too late. The drug that would work for me will probably become available just as my last tooth falls out, my hearing fails and I can’t see across the room.

So I can spend another 40 years staring at walls I can’t see, listening for music I can no longer hear, thinking about food I can’t eat.

I don’t need an anti-aging drug. I need a little help with rejuvenation.

* Lee Dye can be reached at 72040.3515@compuserve.com.