It's time to change the system
To live longer, we need to understand why we are getting older
ScieNews: To live longer, we need to understand why aging
Translation: Ilya Khel, Hi-News
Healthcare today is reactive, retrospective, bureaucratic and expensive. This is nursing, not healthcare. However, this is destined to change. Scientists who are seriously engaged in the issues of aging, life extension and health care are working to change the entire system as a whole, which holds $ 3 trillion. (Most likely, here, as below, we are referring to the costs of the US healthcare system – VM.) Let's see what aging is and how developing technologies and initiatives will work to combat the nine main causes of human aging.
Why the healthcare system is not working
The healthcare system in the world – let's not take individual countries – is broken and does not work. That's why:
- Doctors spend $210 billion a year on procedures that are based not on the needs of patients, but on the fear of responsibility.
- Americans spend an average of $8,915 on healthcare – more than in any other country on Earth.
- Prescription drugs are about 50% more expensive in the United States than in other industrialized countries.
- At current rates, by 2025, almost 25% of US GDP will be spent on healthcare.
- It takes 12 years and $359 million, on average, to deliver a new drug from the laboratory to a patient.
- Only 5 out of 5,000 of these new drugs are being tested in humans. Of these, only 1 in 5 is approved for human use.
We are living in the healthiest time in the history of mankind
With all this, if compared with other periods of human existence, there is nothing to complain about. But the problems concern the whole world, not a single country, but significant progress has been made.
- The countries with the lowest life expectancy still have a higher life expectancy than the countries with the highest expectation in 1800.
- In 1841, a 5-year-old child had an expected life of 55 years. Today, a 5-year–old can expect to live 82 years - that's 27 years more.
- The life span of people is increasing. In 1845, a newborn could expect to live up to 40 years. But at the age of 70, one could only live to 79. Today, people of all ages can expect to live 81-86 years.
- 100 years ago, 1 out of 3 children died before the age of 5. In 2015, infant mortality fell to 4.3%.
- Cancer mortality has fallen by 27% over the past 25 years.
Nine mechanisms of aging
Life expectancy, health care and aging are closely related.
With better healthcare, we can better treat some of the major causes of death that affect our life expectancy.
By studying how to treat diseases, we inevitably understand better what causes these diseases in the first place, and this is directly related to why we age.
Below you will find nine distinctive signs of aging.
- Genomic instability. As we age, the environment and normal cellular processes damage our genes. Flying at high altitude, for example, exposes us to increased radiation or free radicals. These injuries worsen throughout life and are known to accelerate aging.
- Telomere depletion. Each strand of DNA in the body (known as a chromosome) is closed by telomeres. These are short fragments of DNA, repeated thousands of times, designed to protect most of the chromosome. Telomeres shorten as our DNA multiplies; if telomeres reach a certain critical length, the cell stops dividing, which leads to an increase in morbidity.
- Epigenetic changes. Over time, environmental factors change the processes of gene expression, that is, how certain DNA sequences are read and a set of instructions is implemented.
- Loss of proteostasis. Over time, various proteins in our body stop folding and functioning as they should, which leads to various diseases, from cancer to neurological disorders.
- Unregulated perception of nutrients. The level of nutrients in the body can affect various metabolic pathways. Among the affected parts of these pathways are proteins such as IGF-1, mTOR, sirtuins and AMPK. Changing the levels of these proteins affects life expectancy.
- Mitochondrial dysfunction. Mitochondria (our cellular power plants) lose productivity with age. Reduced productivity leads to excessive fatigue and other symptoms of chronic diseases associated with aging.
- Cellular aging. With age, the cells stop dividing and cannot be removed from the body. They accumulate and lead to severe inflammation.
- Depletion of stem cells. With age, our stock of stem cells begins to decrease by 100 – 10,000 times in different tissues and organs. In addition, stem cells undergo genetic mutations that reduce their quality and effectiveness in the renewal and restoration of the body.
- Altered intercellular communication. The communication mechanisms that our cells use are disrupted as the cells age, which leads to a decrease in the ability to exchange information between them.
What conclusions can be drawn?
Over the past 200 years, we have seen many medical technologies contributing to a massive increase in life expectancy.
Exponential technologies like artificial intelligence, 3D printing and sensors, as well as huge advances in genomics, stem cell research, chemistry and many other fields, are beginning to solve fundamental problems of why we age.
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru