PICTURE A SOCIETY WHERE 66 IS THE NEW 16.
WHERE YOUR LIFESPAN IS DOUBLE, EVEN TRIPLE
WHAT IT IS NOW.
A WORLD WHERE YOU COULD WATCH SCIENCE FICTION BECOME REALITY,
WHERE YOUR BODY WILL NEVER FAIL YOU....
A WORLD WHERE AGE IS REALLY JUST A NUMBER.
LABS ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE WORKING TO GET
TO THE BOTTOM OF LONGEVITY, UNLOCKING THE
SECRETS TO EXTENDING OUR LIFESPANS WELL INTO
OUR 100S...
AND BEYOND.
- I think it's the greatest unsolved problem
in biology.
SO, HOW CLOSE ARE WE TO IMMORTALITY?
OKAY, SO, BY DEFINITION, IMMORTALITY MEANS
LIVING FOREVER, AS IN - TO INFINITY.
AND MATHEMATICALLY, YOU NEVER GET ANY CLOSER
TO INFINITY THAN WHEN YOU STARTED.
SO LET’S JUST GIVE UP ON TECHNICALITIES
AND START WITH WHERE WE’RE AT TODAY.
THE GLOBAL LIFE EXPECTANCY IS CURRENTLY HOVERING SOMEWHERE AROUND 72 YEARS.
IT’S LONGER FOR WOMEN, SHORTER FOR MEN,
HIGHER IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, AND LOWER IN
IMPOVERISHED NATIONS WITH POOR SANITATION,
DIETS, AND ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE.
THIS ALL MAY SEEM LIKE COMMON SENSE SO FAR,
BUT IT’S ACTUALLY PRETTY STRIKING WHEN YOU
CONSIDER HOW QUICKLY THINGS HAVE CHANGED.
- That's the crowning achievement of modern
civilization: the fact that there are fewer
and fewer people in this graveyard.
Up until a couple of hundred years ago, life
expectancy was about 30 in most populations.
But then, starting around 1840, life expectancy
started to go up, and it gradually rose.
And today life expectancy in the country doing
the best, is 87 years for Japanese women.
AND THANKS TO ACCELERATING MEDICAL, TECHNOLOGICAL, AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS,
EXPERTS THINK THAT TREND WILL CONTINUE.
PLUS, IN OUR ERA OF GLOBAL INFORMATION SHARING,
IT’S MUCH EASIER TO GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT
BASIC LONGEVITY HACKS.
So, don't smoke.
Don't drink too much, get exercise, get fresh
air, eat a good diet, have friends.
Live in a good environment with healthy air, clean water,
where you can get good medical care.
WAIT, SO THE SECRET TO IMMORTALITY IS DIET
AND EXERCISE?
THAT CAN’T BE RIGHT, CAN IT?
SOME EXPERTS ARGUE THAT THOSE ARE REALLY
ALL THE TOOLS WE HAVE, AS WE SEEM TO BE EDGING
CLOSER TO THE MAXIMUM POSSIBLE LENGTH OF A
HUMAN LIFESPAN.
But I don't think the evidence for that is
strong.
- That just means a healthy diet is only going
to get you so far.
SO SCIENTISTS ARE LOOKING TO THE NATURAL WORLD FOR CLUES
ON HOW TO SIDESTEP GROWING OLD.
SOME EVEN THINK THAT MANY OF THE AILMENTS
WE CALL DISEASES
COULD BE THOUGHT OF AS SYMPTOMS
OF THE MOST POWERFUL DISEASE OF ALL - AGING.
- In fact, for some species, death rates actually
go down with age.
So, instead of getting sicker and sicker as
you get older, you get healthier and healthier.
They tend to be species that keep on growing.
And as they grow they get bigger, they get
new tissue, so they restore their health.
- There are whales that live hundreds of years,
and they're very similar to us genetically,
but we do need to be able to either change
our genomes or find medicines and other ways
to enhance our systems so that we have the
same kind of lifespans that they do.
TO DO THAT, WE’D HAVE TO STALL OR REVERSE
THE PROCESS OF CELL AGING, CALLED SENESCENCE.
OVER TIME, CELLS LOSE THEIR ABILITY TO REPLICATE
AND FUNCTION PROPERLY.
BUT THE PROBLEM IS WE REALLY DON’T KNOW
THE WHOLE STORY OF WHAT DRIVES SENESCENCE.
WE DO KNOW THAT IT MIGHT BE SLOWED BY INTERMITTENT FASTING, AND A HEALTHY DIET.
SO WHAT DR. SINCLAIR IS TRYING TO DO
IS REVERSE ENGINEER
THAT PROCESS ON A MOLECULAR LEVEL.
We found the first molecule that activated
a group of enzymes that seem to control the
benefits of being hungry and exercising.
THAT MOLECULE WAS RESVERATROL, FOUND IN FOODS LIKE PEANUTS, PISTACHIOS, POMEGRANATES,
CRANBERRIES, GRAPES, AND YES, RED WINE.
We gave resveratrol to yeast cells, and little
nematode worms, and to mice that were on a
high-fat Western or American diet.
And in all those cases, the animals were healthier
and they lived longer.
That was exciting because no one really had
a safe molecule that extended the lifespan
of organisms.
That was the first one.
BUT THAT WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING.
SINCE THEN, THEY’VE ADDED MORE AND MORE
MOLECULES TO THAT ARSENAL, AND TODAY THEY’RE
DIGGING INTO A PARTICULARLY PROMISING ONE
KNOWN AS NICOTINAMIDE ADENINE DINUCLEOTIDE…
BUT LET’S JUST CALL IT NAD.
NAD IS A CO-ENZYME, OR HELPER MOLECULE, FORMED FROM VITAMIN B3,
AND WE’RE JUST DISCOVERING
ALL THE  WAYS IT HELPS YOUR CELLS RESET AND
REPAIR THEMSELVES.
It actually is a molecule that tells the body
when it's time to fight disease and stay healthy.
As we get older, some of our tissues, they
have less and less NAD.
And without NAD, we'd be dead in probably
10 seconds.
BY STUDYING HOW THE BODY MAKES NAD,
DR. SINCLAIR’S TEAM BELIEVES THEY MIGHT JUST
BE ABLE TO FIND A MORE DIRECT PATH
TO LONGER LIFE.
This molecule NMN, not to be confused with
M&M's, is what we call a precursor to NAD.
We can synthesize it.
And when we give mice NMN in their drinking
water, their levels of NAD go up about 50%,
and that's when we see these remarkable health
benefits in those old mice.
They can run 50% further and they're resistant
to radiation… and if this works, we could
potentially have a pill that could mimic those things.
We know that they're healthier, but will they
live longer?
That's what we're trying to find out.
MEANWHILE, OTHER BRANCHES OF MEDICAL RESEARCH ARE TACKLING SPECIFIC DISEASES OR SYMPTOMS
ASSOCIATED WITH AGE, AND SOME EXCITING TECHNOLOGIES ARE ON THE HORIZON.
- There's been a lot of very promising work
in regenerating body tissue.
Another very promising area is genetic manipulation,
individualized medicine…  nanotechnologies
might eventually let us put lots of small
mini robots into our body that would help
build bones or kill germs.
Progress is being made in reducing heart disease
death rates, stroke death rates,
cancer death rates, there's some progress
being made against Alzheimer's.
BUT IF WE DO UNLOCK THE SECRETS TO ETERNAL
YOUTH, WHAT WOULD OUR WORLD LOOK LIKE?
To keep yourself amused for 200 years, you'd
have to have multiple careers, you'd have
to learn new things, you'd have great, great,
great, great, great grandchildren, you know.
It'd be a really different life.
- If we extend people's lives by lot, what
are we going to do with all these people?
Will there be enough jobs?
Will there be enough money for them?
My view is that if we treat aging, we'll have
people living into their eighties and nineties
in a productive, healthy way.
That would save a trillion dollars a year
in the US, easily.
And globally, many trillion.
That's money that can be put back into medical
research, into education,
into protecting the environment.
SO IN ADDITION TO CONTINUALLY IMPROVING THE
BASICS - NUTRITION, SLEEP, SOCIAL LIFE, GLOBAL
ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE - WE MIGHT JUST HAVE
TO PERFECT THE RECIPE FOR THE ULTIMATE YOUTH
VITAMIN, MADE OF SYNTHETIC MOLECULES THAT
MIMIC YOUR BODY’S NATURAL AGE-DEFYING FUNCTIONS,
AND MAYBE THROW SOME BONE-BUILDING NANO-BOTS
AND GENE MAKEOVERS IN THERE FOR GOOD MEASURE.
SOUNDS CASUAL.
SO, HOW CLOSE ARE WE TO IMMORTALITY?
A good middle of the road prediction would
be life expectancy might go up something like
three months per year.
So that means in four decades you live ten
years longer, and in eight decades you live
20 years longer.
What current research indicates, is that young
children today, in countries with high life
expectancy, most of them will probably
live past 100.
Their grandchildren and their great grandchildren
might live well into their 100s.
- Can we be immortal?
I don't know of a reason physically why we
cannot, but I don't know of any technology
right now that would allow us to.
The longer you live, the more technology you
have.
Already we see age reversal in some experiments.
So by the end of this century, I think it'll
be commonplace to be able to reverse many
parts of aging, if not the entire thing.
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