Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: rocketscience444 on 27/05/2020 14:37:57

Title: Will there be a drug that will enable us to live to 120 in 20-30 years time?
Post by: rocketscience444 on 27/05/2020 14:37:57

Hi Guys, Will there be some kind of drug that will enable us to live till 120 in decent health? That will be developed in 20-30 years time?(drugs only please not some other intervention). Maybe metformin, senolytics, rapamycin, some other drug not listed here?

Title: Re: Will there be a drug that will enable us to live to 120 in 20-30 years time?
Post by: alancalverd on 27/05/2020 16:03:34

It's been done without drugs. Jeanne Calment made it to 122 by, she said,  giving up smoking when she was 95.

Title: Re: Will there be a drug that will enable us to live to 120 in 20-30 years time?
Post by: RD on 27/05/2020 18:15:14

Quote from: alancalverd on 27/05/2020 16:03:34

... Jeanne Calment made it to 122 ...

She didn't look a day over 99 ...
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/world-oldest-person-ever-fraud-scam-identity-theft-jeanne-calment-mother-conspiracy-a8708271.html (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/world-oldest-person-ever-fraud-scam-identity-theft-jeanne-calment-mother-conspiracy-a8708271.html)

Title: Re: Will there be a drug that will enable us to live to 120 in 20-30 years time?
Post by: evan_au on 28/05/2020 03:49:34

Quote from: OP

us

If by "us" you mean "humanity", then I would say no.

A drug won't help the majority of humanity who need:
- Access to clean water
- Sufficient nutrition
- Effective disposal of sewage
- Protection against endemic diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, etc
- Access to established vaccines
- Access to a hospital system

If by "us" you narrow it down to residents of wealthy "western" cities, the answer is still no, unless you also deal with:
- Increasing levels of obesity and diabetes (metformin tries to deal with the symptoms, not the problem)
- Pollution
- Mental stress involved in city life
- Pertinent at the moment: rapid transmission of disease in high-density populations
- And still some people don't have access to an effective hospital system (in the USA, make that a lot)

A lot of the conditions that result in death have a genetic cause, with high variability between individuals.
- Perhaps in 20 years we may understand enough about individual genetics to prescribe medication specific to that patient
- At present, we can can read a person's DNA more easily than we can interpret it
- Turning a genetic finding into a useful medication is a very slow and error-prone process
- The whole approval chain for medications is predicated on bulk approval for bulk consumption - this definitely won't get us to age 120, nor will it get us to an economically viable model for individualized medicine.

Title: Re: Will there be a drug that will enable us to live to 120 in 20-30 years time?
Post by: chris on 28/05/2020 08:13:17

Quote from: alancalverd on 27/05/2020 16:03:34

It's been done without drugs. Jeanne Calment made it to 122 by, she said,  giving up smoking when she was 95.

Bet she didn't give up caffeine! Life would seem to last forever if you did that...