“A growing number of tech billionaires are funding efforts not merely to slow aging but to defeat it altogether.”
—Scientific American, October 2026 (1)
The marketing of longevity aids seemed to blossom forth during this spring and summer judging by the number of push notifications I have been getting from the Web. (I’m certain it has nothing to do with my personal data that the Web obviously has.)
The Web has pushed to me: antioxidants to reduce free radicals, vitamin and herb supplements to repair and clean up cellular damage, special diets to change my acid-base balance or to just reduce my caloric intake, various detoxifications like juice cleansing and coffee enemas, intramuscular injections or intravenous infusions of peptides ( NAD+ – rejuvenates protein processing by intracellular mitochondria), oxygen-rich sleeping arrangements, ice-cold immersions, etc. etc.
Scientific America must have felt that its demographic might be interested in a fact-based article entitled: ”How Long Can Humans Live?” (October 2026) that reviews the scientific “progress” in seeking increased human longevity.
Spoiler Alert — NO scientifc interventions have been proven to increase longevity in humans, but some lab experiments have suggested some beneficial effects on longevity . . . as well of unintended consequences . . . in lab animals. These few kernels of laboratory animal experiments showing increased longevity have probably helped nurture the billion dollar industry of selling supplements and devices to people yearning for a longer lifespan . . . or a longer “healthspan; increased years of health followed by a shortened decline at the end”.
Those kernels of evidence in lab animals include:
Caloric restriction — Starving lab rats stimulated their recycling of damaged cells, tired mitochondria (nano protein-processing machines in the cell), and the reduction of protein synthesis associated with aging. Unfortunately unintended side effects made it very difficult to maintain.
Drugs — Rapamycin, discovered in soil samples from Easter Island, when given to mice improved several measures of their health and extended their life span. Unfortunately it also suppressed their immune system in a big way. Metformin, widely used currently in diabetics, acts on mitochondria in a way that mimics effects of caloric reduction in diabetics, but its effects in healthy non-diabetics is very mixed. Muscle loss is one of the undesirable side effects of effective high dosing.
Cellular senescence (“cells stop dividing”) — Damaged cells and/or cells under stress will stop dividing and begin to produce inflammatory molecules. In younger animals this benefits wound healing and cancer prevention. In older mice senescent cells accumulate faster than the animal can remove them which increases aging processes. So-called senolyitc drugs that remove those cells can improve many features of aging in mice, but they also block the biological benefits of wound healing, etc.
Parabiosis (Wha-a-a? – “biological pairing and transfusion of plasma”) — Researchers physically paired old rats with young rats and gave the old rats the blood plasma from the young rats. The old rats receiving “young plasma” lived longer than their litter mates who did not. Many scientists are now searching for any blood factors that might slow aging processes.
Stem Cells —In 1997 Dolly the sheep proved that cloning was possible in mammals through this reverting of adult stem cells back to an embryonic stage (a “reversal of aging”). The mechanism was not understood until 2000 when a Japanese biologist (Yamanaka) discovered that only 4 genes were needed to induce (“reprogram”) cells to return to an embryonic stage. One experiment in mice showed that injection of “Yamanaka factors” regenerated a damaged optic nerve. A clinical trial of such a treatment in human volunteers has begun.
The Scientific American article ends with : “For now, the best supported tools for healthy aging remain the trio of a healthy diet, exercise, and sleep. . . plus avoiding social isolation and having a sense of purpose.” In another tip of the hat to life style, the author noted that “people in Sweden have a considerable shorter period of late-life disability than in the U.K.”
“You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred.” —Woody Allen
I have a friend who for the past 40 years has been taking an anti-aging pill developed by a Bulgarian chemist. It was orginally boot-legged into the U.S. from Isreal, but now is approved for U.S. prescription by the FDA. (He can’t remember the name ). He also sleeps on a special bed with jade rollers that gently massage his body and, for a while, wore a aluminm foil cap while asleep to rest his brain (no wires were attached as I remember). He threw a big party for his 98th birthday and has already reserved a restaurant for his 99th. Go figure!
Genetics are important too, of course. “You have to pick your parents right.” But, in my opinion, “Old age is always fifteen years older than I am.” —Oliver Wendell Holmes
Reference:
(1) “How Long Could Humans Live?”, Scientific American, October 2026, V. Ramakrishman, 2009 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, author of Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality, 2024.
