How Old Can Humans Get? (SciAm)

#1

Actually… rapamycin provides lifespan increases of up to about 30% in mammal studies done already… List of all the Mouse Studies Showing Rapamycin Lifespan Extension

How has cheating death worked out so far?

I don’t think we’re going to have a drug that “cures” aging the way penicillin cures infections anytime soon. But a compound called rapamycin is quite promising. It extends life span by 10 to 15 percent in animals, and it is approved for human use, such as for organ transplant recipients. It does have side effects. I am optimistic that we will develop drugs akin to statins [taken daily to lessen risk of heart disease] that we take every day for longevity purposes. If you could slow down human aging 10 or even 5 percent, that would still be pretty amazing.

Rapamycin does quite a number of things in the cell, but a lot of its effects [involve] slowing down growth and slowing down cell metabolism, which is why it has an impact on aging.

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#2

I think a thousand years is optometric with present knowledge so shooting for 110. 80 years old and 4 mg Rapa every 14 days.

#3

Really good article! Thanks for posting this.

#4

Without some regeneration, we would die within weeks. But our regeneration is limited after embryogenesis. During embryogenesis, we have as much regenerative abilities as the planaria, the worm that essentially lives immortally, reproducing by tearing itself in half and regrowing the other half (keeping the same memories in both halves, somehow). But those regenerative powers becomes very limited after those very early stages in humans.

Humans already have the latent capacity to regenerate ourselves. It’s just a question of how to enable it and enable it safely.

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