Prolonging Life with Medicine

Research on the prolonging of life, studies of people over 100, historical records, and common sense all shows us that to live a long life you need to do at least some of the following:

• Come from a family that has a history of living for a long time
• Eat in a moderate fashion and make sure you maintain your ideal weight.
• Consume a balanced and varied diet that is rich in whole foods, with lots of vegetables and fruits (particularly bright colored ones)
• Try to avoid stress and all negative emotions
• Get a lot of exercise and sleep
• Don't' have your children at a young age

The medical profession will tell you that there are no drugs or supplements on the market that can extend the life span of a person. Wellness gurus will tell you that there are many herbs and supplements that can slow down the aging process. The media and advertisers can't tell you much of anything.

What is the scientifically based answer to this question? It is obvious that all parts of the aging process are very complex. Life extending drugs are theoretically possible but they have not yet been developed.

There are many interrelated and complex mechanisms that make up the aging process. Slowing it down significantly with drugs would be very difficult. Long-lived species, like people, have already optimized their mechanisms for self repair and improving them further is going to be a difficult problem to solve. Conducting longevity studies involving humans is very expensive, rather impractical and takes decades to collect viable evidence.

The bottom line of the above situation is that there has yet to be a drug created that has been proven to extend the lifespan of humans. There are some agents that do extend the lifespan of experimental mammals. Other agents lower the risks of common degenerative diseases and perhaps may even be able to lengthen the lifespan of humans. But further research is still necessary.

In conclusion, it is a possibility that we will be able to find a way to extend the lifespan of human beings. Some of these methods are natural and others are synthetic. That the moment, there are very few viable agents and a lot of further research is necessary before their viability can become established scientific fact.