Limits to human lifespan perspectives article

Nature Aging has this interesting perspectives piece on the limits to human lifespan.  A sample (photo credit:  the mortality graph above is from the article):

With some ups and downs, life expectancy at birth throughout human history has never been much higher than 30 years, mostly due to the horrific rate of childhood mortality42,43,44. Before the 19th century technological explosion known as the Industrial Revolution, famine and infectious disease were the most common causes of death. Since then, there has been a massive inversion of conditions contributing to mortality. Improvements in agriculture, food storage and food transportation soon made famines a thing of the past, at least in Europe and the United States. Food security and alleviation of crowded living conditions greatly reduced the prevalence of infectious diseases. Even as late as 1900, influenza was the leading cause of death in the United States, followed by tuberculosis; by 2010, influenza had sunk to ninth place, and tuberculosis did not even break into the top ten. Instead, heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer’s, diabetes and other noncommunicable conditions dominate the leaderboard45.

....Can modern science succeed where Gilgamesh, and so many others, failed? Only time will tell, but the obstacles faced are certainly formidable. Indeed, all current scientific evidence tells us that breaking through the biological limits of human lifespan is impossible. However, past centuries have learned that in science no possibility can ever be excluded and new insights and more advanced technologies may emerge to radically extend the maximum lifespan of our species above and beyond the current limit established from demographic analysis. Aging is the ultimate challenge of humankind. Defeating it will require groundbreaking research that utilizes a wide range of knowledge and techniques across many areas of science and clinical practice. To accomplish this would certainly warrant the name we have given to our species: Homo sapiens.

Cheers, 

Colin 

Socrates quote on Aging

Great Socrates quote!

Cheers, 

Colin

 

Chomsky on Rawls

Nice video clip I just stumbled upon on.

Cheers, 

Colin

Forthcoming Journal Publication on Davis and Life Extension

My latest paper entitled "Aging, Equality and the Human Healthspan" has been accepted for publication in the journal Healthcare Ethics Committee Forum.  The article is a critical analysis of this interesting book.  The abstract:

John Davis (2018) advances a novel ethical analysis of longevity science  that employs a three-fold methodology of examining the impact of life extension technologies on three distinct groups- the “Haves”, the “Have-nots” and the “Will-nots”.  In this essay I critically examine the egalitarian analysis Davis deploys with respect to its ability to help us theorize about the moral significance of an applied gerontological intervention.  Rather than focusing on futuristic scenarios of radical life extension, I offer a rival egalitarian analysis that takes seriously (1) the health vulnerabilities of today’s aging populations, (2) the health inequalities of the “aging status quo” and (3) the prospects for the fair diffusion of an aging intervention over the not-so-distant future.  Despite my reservations about Davis’s focus on “life-extension” vs increasing the human “healthspan”, I agree with his central conclusion that an aging intervention would be, on balance, a good thing and that we should fund such research aggressively.  But I make an even stronger case and conjecture that an intervention that slows down the rate of molecular and cellular decline from the inborn aging process will likely be one of the most important public health advancements of the 21^st century.  This is so because aging is the most prevalent risk factor for chronic disease, frailty and disability, and it is estimated that there will be over 2 billion persons age > 60 by the year 2050.

Cheers, 

Colin

NEJM study on Colon Cancer Screening

In 2021 it is estimated that approximately 52 980 persons died of colorectal cancer.  "Since 1980, the American Cancer Society has issued evidence-based recommendations for CRC screening in average-risk adults that are generally updated every 5 years" (source).  More than 15 million colonoscopies are performed in the US each year.  The results of the first random clinical trial on the effect of colonoscopy screening on the risks of colorectal cancer and related death have been published in NEJM, and the impact was much lower than expected.  A sample from the study:

The risk of death from colorectal cancer was 0.28% in the invited group and 0.31% in the usual-care group (risk ratio, 0.90; 95% CI, 0.64 to 1.16). The number needed to invite to undergo screening to prevent one case of colorectal cancer was 455 (95% CI, 270 to 1429). The risk of death from any cause was 11.03% in the invited group and 11.04% in the usual-care group (risk ratio, 0.99; 95% CI, 0.96 to 1.04).

There is also an editorial explaining the study here.

Cheers, 

Colin

Nobel Prize (Medicine 2022)

This year's results have just been announced. The winner is for research on the discoveries of the genomes of hominins and human evolution.  A sample: 

Through his groundbreaking research, Svante Pääbo established an entirely new scientific discipline, paleogenomics. Following the initial discoveries, his group has completed analyses of several additional genome sequences from extinct hominins. Pääbo’s discoveries have established a unique resource, which is utilized extensively by the scientific community to better understand human evolution and migration. New powerful methods for sequence analysis indicate that archaic hominins may also have mixed with Homo sapiens in Africa. However, no genomes from extinct hominins in Africa have yet been sequenced due to accelerated degradation of archaic DNA in tropical climates.

Cheers, 

Colin