Practice of Postponing Human Aging

Small Steps to Fulfill Dreams

Y outh is nice and attractive. It seems that the life will last forever. In reality, many people do not want to spend time worrying about what may or may not happen. To live to old age is not a very attractive aim for many. They do not like to think about the future, about the wrinkled faces and bald heads. It seems that the years of old age are always connected with infirmity. Some people have heard about many measures against aging that have proved to be factually inefficient, and they may think that people who speak about measures to extend life are not serious about it.

However, there are also many people who are trying to be young and healthy for as many years as possible: They engage in sports, prefer workplaces where working conditions are better, buy better homes if possible and cars with air conditioning, prefer a healthy lifestyle and food, and use different antiaging pills. The value of a statistical life, most commonly determined by looking at an average person's willingness to pay for good health outcomes (or to reduce bad health outcomes), is impressive—millions of dollars. ¹ The average life expectancy increases 0.15–0.2 years every year in most developed countries as the quality of life improves, and the expected lifetime in good health increases approximately as much as the overall life expectancy. ^{2 –4} At present, the years of youth and middle age are being prolonged, and aging processes in humans are being postponing.

Every year many books appear that promise eternal life. But beliefs, hopes, and everyday practice are a different matter. Factually, in reality there are only small steps known to prolong years of youth, middle age, and an entire life. The experimental control of antiaging measures worries many researchers. There are no good biomarkers of aging. Biologists often refer to the increase in life expectancy in laboratory animals in which measures against aging are considered. However, measures that result in prolonged life in simple animals under laboratory conditions mostly show much less effect in human beings. For how many years it is possible to postpone aging changes and prolong life in practice are important questions.

Basic Terms

In his article, let us consider aging as the accumulation of damage in the human organism during life, or organismal aging. So there is no borderline between aging and age-related diseases; “accumulation of damage” also includes these diseases. There are relevant connections between biological aging and disease. ⁵ An accumulation of damage is damage increasing over a period of time. Damage is detrimental effects.

The different amount of damage in various persons mainly depends on: (1) All material substrates of the total organism including genes, and (2) environmental factors that influence health positively and negatively, or health determinants of the subject's life. The nature of the total human organism, its every system and organ, points to the need for an individual approach (lifestyle, environment, etc.) in developing methods for postponing aging. In this article, we consider practice as what happens under some conditions, in contrast to what is supposed to happen.

Antiaging Activities in Reality

There are a huge number of factors that determine the rate of the aging processes in the organism. The number of possible (physical, chemical, psychological, etc.) risk factors is practically infinite. Very effective antiaging interventions in humans are not known; however, there are a large number of antiaging specialists, organizations, and recommendations. Hopes for caloric restriction are exaggerated, because people who are just a little overweight have practically the same average life expectancies as people of optimum weight.

The postponing of aging at present is mostly unintentional. There is always the hope that some important antiaging factors exist. Governments are interested in the good health of their citizens, as are many public and private organizations. Many people use different methods to live to old age, sometimes with the aim of living to the age of 100.

Factually postponing aging is a result of the complex of various health promotion activities (improving political, economic, social, cultural, environmental, behavioral, and biological factors that are connected with health) and medical services. This complex has many interactions among its elements. Some authors have proposed life expectancy calculators or equations. ^6,7 However, these calculations give data that are discussable. MacNair shows 100 factors on which life expectancy depends. If a man has all of these life expectancy–enhancing factors, he achieves a prediction of more than 180 years of life, which is not realistic.

It is possible to distinguish some relatively effective soft strategies for postponing aging that exist in reality. One strategy is based on all-cause mortality data. People try to avoid all factors that increase the possibility of death or avoid risk factors of age-related diseases. Another strategy is studying and taking into account weak sensations of discomfort.

Probably the role of traditional medical service is undervalued among antiaging interventions. Decades ago, the health problems of older people were not as topical as they are at present. Improved treatments, first of all, for heart disease, cancer, and stroke can postpone aging modestly. Many medical procedures decrease age-related changes in some parts of the organism and so rejuvenate the organism. Polypills can be relatively effective. ⁸

High Average Life Expectance in Reality

In 2008, the average life expectancy in Japan was nearly 83 years (men, 79.19 years; women 86.05 years) according data of Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. On the basis of statistics, the probability that children born in Japan in 2008 will live to age 90 is 21.1% for males and 44.8% for females. ⁹

However, in some regions or among some population contingents, life expectancy is even better. According to the CIA World Factbook, the average life expectancy in Macau for the total population is 84.36 years (males, 81.39 years; females, 87.47 years) (2009 estimation). ¹⁰ According Harvard University data, Asian females in Bergen County, New Jersey, had a life expectancy of 91 in 1997–2001. ¹¹

What to Do in the Future?

There is much work to be done. At present, we do not know the best parameters for the environment and the organism. A very small percentage of environmental factors have been studied in detail; e.g., over 99% of chemicals (cleaning products, cosmetics, clothing, etc.) on the market have not undergone any comprehensive human and environmental risk assessment. ¹² Usually many risk factors are present at the same time, but combinations of risk factors are studied very little. Psychological factors are one of the most important factors group; e.g., positive self-perceptions of aging increase life expectancy by 7.5 years according Levy et al. ¹³ In spite of these results, the use of psychological knowledge has been very modest.

Very important is paying attention to bodily feelings—first of all, to discomfort. We consider discomfort as an antagonist to health that includes many sensations and unpleasant feelings (aversion to activity, pain, being tired, itching, thinking about unpleasant things, etc.). Discomfort indicates insufficient adaptation, that something is harmful to this organism. Paying attention to body sensations informs a subject about adverse influence in the organism.

The widespread opinion of medical doctors' is that people pay too little attention to their early symptoms and turn to their physicians too late. Some studies have shown that symptom severity predicted a 10.46 times (!) poorer outcome of medical treatment. ¹⁴ From 1965 to 2000, we carried out physiological and ergonomic studies in industry (2147 persons) and made hundreds of recommendations similar to health promotion to managers' various enterprises and to workers. Among these recommendations, we paid much attention to early symptoms. The data about aging were a by-product of our studies. Comparison of data showed us that it was possible to postpone age-related changes up to 20 years. ⁴ Our studies showed that health promotion is a prospective way of postponing the onset of diseases of older people.

Cambridge researchers examined the relationship between health behavior and mortality in 20,244 men and women living in the general community in the United Kingdom. Participants scored one point for each health behavior: Current nonsmoking, not physically inactive, moderate alcohol intake, and plasma vitamin C, for a total score ranging from 0 to 4. After an average 11 years of follow up, the mortality risk for those with a score of 4 compared to 0 health behaviors was equivalent to being 14 years younger in chronological age. ¹⁵ Compared with men in the lowest 5% of a risk score based on smoking, diabetes, employment grade, and continuous levels of blood pressure, cholesterol concentration, and body mass index (BMI), men in the highest 5% had a 15 year shorter life expectancy from age 50 (20.2 vs. 35.4 years). ¹⁶ Present studies of healthy men show that the probability of a 90-year life span at age 70 years is 54% in the absence of smoking, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, or sedentary lifestyle. ¹⁷

Conclusions

Scientific knowledge about postponing aging should be used in practice. Taking into account health determinants and collective and individual approaches in avoiding discomfort are important. In developed countries, this enables an increase in life expectancy up to 90 years using mostly political measures. Future developments in postponing aging and prolonging life expectancy depend on the interest of the society in these problems and the amount of scientific research in aging and rejuvenation.