The Future of Longevity: 6 recent events confirm:
You’re likely to live a lot longer than you thought possible.
In the past week, I have been struck by six events -- revolutionary medical treatments now in practice to groundbreaking research on stem cells and telomeres, the possibilities for extending human lifespan and your lifespan seem more even more likely sooner.
• The first event: a Medicine Grand Rounds at the Cleveland Clinic on Kidney Disease. I was amazed to learn about the five new drugs approved by the FDA since 2020 (none from 1980 to 2020) that are changing the landscape of chronic glomerular kidney disease treatment. These advancements open up possibilities for people at risk of or with kidney disease to increase substantially their longevity and improve their quality of life.
• Next, I was struck by the brilliance and effect of a visit of a 25-year-old to Executive Health at the Cleveland Clinic. This young individual's proactive approach to preventive healthcare, guided by the adverse medical events of her parents and grandparents, highlighted the potential for compounding health benefits over time. Through interventions such as lowering LDL or apoB cholesterol levels from 140 to under 70 mg/dL she might lower her risk of a heart attack or stroke or dementia by 3 to 6% in the first ten years, but compounds like savings by the time she is 55, she will have reduced her risk by 30 to 50%. She is setting herself up for a longer and healthier life compared to her (and maybe most) previous generations by starting early.
• The transformation of a patient is event 3—on Thursday I enjoyed (yes that is the word) a patient appointment with a 63-year-old who lost 89 pounds and reversed her NASH (severe liver) disease. It was another powerful reminder of the impact that lifestyle changes and new medical treatments—the GLP-1 Mounjaro-- can have on longevity. The fact that she had not been as light as she was since junior high school made he smile and move much better and be happier and is a testament to the potential for individuals to improve their health and extend their lifespan through dedicated effort and newer treatments.
• On Thursday evening I went to a sold out concert by an 89 (soon 90) performer whose treatments (yes he acknowledged at the Cleveland Clinic) had stabilized his heart, vascular and kidney disease for over the 20 years—I couldn’t wipe the smile off my face as he sang thru a 90 minute set while the sold out crowd went wild dancing in the aisles etc. on a Thursday night. The smile—how he would likely not be alive, let alone able to sing for more than 6 times longer (he could only do 15 minute sets) than he could 19 years ago—without the recent medical advances.
• Number 5 was A visit to Dr VJ VAD's office at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York shed light on the potential of stem cell therapy for repairing injuries and promoting healing. The case of a competitive tennis player who underwent umbilical stem cell therapy (150 million cells) for an ACL tear without the need for surgery was truly remarkable (Javvaji A, Kashyap A, Carroll KM, Merritt W, Albert V, et al. (2024) Effect of Stem Cell Injections in an Acute Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury. Ann Case Report 09: 1612. https://doi.org/10.29011/2574-7754.101612.). This underscores the importance of ongoing research and development in the field of regenerative stem cells to help repair your chronic injuries (see below for a way you might be able soon to increase your own stem cells), and increasing stem cells for increasing longevity and improving quality of life.
Finally, the data shared at a Nation Press Club event hosted by a company I am a special consultant to –Telomir Pharmaceuticals in Washington, D.C. highlighted the role of stem cell telomere length in aging.
• Stem cells are the matriarchs of the human body—the cells from which all other cells are derived. Another way stem cells are maternal: they come in and repair things. We learned this after transplantation of a male heart into a female person…that male heart initially had an ejection fraction of 55%.
• The male heart subsequently had a heart attack. The woman got to the hospital and had blood flow to her male heart restored quickly. The heart after the restoration of blood flow had an ejection of about 30%, but over 6 weeks the male heart regained an ejection fraction of 55%. On microscopic examination (Biopsy), female stem cells repaired that male heart. (Quaini F et al: Chimerism of the Transplanted Heart NEJM 2002; 346:5-15)
• The Problem: each of us has a limited number of stem cells due to the fact they have limited telomeres and cannot reproduce more than the Hayflick limit of 70-110 times.
• That is the telomere protects your chromosomes, and is needed for replication, but gets shorter with each stem cell duplication so you as of now are limited in the duplications and repairs you can make ---really important after heart attacks and strokes but key to skin, cartilage, lung, most tissue repairs (The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute (Sweden) awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009 jointly to Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol Greider and Jack Szostak for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase).
• But let’s say you can grow them --- they did that at Stanford for 18 patients with existing motor strokes with damage unrecovered after at least 6 years. They harvested their stem cells and grew them in culture by adding factors including telomerase that grew their telomeres and allowed the stem cell population to increase. They then injected the stem cells into the area of brain missing due to the stroke.
• 7 of the 18 patients had a major restoration of motor function after 6 weeks…apparently when the patients suffered the original stroke or brain damage, blood flow wasn’t restored fast enough for their own stem cells to repair their brains at that time, or they didn’t have enough stem cells (due to shortened telomeres) to make the repairs (JoyQ et al. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience. 2020; doi10.3389/fnagi.2020.575990).
• The discovery of telomerase and the work being done to increase telomere length through innovative therapies offer hope for extending the human lifespan and addressing age-related health issues. You can do a lot to protect your telomeres from shortening:
• Stress shortens telomeres
• People who regularly eat sugar laden and processed food have shorter telomeres
• People who regularly do extreme physical activity have shorter telomeres
• Astronauts have shorter telomeres
• People who have sun burns or who smoke or vape have shorter telomeres
• People who regularly have short sleep times have shorter telomeres
• People who regularly eat healthily have longer telomeres
• People who regularly meditate have longer telomeres
• People who regularly have friends have longer telomeres
• People who regularly do moderate physical activity have longer telomeres
• People who regularly sleep 6.5 to 8.5 hours a night have longer telomeres
• People who regularly have sex have longer telomeres
• And while you can do a lot to not shorten your telomere’s, Telomir-1 ( an alkaloid of Temomir Pharma) showed promise in elongating stem cell telomeres in human cell cultures (by over 40% after short term treatment) by increasing telomerase in stem cells (by over 100%)—a first.
Each of these events has underscored the potential for increased longevity through medical advancements and lifestyle interventions. As we continue to make progress in the fields of regenerative medicine, telomere research, and preventive healthcare, the prospect of reversing aging and preventing age-related diseases becomes increasingly feasible.
However, with these advancements come ethical and societal considerations that must be addressed. For example, if a 90 year old collecting Social Security payments and using Medicare for insurance reverses himself to become physiologically 40, will he be still able to continue to collect Social Security and use Medicare As we pave the way for increased longevity, we must also consider the implications of productive aging—extending the period between 30 and 60 to between 30 and 90. Telomir Pharma has formed a Georgetown group of ethicists, economists, docs and others to help address these issues. These are complex issues that require thoughtful consideration and discussion as we move forward into a future where longevity with 90 year olds funcitioning as 40 is no longer a distant dream, but a tangible reality I did predict 60 would be the new 40 in RealAge: Are You As Young as You Can Be? In 1998. It has come to pass. Now I think 90 has at least an 85% probability of being the new 40 withing a decade—see The Great Age Reboot).
The events of this past week have left me feeling this is really happening and moving fast, and inspired by the potential for increased longevity.
Thank you for reading. Mike Roizen MD
PS by the way, we are still teaching a great Longevity Cooking, adventure and course in Lecce, Italy near the Adriatic Coast in late October: it was incredible fun last year –there are still 6 places available so do not delay signing up---
https://awaitingtable.com/cookery-courses-italy/long-courses/how-to-eat-and-drink/
here is a link to the video from last year: