Jeff Bezos is betting millions that the aging process can be reversed. According to a report from MIT Tech Review, Bezos and other billionaire investors such as Yuri Milner are backing a new Silicon Valley start-up called Altos Labs, named after Los Altos, California. The company was founded earlier this year with a mission to understand how cells age and then reverse that process.
Altos Labs and similar companies like Calico (backed by Google co-founder, Sergey Brin), are part of an emerging field called biogerontology—the biology of aging. In the case of Calico, founded in 2013, the hype about Google “taking on death” has not lived up to its promise. Calico has produced fundamental research about the biology of aging but hasn’t delievered breakthroughs related to rejuvenation. The goals of Altos Labs are more specific: reverse aging through cellular reprogramming.
The Ethical Side of Rejuvenation
If sucessful, rejuvenation would have the ability to reduce disease on a significant scale, which provides great good. Rejuvenation would also lead to the extension of life, perhaps by a significant magnitude, but this outcome is more controversial. Beyond the social and financial implications, health professionals question whether people’s lifestyle choices will allow them to lead better lives into a much longer old age. Even though life expectancy has doubled since 1900, chronic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease have replaced infectious disease as the leading cause of death and disability. Eighty percent of these diseases could be eliminated through improved nutrition, movement, sleep, and less stress, yet we fail to change our behaviors. In new-and-rejuvenated lives, will people adopt healthy behaviors to maximize those longer years?
Aging Isn’t a Disease to be Cured
While there are undoubedly upsides to rejuvenation, there is a dark side to the message that it sends, namely that aging is a disease. Aging is a natural process that begins the moment we are born. Like all species, we develop and mature over time. Growing older helps us move from infancy to our teens and into our adult years. Yet at some point, society determines that aging goes from being good to being bad. Aging is something that needs to be fixed. The anti-aging industry, worth about $58.5 billion globally in 2020, is a testament to how society today views getting older: less beautiful and less worthy.
Kyrié Carpenter, our Wellness Wednesday speaker this past September 22nd, reminds us:
Top Takeaway
Expect the quest for longevity to heat up in the coming decade as the worlds of biotech and gerontology intersect. Just be careful what you wish for.
If you missed Kyrié Carpenter’s Wellness Wednesday presentation on Playful Aging, click the button below to watch the recording.