How Close Are We to Immortality?

 PICTURE A SOCIETY WHERE 66 IS THE NEW 16. WHERE YOUR LIFESPAN IS DOUBLE, EVEN TRIPLE WHAT IT IS NOW. A WORLD WHERE YOU COULD WATCH SCIENCE FICTION BECOME REALITY, WHERE YOUR BODY WILL NEVER FAIL YOU.... A WORLD WHERE AGE IS REALLY JUST A NUMBER. LABS ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE WORKING TO GET TO THE BOTTOM OF LONGEVITY, UNLOCKING THE SECRETS TO EXTENDING OUR LIFESPANS WELL INTO OUR 100S... AND BEYOND. - I think it's the greatest unsolved problem in biology. SO, HOW CLOSE ARE WE TO IMMORTALITY? OKAY, SO, BY DEFINITION, IMMORTALITY MEANS LIVING FOREVER, AS IN - TO INFINITY. AND MATHEMATICALLY, YOU NEVER GET ANY CLOSER TO INFINITY THAN WHEN YOU STARTED.

SO LET’S JUST GIVE UP ON TECHNICALITIES AND START WITH WHERE WE’RE AT TODAY. THE GLOBAL LIFE EXPECTANCY IS CURRENTLY HOVERING SOMEWHERE AROUND 72 YEARS. IT’S LONGER FOR WOMEN, SHORTER FOR MEN, HIGHER IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, AND LOWER IN IMPOVERISHED NATIONS WITH POOR SANITATION, DIETS, AND ACCESS TO HEALTHCARE. THIS ALL MAY SEEM LIKE COMMON SENSE SO FAR, BUT IT’S ACTUALLY PRETTY STRIKING WHEN YOU CONSIDER HOW QUICKLY THINGS HAVE CHANGED. - That's the crowning achievement of modern civilization: the fact that there are fewer and fewer people in this graveyard. Up until a couple of hundred years ago, life expectancy was about 30 in most populations. But then, starting around 1840, life expectancy started to go up, and it gradually rose.

And today life expectancy in the country doing the best, is 87 years for Japanese women. AND THANKS TO ACCELERATING MEDICAL, TECHNOLOGICAL, AND ECONOMIC PROGRESS, EXPERTS THINK THAT TREND WILL CONTINUE. PLUS, IN OUR ERA OF GLOBAL INFORMATION SHARING, IT’S MUCH EASIER TO GET THE WORD OUT ABOUT BASIC LONGEVITY HACKS. So, don't smoke. Don't drink too much, get exercise, get fresh air, eat a good diet, have friends. Live in a good environment with healthy air, clean water, where you can get good medical care. WAIT, SO THE SECRET TO IMMORTALITY IS DIET AND EXERCISE? THAT CAN’T BE RIGHT, CAN IT? SOME EXPERTS ARGUE THAT THOSE ARE REALLY ALL THE TOOLS WE HAVE, AS WE SEEM TO BE EDGING CLOSER TO THE MAXIMUM POSSIBLE LENGTH OF A HUMAN LIFESPAN. But I don't think the evidence for that is strong. - That just means a healthy diet is only going to get you so far. SO SCIENTISTS ARE LOOKING TO THE NATURAL WORLD FOR CLUES ON HOW TO SIDESTEP GROWING OLD. SOME EVEN THINK THAT MANY OF THE AILMENTS WE CALL DISEASES COULD BE THOUGHT OF AS SYMPTOMS OF THE MOST POWERFUL DISEASE OF ALL - AGING.

- In fact, for some species, death rates actually go down with age. So, instead of getting sicker and sicker as you get older, you get healthier and healthier. They tend to be species that keep on growing. And as they grow they get bigger, they get new tissue, so they restore their health. - There are whales that live hundreds of years, and they're very similar to us genetically, but we do need to be able to either change our genomes or find medicines and other ways to enhance our systems so that we have the same kind of lifespans that they do. TO DO THAT, WE’D HAVE TO STALL OR REVERSE THE PROCESS OF CELL AGING, CALLED SENESCENCE. OVER TIME, CELLS LOSE THEIR ABILITY TO REPLICATE AND FUNCTION PROPERLY. BUT THE PROBLEM IS WE REALLY DON’T KNOW THE WHOLE STORY OF WHAT DRIVES SENESCENCE. WE DO KNOW THAT IT MIGHT BE SLOWED BY INTERMITTENT FASTING, AND A HEALTHY DIET. SO WHAT DR. SINCLAIR IS TRYING TO DO IS REVERSE ENGINEER THAT PROCESS ON A MOLECULAR LEVEL.

We found the first molecule that activated a group of enzymes that seem to control the benefits of being hungry and exercising. THAT MOLECULE WAS RESVERATROL, FOUND IN FOODS LIKE PEANUTS, PISTACHIOS, POMEGRANATES, CRANBERRIES, GRAPES, AND YES, RED WINE. We gave resveratrol to yeast cells, and little nematode worms, and to mice that were on a high-fat Western or American diet. And in all those cases, the animals were healthier and they lived longer. That was exciting because no one really had a safe molecule that extended the lifespan of organisms. That was the first one. BUT THAT WAS ONLY THE BEGINNING. SINCE THEN, THEY’VE ADDED MORE AND MORE MOLECULES TO THAT ARSENAL, AND TODAY THEY’RE DIGGING INTO A PARTICULARLY PROMISING ONE KNOWN AS NICOTINAMIDE ADENINE DINUCLEOTIDE… BUT LET’S JUST CALL IT NAD. NAD IS A CO-ENZYME, OR HELPER MOLECULE, FORMED FROM VITAMIN B3, AND WE’RE JUST DISCOVERING ALL THE WAYS IT HELPS YOUR CELLS RESET AND REPAIR THEMSELVES.

It actually is a molecule that tells the body when it's time to fight disease and stay healthy. As we get older, some of our tissues, they have less and less NAD. And without NAD, we'd be dead in probably 10 seconds. BY STUDYING HOW THE BODY MAKES NAD, DR. SINCLAIR’S TEAM BELIEVES THEY MIGHT JUST BE ABLE TO FIND A MORE DIRECT PATH TO LONGER LIFE. This molecule NMN, not to be confused with M&M's, is what we call a precursor to NAD. We can synthesize it. And when we give mice NMN in their drinking water, their levels of NAD go up about 50%, and that's when we see these remarkable health benefits in those old mice. They can run 50% further and they're resistant to radiation… and if this works, we could potentially have a pill that could mimic those things. We know that they're healthier, but will they live longer? That's what we're trying to find out.

MEANWHILE, OTHER BRANCHES OF MEDICAL RESEARCH ARE TACKLING SPECIFIC DISEASES OR SYMPTOMS ASSOCIATED WITH AGE, AND SOME EXCITING TECHNOLOGIES ARE ON THE HORIZON. - There's been a lot of very promising work in regenerating body tissue. Another very promising area is genetic manipulation, individualized medicine… nanotechnologies might eventually let us put lots of small mini robots into our body that would help build bones or kill germs. Progress is being made in reducing heart disease death rates, stroke death rates, cancer death rates, there's some progress being made against Alzheimer's. BUT IF WE DO UNLOCK THE SECRETS TO ETERNAL YOUTH, WHAT WOULD OUR WORLD LOOK LIKE? To keep yourself amused for 200 years, you'd have to have multiple careers, you'd have to learn new things, you'd have great, great, great, great, great grandchildren, you know. It'd be a really different life. - If we extend people's lives by lot, what are we going to do with all these people? Will there be enough jobs? Will there be enough money for them? My view is that if we treat aging, we'll have people living into their eighties and nineties in a productive, healthy way.

That would save a trillion dollars a year in the US, easily. And globally, many trillion. That's money that can be put back into medical research, into education, into protecting the environment. SO IN ADDITION TO CONTINUALLY IMPROVING THE BASICS - NUTRITION, SLEEP, SOCIAL LIFE, GLOBAL ACCESS TO HEALTH CARE - WE MIGHT JUST HAVE TO PERFECT THE RECIPE FOR THE ULTIMATE YOUTH VITAMIN, MADE OF SYNTHETIC MOLECULES THAT MIMIC YOUR BODY’S NATURAL AGE-DEFYING FUNCTIONS, AND MAYBE THROW SOME BONE-BUILDING NANO-BOTS AND GENE MAKEOVERS IN THERE FOR GOOD MEASURE.

SOUNDS CASUAL. SO, HOW CLOSE ARE WE TO IMMORTALITY? A good middle of the road prediction would be life expectancy might go up something like three months per year. So that means in four decades you live ten years longer, and in eight decades you live 20 years longer. What current research indicates, is that young children today, in countries with high life expectancy, most of them will probably live past 100. Their grandchildren and their great grandchildren might live well into their 100s. - Can we be immortal? I don't know of a reason physically why we cannot, but I don't know of any technology right now that would allow us to. The longer you live, the more technology you have.

Already we see age reversal in some experiments. So by the end of this century, I think it'll be commonplace to be able to reverse many parts of aging, if not the entire thing. Like science? Want more science... forever? You can help make this channel immortal by subscribing to Seeker. Let us know what you think in the comments below, and we'll see you next time. Thanks for watching!.

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