Forget the Full-Body Freeze. The Next Big Trend in Longevity Tech Is Brain-Only Preservation |
Forget the Full-Body Freeze. The Next Big Trend in Longevity Tech Is ‘Brain-Only’ Preservation
Brain-only cryopreservation is rising in popularity as a faster, cheaper alternative to full-body vitrification. Will it work?
Cryonics, the low-temperature preservation of legally dead humans, certainly isn’t new—popular culture has been fantasizing about being frozen alive since before Franklin J. Schaffner’s 1968 Planet of the Apes. But now a new trend is causing some controversy: what will happen if you just freeze your brain and not your body?
Cryonics is a theoretical life preservation technology where humans are stored at extremely low-temperatures once they have been deemed unable to be resuscitated by today’s medical standards, says The Alcor Life Extension Foundation, the leader in cryonics. Alcor was founded in 1972 by Fred and Linda Chamberlain who “refused to accept medicine’s limitations.” Now, 53 years later, they have over 250 cryopreserved “patients.”
Cryonics, or cryopreservation, relies on vitrification to operate. Vitrification is the process of replacing blood with a medical antifreeze, called cryoprotectant, then lowering the temperature of the body until it appears glass-like.
The freezing part is done in liquid nitrogen, allowing tissue to be cooled without forming ice. If the body were to actually be frozen, it would crack cell structures and render a mushy corpse.
How Anthropic's Claude AI Became a Co-Founder
The rise of “saving” just the brain
In a recent article from Popular Mechanics, Ashley Simpson wrote about UCLA professor Dr. Stephen Coles’ decision to cryopreserve his brain once he died. Dr. Coles studied aging in Los Angeles, but when it was time to enter hospice care, he decided to relocate to Scottsdale, Arizona to be closer to Alcor.
Dr. Coles died from pancreatic cancer in late 2014, and once he was pronounced legally dead, a team from Alcor was there to restore his breathing and blood circulation. This was an imperative step because oxygen needs to continue to be able to reach the brain in order to prevent brain damage. His body temperature was cooled in an ice bath and his blood was replaced with an organ-preserving liquid.
They transported Dr. Coles’ body to Alcor where surgeons detached his head from his spine and pumped medical-grade antifreeze into his severed head. Then they were able to open his skull and remove his brain to be cryopreserved.