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For us seniors, there is special interest in the process of aging.  This is why I read with great interest the amazing article by Susan Dominus in the New York Times magazine, published April 23: “Longevity Science is Overhyped, But This Research Really Could Change Humanity”.

Bottom line:  You can’t turn back time.  I will turn 84 in November.  Nothing will change that, ever.  But what if science found a way to rejuvenate cells in my body, cells that age and deteriorate?

Read Dominus’ wonderful opening paragraphs:  “Why are babies born young?  The most natural phenomenon on earth is actually hard to explain — at least on a cellular level. Consider this problem: The components of conception are old. When a woman gets pregnant, she has been carrying her egg cells since birth. The sperm that joins with the egg to form a zygote might have been just a few months in the making, but it inherits markers of age from the man who produced it. It only follows that the zygote would also show signs of age — and at first it does.

“But then a mysterious metamorphosis begins: The cells of the zygote begin to reverse that damage, shaking off the metaphorical dust that the parents accumulated on their DNA. After two weeks, the cells of the embryo are back to a kind of ground zero of youth. Only then are they as young as they will ever be. To understand this process, which was discovered only recently and is known as “natural rejuvenation,” is to contemplate a mind-bending truth: We don’t start out young; we work our way back to it.”

“Many scientists now believe that mastering cellular rejuvenation may be the key to transforming how long and how well we live. Some hope that they might eventually be able to harness the process to cure hundreds of diseases, extend life by decades and even fend off aging entirely.   Over the past 20 years, they have learned how to trigger rejuvenation in the lab, achieving a series of breakthroughs that have made that future feel tantalizingly close. Scientists have taken skin cells from 90-year-olds and restored them to youth in a petri dish. They have rejuvenated diseased mice, turning their gray hair back to black and strengthening their muscles. They have taken failing kidneys out of rats, rejuvenated them in a lab and successfully reimplanted them; they are now moving on to pigs. In March, the first safety trials to test rejuvenation therapy on humans began with an attempt to reverse disease in the eyes and cure glaucoma.”

     [Some 80 million people worldwide have glaucoma, a disease that impairs vision because of high pressure in the eye’s vitreous fluid].

One of the scientists Dominus quotes observed, “…full-body rejuvenation might be around the corner….leading to a pill or an infusion that would melt away our wrinkles, perk up the cells of our bodies so we can heal as quickly as children or run as fast as we did in our prime.”

Now, that last phrase really wowed me.  I still run, but as an 83.456 year-old – v e   r      r    y slowly.  What if I could take a couple of “Rejuvenol” pills with my coffee each morning – and tackle another, third marathon?

And, even if this were possible:   It is unlikely that degenerate brain cells could respond to rejuvenation, as might, say, springy muscle cells.  What good would newly strong legs be, if our brains still suffered dementia?  Personally – no thanks!

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)