Gays, aging and the current developments in molecular biology. Update.
No, you aren’t going to be going to the clubs and be 21 again, (At least not anytime soon), but it is important for Gays to be aware.
I will be discussing the impact on Gays in the end section.
Some advice before the article
I have always looked much younger than my age and still do. One time when I was 38, I was going to the club after my workout at the gym, and they carded me, and then asked me to wait because they wanted to have the whole club’s staff look at me and my ID. I had a manager at work who thought he was a generation older, but we were the same age, much to his surprise.
Some of it is genetics, my father aged slowly. However, there are things every person can do to avoid prematurely aging.
1. Don’t smoke: As a chemical engineer I can tell you that the products of pyrolysis (burning breakdown) of vegetable matter is just hell on your biochemistry when you inhale them. Consider what else you are breathing in. Burning makes all sorts of nasty chemistry which is busy messing up your biochemistry. Burning candles occasionally, or in a well-ventilated room or very large room is fine. I would avoid aromatherapy. If you are smoking you are accelerating your aging seriously.
2. Avoid sunlight: Avoid sunlight regardless of your skin color. The ultraviolet photon sunlight can break carbon-carbon bonds. That is, they can smash up your biochemistry. When I have worked on assignments in California, I noticed that people in their 40s and 50s had lizard skin as a result of their fun in the sun activities. You can take vitamin D supplements if you are worried about not getting enough. Typically, you get enough sunlight unless you are living in Canada or Iceland or someplace like that. Wear sunscreen when you know you will be exposed to a lot of sun such as at the beach or snow skiing.
3. Avoid Heavy Drinking: Two drinks tops when you go to the bar. Unless you want swollen nose and face as you get older. Also, a lot of beverages have what they call the higher alcohols and esters. Since you aren’t chemists, you don’t know what that is, but they are the stuff that gives you the headache later. I can’t think it isn’t helpful for your body chemistry either. Mostly though, it is the high alcohol consumption which isn’t good.
4. Illegal Recreational Drugs: I don’t do illegal drugs. You have no idea what you are putting in your body. It is not like they have Food and Drug Administration inspection of their facilities for preparation and handling or purity and safety testing of the final product. There is no ISO9000 certification of manufacturing processes. If they ever have legal recreational drugs, that is another matter or if you grow your own, that is another matter entirely.
5. Healthy Living: I watch what I eat, make sure I get some vegetables, low in fat, and watch my weight. I don’t take supplements or special stuff. Your body is a physical object and it depends on nutrition and is meant to be exercising. I am not into some special diet or anything. However, I don’t eat garbage food.
Generally, if you are slamming your body, it will show up after a while.
It isn’t quackery anymore
There has been so much quackery and nonsense in the efforts to avoid aging that it is likely that the reader of this post will be inclined to dismiss this article. Even in the scientific journals there has been some premature expectations with telomerase and sirtuins. There was the whole resveratrol in red wine thing that was supposed to do something. When scientists realized that free radicals and their sequestration was going on in the body people took a lot of vitamin E which was a waste of money. Don’t waste money on a supplements.
The reason to have hopes today is that there has been decades of research on aging making some progress and learning about aging as a scientific phenomenon and now there are the newer powerful sciences and technologies which are poised to achieve significant results.
Aging isn’t magic or supernatural or by divine will.
Aging is a physical process that occurs in the real world by biomolecular processes which science is beginning to understand. The human body is made of atoms which are in the periodic table and not magical stuff.
There is a tendency to regard aging as something that is outside the realm of science and caused by supernatural processes or some cosmic force. But like many natural phenomena, it is beginning to be understood by science.
The effort to treat aging like a medical condition.
A serious discussion of slowing down, stopping or reversing aging has started in the authoritative scientific press.
There is this following article in Nature which talks about the economic value of targeting aging. Since diseases often start happening when we age, slowing aging or making ageing healthier could have major economic benefits.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s43587-021-00080-0
Quoting from the above article:
We show that a slowdown in aging that increases life expectancy by 1 year is worth US$38 trillion, and by 10 years, US$367 trillion. Ultimately, the more progress that is made in improving how we age, the greater the value of further improvements.
UPDATE: Article from Scientific American on the topic.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/video/decoded-aging/
With economic incentives like this, governments and institutions are very much interested in healthier aging.
Investors have noticed how the science has progressed to the point that interventions against aging have become a real possibility. The following article at Berkeley University discusses the startups that are being created to go after aging. For example, Altos Labs has a star cast of scientists and has raised $3 billion. They aren’t the only ones putting in big money. This article also has a good review of a couple of the various approaches for slowing down or eliminating aging. Multiple possibilities are being pursued.
https://businessreview.berkeley.edu/the-price-of-immortality/
The scientific and technology press is becoming very optimistic. However, remember, we aren’t mice. So though scientific work with mice is encouraging, there is more work to be done.
This following article in Ars Technica is about eliminating senescent cells, these are cells that need to be trashed, but refuse to die and get recycled. The doctors and scientists involved are with this research are mainstream and respected institutions. One caution, again, what works in mice doesn’t necessarily work with people. The important thing here is that people in credible institutions are working on this problem believing that success is possible and likely.
https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/12/could-getting-rid-of-old-cells-turn-back-the-clock-on-aging
This is in Science magazine, the publication of the Am. Assoc. for the Adv. of Science, (AAAS).
https://www.science.org/content/article/two-research-teams-reverse-signs-aging-mice
This following Nature article is titled, “Senescent cells damage the body throughout life.” It is behind a paywall, but it is recognized that these cells are a problem.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04430-9
However, until it is proven, it is just a speculation. The magazine for the following link is published at MIT and talks about an anti-aging drug that is “just around the corner,” it was published in 2019. It hasn’t become a drug or treatment for aging yet.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2019/08/21/65382/the-anti-aging-drug-thats-just-around-the-corner/
Epigenetics is one area of science in which they are looking at to treat aging. Epigenetics is the pattern of methylation of DNA which is the means in which the body controls the turning on and off genes. It tends to get messed up over time.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41392-022-01211-8
There have been early studies with mice that are encouraging.
https://hms.harvard.edu/news/loss-epigenetic-information-can-drive-aging-restoration-can-reverse
This is a study with mice and the treatment of their epigenetic state.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03403-0#ref-CR1
The above are just some of the activities being pursued by scientists.
For example, scientists observe that genetically identical ants in a colony have different life spans and are investigating what might be the cause. We aren’t ants, but this example shows that in all areas scientists now see aging as a scientific question that can be examined.
There is this gruesome article on aging and parasites.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/05/ant-tapeworm/618919/
Again, the thing that scientists are realizing is that aging isn’t immutable and it is a matter of biomolecular chemistry and mechanisms of biomolecular control and it is a scientific question like any other scientific question. Scientists also realize that once they understand aging or even just parts of it, they can start intervening and try to slow it, stop it, or reverse it.
Aging isn’t mystical or a cosmic rule of the universe anymore, it is just a biomolecular technical problem which they are making rapid progress in solving.
Once they have any drug that works, even partially, there will be a tremendous effort to find other drugs to treat aging and improve the ones that they have already discoved.
My guess is that we will find different things that do different things regarding aging. One drue might just slow it down one way; another drug might treat a molecular symptom of aging but not stop it; yet another drug will revese one molecular change from aging, but not all of them.
Then there will be another second generation of drugs which will be more effective or work on more aspects of aging.
However, it might be one central controlling factor will be found that will be a root cause and solve all of aging, but I am not so sure that exists. We do have molecular repair mechanisms, but for some reason they progressively don’t work. Maybe a single factor will be discovered that will get them all working. However, there is no indication of that yet that I know of.
Individual strategy
Gays will need to pay some attention to reporting on aging medicine from now on to be aware and current on developments. Not a really intense focus, just be aware of it. Also learn what online sources for science are real and what are content farms or just plan bogus.
These are real science and technology sources:
https://www.quantamagazine.org/
If there are experimental programs, you might want to consider joining one if you are retired. Experimental programs are not without risk, but if you are retired you are facing the risks associated with aging. Mostly they monitor you closely in drug studies and stop treatments if there are any indication of problems with the test group because of the medicine.
A lot of times if the drug seems to work, they will give it to the placebo group.
Usually before starting the study, you get a physical of some sort and that is a health benefit. You might get medical care during the drug testing.
Cost
Likely the initial treatments are going to be very expensive.
Insurance companies are very likely not going to pay for these treatments. Aging, though 100% fatal, isn’t considered a disease because it is considered a natural process.
There will be opposition to treatments for longevity. Consider this self-rightous article, “Why I hope to die at 75,” by a university bioethicist self-promoting his virtue.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/10/why-i-hope-to-die-at-75/379329/
Insurance companies might make not covering longevity treatment a social justice issue. Along with some other persons who want social credit for being social justice warriors on this issue, they will pit funding longevity treatments against the provision of other health care to others.
There might be religious persons who think longevity treatments are in defiance of the will of god. Given that these type of individuals are likely also anti-Gay, their beliefs will tend to be a solution to at least one problem, but they also might be a force in opposition to insurance coverage or government covering the cost of longevity treatments.
Medicare likely will not cover it. Longevity treatments would bankrupt Social Security by extending the time people draw money from the social security fund. Again, it is not considered a disease. The ratio of people drawing social security versus those working is already going up and significantly straining the funding of Social Security as it is now.
Further Medicare would not only have to cover the longevity treatments, but would also have to cover the health care of individuals for longer years. Though, with longevity treatments, the improved health of older people due to the longevity drugs might mean those other costs will drop significantly.
Likely, if life extension becomes really successful, Social Security will very likely be changed. Perhaps it will be set up to you can cash out or you only collect it for a limited time, or only collect if you are seriously ill or terminally ill. If people routinely are healthy and physically able until their 90s, the Social Security age will likely be raised considerably from age 67.
What all this means is that you will need to be prepared to pay for the costs of any longevity drugs yourself.
If you are in your 30s you might consider waiting a few years before more drugs come on the market that will result in price competition and be cheaper and also after a few years the discovery of other drugs and with the manufacturing of them having come down the learning curve they might be cheaper. If you are in your 80s, you likely want to get the drug as soon as possible regardless of the cost.
If you are in your 30s and you take the first-generation anti-aging drug, you will have even more decades than you already have to wait for the second-generation drug. A few years delay isn’t that important.
If you are in your 80s, the anti-aging drug might be the only thing that will be keeping you alive for enough years to get the second-generation drug. Or to last long enough for the developments of other medicines for other ailments.
The strategy will be to get the first-generation drug to last long enough for the second-generation drug, which will help you last long enough for the third-generation drug, which will help you last long enough for the fourth-generation drug, and so on.
If you are in poor health, you might not make it for the first-generation drug, or getting the first-generation drug, you won’t last long enough for the second-generation drug. If you are smoking, or overweight, not getting exercise or have another unhealthy habit you need to start changing your life NOW.
Agains, the pricing will likely be initially really expensive, so it will be important to have savings or assets you can borrow against. If you are a couple or throuple, you need to have enough money for all of you. If you have a habit of credit card debt rather than savings, you need to change that. You will want a good credit rating if you need to borrow money to get the medicine. You won’t have children and grandchildren to help with the expenses. You need to have a working program of saving money now.
One thing is to consider going back to work if you are retired when the first working drug becomes available. You retired because you are older and want to enjoy your final years of life doing things. If life extension is going to be really significant and also reversing the effects of aging, retirement no longer makes sense. If you rejoin the work force, your income will help with the cost of the drugs.
Now we are resigned to aging and dying as an unchanging fact of life. The saying is, “nothing is certain but death and taxes.”
However, once treatments for death are available, facing death because you lack money, will be a really bitter experience.
Specific Gay issues
There will be a lot of issues for people in general whether they are Gay or straight, but there will be some specifically Gay issues.
Gay people generally don’t have children. The straights will over time have great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren and will have a support network. Gays won’t have this, and I don’t think the great-great grandnephew or niece will be likely giving support. They might be helping out their grandparents, great-grandparents, etc. and not have resources to spare even if inclined to be helpful.
You need to plan to be able to support yourself over time. The Gay community might consider whether it is advisable for Gay people to have households with more than two or three people. Collective efforts might have to be organized for Gay to exist in new conditions.
A longer life span doesn’t necessarily mean a smaller fraction of Gays will be going to the clubs or baths. If aging is just delayed, Gays will likely continue doing what they do as younger gays for a longer period of time.
The issues of an age gap in a relationship might be very different than what it is now. One person might be in their 30s and the other in their 70s, but physically they might be the same or very similar. It might be that the older 70-year-old person with the body of a 30-year-old won’t want to date a 30-year-old person, but want another 70-year-old person with the body of a 30-year-old person. Young Gays who are into older guys might be really frustrated since there might not be any guys with older bodies.
A lot of Gays might assume if they had the body of a 25-year-old, they are going to be at the clubs and baths and banging. It might not be the case. For the reversal of aging isn’t likely to be a time travel into your past. You have likely changed. Maybe you will spend a week clubbing and banging and then realize it isn’t what you want. The thing is, we have a fairly good idea what living a long time as an older person is like, we really don’t know what living a long time as a young person is like. (If you are happy going to the clubs and baths and banging that is fine also.)
Much of the improvement of the situation for Gays is because the older generation of homophobic people have passed away. Now we can expect anti-Gay people to be around a lot longer. Though if the older generation is living as younger people, they might be more amenable to change.
Younger Gays who are slow to come out, might be even slower since they think there is no rush. We might have to have a campaign that, even though you are going to live to a 130, you still need to get moving and come out before you are 40.
The cumulative risk over time to be Gay bashed is going to be higher since you are going to be living longer. Community safety is going to be important.
The cumulative risks of getting a specific STD is going to be higher and it will be even more important to get all the vaccinations and support medical research to develop vaccinations for all STDs.
Very long-term contingency planning likely needs to happen. If people routinely live a very long time, the chances of them living through a crisis goes up, and for Gays that might be an anti-Gay regime. Do you have a plan B and what is it? What nations will refuse Gay refugees and which ones will accept Gay refugees?
Historically, pandemics have been spread out in time such that people have been born, lived and died without ever having to have lived through a pandemic. The the severe Influenza Pandemic of 1918 wasn’t followed by another serious pandemic until Covid-19, in 2019. A hundred year gap. If people routinely live to be a 100 or more, the chances that they live through a pandemic will increase to nearly a certainty. We will need to make sure there is no discriminatory policies in the response to a pandemic. If there is a serious social disruption in supplies and medical care, Gays need to think about how they might have support organizations, they won’t have descendants to support them.
Besides living through HIV and Mpox, (monkeypox), you might need to consider that with a longer lifespan that you might live through future STD epidemics ABC and XYZ and you will need to think how to live through the outbreaks and get the vaccinations. There needs to be a Gay policy of research to prevent STDs with vaccinations, and research policies such that there can be a rapid response to new STDs arising.
When Gays live routinely very long lives, totally unforeseen risks, will be a greater likelihood and again, no descendants to help out.
Long term contingency planning will have to be a part of our thinking. That is we will have to think in terms of much longer time scales.
If you are able to retire in the new situation, what do you plan to do indefinitely? Now retired people have recreational activities knowing that they will be losing their health over time and they won’t be around forever. If instead, you will be healthy and able for the next 60 years, what do you want to do as a Gay person? Visiting the grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren will be pre-occupying older straight people, but it won’t be a thing for you.
Probably the most significant Gay related thing that Gays will need to consider the author of this paper hasn’t imagined yet.
Summary
Anti-aging drug treatments do appear to be something that will be a real thing not too long in the future. Maybe very soon.
We have plenty of time to think about the consequences of longevity treatments if we start now. A greatly extended life-span will likely have a revolutionary impact on society and Gay will need to adapt and thrive during the transition to and in the new society that is created.
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The following is a trailer for a 1959 movie in which a woman recklessly pursuing youth, takes an experimental treatment and becomes a monster. Following the trailer is the full lengthy movie on YouTube. It is fairly sexist. It is one of those movies that is so bad, it is hilarious.