Biogerontology studies aging in cells, organs, and the body to reduce harmful effects like dementia and weakness. Research focuses on stem cells, antioxidants, diet, and immunology to extend life and understand aging triggers. The field is still in its early stages, with potential avenues of investigation including stress, telomeres, pollution, gene therapy, and anti-aging drugs.
The field of biogerontology focuses on the biology, physiology, and genetics of aging. This fairly new discipline studies aging in cells, organs and throughout the body in order to reduce the harmful effects of aging, such as dementia, weakness and deterioration. The first phases of research concern antioxidants, stem cells, free radicals, diet and immunology. One day, biogerontologists hope to better understand how and why our bodies age so we can extend the length and quality of life.
Although scientists see the drastic effects aging has on organ function, strength, memory, healing, bone density, etc., they know very little about what happens in the body to trigger these changes. Biogerontologists want humans to resist the seemingly inevitable loss of flexibility, mental acuity, and degeneration that ultimately leads to death. At this point, they’ve barely scraped the surface of the field, and it could be decades before their research precipitates into implemented medical treatments.
A major research course in biogerontology is based on stem cells. These are embryonic cells that have the unique quality of turning into different types of cells, such as skin, organs or blood as the fetus develops. Even in adulthood, we continue to carry stem cells that rejuvenate old cells in the blood and brain, but gradually their numbers decrease. Scientists are currently experimenting with stem cells. In cancer, stem cells injected into bone marrow helped regrow the cells in animals. Additionally, stem cells in the brain contribute to neurogenesis, where new neurons are created, and this could reduce or reverse dementia.
Another area of interest for biogerontology includes the effect of nutrients, vitamins and diet on life span. For example, one study appears to show that, in animals such as mice and monkeys, a low-calorie diet leads to significantly longer life expectancy with better health in the elderly. Synthetic antioxidant dietary supplements, a type of free radical, also had a beneficial effect on memory in mice.
Other avenues of investigation continue to present themselves in biogerontology. There are many years of intense research to be done into the effects of prolonged stress, chemicals called telomeres and pollution, and the possibilities of gene therapy, skin treatments and stem cell injections. In its most extreme form, the push to “cure” aging, heralded by activist Aubrey de Grey, seeks to educate the public and distribute anti-aging drugs to the general population.
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