Two-Sides to the Aging Story - Good and Not So GoodThere are two aspects to aging which most will recognize, the chronological passage of time which we associate with the benefits of increased experience and wisdom, and the increasing levels of dysfunction we experience as we get older. One is welcome, the other less so. The ARN is concerned with the latter.
The chart to the right describes the aging process from the point of view of increasing dysfunction and the different ways in which medicine and science try to deal with it. The rationale behind the chart is covered in detail by the "Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence" of Dr. Aubrey de Grey of the Methuselah Foundation, but in brief, the chemical processes of life, or metabolism, cause damage to our cells, eventually accumulating to levels that result in the dysfunction of aging and its ultimate social consequences. There are actually only a few types of damage that can harm a cell, perhaps as few as seven, and these few forms of damage give rise to the manifold disorders associated with getting older. Our biology thankfully has the huge reserve capacity to withstand a lot of damage so it takes years for the accumulation to reach levels that cause dysfunction, but our exteriors show clearly the direction the rest of our body is going, even if we are not yet suffering the problems of age-related illness. Of course once dysfunction sets in, there are a myriad number of social consequences which arise and with which we are all concerned and which tremendous public resources are used dealing with.
Much of modern medicine is in fact geared towards dealing with dysfunction "after the fact" in the treatment of the chronic disorders of aging. It is estimated that 80% of our health care dollars go to the treatment of age-related dysfunction. The Miliken Institute reported in Oct 2007 that in 2003 it cost 1.3 TRILLION DOLLARS per year in direct and indirect costs ameliorate the suffering of the aged. This is in stark contrast to the 150-200 Million Dollars actualy spent on studying aging which amounts to 1/6th of 1 percent of the yearly budget of the National Health Institute of 28 Billion dollars. The reason for this disproportionate focus on spending on dysfunction instead of research is that aside from healthy lifestyle choices, little can presently be done to intervene in the aging process and people tend to disbelieve that serious progress will ever be made in addressing the dysfunction that accompanies the aging process. Due to new breakthroughs this overly-pessimistic perspective is slowly changing.
New biomedical technologies are now able to visualize the processes of life at a molecular level, and new methods are rapidly being developed to prevent and repair the damage at earlier stages, before a loss of function. These tools are being developed at an ever increasing rate and hardly a day goes by without some new breakthrough announced in the popular press, and you can be assured that what makes it to the minds-eye of the public is only a fraction of what is really occurring behind the scenes. Stem cells, gene therapies, bioremediation approaches, tissue-engineering, artificial and bioartificial organs, and many many other technologies are poised to increase healthy lifespan and dramatically reduce the suffering and economic burden of an increasingly aged population.
Many of the technological pieces necessary to address age-related damage are coming into existence, but not coming together soon enough. Many suffer and die everyday from life-threatening disorders that in the near-future could be manageable or even reversible. The potential of these technologies will only be realized through synergistic collaborations between multiple disciplines and with the participation of the general public. The Network is designed to help lower the barriers to collaboration between concerned parties that these synergies might take place.
The Aging Research Network seeks to fund biomedical and social sciences research aimed directly at accelerating the development of new therapies to slow or reverse the aging process. To this end we also seek to form connections between traditionally disparate groups to broadly enhance awareness of the potential for the development of these therapies, and create novel collaborations that share a common vision of dramatically reducing the suffering associated with the aging process. Rest assured the benefits in the savings such technologies would provide in terms of health care dollars while at the same time allowing individuals to remain productive longer are obvious economic reasons for developing such therapies, but of course, the reduction of the suffering of an aging population is an ethical imperative in itself that requires us to make the most of emerging opportunities to deal with age-related disease.