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Alicia Bayer's Reviews > Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old
Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old
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This is a fascinating book for fellow science geeks, but it's not a book on how the reader is necessarily going to avoid aging. Steele is a scientist who takes us on a deep dive into the 9 reasons he says we age. He maintains that aging is not required and that if we can manipulate cells enough, it may be possible for people to never age in the future. That's the thing though, this is all futuristic stuff. It's all cell manipulation and promising technology. It is quite interesting, but I'm not even sure that I agree with him that our governments should be funding this research, as I really think it would end up being one more area where the rich benefited and life got even harder for the poor.
The very end of the book tells how to live a little longer in the meantime in order to hopefully extend your life enough to live in times when they can extend it more and then more. These are absolutely basic things we all know -- stop smoking, exercise, get sleep, etc. He says not to take supplements (even vitamins). The last one is "be born a woman."
I was surprised that Steele didn't go into other things we do know help extend life, like social contact. He also talked a lot about the length of telomeres and how that translates to life expectancy, but never mentions things like the fact that they've shown that growing up in an abusive home and other sources of stress actually shorten telomeres.
Then there's the giddy fascination he has with all the scientists who sew mice together to study how that affects them (for instance, sewing a young mouse to an older one to see if the old one benefits from sharing cells and such). He actually uses the word "shockingly" when he says this research mostly stopped 30 years ago, but then he happily tells us that a married couple of scientists have started doing it again. Then he tells us about the experiments they're doing on King Charles spaniels in order to try to develop anti-aging technology to sell to dog owners (apparently this breed ages quickly). He sees this all as wonderful science. I just felt sad.
It is an interesting book for those who just love learning. I found it very interesting, but not actually helpful on a personal level.
I read a digital ARC of this book via Net Galley.
The very end of the book tells how to live a little longer in the meantime in order to hopefully extend your life enough to live in times when they can extend it more and then more. These are absolutely basic things we all know -- stop smoking, exercise, get sleep, etc. He says not to take supplements (even vitamins). The last one is "be born a woman."
I was surprised that Steele didn't go into other things we do know help extend life, like social contact. He also talked a lot about the length of telomeres and how that translates to life expectancy, but never mentions things like the fact that they've shown that growing up in an abusive home and other sources of stress actually shorten telomeres.
Then there's the giddy fascination he has with all the scientists who sew mice together to study how that affects them (for instance, sewing a young mouse to an older one to see if the old one benefits from sharing cells and such). He actually uses the word "shockingly" when he says this research mostly stopped 30 years ago, but then he happily tells us that a married couple of scientists have started doing it again. Then he tells us about the experiments they're doing on King Charles spaniels in order to try to develop anti-aging technology to sell to dog owners (apparently this breed ages quickly). He sees this all as wonderful science. I just felt sad.
It is an interesting book for those who just love learning. I found it very interesting, but not actually helpful on a personal level.
I read a digital ARC of this book via Net Galley.
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Ageless.
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Reading Progress
Started Reading
January 21, 2021
– Shelved
January 21, 2021
–
Finished Reading
July 29, 2022
– Shelved as:
aging
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Ruby
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rated it 3 stars
Feb 02, 2021 09:18PM
I agree with you about it not necessarily being the best idea to fund this research. I think the last thing our planet needs is for rich, powerful people to live even longer. The earth is so strained as it is, supporting our current population.
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And yes, the animal testing was pretty confronting.
Ruby wrote: "I agree with you about it not necessarily being the best idea to fund this research. I think the last thing our planet needs is for rich, powerful people to live even longer. The earth is so strained..."Yes, it just seems like another way to create inequity at the expense of everyone else.
Ruby wrote: "And yes, the animal testing was pretty confronting."I'm glad I wasn't the only one who felt that way!
I haven't read the book, but I find your position about funding this type of research hypocritical. Anti-aging research is not significantly different from any other type of anti-disease research, in that they both have the end goal of minimizing the impact diseases have on people's lives. The difference is that the former is more rhetorically open to criticism about keeping powerful individuals alive, whereas the latter is not.
SteveJobsFangay wrote: "I haven't read the book, but I find your position about funding this type of research hypocritical. Anti-aging research is not significantly different from any other type of anti-disease research, ..."True. But I do find the idea of trying to fund immortality research more ethically problematic. Inequality is already so vast on this planet, and our resources are already stretched beyond sustainable levels. I can't see how people who could afford these treatments and technologies to live hundreds of years or more wouldn't make things even harder for the planet and the rest of its people.
Anti-aging could slightly affect those issues you mentioned, but they are largely fixed by adopting appropriate socioeconomic policies. In fact, there are tons of brilliant people who are doing research in this area, like sustainable farming, clean energy production, and education initiatives in poor regions of the world to curtail their population growths and help them climb out of poverty. Many of these brilliant individuals are old, and some important scholars in those fields die every year. Wouldn't you hope that these individuals survive to further contribute towards stabilizing humanity?
SteveJobsFangay wrote: "Anti-aging could slightly affect those issues you mentioned, but they are largely fixed by adopting appropriate socioeconomic policies. In fact, there are tons of brilliant people who are doing research in this area... Many of these brilliant individuals are old, and some important scholars in those fields die every year. Wouldn't you hope that these individuals survive to further contribute towards stabilizing humanity?"I certainly agree with the African proverb that when an elder dies a library burns to the ground, but I also believe there are finite resources on this planet. We get about a hundred years (if we're lucky and live well) and then we make room for those coming behind us. I see your points, but I still maintain mine.
Sorry to see someone had to accuse you of hypocrisy instead of inconsistency. I do wish we as a society and government would double down on spending to increase our life spans and health spans, although if you read my review you will see I am somewhat skeptical about immortality or anything approaching that. (I don't think Steele ever mentioned immortality or a pie in the sky age target.) And being told at the end to wash your hands and brush your teeth was an effective conclusion that set the reader's feet back firmly on the ground. I for one don't intend to give up my seat in the lifeboat for the human tsunami entering the reproductive years just behind me.
The field is fundamentally about treating age-related ill health (dementia, cardiovascular disease, cancer, frailty, etc.). There are also good reasons to think therapies that extend healthspan will be widely available. After all, many countries have universal healthcare, and the US has Medicare which covers people 65 and older. Even today for example, if a 65-year-old needs a cancerous tumor removed or a pacemaker for their heart, they're covered in such systems.
Cancer removal and pacemakers speaks to life span but not health span. Nir Barzilai points out in his book that treating the signs of aging with radiation and chemotherapy, for instance, accelerates the overall aging process. It seems to me that wellness and life extension are inextricably connected, at least that is my approach and sole interest in this subject.
I suggest you read Lifespan by David Sinclair
