The Youth Pill

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"After watching elderly mice on resveratrol perform like rodent Olympians in an endurance test, I came away convinced that the long, weird questto extend life span-a five-thousand-year trek during which hopelessly hopeful seekers tried everything from transfusing blood from youths into their aged veins to injecting minced dog testicles-was finally getting somewhere." Even before the first person set off to find the Fountain of Youth, we've been searching for a way to live longer. But promises of life extension have long reeked of snake oil, and despite our wishful thinking-not to mention the number of vitamins we pop, cups of ginkgo tea we drink, or miles we jog-few of us believe we'll live to see one hundred, much less set a longevity record. Scientists, too, have long been skeptical, often dismissing gerontology, the study of aging, as little more than a front for charlatans. And it's hard to blame them. Aging's daunting complexity has often led to more questions than answers, and... Tovább

Fülszöveg

"After watching elderly mice on resveratrol perform like rodent Olympians in an endurance test, I came away convinced that the long, weird questto extend life span-a five-thousand-year trek during which hopelessly hopeful seekers tried everything from transfusing blood from youths into their aged veins to injecting minced dog testicles-was finally getting somewhere." Even before the first person set off to find the Fountain of Youth, we've been searching for a way to live longer. But promises of life extension have long reeked of snake oil, and despite our wishful thinking-not to mention the number of vitamins we pop, cups of ginkgo tea we drink, or miles we jog-few of us believe we'll live to see one hundred, much less set a longevity record. Scientists, too, have long been skeptical, often dismissing gerontology, the study of aging, as little more than a front for charlatans. And it's hard to blame them. Aging's daunting complexity has often led to more questions than answers, and opportunists have always been quick to cash in on any development, no matter how dubious. But now we're closing in on true breakthroughs in anti-aging science. Compounds that dramatically extend the health spans and longevity of animals, including mammals, have recently been demonstrated in the lab, and gerontologists now generally agree that drugs that slow humán aging and greatly boost health in later life are no longer a distant dream.
(continued from front flap) In fact, candidates supported by reams of data are already at hand. Dávid Stipp, a veterán science journalist, telis the story of these momentous developments and the scientists behind them. He reveals how seemingly unconnected findings on gene mutations that can double animals' life spans, the life-extending effect of near-starvation diets, the link between dwarfism and longevity, the secrets of weirdly long-lived animals, and the special genes behind humán centenarians' radical resistance to the ravages of time are coming together to spark an anti-aging revolution. Writing for nonscientists, Stipp provides a definitive, engaging account of somé of the most exciting (and sometimes controversial) advances that promise to change the way we live forever. Vissza