Scientists discover the secret of ageing

Originally posted by Frogs
The secret of what makes our cells age has apparently been discovered by a team in the UK.

Scientists discover the secret of ageing

The research, published by the journal Molecular Systems Biology, shows that when an ageing cell detects serious damage to its DNA – caused by the wear and tear of life – it sends out specific internal signals.

These distress signals trigger the cell’s mitochondria, its tiny energy-producing power packs, to make oxidising “free radical” molecules, which in turn tell the cell either to destroy itself or to stop dividing. The aim is to avoid the damaged DNA that causes cancer.

Does this mean anti-oxidents might actually cause cancer because they interfere with the body's oxidising reaction to damaged dna?

[edit on 17-2-2010 by riley]

Originally posted by semperfoo
We can and eventually will be able to wind back the biological clock. This is not a bad thing. Just imagine how much you could spiritually and intellectually grow if you lived for 500-1000 years?

I know this, and I stated in my post that I think helping people live longer is a good thing. But eternal life is another thing and I think is completely wrong to even strive for, but that wont stop science from trying.

I think we will progress to being able to live much longer, but it will take much more time than people are thinking. And yes it would be great spiritually for everyone because it would allow us to learn more while we are here having a spiritual experience in our physical bodies. But I foresee a problem with this in the long run... Let's say you live for 500 years, but when you were reincarnated (touchy subject for some so sorry for bringing this up but it is being used to make a point) your point for being here is meant to be over and done with much sooner than that. Well unless you have a great understanding with your higher consciousness you are not going to figure out that your time is becoming wasteful in the physical body you are in since you can only experience so much in one lifetime - regardless of how long it lasts.

Once you become enlightened in the area you came on this earth for in the first place your time is up, but say you live longer because we can turn back the clock on biological aging. Now you're stuck, period. However I know this is all what I believe, and nothing that is proven, in fact I'm unsure of what I'm saying at this point now because this is an area I haven't put much thought into spiritually because I think of life as just a blip in time compared to how time actually works in the spiritual world [astral world].

So I will stop trying to answer questions I do not have the answers too before I make a fool of myself. I admit everything I've said I cannot be sure of, but it does make some sense to me, and I'm sure you can see the rational thinking I was doing while making the above post (hopefully).

Originally posted by Frogs
The secret of what makes our cells age has apparently been discovered by a team in the UK.

Scientists discover the secret of ageing

The research, published by the journal Molecular Systems Biology, shows that when an ageing cell detects serious damage to its DNA – caused by the wear and tear of life – it sends out specific internal signals.

These distress signals trigger the cell’s mitochondria, its tiny energy-producing power packs, to make oxidising “free radical” molecules, which in turn tell the cell either to destroy itself or to stop dividing. The aim is to avoid the damaged DNA that causes cancer.

The fountain of youth is still a long way away. However, I find the last bit of this fascinating. If I'm reading this right, aging is apparently one of the body's ways of stopping cancer by destroying or shutting down damaged cells.

So you guys know, ALL cancer is directly related to mitochondria, although most popular research does not address this as a base fact... Hence no cure

reply to post by Frogs


With greatly extended lifespans, will come a complete restructuring of what we perceive as society.

Work will probably be redundant, resources available to be mined elsewhere. People will spend much longer at higher learning institutions, possibly up to 20 or 30 years longer.

Our expectations towards manufactured products would change too. No longer would it be acceptable to buy a product that has a design life expectancy of only a year or two, all products would require a service life of decades minimum. The throw away culture in consumerism, would be itself thrown away. Thus making considerable savings in resources.

Resources in terms of consumerism would be geared mainly to cater for recreational services and facilities with manufacturing geared towards essentials and infrastructure.

The world would be completely different, so i don't think you'd need to worry about being an office jnr for 100 years or so!



[edit on 17/2/2010 by spikey]

80 years in this pile of flesh and bone is plenty enough for me thank you. Cool news nonetheless, we live in exciting times.

This is an interesting development.

But, does this research now show that these particles called 'free radicals', that we have been taking measures to prevent (as they are considered damaging to our cells) are in fact necessary to our NOT getting cancer?

If the cell initiates the release of free radicals in order to commit 'suicide', it does this to prevent a cancerous tumor forming from corrupt DNA within itself, if we then load up on free radical scavengers, or food / substances that hunt for and target them, are we in fact exposing ourselves to cancer, since the free radicals are there to help prevent it.

Originally posted by spikey
This is an interesting development.

But, does this research now show that these particles called 'free radicals', that we have been taking measures to prevent (as they are considered damaging to our cells) are in fact necessary to our NOT getting cancer?

Thats exactly what I was thinking. Every add break I'm bombarded with food, tea, wine or pill adds saying we must get control of free radicals etc. I thought doing so was meant to help prevent cancer? I wish they would be clearer on wth they mean.

Kind of like the evils sunlight. No sunlight= no Skin cancer. No sunlight= no Vitamin d which in turn decreases the absorbtion of calcium and so causes bone problems and increases the risk of other cancers. It would be nice if they would research something fully before trialing half discoveries on the public.

..then again I take vitamin d supplements every day because I wasn't getting enough sunshine.

[edit on 17-2-2010 by riley]

Even though a thought of excitement invades my mind and body every time i read about things related to development of the lifespan research , reality kicks in immediately afterwards.

Even if they will ever find the real secrets of the human DNA and aging and they somehow find the secret to increasing the lifespan to endless limits , it will be available only to the elite and some scientists who work in certain areas which benefit the elite. We will never get a hold of it. To be honest we will probably never even know if it would be developed. And that is the sad truth.

reply to post by prevenge


Living forever doesn't interest me, living for a few hundred years does. Quite simple really And no i don't believe in an afterlife, and neither do i hope there is one(the thought repulses me). I just want to see where humanity is headed as this century is going to be one of the most crucial points in our history and will define where we are headed for hundreds of years to come(or not heading)...then i'll pack my bags and become a snack for the worms.

There will never be a publicly available "cure" for aging. The earth simply would not be able to sustain the exponential population growth. I'm sure the super-rich would be able to get their hands on it though

I discovered the secret of aging.

Waiting.

[edit on 17-2-2010 by riley]

Sorry, but is this old news only to me ?

There was a documentary even on TV here in Estonia, about 2 years ago ?

I would love a chance to live a lot younger as i have recently been appreciating life a lot more.

if you could live an extra one hundred years imagine the storys you could tell to your great great grand kids. Amazing. You could experience a lot in a long lifetime like that.

Some of the problems i can see with this is who gets to live longer and why? Because if everyone could live longer that would cause a lot of strain on an already strained out planet. Maybe people would have to move to another planet like Mars or the moon.

Who knows... we'll have to wait and see. It probably wont take too long for this to become mainstream.