Life Extension

Did you ever find yourself saying you wish you could live forever? Or that you long for the energy and health you had in your youth? These may just be passing flights of fancy to most people, but there are groups of researchers who devote their lives to the philosophy of life extension in the belief that one day human technology will enable extended human life.

Life extension is the study of ways in which society can extend both the length and quality of the average human lifespan. Proponents of life extension envision a world in which humans live for centuries by delaying the onset of old age and aging-related conditions and diseases.

Biomedical gerontologists, the life extension researchers, aim to find ways to extend the healthy years of the human body, not just add more years to a human's life. Life extension proponents and researchers fund and undertake many scientific studies into curing and preventing diseases such as heart disease, cancer, macular degeneration, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's, and stroke.

Life extension proponents currently practice calorie restriction, which is based on research done on animals that shows that a diet that limits dietary energy via a controlled-calorie plan supplemented with vitamins, minerals, and nutrients has a life extension effect by lowering cholesterol, blood pressure, and fasting glucose.

Life extension practitioners extend their maximum lifespan by working with available life extension research in calorie restriction combined with a healthy lifestyle of exercise and avoidance of smoking and excessive alcohol. However, a good lifestyle and calorie restriction comprise only a small part of life extension. The very essence of life extension asks for more than a few years' worth of extension of life.

Other aims of life extension are to find ways to rejuvenate or repair deteriorated cells and to replace damaged tissues. Currently, life extension researchers are working with stem cells, organic and artificial organ transplantation, and molecular repair to achieve a "cure" to aging.

Although constantly striving to crack the secret of successful life extension, advocates of life extension recognize that current technology and research do not provide the kind of life extension of which they believe humans are capable. Thus, another common custom of life extension advocates is to cryonically preserve the body shortly after death by a careful freezing procedure in the belief that future life extension scientists will be able to revive them and cure them of diseases and degeneration.

The aim of life extension is a contentious subject; many scientists applaud the life extension aim of curing diseases but doubt the possibility of a human lifespan that spans centuries or a future life extension scientist being able to revive a cryonically-preserved body. Still, there is an active following of life extension supporters, particularly in Saul Kent's organization the Life Extension Foundation, which was established in 1980.

To find out more about life extension, visit the Life Extension Foundation's Web site at lef.org and check out their monthly publication Life Extension Magazine.