ABSTRACT
Imagine an intervention, such as a pill, that could significantly reduce your risk of cancer. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to take it? Imagine an intervention that could significantly reduce your risk of stroke, or dementia, or arthritis. It would be a market blockbuster over night. Now imagine an intervention that does both of these things, and at the same time also reduces your risk of everything else undesirable about growing older, including heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease, hip fractures, osteoporosis, sensory impairments, and sexual dysfunction; in fact, everything that goes wrong with us as we age. Such a pill may sound like a fantasy, but ageing interventions in animal models already do just this, and many biogerontologists believe such an intervention is a realistically achievable goal for people, too. We already place a high value on both quality and length of life, which is why we try to immunize all children against infectious diseases. In the same spirit, we suggest that a concerted effort to slow ageing should be sought after for the same reasons – because it will save and extend lives, improve health, and create wealth.
