Aging in the Future Never Looked Better

LONGER LIFE EXPECTANCY 

People are living far longer than they did in decades past. Dr. Roizen says life expectancy in the U.S. has increased 2.5 years every decade for the last 170 years. For example, a woman who was expected to live to age 42 in 1850 is now likely to see age 80. One reason for this, he points out, is better sanitation, public health measures, and vaccines which produced an increase in the survival and health of the young in the first half of the 20th century.

In later years, improvements in managing chronic disease of the elderly, like high blood pressure, and arterial, diabetic, and valve diseases resulted in longer life spans. Even declines in life expectancy from the current COVID-19 pandemic are expected to return to normal levels by 2025. 

DRAMATIC INCREASE COMING

Dr. Roizen believes that by the early 2030’s, the world will see an exponential increase of longevity of thirty or so years. He emphasizes the word exponential and illustrates it with this explanation: 30 linear steps equal 30 yards; 30 exponential steps – 1,2,4,8,16,32 – equal 26 times around the earth. He says that’s how fast research in aging mechanisms is progressing. 

Roizen then explains that advances in aging research are largely based on progress from The Human Genome project, completed in 2003. It concluded:

• 300,000 genes were expected in human DNA; only 22,500 were found.
• The rest were found to be “switches”, called epigenes, which control whether genes are producing proteins.
• Only 1500 of the 22,500 genes are turned “on” at any one point, and are largely under our control. “You are a genetic engineer for you,” he states.  

Next, he lists 14 areas of exponentially-increasing research, and says there’s an 80% chance they will affect us and the economy within ten years:

• Stem cell production without immunogenicity, and repair of dysfunctional cells (generating cells that can substitute and replace original cells and function as if they were the original cells)
• Autophagy with and without intermittent fasting and 5-day calorie/sugar/protein restriction (a process of recycling parts that makes you younger) 
• Senolytics, including therapeutic plasma exchange (the harvesting of old cells and proteins that make neighbors old) 
• Gene editing (CRISPr and CAS9 and improvements) with immunomodulation (modifying your genes to get rid of errors and genes that make you age)
• Induced tissue regeneration (resetting your genes to their original factory settings)
• Epigenetic reprogramming and rebooting (resetting the switches that govern which of your genes are on or off back to their original settings)
• Telomere regeneration (allowing your repair systems to repair you longer)
• Immunotherapy and Immunologic Targeting (uses your immune system to get rid of cancer, and other chronic diseases)
• Hormetic hyperbaric oxygen therapy (using oxygen in ways that trick the body to increase tissue repair mechanisms)
• Mitochondrial restoration and elimination of obesity and its consequences with white to brown fat transformation 
• Microbiome reprogramming and photo modulation (using the bacteria and other organisms that inhabit your body and intestine and energy therapies to help you reboot)
• Reducing Inflammaging (reducing inflammation in your body)
• Bionic Bodies (artificially created organs and tissues)
• Proteostasis (keeping your proteins like they were when you were younger)

PREPARING FOR LONGER, YOUNGER LIFE

If many people start living to be 100 and older, Roizen admits, it will be a great “social disruptor,” with obvious implications for their family and finances. People haven’t planned to live and work decades longer, and as he says, “who wants to live longer if it just means living older?” Dr. Roizen emphasizes the coming changes don’t mean we’ll live in downtrodden bodies longer, but we’ll have many more years of robust health. These longer, healthier, more productive lives increase human capital, he says.  

To prepare for longer life from a financial point of view, Roizen and his co-authors recommend a number of strategies.

• Work longer. An additional year for those currently over 55 will increase GDP by 1.5% a year. An additional five years would mean result in $1.75 trillion a year to spend on personal and societal priorities. Ten more years would produce an additional $3.5 trillion a year.  
• Make good lifestyle choices. These, along with medical advances, will reduce lifestyle diseases by 50%. This is nearly $5,000 per year for every US household in reduced medical outlays via co-pays, out-of-pocket payments, insurance premiums, and Medicare and Medicaid taxes.
• Save, save, save! Start young, start now, he advises. Try to save an additional 5-10% each year.  
• Invest using a patient, diversified portfolio; accumulate slowly, simply, and conservatively.  
• Defer taking Social Security as long as possible to maximize your highest earning years and get the biggest benefit increases under the program.  

From a personal standpoint, Dr. Roizen offers these tips:

• Change your attitude – you are a genetic engineer for you.
• Only eat food you love and that loves your body back.
• Choose your healthcare team for trust, honesty, knowledge, and curiosity to assess your body and brain.
• Add speed to your body and brain.
• Manage stress and include cultivating your posse and purpose.