Scientists have managed to extend the lifespan of worms, by tricking their bodies into using the “hypoxic response” – a situation where the body adapts to limited oxygen supply – even when there was no need for the response (ie. there was plenty of oxygen in the air.
Does this have implications for humans? Possibly.
The researchers, publicity conscious in the increasing way of researchers, utter the usual platitudes about how it will one day “lead to new therapeutic targets for such diseases as Alzheimer’s disease, Huntington’s disease and other degenerative conditions.”
Let’s not get carried away here. This is an interesting finding, but the standard speech about all the diseases that might – might one day be helped is just PR. This kind of thing is pure spin, and should be discounted from any scientific press release. To labor the point, and at risk of pointing out the bleeding obvious, worms don’t get Huntingdon’s disease.
Still, it is an interesting and possibly important finding. Heat makes worms live longer (or even thinking they’re hot). How could we harness this? Maybe we can manipulate the complex network of hormones in our bodies into boosting longevity. The evidence is starting to suggest that we can.
Other recent findings: Optimists live longer.
That’s according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. But be careful in how you read this one. if they’d announced this in the sixties, the moral of the story would be clear: have an optimistic attitude and karma will reward you.
But that was in the days of the blank slate when you could ‘Be anything you want to be”
These days, the evidence is in that at least some personality axes are set at birth (or more accurately at conception), and that these shift slowly if at all. So if personality is genetic, and longevity is genetic (they both are), it’s might not be true that optimism doesn’t cause long life. Instead maybe there’s a gene combination that gives some people optimism and long life.
The lucky bastards.