The first study to analyze the life histories of thousands of naked mole rats has found that their risk of death doesn’t go up as they grow older, as it does for every other known mammalian species. Although some scientists caution against any sweeping conclusions, many say the new data are important and striking.
New study suggests that death rates don’t rise with age, as they do for most animals.
As we age, our bodily functions begin to deteriorate. To some extent, our bodies can cope with these unwelcome changes, but after age 35, some of them become visible. For us living in a world where youth and physical attractiveness are considered an advantage, this gradual loss of young looks can be painful – or maybe even scary, if we don’t know a way to slow down or reverse it.
It is not that physical attractiveness is a value per se for me, but I often hear people say that someone promoting longevity technologies should set a good example; wrinkles, dull skin and hair, and a bloated figure discredit not only the activist but the movement as a whole.
So, I keep an eye on what is going on in the field of aesthetic medicine – especially when it comes close to and crosses with rejuvenation biotechnologies. Last week, I went to one of the flagship research organizations in Moscow – the Human Stem Cells Institute – to interview Dr. Vadim Zorin, the head of the SPRS-therapy project and the developer of a unique approach to skin rejuvenation.
Would you like to live forever? Some billionaires, already invincible in every other way, have decided that they also deserve not to die. Today several biotech companies, fueled by Silicon Valley fortunes, are devoted to “life extension” — or as some put it, to solving “the problem of death.”
Some very wealthy people are serious about outsmarting mortality.
Summary: Google’s ultra-secretive Calico Labs announces a significant discovery – the naked mole rat is the first and only non-aging mammal and shows little signs of aging as it gets older. [This article first appeared on the website LongevityFacts.com. Author: Brady Hartman. ]
With wrinkly skin and completely bald, the naked mole rat is one of the ugliest creatures around but lives an exceptionally long life for a small mammal. It rarely develops the chronic diseases of aging such as cancer and lives 10 times longer than regular rats.
The First Non-Aging Mammal
