Can We Reverse the Aging Process?

According to the legends, the conquistador Ponce De Leon went searching for the Fountain of Youth in the mythical land of Bimini and all he found was Florida. His failure has not dampened the spirits of scientists who are dedicating their careers to reversing aging.

Along with death and taxes, growing old has always been one of those things we could count on. And that's unlikely not to change in, well, our lifetimes. But medical researchers are making significant strides in our understanding of just what is happening inside our bodies that triggers and enables the aging process.

All things being equal, how long will you live? Many researchers believe genetics to be the most heavily weighted variable. As you may have inherited your mother's blue eyes, so too can you thank her for your expected lifespan. A report from the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden specifically credit the mitochondrial DNA that we inherit from our mothers as a prime longevity influencer. Various studies other studies have borne out the theory that if your parents lived long lives, you will, as well.

Of course, nothing is written in stone when it comes to our time of mortal coil shedding, and more researchers are focusing on environmental factors in longevity. Aging, at its baseline, is simply cellular degeneration. The cells of our body generally do a good job of healing themselves, but over time our DNA cells will eventually accrue more damage than they can heal. Most of the irreparable damage stems from oxidative stress, which occurs when your body does not have enough antioxidants to combat the free radicals nipping at our DNA.

A recent study from the University of Cambridge drills down even more deeply. The British researchers examined the caps at the end of the DNA strands that guard our chromosomes. These are called telomeres, and they naturally shorten as we age. But should they become too short, and unable to properly safeguard the chromosomes, we become susceptible to disease and premature aging.

So what would happen if we could artificially extend the length of our telomeres? That's the thesis behind the work of a group of researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine. They have managed to increase the length of telomeres by 10 percent through the application of modified RNA to human cells. More time and testing must pass before we will know if such a procedure can directly manipulate lifespan.

Another approach to chasing off the Grim Reaper has scientists targeting mitochondria. These are the parts of the cell which oxidize glucose and in turns provides the cell with energy. But, researchers at the Institute for Aging at Newcastle University in the UK discovered that if they removed the mitochondria from aging cells, a cellular rejuvenation process was triggered.

All this research is promising, but don't put your treadmill up on Ebay just yet. Another way (maybe the best one?) to slow or reverse the aging process is to simply run. Research published in PLOS One indicates that just running several times a week may slow the aging process for older adults.