Lifespan

With special guest:

• David Sinclair PhD AO
  … in conversation with Bill Kable

Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To is a visionary book in a fast moving field. In fact when we talk to Dr David Sinclair for today’s program we discover that there have been some amazing developments in the scientific research of aging even since the book was written.

The immediate response of some people to aging research is that death at a certain age is the natural order of things. Perhaps you might hear that someone has had a look at old age and now does not want to lengthen this time in that person’s life. But would we want to go back to the time not so long ago when life expectancy was more like 40 than the current 80? What if by controlling aging we could reduce rather than extend time spent in total dependency in a nursing home?

David Sinclair concedes that his book could perhaps have been titled Healthspan because what he is working on will extend the healthy part of people’s lives. And not forever.

We discover today that there are thousands of scientists around the world working in the area. We have an Australian Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn who researched one aspect of aging namely the length of the telomere in chromosomes as a predictor of life expectancy.

If aging is identified as a disease we can focus on treating it and its components such as Alzheimer’s disease, Diabetes 2 and heart disease. David Sinclair tells us that until cancer was identified as a disease people diagnosed with cancer were told to go home and get their affairs in order. Now we aggressively treat the condition and there have been remarkable improvements in the survival rates of, for example, breast cancer and testicular cancer. The next frontier, expected in two to three years will be a treatment for glaucoma. Presently there is no treatment but with research now being conducted we may be able to effectively reduce the age of the eyeball and bingo, sight can return.

We hear about a species of sharks in Greenland that lives to the age of 510. We know of giant trees that live for thousands of years still fully functioning. If humans can live for just another 50 years there will be lots of interesting questions. Will people feel differently about marriage if it means having a partner for say 90 years instead of 40 when you promise until death do us part? Will the retirement age be moved out significantly from around 60 if we are likely to live to 130?

The issues in this book and those covered in our discussion do not get much bigger or more exciting.

David Sinclair PhD AO

David Sinclair, PhD is a tenured Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, the Founding Director of Paul F Glenn Labs for Aging Research, Co-Chief editor of the Journal of Aging and Co-joint Professor and head of the Aging Labs at the University of New South Wales and an honorary Professor at the University of Sydney. He has received more than 35 honours for his medical research and in 2014 he was named by TIME magazine as ‘one of the 100 most influential people in the world’. Born and raised in Australia, he now resides in Boston USA

Song selection by our guest: Funkytown by Lipps Inc

Note: This program is an encore presentation of the one aired on 5 December 2019.

Podcast (mp3)