It was my birthday last month. At my age, you tend not to celebrate them, but recognise them as milestones on the way to a final destination.
I don’t want to be reminded how old I am, so when a friend of mine presented me with a replica shirt from the football team we both follow, I was suitably pleased until I looked on the back of it. There was my surname in block capitals and two great big numerals – a six followed by a seven. How could he possibly have thought that I’d want to advertise the fact that I was, indeed, 67 years old?
Am I really that old? How did that happen? I am loath to admit it to myself, never mind to people who a) don’t know me and b) might think I’m younger than I am. A friend of mine, who is also the slippery side of 60, explained her cheerful theory that when you’re between 60 and 65, you’re an old young man, but after 65 you become a young old man.
Well, that’s the aim, anyway. But no matter how much we try to keep active of mind and body, the built-in obsolescence of the human form is an inescapable reality. The physical bits are tedious enough: the nocturnal wee breaks, the creaking joints, the fading eyesight and hearing. But the mental aspects of ageing – the memory lapses, the unfathomable anxiety and the fear of one’s own mortality – are especially depressing.
However, today comes news that the process may not be this inexorable after all. So rapid are the medical advances in this field that a group of Israeli scientists have said this week that we are “closer than ever” to finding a vaccine to mobilise the immune system and halt the accumulation of dead cells in our bodies. This will, in turn, combat the degeneration of our brain functions.
Come on, Keir – have the backbone to tell Musk to take a hike
Read MoreThe research study from the Weizmann Institute of Science concluded: “The potential rejuvenation of the immune system could help revitalise brain function, with the ultimate ambitious goal of developing an anti-ageing immune therapy.” What this infers is that it’s no longer in the realms of science fiction to believe we can preserve our mental faculties and, as long as we look after our bodies – taking exercise and eating and sleeping well – we can stay younger for longer.
It is inevitable, given the march of science, technology and medicine that, one day, this will indeed become a reality. Yet I’m not sure I entirely agree that this latest advance is the unreservedly “exciting” news the scientists from the Weizmann Institute proclaim it to be.
For the individual, it may seem like a hugely positive development, but there is nothing that can be done, eventually, to stop the physical ravages of age. It’s worth recalling the words attributed to the American composer Eubie Blake, who, after a lifetime of drinking and smoking, died at the age of 96. “If I had known I was going to live this long,” he said, “I’d have taken better care of myself.”
And what of the consequences for society as a whole? In Western democracies, improved life expectancy may be one of the great advances of the past century, but it also provides a monumental problem in terms of the increased demand for social and health care, greater spending on welfare, unsustainable pension commitments and pressure on housing. Many of these challenges have to be met by increasing the tax burden of the working population.
Bob Dylan articulated the ambition of longevity best. “May your hands always be busy / May your feet always be swift… May you stay forever young.” He released this in 1974, when he was only 29 years old. I wonder what he thinks now.
Like him, I would like my hands always to be busy, and my feet always to be swift. But we should know that, whatever miracles medical science might promise, we are not going to stay forever young. The most important thing is that we shouldn’t die trying.
Read More Details
Finally We wish PressBee provided you with enough information of ( The fight to stay young is as scary as getting old )
Also on site :
- What to know about the trial of an ex-Michigan cop charged in the killing of a Black motorist
- Trump sees no red line that would change tariff policy - The Atlantic
- Could 100 Men Really Take on One Gorilla and Win? We Asked ChatGPT