Rapamycin, widely prescribed to prevent rejection of your organ after a transplant, increases the life expectancy of middle-aged mice by up to 60 percent
Pills called senolytics help geriatric mice stay active long after their friends have died. The diabetes pills metformin and acarbose
the intense calorie limit and, recalls one biotech investor, about 90 other interventions keep mice slipping through lab cages past their usual expiration date.
The most recent scheme is to hack into the aging system itself by using old cells reprogrammed in a younger country.
"If you're a mouse, you're a lucky creature because there are so many ways to extend your life," says Cynthia Kenyon,
a molecular biologist whose groundbreaking work many years ago catalyzed what is now a frenzy of study. "And the long-lived mice seem very happy."
What about us? How far can scientists stretch the span of our existence? And how far do they have to go? Between 1900 and 2020, human life expectancy doubled
Four years. But that high-quality benefit has come at a cost: a sharp increase in chronic and degenerative diseases