Do you think aging is a disease that could one day be cured?

Question

Ok, I should have worded my question differently. I don't mean a cure for death....

http://discovermagazine.com/2007/dec/can-we-cure-aging

Answer 1

No.

It is an immutable part of life. One might as well try to build a perpetual motion machine.  

Answer 2

Aging Research and efforts to help "fight the effects" of aging is a booming business, but I am of the opinion that aging is physiologic.  Endocrine changes which occur in conjunction with aging may confer certain advantages, e.g. protection from certain malignancies.  Much of the anti-aging "treatment" that has been advanced involved the use of serious medications and the medical community doesn't feel that we know enough about the long-term consequences of the use of powerful endocrinologic agents (even at physiologic doses) and just how safe it is.

I don't think aging is a disease, per se.  I think that there are diseases that occur with greater frequency as we age, hence our goal should be at preventing and treating these, this is my personal opinion and doesn't necessarily reflect the opinion of others in the medical community.

Answer 3

I'd certainly hope not, wouldn't life become boring!

If death WAS cured, you'd have to cure birth as well... else the world's population would not be sustainable anyway...?

And who decides when the world has enough people to be sustainable?  

Answer 4

yes

Supposedly they think hypothetically aging can be reduced with some more research and time.

Now I don't know about curing it completely, but once technology breaks through it seems to improve very rapidly.

I saw a lecture by a scientist that said anyone who is under 30 right now could hypothetically live to be hundreds or even thousands of years old.  He said something like if they start on aging treatments right now that they could get the first "breakthough" within 15 years.  And he said he thinks we could enhance the treatments faster than we age.

For some reason he seems to think it would be too hard for anyone over 40 to effectively receive these treatments.

So it seems possible.  I am not convinced that they can cure it, but maybe just find ways to slow it down

Answer 5

It's not a disease, it is a part of life. Death and loss are what defines us and helps us build character. Everyone dies, so therefore it is just a part of life. Though there are ways to help us live longer, there is no "cure" for making us live forever.

Answer 6

i saw a discover channel special a while ago saying that in the future they will be capable of freezing the aging process at the perfect age witch is 30

Answer 7

Aging isn't a disease, but it certainly does cause diseases that we have learned to manage and cure and so on.  That explains why in the 1800s a person was very old at 50, and now people are living well past 100.