Live to 100 Plus. It's Coming Soon, to a Doctor's Office Near You.

Would we want to.  What if we all could, and if we all did.  Then what?

At 50 we would be half way, 60 we would have 40 more years to go.  We could most certainly accomplish a great deal in our lives (if we so chose).  But ...



Super-drug could eradicate Alzheimer's and diabetes and let us live into our 100s




By Daily Mail Reporter
03rd February 2010


Scientists are on the brink of developing a 'long-life super-drug' which could spell the end for Alzheimer's and diabetes whilst allowing people to live into their 100s.

Experts have pinpointed three genes which can extend life past 100 and prevent diseases that commonly strike in old age.

Two genes boost the production of so-called good cholesterol, which reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke, while the third prevents diabetes.

People whose DNA prominently includes these genes are also 80 per cent less likely to develop Alzheimer's, experts will reveal on BBC2's Horizon tomorrow night.

World renowned geneticist Dr Nir Barzilai said several laboratories were now in the process of creating a pill that mimics the genes and expects the first to be ready for testing within three years.

Dr Barzilai's team examined the DNA of 500 healthy Ashkenazi Jews with an average age of 100 to determine if they shared traits that could explain their longevity.

Amazingly, a third of the centenarians were either obese or life-long heavy smokers, said Dr Barzilai, a director of the Institute for Aging Research and Professor of Medicine and Molecular Genetics Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

The chances of living to 100 are one in 10,000 but the study group - which shared relatively few common ancestors - was 20 times more likely to hit the century.

New York-based Dr Barzilai told the programme that three slight variations in their common genetic make-up provided the answer, after ruling out fitness and dietary causes.

He said: 'Thirty per cent of them were obese or overweight and 30 per cent smoked two packs of cigarettes (a day) for more than 40 years.

'Because our centenarians have longevity genes, they are protected against many of the effects of the environment.

'That's why they do whatever they want to do and they get through anyhow.'

His team took blood samples from the group to examine two million genetic markers in their DNA.

Dr Barzilai said: 'We found three that seemed to be over-represented in our 100-year-olds. Two of these genes seem to be relevant to cholesterol.

'Basically, they increase good cholesterol in a significant way. There's no drug currently that does it so effectively.

'Another gene seemed to be very important in preventing diabetes.

'It seems that those who have this specific genotype are protected from Alzheimer's by about 80 per cent.'

Dr Barzilai, who is a director at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, believes his findings could have huge benefits for everyone, increase average life expectancy and cut the risk of serious illness in old age.

He added: 'The advantage of finding a gene that involves longevity is that we can just develop a drug that will imitate exactly what this gene is doing.

'The biology we're trying to uncover is that if we can imitate that, then long life can be really terrific.'

Dr Barzilai revealed that normal lifespans were usually determined by 80 per cent lifestyle choices and 20 per cent genes.

However, it is the opposite way round with centenarians, which meant the answer to their longevity was predominately down to their genes.













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