The Genuinely Interested Podcast Ep 121 Nir Barzilai - The End of Aging?
Nir Barzilai, M.D. is the director of the Institute for Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He is also the Director of the Paul F. Glenn Center for the Biology of Human Aging Research and of the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging. Dr. Barzilai’s research interests are in the biology and genetics of aging. He is currently leading an international effort to approve drugs that can target aging. Targeting Aging with METformin (TAME) is a specific study designed to prove the concept that multi-morbidities of aging can be delayed by metformin, working with the FDA to approve this approach which will serve as a template for future efforts to delay aging and its diseases in humans.
Nir and I Discussed:
- What is Metformin and what was it previously used for?
- What does he mean by "cure aging"?
- Why do your chances of getting sick increase as you grow old
- Why do women live longer
- The longevity effects of intermittent fasting
- How to decipher between good & bad information
- Can we really extend human life to 200 years or more?
And much more...
My Take: Technology has allowed us all the luxuries that we currently enjoy. Our food, transportation, entertainment, clothes, medicine, communication - and everything else we can think of. Can technology extend human life? Well, it already has. 100 years ago the median age was half what it is now. It will be interesting to see what science will accomplish in the next few years, or decades, with age-related diseases and human longevity.