The scene in San Francisco wasn't quite this romantic, but the crowd certainly loved de Grey and Wexler at the recent Q&A.

If you’re watching a movie and someone from the film suddenly appears before you in person, there are two likely explanations: 1) you’re in the future or 2) you’re at a Q&A. Last Friday was a little bit of both. Mark Wexler, director of How To Live Forever, screened his new documentary in San Francisco and invited one of the other stars of the show, Aubrey de Grey, to join him. Together, the filmmaker and gerontologist answered twenty of the audience’s questions about the science and philosophy shown in How To Live Forever, a movie focused on longevity and health in the 21st Century. I was lucky enough to attend the screening, and get the entire Q&A session on tape. Enjoy the full recording of the event in the videos below (don’t miss the answer to question 15). How To Live Forever is a great introduction into the possibilities of extended life and all the ramifications that go with it. And there are no better guides than Wexler and de Grey. Enjoy.

I’ve split the Q&A session into three semi-equal parts. The first covers questions one through eight, which are paraphrased here for easy browsing:
(0:13) Q1: How did your opinions change in the course of making this film? (Answered by Mark Wexler)
(1:23) Q2: Are enjoying the present and looking to extend life mutually exclusive? (Answered by Mark Wexler)
(1:36) Q3: How can we overcome “deathism”? (Answered by Aubrey de Grey)
(3:04) Q4: Is the Vibrant Brains facility still open? (Answered by Mark Wexler and crowd).
(3:32) Q5: As a 21 year old, what should I be doing to live forever? (Answered by Aubrey de Grey)
(5:00) Q6: Why was caloric restriction portrayed as so unpleasant? (Answered by Mark Wexler)
(7:14) Q7: How wary must we be of accidental death? (Answered by Aubrey de Grey)
8:45) Q8: Can you speak about the necessary technologies for life extension? (Answered by Aubrey de Grey)

Unfortunately the quality of video was poor (we were in a darkened theater) and the audio was even worse (feedback from the theater mic and Aubrey de Grey was also getting hoarse). However, everything said is completely intelligible and the blue and red lights actually give the whole thing a nice artistic overtone (that’s my angle, and I’m sticking to it).

Video two covers questions nine through fourteen:
(0:00) Q9: Are there clinical trials in the US for restoring brains and memory? (Answered by Aubrey de Grey)
(1:56) Q10: Will longevity technology only be available to the rich? (Answered by Aubrey de Grey)
(4:41) Q11: Isn’t this movie too focused on materialism and Western thought? (Answered by Mark Wexler and Aubrey de Grey and crowd)
(6:18) Q12: You ask people in the movie if they want to live 500 more years. Did you think about rephrasing it? (Answered by Mark Wexler)
(7:52) Q13: Do you eat red meat and dairy? (Answered by Mark Wexler)
(8:18) Q14: Could you speak to the Ray Kurzweil style approach to supplements? (Answered by Aubrey de Grey)

The final video answers questions fifteen through twenty:
(0:00) *Q15: How can I talk to non-futurists about the possibilities of infinite life? (Answered by Aubrey de Grey)*
(2:14) Q16: When it comes to a longevity diet, what’s one thing to give up and one thing to start? (Answered by Mark Wexler and Aubrey de Grey)
(3:40) Q17: What is the most promising longevity research going on right now? How do you feel about non-biological enhancement versus biological? (Answered by Aubrey de Grey)(On a side note: he mentions that researchers he has talked to believe that cochlear implants will reach normal human accuracy in the next five years!)
(5:55) Q18: Were the centenarians fixated on health? (Answered by Mark Wexler)
(6:55) Q19: What’s going on the bonus DVD? (Answered by Mark Wexler)
(7:39) Q20: Could you give us your thoughts on over-population? (Answered by Aubrey de Grey)

If the question and answer session has piqued your interest, don’t worry. How To Live Forever is touring through the US and Canada, and coming soon to DVD. At those North American screenings, Mark Wexler will be answering questions and quite often he’ll have special guests like Aubrey de Grey joining him. Check the movie website for your local opportunities to see the film, and don’t forget to bring a friend. The more people we can introduce to the concept of life extension the more support we could find to help make these technologies a reality!

[image credits: Wexler's World Inc]
[video credit: Aaron Saenz/Singularity Hub]
[source: How To Live Forever]

Walter Breuning, aged 114 years 205 days, has died but he left us with many wise words.

The world’s oldest man passed away this past Thursday, April 14th, due to natural causes at the age of 114. Over the course of Walter Breuning’s long life, he experienced the sweeping changes of three centuries. From a childhood without electricity to the rise of radio, through two World Wars, the Great Depression, and everyday since, Breuning maintained a healthy regimen of eating less, working more, and taking care of others, crediting this behavior with keeping him youthful. Over the years, Walter generated a lot of wise remarks, many of which we’ve shared with you before. While his death represents a great loss for the world, we can rest easier knowing this: with the steady march of science, and a little help from Walter’s wisdom, we may all be on the path to become supercentenarians.

“Everybody says your mind is the most important thing about your body. Your mind and your body. You keep both busy, and by God you’ll be here a long time.” —Walter Breuning

Perhaps unsurprising for a man who spent 50 years working for the railroad, Breuning was happy with the steady improvements in life brought on by modern technology. When it came to medical technology, however, he wasn’t in much need. The director of the Rainbow Senior Living retirement home where he was living in Great Falls Montana told the Associated Press Walter never took anything more than aspirin. Maybe Breuning’s two meal a day diet, his active life, and his strong social bonds were enough to sustain him – these same general trends are found among many centenarians around the world. Yet the rest of us may need a bit of boost. Thankfully we live in a world where regenerative medicine continues to have great success from stem cell treatments to growing organs in labs to genetic therapies for major diseases. These technologies will help us sustain our current biology, repairing or replacing parts as they wear out. One day we’ll move on from simply sustaining our bodies to openly improving upon them as well. That upcoming change may seem daunting, but Walter’s words of wisdom are here to quell our fears:

“I think every change that we’ve ever made, ever since I was a child — 100 years — every change has been good for the people…My God, we used to have to write with pen and ink, you know, (for) everything. When the machines came, it just made life so much easier.”

Walter Breuning (September 21, 1896 - April 14th, 2011)

*Note: With Walter’s passing, the oldest living man is Jiroemon Kimura of Japan. The oldest living person is still Besse Cooper of the United States who was born almost a month before Walter Breuning.

[screen capture: Integral Senior]
[image credit: Mike Albans/Associated Press]
[sources: Associated Press]

Peggy McApline went paragliding on her 100th birthday. What will you do with yours?

The fastest growing age group in the industrialized world is the centenarian club. Pushing past 100 used to be a rare feat, but most demographic studies agree that by 2030 there will be about a million of us enjoying the three digit lifestyle. Those studies don’t even count on the revolutionary longevity treatments we could develop in the next 20 years. We could hit that million mark much sooner, and we may start getting people past the 150 or even 200 mark. Either way, baby-boomers are going to become elder-boomers and before that happens we all need to take a crash course on what it means to live to be really really old. Turns out, it’s not that bad. Judging by the centenarians scientists have studied all over the world, living beyond 100 isn’t about slipping into decrepitude. A good portion of these elders live independent, happy lives without long suffering illnesses. How can you live past 100? Well, for now becoming a centenarian is a much about luck and love as it is about lifestyle. As technology advances, it could be about choice.

My Lucky Genes

It’s no surprise that genetics play an important role in helping you live into very old age. What is surprising is how little it matters up until then. Scientists in Scandinavia studied more than 20,000 twins, identical and fraternal, to understand how their genes were helping them get old. They found that when it comes to longevity, genetics really only becomes a dominant factor when you live past 60. If you make it into your 60s, there’s a good chance your twin will too, and there’s not much difference between fraternal and identical. But if you live into your 90s, an identical twin has a much better chance of keeping up with you than a fraternal twin. The work, published in Human Genetics in 2006, suggests that having the exact same genes as someone nearing centenarian status makes you almost three times more likely than a comparable sibling to get past 100 yourself.

Of course, even being a non-twin sibling of a centenarian is a pretty good indication that you’ll live a long healthy life. Studies of centenarians in Okinawa Japan have shown that longevity definitely runs in the family. In that community, having a sibling past the age of 90 gives you about a 50-50 chance of making past 90 yourself. Not bad odds at all. Okinawa has become well known for its aged population, with some of the highest rates of centenarians in the world: about 58 for every 100,000. That’s more than five times higher than in the US (~1 in 10,000). The sibling studies in Okinawa highlight how the island’s relatively insular community may have selected for some remarkably lucky genes.

The Okinawa Centenarian Study found that having a long lived sibling was a good indication of your chances for longevity.

What are the genes responsible for longevity? We’re not exactly sure yet. There are some likely culprits: the Apolipoprotein E gene (ApoE), the human leukocyte antigen genes (HLA), FOXO3A, the Sirtuin genes, and several others. Most have at least one major study associated with them, some have several. Determining the exact gene, genes, or combination of genes that lets you live longer and healthier is going to take some time. Luckily, centenarians can provide much insight into which segments of DNA are essential to longevity. Projects like the MPrize, which rewards scientists who are able to extend the lifespan of mice, will take the centenarian insights and hopefully translate them into medical gold.

The rapid progress of whole genome sequencing will one day allow each of us to understand which (if any) longevity genes we possess. From there, genetic therapies or protein manipulation could give us the benefits of those genes we don’t have. In short, while current centenarians are lucky to have the genes they have now, we could all enjoy the benefits of those genes in the future.

Why Would I Die? There’s So Much to Live For

One of the things most overlooked in the pursuit of longevity is the importance of love, social bonds, and purpose. Wherever you see clusters of people who live longer than the norm, you find communities in which family bonds, customs, and affection play a significant role. While individual results vary, most centenarians have spent most of their years with a stress-free outlook on life, and the strong support of their friends and family. Studies in Okinawa, Britain, and New England have all found this correlation between social bonds and longevity.

Why does community matter? I mean, is it really something as sappy as ‘love makes life worth living’? Well, maybe…it depends. Though the exact impact of social bonds on your body hasn’t been rigorously explored, stress has. Protracted mental tension is detrimental to brain function, your cardiovascular system, and your immune system. It could be that communities that help people cope well with stress, and eliminate it from their daily lives, are acting as buffers to protect the body from tension related damage. Or it could be that living is just easier when you enjoy it.

I’m not sure if companion bots and sex androids will fill this need for community, so we’re going to have to keep trying to form human-human bonds in the future. Of course, community is undergoing a major shift as more and more of us login online. There’s both opportunity and danger in that trend. Being able to find huge social networks of people with shared interest can help you form new and meaningful connections. There are millions who have found good friends and spouses on the internet. Still, tuning in to the web can also mean dropping out of socialized contact. That’s not good for your health. What’s the solution? Find ways for the net to augment your socialization, not replace it. Oh, and read Singularity Hub with a loved one.

Ok, But Would You Want To Live Without Cigarettes, Liquor, and Partying?

As much as genetics and community ties may help you live longer, there’s no doubt that lifestyle plays an important role as well. You can find plenty of anecdotes of centenarians who never dropped their bad health habits. Jeanne Louisa Calment, arguably the oldest woman who every lived at 122, was a smoker. On the whole, however, centenarians smoke less, drink less, eat better, and get more exercise than their shorter lived compatriots.

Ok, so the oldest woman in recorded history smoked. Big deal. That's not an excuse for you to do the same.

That explains, in part, the huge gap between the populations of men and women as they reach 100. Both the Okinawa Centenarian Study and the New England Centenarian Study show drastic disparity between the genders – roughly 85% of all people over the age of 100 were female. In general, men tend to partake in riskier behaviors more often than woman, including increased use of tobacco and alcohol. Yet there’s a flip side as well. Most men who make it past 100 are towards the healthier and happier end of the spectrum. That seems to be because the risky behavior has eliminated all but the most genetically gifted males.

So, should you give up the little vices in life just to live past 100? I mean, why die old and bored when you can die young and excited, right?

Well it’s a gamble. There are developing stem cell treatments which may one day replace your organs with new ones made with your own DNA. You could smoke your lungs out and just get a fresh one. Eventually, we could even have nanobots roaming your body, repairing the damage you cause it as it happens. Those technologies aren’t here yet, however, so you’re better off behaving yourself today to get a good chance and seeing tomorrow.

Besides, the golden years are actually much more enjoyable than many of us would imagine. You’re not going to spend all your time in a nursing home staring at the walls. A University of Cambridge study found that out of 958 (British) individuals over the age of 90, only about 25% were institutionalized. The rest were living independently or semi-independently. The same is true for the New England Centenarian Study, which found that 40% of its 700+ elders were living on their own.

Researchers in Denmark studied an entire regional population that was born in 1905 and still living by 1998, some 3600 people. As discussed in the paper in PNAS, the Danish team followed this cohort up through 2005 (so from 92 to 100 years old). Of the Danes who lived past 100, about 33% were living independently. Just as important, 70% of those centenarians had been independent when the study began. So, if you live into your 100s not only are your chances of being healthy pretty good, your chances of having been healthy in your 90s are excellent.

Of course, “healthy” for a centenarian means something a little different than for a 50 year old. Vision loss, hearing loss, and arthritis are so prevalent that most studies don’t discuss them. But centenarians do enjoy lives fairly free of other old age diseases. The NECS found that 43% of centenarians get age related illnesses prior to 80, 42% get an age related illness after 80, but 15% have no age related illnesses up to 100. Not bad.

And there are many technologies which may compensate for the basic infirmities of old age. Stem cell joint therapies are already old news for horses and dogs, they may help human arthritis sufferers in the future. Likewise, there are many technologies aimed at improving hearing and vision loss. If you do become bedridden, there are likely to be exoskeletons, or even robotic beds to help you stay mobile, get outside, and enjoy the world.

Ready to Join the Super Senior Crowd?

Let’s be honest, when you’re young and thinking about getting old you probably worry about two things: will I still be coherent, and can I still have sex? The answer is yes to both if you live in Okinawa. The Okinawa Centenarian Study showed that their elderly had lower cases of dementia and higher levels of sex hormones than populations in the rest of Japan or in the US. In fact, Okinawan centenarians simply had better cardiovascular health, lower cases of hormonally related cancers, better bone density, and less Alzheimer’s.

The Okinawa Centenarian Study showed that local elderly had much lower rates of dementia.

Oh, and they kept high levels of sex hormones well into their twilight years. Naughty.

The answer probably lies in the longevity trifecta: genetics, community, and lifestyle. Okinawa is one of the Blue Zones, areas on the globe where these three factors come together and create a boom in the centenarian population. If you want to live longer, live like an Okinawan. First, build a strong community of friends and family and try to avoid needless protracted stress. Second, live healthy. Drink less, smoke less, eat better, and be active. Third, be born lucky so you have the best genetic advantages for long life. If that last one seems impossible, just remember the MPrize, genetic research, stem cell treatments, and countless other longevity studies going on out there. Scientists are working on ways to extend cell life dramatically and keep you living longer, but their research needs time to finish. If you want to make it to that point, or even to the Methuselarity, you can’t skip out on the first two steps. Hopefully, the lessons that centenarians can teach will allow all of us to live longer and healthier lives. I fully expect the human lifespan to keep increasing, maybe indefinitely. In a few years, I may be rewriting this article as “Get ready to live past 1000.”  The longer you live, the more chance you have to access technologies to extend your life.  It’s a good reason to take care of yourself. See you in the next century.

[image credits: Reuters, Okinawa Centenarian Study, Newspix /Rex Features, Sipa Press /Rex Features]
[sources: Okinawa Centenarian Study, Human Genetics, New England Centenarian Study, PNAS]

A common gene variant is found in many centenarians. It could explain how some live past 100 despite their lifestyle.

German researchers at the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel recently confirmed that variants of the FOXO3A gene are a common characteristic for many people who live past 100. The CAU team studied 380+ centenarians, more than 600 people in their 90s, and more than 700 60-75 year olds to determine how prevalent these gene variations were. They found that not only were certain FOXO3A variants very common in 90 year olds, they were even more common in 100 year olds, emphasizing the importance of genetics for aging well. The CAU work confirms earlier research performed by J. Wilcox that found FOXO3A variants among Japanese American centenarians. Both papers were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). CAU has a partner group in France that showed similar results there. Taken together, these studies suggest that FOXO3A may be a global factor for longevity. While none of these teams have worked to extend human life per se, understanding FOXO3A variations may eventually lead to genetic treatments to help us all live past the century mark.

The past few decades have seen a growing interest in longevity as medicine continues to advance life expectancy. Groups like the Methuselah Foundation (sponsors of the MPrize) are actively seeking technology to extend lifespans. Yet, understanding aging is not an exact science. We do know that genetics, environmental risks/lifestyle, and strong social bonds are all part of what helps someone live longer. Studies of centenarians, however, have suggested that while genetics don’t seem to make a big difference in the early decades of old age, they have a profound effect determining who makes it into extreme old age. Variants in FOXO3A may be one of the key ingredients that help take a healthy 80 year old, and turn her into a healthy 110 year old. Unfortunately, we can’t know which genes are important without actually understanding how they work to preserve us as we age.

It’s important that we make it clear that everyone has a FOXO3A gene. It is the variation in single sections of that gene (single nucleotide polymorphisms) which are important. CAU looked at 16 of these SNPs, while Wilcox studied 3. As we better understand which of these SNPs are key for longevity, you’ll be able to test for them with personal DNA tests or whole genome sequencing.

Of course, you probably don’t just want to know if you have great gene variants, you probably also want to be able to exchange your genes for better ones. There have been some promising results from scientists studying how limited genetic manipulation can extend the life of mice. In humans, however, we are likely to seek ways of producing the effects of genetic manipulation without actually splicing our genes. The FOXO3A gene codes for the FOXO3A protein. If we figure out how longevity variants of FOXO3A change the protein (in its form, frequency, etc) we could then produce drugs that replicate that change and give our bodies long life.

CAU was able to perform such a (relatively) large study so quickly thanks to the Schleswig Holstein biobank known as Popgen. It has more than 650 samples of centenarian DNA on file. Biobanks store genetic samples for use in scientific studies and are a resource of growing importance. I wonder what other insights we’ll develop in the next few years as biobank data becomes available to more researchers in a variety of fields. Getting older is wonderful if you are still healthy. Genetic research may not only tell us how to increase lifespans, but also how to extend our youth.

I’ll be taking a personal DNA test very soon (an article on that is forthcoming) and the CAU research has me excited about what I could learn. Admittedly, I doubt that any SNP detection company is ready to test for these FOXO3A variants yet, but there’s still a ton more to know. Genetics don’t dominate every part of your life but, as this research shows, there are times when they become very important. Learning more about your genes is the first step to taking advantage of (and compensating for) your body’s natural inclinations. I can’t wait.

The oldest person in the world, Gertrude Baines, just died at age 115

In the search for longevity, we tend to focus on healthy lifestyles, miracle supplements, or potential technologies. It’s easy to forget the people who have accomplished that goal seemingly without the intention to do so. Gertrude Baines, the oldest person on Earth, passed away in Los Angeles on Friday September 11, 2009, at the tender age of 115. That, my friends, is old. Her title passes on to Kama Chinen in Japan, age 114, and still going strong. These supercentenarians give us hope that the dream of living longer (maybe forever) is a possible one.

There are ‘Blue Zones‘ on Earth were people live longer, and those populations seem to have much in common. We see simple lifestyles devoid of unnecessary stress, good diets that focus on fruits and veggies (not meats and sugars), and plenty of daily exercise. Supercentenarians, however, are as much about statistical anomalies as they are about trends. They don’t seem to have a lot in common besides agrarian backgrounds (but we’re talking about the 1890s here) and gender (most are women). Apparently one of Ms. Baines favorite foods was bacon and eggs.

Gertrude Baines was born on April 6, 1894 in Georgia, worked for many years as a maid at Ohio State University, and spent the last ten years of her life in a resident home in LA. She took over the reign of oldest person in January of this year when Maria de Jesus (Portugal) died at age 114. Her successor, Kama Chinen (b. May 10, 1895), is only 7 days older than the next runner up, Canadian born US resident Mary Jospehine Ray.

Of the hundreds of thousands of people in the world who reach one hundred years of age, only 1 in a 1000 will make it to the 110 year mark. Of those, 1-2% will make it past 115. Beyond that, every year is like winning the lottery. Sakhan Dosova of Kazakhstan supposedly lived to be 130. Jeanne Calment of France is well documented to have passed 122. Many of these women, and again a super majority of centenarians and supercentenarians are women, lived relatively simple lives often in meager means. As we discussed in an earlier article, Sakhan Dosova’s death may have been indirectly related to her being moved to better conditions.

The human body, or some human bodies at least, can survive long wear and tear for years past the century mark. There’s plenty of evidence that the average person’s longevity could extend into this region routinely. Already, most developed nations enjoy a centenarian rate of more than 100 per million. The US, France, and Japan all have rates near or above 300 per million. Every nation expects those numbers to rise dramatically in the next century. As we explore longevity here at the Hub, it goods to keep in mind that while we may have to fight aging in our bodies, some bodies are already willing to join in on the battle.