Aging, what a frightening business that is. No one likes to think about that.
Can we do something about it? Well science is saying yeah, maybe.
Some fascinating experiments done with mice...as we get older our cells age and some of them
become what are known as senescent cells. They no longer divide but they do
release compounds that are inflammatory and that can damage tissues.
Well, in a very interesting experiment scientists injected young mice with senescent cells
and they got old. They became slower, they reacted more slowly
to everything and then they injected them with drugs, one of them derived from
apple peels the other one a pharmaceutical substance, and it turned out that after
injecting it those mice regained their youthful appearance.
Now granted this is only with mice and as we say mice are not men or women
Is there anything that we can do that is more applicable to us?
Well, maybe there is. It's a calorie-restricted diet.
Science has shown over and over again from rodents to dogs to to monkeys
that if they are put on a calorie restricted diet they age more slowly.
What does that mean, a calorie restricted diet?
Well, may not be very appealing because it means eating less than the 2,000 calories
we normally a day. Of course, it doesn't mean that you just eat fewer potato chips or hot dogs.
It has to be a balanced diet and it's possible to do that.
Now I wish that we had long-term experiments with humans. We don't have that.
But it is an interesting possibility that just cutting down on food is going to increase our longevity.
It's not a good idea to be hungry all the time and if it's gonna make you live
longer question comes up is it worthwhile living longer if you're going
to miss some of the good things in life?
We're going to take a scientific look at that this week.
Our annual Trottier Public Science Symposium isentitled Longing for Longevity
and we have some great speakers: Dr. David Sinclair from Harvard
is going to address whether or not there are any supplements we can take to reduce
the aging process. Kelly Dobos will look at cosmetics, what can we put on our
skin to perhaps retard aging? And we will also have the legendary Dr. Ruth discuss
whether or not there is sex after 50. You are all invited. It takes place on Tuesday
and Wednesday at 7 o'clock at the Centre Mont Royal, corner of Sherbrooke and Mansfield.
It's absolutely free. Everyone is invited. We're gonna have a great time
and in the meantime I will try to cut back on the calories in my diet.