Human Aging First I would like to talk about an incredible event. A woman just had her 117th birthday. This in itself is incredible since it made her the oldest known living person, but there is another fact we have to add to this incredible feat. It is the fact her sister is still alive at 107 years old. One has to wonder how this is possible given the history of longevity in the human race. What could possible be different about the bodies of these woman and the bodies of the average woman? The woman lives in Brazil and experts are scrambling to verify her age. The current oldest person was in the Guinness Book of Records and listed at 116 years old. This subject seem to contain a lot of claims. It is rumored a French nun lived to be 117 years old. I remember when a man who was said to be the oldest in the world at the time was found in the jungle, but it was never verified because of the lack of records. Could the human race be living longer? I know this is not the case for the residents of the United States, they are said to be living shorter lives on the average. There are those who actually do not want to live past a certain age. Take the 117 years old woman for example. If she had any children and even grand children they are most likely dead and if it wasn’t for the incredible fact her sister was somehow alive she would be living a very solitary life possibly without any family ties. When I have talked to many elderly people they have mostly told me they didn’t want to outlive their children. I can understand that having lost a child myself. It is heartbreaking and one never gets over it. This would not be true however if the entire human race somehow got increased longevity. It is just the idea of losing something so precious as a child due to the fact their parent or parents have become extremely elderly and just outlived them. The oldest know man alive is 114 years old as of the writing of this article. One man in Japan lived to be 116 years old. He was born in 1897 and died in 2013. His birth was validated by a records search. The ancient Babylonians left some incredible records. These records were of their kings and some of them were said to have lived a very long time. For example, a king named Galumum was said to have been king for 900 years and another named Zugagib was said to have been king for 840 years. It is not believed their years were shorter than ours. These kings lived before the great flood which was said to encompass the earth. The stone record is on view for all to see in a museum. Is it any wonder why some believe these kings were extraterrestrials? If this was just a story and not true, why would the ancient Babylonians have recorded their reigns on tablets? There are also other indications some people have lived very long lives. The bible also tells of long lives such as the story of Methuselah. According to the bible Methuselah lived a very long life and died at the age of 969 years. He was the grandfather of Noah. If it was possible for people to live that long years ago and they were human, it could be an indication of some kind of life extension which could be found through science to increase the human lifespan. Scientists have been working on this for years. After all there are creatures on this planet which are called eternal and grow old and then that process is reversed and they grow younger until it starts all over again. The creature I am talking about is the Turritopsis dohrnii, a species of Jellyfish. Scientists call them biologically immortal. They do a sort of Benjamin Button act except they never get so young as to disappear. If one creature can live forever, it seems to me there is a secret to be found which might be able someday to keep all humans alive forever, except for accidental deaths. Scientists are talking about extending human life another 70 years or so in the future. It is a start. The first thing they have to find out is all the factors which contribute to aging. I believe there is a lot to be found out before they can actually cure aging. Some day humans might consider aging a sickness and wipe it out. There are all sorts of products on the market which claim to slow aging and others which claim to make us at least look younger. Then there is plastic surgery which falls into the look younger category, but doesn’t always work the way it should and sometimes makes people look worse. There is nothing worse than seeing someone who has had their skin stretched so tight over their face it looks like it is about to burst. One article I read had this take on aging. It said there were many factors which cause aging and they weren’t all due to biology. It went on to say some other factors such as behavioral, social psychological and environmental factors can affect our biological functions. I think this has been proven. Take the old saw about the guy who decided to stay in a haunted house overnight and the next morning his hair turned white. While this is only a story it illustrates how the pressure of anxiety can affect our bodies causing changes, some of which might take days, months or years off our lifespan. We are yet to find that magic switch which can turn off the process of aging. As aging takes place it also causes more sickness of different types. Some people have inherited genetic changes which begin to show up as they age such as a bend in the neck and back. Others develop similar symptoms which their parents had or grand parents to name a few. It is a shame as our bodies get older they also get weaker for most of us and more susceptible to diseases. Someday I believe this will all change and people in the future will no longer be harnessed to aging and that will change society incredibly. Long range space voyages will no longer be a problem and neither will be over population, because there will be plenty of new planets to colonize which can take on our extra population.
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