Drugs Slowing Aging & Alzheimer’s Disease

Aging is an inevitable process for all individuals, at least at the moment. As times goes, all people get older and are to face the challenges, brought by aging. Aging is generally defined as “the accumulation of diverse deleterious changes occurring in cells and tissues with advancing age that are responsible for the increased risk of disease and death.” (Tosato et. al. 2007). There is a variety of theories of aging and all of them are based upon specific causes of aging; each of the theories is important for understanding of the physiological changes, related to age. At the same time the researches in the sphere of aging continue, as experts are looking for the major reason of aging, because knowledge about this reason could become the key towards inventing of the means to stop or at least slow the process. At the moment aging is considered to be an utterly complex and many-sided process and this provides no chance to consider any of the concrete aging theories as the basic one. They are useful for understanding of the main features of the normal aging process. Nowadays there is no adequate evidence proving of the possibility of inventing of an effective anti-aging drugs or methods, which would increase longevity of humans and slow the process of aging by them; at the same time according to the current research results there is a possibility to modify the aging rates and life expectancy. Drugs Slowing Aging & Alzheimer’s Disease

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The process if aging is rather complex and difficult to study. First of all in order to follow the processes in human body from younger years to the human’s death too much time is needed. It is also most useless to research the process of aging using the example of animals, as most of them live in natural environment and often die because of a great number of other reasons, not related to aging, for example disease, starvation, etc. Thus aging is the phenomenon, which is unique for human beings. “In other words, the advancing knowledge of hygiene and biomedicine has led us to discover the aging process, something that was teleologically not intended for us to be experienced. The immediate consequence of the extended life expectancy is represented by the increasing number of older people in developed countries, an artifact of human civilization” (Tosato et. al. 2007).Drugs Slowing Aging & Alzheimer’s Disease

Life expectancy means the average number of years, lived by a human being, whereas life span is the maximum number of years, which could be lived by a human. The human life span has remained more or less the same for hundreds of years, and it is defined as approximately 125 years, there is a tendency towards increase of life expectancy. Last century it was approximately 27 years. The life expectancy could be generally prolonged thanks to development of new medications, better conditions for human hygiene and elimination of the dangerous infectious diseases. “Before examining the hypothesized biological factors at the basis of the aging process, it is crucial to underline that aging is not a disease. Based on this assumption, Hayflick estimates that a potential cure of the leading causes of death in old age (ie, cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer) would only lead to a 15 year-increase in human life expectancy (Hayflick 2000). On the basis of these assumptions, it is possible to conclude that humans are not able to become immortal, the only thing, which is theoretically possible, is to experience the death in case there is no disease. Death is considered to be an ultimate consequence of aging and aging in its turn is related to the humans’ ability to react to stress, homeostatic balance and the fact of pathology.

Aging needs treatment, because nobody wants to become old. Aging has received a really negative connotation during the last decades and it is mostly associated with deterioration and death. Hayflick (2000) writes about this: “If our society would learn to value old age to the same extent as presently done for youth, then the research aimed at slowing, stopping or reversing the aging process would be as unthinkable as the intervention on the developmental processes of youth. Instead, what is desirable and demonstrably attainable at all times in life, is the prevention or resolution of pathology.”Drugs Slowing Aging & Alzheimer’s Disease

There are a lot of theories of aging, including the free radical theory the inflammation theory, the immunologic theory and so on. Each of them identifies the specific cause of aging and then leads to pointing out of the major psychological and physiological changes in human organisms in the process of aging. Initially humans were looking for one single cause of aging with the aim to invent the corresponding drug to cope with it. More and more researchers and scientists nowadays accept the position that aging is too complex to be explained just by one cause and most luckily there are a lot of processes, which happen simultaneously in human organisms and are responsible for operating of various levels of functional organization. In other words there is no reason to consider all the aging theories as mutually exclusive. Instead they should be transformed into one theory, each complementing the rest in relation to particular features of the usual aging process.

Within the whole history of humanity, scientists and researchers never stopped looking for the special means or drugs to “cure” aging and the diseases, associated with the process. They were looking for natural resources, for example “fountain of youth”, which could stop or at least slow the process of aging. “Any intervention able to delay the development of age-related modifications that are not considered as diseases are indicated with the term “anti-aging medicine” (Tosato et. al. 2007).  Nowadays no such intervention is invented, which could either slow or stop or reverse the aging by human beings. The progress in investigating of the process of aging is related thus only to conducting some modifications.

One of the most serious diseases, associated with aging process, is Alzheimer’s disease. This chronic neurodegenerative disease starts slowly and then continues to develop with time. In 70% the major cause it this disease is dementia. The most common symptom is short-term memory loss – people are not able to remember the recent events. “As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems with language, disorientation (including easily getting lost), mood swings, loss of motivation, not managing self care, and behavioral issues.” (Burns, Iliffe 2009). Along with worsening of the state of patients with Alzheimer’s disease, they become more and more distanced from their close people and from the whole society; they start loosing their bodily functions and ultimately die. The speed of Alzheimer’s progression could vary, but typically it lasts maximum nine years. At the moment there is no clear idea regarding the actual cause of this disease. There are theories stating that it is related to genetic disorders, others point out the history of head injuries or depression and hypertension as the risk factors for development of Alzheimer’s. The diagnosis is usually made on the basis of the history of the illness and cognitive testing. It is utterly difficult to identify the initial symptoms, as they are very similar to usual aging symptoms.Drugs Slowing Aging & Alzheimer’s Disease In order to confirm the diagnosis, it is necessary to conduct the examination of the brain tissue. There are no medications of any supplements, which could reduce the risk of development of this disease, the doctors advise to lead active lives, do a lot of physical exercise and avoid obesity. There is no treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, neither there are medications for reversing of the progressing of it. There are only medications, which could relive the symptoms on a temporary basis. Individuals, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s are not able to live on their own and perform usual daily activities, they need assistance from other caregivers. Statistically in 2015 around 29 million people were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in the whole world. Usually these are the individuals over 65 years of age. More than a half of the whole budge of the US National Institute on Aging is spent upon Alzheimer’s disease. “Nevertheless, the elimination of this clinical condition will have only a minimal impact on life expectancy and will not help the advancing of our knowledge of fundamental biology of aging. Greater attention has to be given to a rarely posed question: why are old cells more vulnerable to disease than young cells? The answer to this issue will not only advance our fundamental knowledge of aging, but also promote the understanding of age-related diseases.” (Hayflick 2000).

Researchers continue to make their steps forward in researching and understanding of the process of aging, and at the moment it could not be considered a part of biology without clear basis and understanding. However, there is still a lot of information missing, especially in relation to the possibilities of limiting or reversing of the aging process. Important is to underline that the major aim of the researchers is not to find the ways to prolong humans lives in quantitative relation, rather to find the ways to increase the longevity, which would not be burdened by disability, leading to functional dependence upon other individuals.

Scientists continue looking for the anti-ageing drug, which is claimed to manage the diseases as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Some of the modern scientists are already convinced that it is possible to stop the process of growing old by humans, as well as support their good health till their 110s or even 120s.Drugs Slowing Aging & Alzheimer’s Disease It sounds like a piece of science fiction writing, but there is already evidence of the diabetes drug metformin extending the lives of animals. The Food and Drug Administration in America has already allowed conducting trials to find out, whether it would have the same effect upon humans. It is considered to be the most important medical intervention, which could slow human ageing. Such approach has the potential of making people in their 70s feel as healthy, as they normally were in their 50s. Doctors would have much less concerns with managing dementia, cancer or diabetes, instead they would deal the underlying mechanism of ageing.  The fact is that if there is a chance to slow the process of ageing, then it is possible to slow down all the diseases and pathologies, related to it as well. This is an absolutely revolutionary approach, as before scientists were not able to reach such aims. Ageing could become not an inevitable process in human lives, as all cells include the DNA blueprint, which could secure that the body is functioning adequately. For example there are such marine creatures, which do not age. In the process of lifetime, cells are to go through billions of divisions and the more there are these divisions, the worse is the overall process of functioning of the organism. The more there are problems inside the cells, the less are the chances for human organism to repay this damage. For example if cancer develops in human organism, then the cells are not able to get rid of the mutations and tumors continue to grow. In case with Alzheimer’s the human brain is not clearing out sticky plaques and the process of dementia development is launched.

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A lot of scientists in the modern world assume that the best candidate for the list of anti-ageing drugs is metformin, which increases the number of oxygen molecules, which are released into a cell. This contributes to the cell’s longevity. “When Belgian researchers tested metformin on the tiny roundworm C.elegans the worms not only aged slower, but they also stayed healthier longer. They did not slow down or develop wrinkles. Mice treated with metformin increased their lifespan by nearly 40 per cent and their bones were also stronger.” (Knapton 2015).Drugs Slowing Aging & Alzheimer’s Disease  According to the research results of Cardiff University, the patients with diabetes, who received metformin, lived longer in comparison to other people without this conditions. Theoretically they should have died at least several years before. “Outlining the new study on the National Geographic documentary Breakthrough: The Age of Ageing, Dr Jay Olshansky, of the University of Illinois Chicago, said: “If we can slow ageing in humans, even by just a little bit it would be monumental. People could be older, and feel young.” (Knapton 2015).

Overall, the process of ageing seems to be inevitable, moreover people start suffering from various serious diseases, when they get older. Modern scientists and researchers contribute a lot of attention and effort into development of the drugs or conditions, which would be able to slow or stop the process of ageing. At the moment this seems to be a nice fairy tale that individuals are able to live longer and in healthier states, but most probably the next generations would be able to see a great progress in the sphere of ageing medicine.Drugs Slowing Aging & Alzheimer’s Disease