Why do we age? Why is it that there is still no wide scientific agreement on even the fundamental nature of aging? Is aging treatable? What is the future of anti-aging medicine?
Goldsmith takes us on a fascinating tour of the history of biological aging theories, the current status, and present efforts toward developing treatments for extending lifespan and generally delaying aging.
Arguments about the nature of aging (now extending for more than a century) are actually arguments over obscure details of evolution theory. Some of these details suggest that we can find treatments for individual symptoms of aging like cancer and heart disease but that aging itself is an untreatable condition, an inescapable fact of life. Medicine as we know it is largely based on this idea.
However, recent discoveries especially in genetics now strongly show that aging is itself a treatable condition (like a disease) and even suggest ways in which aging can be delayed. Free on Kindle.
