Have you thought about what you are most likely to die from?

Photo: Konstantin Trubavin

Those who put their lives on the line every day are perhaps best able to imagine how they’ll die. For most of us, however, the picture is more opaque: we won’t meet a spectacularly tragic early demise, we’ll simply die of old age.

Do you know why those risk-takers picture their own deaths? To avoid it. What if I told you that we, with our “boring” expectations of mortality, should behave this way as well? We must reflect on potentially life-threatening scenarios in order to prevent them from transpiring.

Aging has been and remains a fundamental aspect of humanity; we are just as aware of it as we are of ourselves. We have always aged. We cannot imagine things being any other way. We are resigned to face old age waiting for death, slow wilting away. We expect to face illnesses that, after appearing in the autumn years of our life, first rob us of our wits and vigor, and then, after inescapable suffering, eventually prove deadly. These include cancer, heart disease and dementia. Some will die suddenly while others will unsuccessfully fend off death or waste away — it does not matter. Death is inevitable; to grow aged, as we age, is our destiny. Or is it?

It is not in our nature to think about how things may change in the distant future. But once it was not appropriate for us to wash our hands or brush our teeth. Nevertheless, the habit is fixed and works for the benefit of our health, the present and the future. To think about death is my habit. Doing so may prolong your life.

Is thinking about it enough? To think is the first step.

It is necessary to have your health examined. What did you think? Age-related diseases are diseases all the same, and the right approach to them is to see them in medical, biological, and scientific terms. To get examined and, by observing the results, create a picture of how you will age, and know your risks. And then, of course, draw conclusions to reduce the risks.

There is a fairly large amount of information buried in scientific articles: the correlation between the development of diseases and aging, as well as the effect of drugs, diets, sports and other interventions. The task now is to analyze this information. Simply put, our fairly new goal for humanity is to delay the onset of old age. And do you know what? Some things we can say right now.

Now, if you excuse me, I will start advertising our project. But if I’ve piqued your interest, you should continue reading.

Our project is called Open Longevity, as we are for open, accessible information on life extension and for uniting people. There is a lot of various work being done under this name. Like this:

1. We’re creating diagnostic panels to map aging. Our raw data come from the same diagnostic tests that we recommend taking on a regular basis. Later we’ll aid in their interpretation: Doctor, I’m dying? When? What can I do about it? Needless to say, scientific articles are analyzed before we do all of this. Analytics is our favorite word.
2. We teach classes and give seminars where each slide and every statement is supported by a link to a scientific article. Come to one of our seminars and indicate what we are wrong about, but get ready for a constructive discussion. We will ask you for your links and references. Or just come and listen.
3. We are writing a book. Several books.
4. We’re launching our own clinical trials (that is, human studies) of potential aging therapies. We’re starting with a fasting mimicking diet. There has been a lot of talk about this. We’re calling all volunteers, sponsors and organizers. Let’s start with a diet, and later, as gene therapy approaches — we can hope it’s effective.
5. We’ve designed an online system that helps in the interpretation of biomedical data in terms of aging. The platform for conducting clinical trials will be integrated into the system.
6. We do a lot with our money; sometimes we get sponsors, for which we are very grateful. But the task of slowing down aging is large-scale and requires large-scale financing. Therefore, we are preparing an ICO. The ideology of crypto-economics is right for us. And the scale is also suitable.

Open Longevity is a community of rational people studying the mechanisms of aging; it is an expert-driven online platform for the formation of personal strategies in the fight against aging, and a new institution that simplifies how scientific research is conducted.