The Real Pandemic
It Is Time to End Aging
As of May 8, globally there are 3.8 million confirmed COVID-19 cases (there are likely at least an order of magnitude more based on the latest widespread screening studies performed) and 270 thousand people have died with COVID-19 as the recorded cause. 1.3 million people have recovered. Let’s get some context on these numbers.
Approximately 8 billion people are alive today, and roughly 8 percent are over the age of 65 and suffering from the most deadly disease on earth: aging. The world is just beginning to recognize aging as a disease even though that 8 percent of the population equates to 640 million confirmed cases (which is an extraordinarily conservative estimate given that many people begin experiencing the effects of aging in their 50s). So far, no one has recovered from this disease in the history of humanity and without a change you can confidently assume you will die of it.
As a society today, we simply accept that aging and death are a part of life, but there is nothing inherent in our biology that makes it so. If you haven’t read Lifespan by David Sinclair, I strongly recommend it. He explains that there is no reason that people born today will not live to at least 120 healthy, if not 150 and beyond. Additionally, as our health span expands, further exponential progress in the study of aging will result in ever-increasing life expectancies. Here are some of the key highlights.
First, there are a few basic things you can do today to increase your healthspan:
- Restricted calorie consumption (stop eating before you are full)
- Intermittent fasting (eat in a daily 8-hour window, fast 1 day/wk)
- Limit animal proteins, starches, and sugars to moderate quantities
- High intensity exercise (even if only 15 minutes per day)
- Exposure to extreme cold, hot temperatures (cryotherapy, ice bath, sauna)
Additionally, the study of longevity is advancing rapidly and a large number of therapeutics and vaccines are on the horizon that offer the opportunity to dramatically lengthen life disease-free. Research and development in the areas of metformin, NAD boosters, rapalogs, senolytics, and GDF-11 are just a few of the many promising opportunities being aggressively pursued today.
At Prime Movers Lab, we are actively investing in platform technologies that hold the potential to substantially extend lifespan in the medium-term while also addressing short-term diseases through traditional therapeutics (e.g. Gordian Bio). My hope is that the extraordinary levels of compassion and attention to health that have arisen in response to COVID-19 get directed towards the much larger and more fatal pandemic in our world. It is time to end aging.
Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in seed-stage companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation and computing.
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