An unexpected discovery was made by ordinary users of social networks - humanity has ceased to age. It all started with an ordinary flash mob where people shared photos of their ancestors. Someone noticed that our 20-year-old grandparents often look older than their current 30- and 40-year-old grandchildren. And those who were over forty half a century ago look like very old people by today's standards.
Have people really started aging more slowly?
A study by the Universities of Southern California and Yale says yes. And this happened in some 30 years.
What is aging?
One of the key aspects that everyone understands is that the resources of our body are not infinite. Most of our cells can only divide 52 times. Cells reach their limit and die without making up replacements. There is no longer enough material in the tissues. The body begins to deteriorate. This is old age.
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But what makes the body of a modern man break down more slowly?
There is no definite answer here. Scientists argue. If you look into history, you can understand: we have already experienced something similar. In the last century, scientists noticed that humanity was growing and called this process acceleration. The highest of all is the population of countries with a high standard of living. Therefore, the main hypothesis is that people began to eat better. And now, many people try to explain the slowing down of aging by the fact that life has become easier.
Brian Hanley, UCLA PhD: "People used to work very hard, they lacked rest."
But there is, for example, a person whose body does not rest at all. A German citizen, Yakov Tsiperovich, 40 years ago, experienced clinical death: his wife poisoned him out of jealousy. After which, according to Tsiperovich, he completely lost the ability to sleep.
Yakov Tsiperovich: “Scientists are afraid of me like plague. They shy away from me, because I refute all medical dogmas, I just overturn."
Now the man is 66 years old, but he says that he feels much better than at 20, and does not need doctors at all. Tsiperovich was studied by dozens of specialists, but nobody caught him trying to fall asleep. It is known that his body temperature is two degrees lower. Could this explain delayed aging? Or is the answer in the clinical death itself, or rather in what caused it?
Was poison a pill for old age?
As crazy as this assumption may seem, it echoes an experiment where mice were given a drug that suppresses immunity during organ transplants so that there is no rejection. Also, in fact, poison. About 40 independent laboratory studies have proven that this drug prolongs the life of mice, and significantly. The trick is that in small quantities this poison slowed down the vital activity of cells. And now let's remember what kind of world we live in: with spoiled ecology and food stuffed with preservatives. Perhaps it is this environment that prevents modern people from aging quickly.
Vladimir Shabalin, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Honorary President of the Russian Association of Gerontologists and Geriatricians: “We have radiation now. We use televisions, computers, telephones. It creates conditions for optimal cell life. Atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, and life expectancy rose sharply. Yes, whoever received a large dose, he died, and who receives a small dose, he can get a stimulating effect.
There is research that shows that a long-liver is not someone who leads a sterile lifestyle, but one whose cells have learned to get along with toxins. But will the world be able to accept all this with the current fashion for ecology? And what will ecoactivists say if the toxic environment really turns out to be the very pill for old age that mankind is looking for?