Replacing Aging

by Jean M. Hebert

“An impressive overview of how regenerative medicine may reverse aging and reboot the brain.”—Anthony Atala, MD, Director, Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative MedicineReplacing Aging outlines how aging will soon be reversible as a result of the advances that are being made in regenerative medicine. The book explains the enormous complexity of aging and how the accumulation of myriad types of macromolecular damage in the body essentially precludes a pharmacological solution to the problem of aging. Nevertheless drugs remain the primary focus of the anti-aging field. Instead of drugs, a decisive way to erase all forms of age-related macromolecular damage at once would be by replacing old worn-out tissues with new young ones. As the book describes, an ability to replace all body parts seems more and more likely, if not inevitable. Regenerative medicine is developing increasingly functional lab-grown cells, tissues, and organs that are being transplanted into patients today to treat diseases or repair damage. With continued improvements, cells and organs could be used in a more comprehensive manner to replace all body parts and reset the aging clock to near zero. Even the brain can be progressively replaced at a cellular level over time without a loss of self-identity. Existing examples demonstrate that complex brain functions can if given enough time change their neural substrates. And new brain cells added to old brains can form remarkably normal connection patterns. These findings together suggest protocols for brain rejuvenation. Thus, this book heralds the day in the near future when, if we choose to, we will be able to live much longer and healthier lives as a result of replacements made possible by regenerative medicine.“The central point made by this book is one of those fulcrums of comprehension on which all important progress depends: obvious to those who understand it, yet incongruous to those who do not. Rejuvenation is damage repair, and replacement and repair are the same thing viewed at different scales. Hebert’s articulation of this principle is the best yet.”—Aubrey de Grey, VP of New Technology Discovery at AgeX, Chief Scientific Officer of the SENS Research Foundation“This is a scientist’s perspective on aging as a condition that can be treated. The ideas that seem most like science fiction, such as replacing parts of the brain, are actually edging toward reality.”—Jeanne Loring, PhD, Co-founder of Aspen Neuroscience, Director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the Scripps Research Institute“Highly provocative and a great overview of recent progress in regenerative medicine and how it may at some point be applied in the fight against aging.”—Nir Barzilai, MD, Scientific Director for AFAR, Founding Director for the Institute of Aging Research at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine

207 pages, Paperback

Published January 20, 2021

Reviews

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly enjoyable book on a radical new approach to anti-aging. Why not clone, grow and replace old organs and cells with new organs and cells? This book outlines how this might be achieved.