Most of us hope we’ll be healthy into our late 80s or early 90s and then die peacefully in our sleep, preferably after a wonderful evening with loved ones. But that’s rarely the way it works out. All too often, our later years are plagued with ill health. Life expectancy has been throughout the world since 1900, but “those gains have not been matched by equivalent gains in health,” says Armin Garmany, a researcher who studies regenerative medicine at the Mayo Clinic. People outlive their good health by an average of 9.6 years — 12 years for those who live in the U.S. — according to by Garmany and, a pioneer in the field of regenerative medicine, also at Mayo.Garmany and Terzig were the first to quantify the gap, but the idea has been around for decades. In a paper published in Science in 1987, John Rowe and Robert Kahn introduced the term “health span,” a measure not of how long we live but of how long we live without significant health problems. Since then, scientists have increasingly embraced the concept and are working to close the gap.notizia principale: Addressing Shorter Health SpansRecent advances in medicine, both surgical and pharmaceutical, have made aging much easier, dramatically improving the quality of life of older people. Joint replacements, stents, and medicines for controlling cholesterol blood pressure, and maintaining heart function are just a few examples. But these therapies do not eliminate illnesses; they just make them easier to live with. And they come with a cost, says, geriatrics director at the Integrative Center for Aging Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The trade-off is that we face a life of taking medicines, getting injections, and interacting with the healthcare system. “We may be maintaining our health,” he says, “but it is taking some work.” Garmany and Terzig think we can do better. In a 2021, they describe several new approaches that would go much further toward eliminating illness. For example, as more patient data becomes available, scientists can use artificial intelligence to analyze that data and identify people at risk for developing disease, enabling physicians to intervene before people become ill, or as Terzig puts it, “extinguish the fire before the fire even starts.” Another approach involves targeting aging cells and preserving healthy cells, something called anti-senescence. And then there’s regenerative medicine, therapies that aim to restore the form and function of diseased or aging organs using stem cells or other methods. Advances in these areas open the possibility of not only mitigating the symptoms of disease but ultimately finding cures, says Garmany. Preventing the GapHowever, closing the health span/lifespan gap is not just about cutting-edge technologies. Prevention plays a huge role, too. We can reduce the chances of getting those illnesses that so often
Possiamo vivere più a lungo, ma non godiamo di una salute prolungata.
