Slashdot Mirror
First Successful Gene Therapy Against Human Aging? (geekwire.com)
An anonymous reader writes:
For the first time data may show that a human being has been successfully rejuvenated by gene therapy, claims Bioviva USA. "In September 2015, then 44 year-old CEO of Bioviva USA Inc. Elizabeth Parrish received two of her own company's experimental gene therapies: one to protect against loss of muscle mass with age, another to battle stem cell depletion responsible for diverse age-related diseases and infirmities." Bypassing America's FDA, the controversial therapies were described by the MIT Technology Review as "do-it-yourself medicine," saying it "raises ethical questions about how quickly such treatments should be tested in people and whether they ought to be developed outside the scrutiny of regulators."
"The treatment was originally intended to demonstrate the safety of the latest generation of the therapies," reports Bioviva's web site. "But if early data is accurate, it is already the world's first successful example of telomere lengthening via gene therapy in a human individual."
She only took the treatment 7 months ago. How much could we really know about it's efficacy in such a short period? Unless she reverted to looking like a 20 year old person (she doesn't), then I have a hard time believing that it's really working. Also, we don't know how it will effect her long term.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Asimov did this in Foundation and Earth. In his version the Spacers lived a long time, but chose to live without human contact in order to avoid disease. They were served by robots. Probably very accurate description of what would happen if there were enough space on Earth and people lived a long time.
I guess we're just going to have to take it at face value that the CEO of the company, the person who has the most to gain from an increase in stock price, is making totally truthful and unbiased claims about the efficacy of this treatment.
Some observations which may seem obvious but bear mentioning: (1) In today's out-of-control / Ponzi monetary system, this is almost enough to start a speculative bubble (2) At some point anti-aging breakthroughs at a fundamental level are inevitable (3) When real anti-aging therapies become available they are going to be priced out of this world...literally priced for billionaries. The LAST thing in the world your health-insurance is likely to underwrite is something which will extend your natural lifespan to something preternatural. Can you imagine ObamaCare doing that? Can you imagine the impact of such a move, were it to occur, on the broken pension/SS/medicare system and the negative interest rate economy in general? (4) We have a problem already with "elites" buying it all -- including complete control of the government. Can you imagine the situation when billionaires -- and only billionaires -- can afford to live forever? (5) That's right: totalitarianism by the 0.001% for the 0.001% ... forever.
I'd say if we are going to "fix" the government and monetary/tax system we might want to fix it sooner than later.
"It is really and it is already only for the rich.
Heart bypass surgery, heart replacements, etc.... All only for the very wealthy."
"Living in a home not full of nasty crap or not living where the water has lead in it.... again only for the rich."
Again, lead pipes have been removed in other countries as well, we knew that the roman empire fell because they all died of lead poisoning and so we replaced them, but we pay something named 'taxes'.
"Being able to take vacations so that stress wont kill you early.... again only for the rich. "
I have 35 days paid vacation plus unlimited sick days and free train rides around Europe, also Ryanair at al ask less than 30$ for a flight almost anywhere here too, I'm doing about 5-8 voyages a year, Milan to buy shoes, Florence to relax, Rome to eat, Paris to shop, etc. and the best thing is, that it's cheaper than at home.
Some people are just not good looking, and some people look old before their time, but I saw the video and neither applies in the case of Liz Parrish. I suspect that the real problem here is that you're an asshole.