Hollywood wants to live longer and feel younger, and cutting-edge science is poised to satisfy a new appetite for longevity. In the future, humanity will conquer death altogether.
From cleansing diets, laser peels and Restylane injections to the latest intravenous vitamin infusions like the Myers cocktail, Los Angeles has never experienced a shortage of anti-aging products.
“However, just looking younger is no longer enough. Hollywood wants to live longer and feel younger, and cutting-edge science (and at least a couple of dubious alternatives) is poised to satisfy a new appetite for longevity,”says Seth Abramovich, The Hollywood Reporter.
Some researchers, such as the theorist of regenerative medicine Aubrey de Gray, believe that in the future, humanity will conquer death altogether.
“That kind of optimism has turned the fight against aging into a $ 88 billion industry,” says the author of the article. To learn more about her, he personally stepped into the epicenter of the "hurricane of longevity." During this journey, the journalist had to plunge naked into egg-shaped capsules, withstand the effects of ultra-low temperatures and stretch out on the treadmill until he lost consciousness. “In short, the quest for immortality nearly killed me,” Abramovich admits.
The first fad the correspondent decided to investigate was hormone replacement therapy (HRT). "Much has been written about Hollywood's obsession with human growth hormone with its ability to burn fat, promote lean muscle mass, make skin plump, lower cholesterol, improve vision, restore sexual energy and other effects."
One of the most ardent adherents of hormone therapy is Sylvester Stallone. In 2007, he was detained at the Sydney airport for attempting to smuggle 48 ampoules of growth hormone, the author says.
Alas, HRT is unlikely to help you live longer. At least that's what Rita Effros, a professor at the University of California Los Angeles School of Medicine, says. “It’s dangerous to mindlessly pump people with hormones simply because the level of one of them has dropped,” explains Effros. - Growth hormone, apparently, does not attract an anti-aging agent. People claim to feel young again, but at the same time it can be very harmful. When the level of one hormone drops, other hormones can compensate for this."
Disappointed with hormones, Abramovich headed to the California Institute of Health and Longevity. According to the information he has, all the major Hollywood studios are sending their executives here for an "exclusive" survey worth $ 3,650. “The session takes an entire day and includes state-of-the-art examinations, nutrition and fitness counseling, resting metabolic rate measurements and a 50-minute massage,” the journalist explained.
First, the author of the article was placed in a plethysmographic chamber with air replacement to determine the percentage of adipose tissue in the body, then dressed in a special transparent helmet to measure the metabolic rate, but all this could not be compared with the measurement of maximum oxygen consumption. To do this, he had to run uphill on an ever-accelerating incline treadmill, the article says.
However, even the test on a treadmill seemed to the journalist prosaic compared to solving the secrets of the genome. "Of all the latest advances in longevity science, there is nothing more modern and more mysterious than DNA sequencing," Abramovich said. He turned to geneticist J. Craig Venter, one of the first people to completely decode his own genome. “It happened in 2000, when it took nine months and $ 100 million. Today the whole process takes three days and $ 1,500.”
“Our goal is to move towards the paradigm of preventive medicine by preventing disease before it occurs,” Venter said. "This is the beginning of the future of human medicine." Dennis Slamon, head of the Department of Hematology and Oncology at the University of California, Los Angeles, does not share this optimism. “There are a lot of people who say, 'We can sell you health if you pay attention to what we do,' that is, genome sequencing. However, personally, I have not yet seen them really influence anything."
“Perhaps a straight, narrow - and boring - path leads to longevity,” Abramovich admits. A friend who is fond of yoga told him about Hariakhan Baba Maharaja, who allegedly lived for thousands of years in caves under the Himalayas thanks to Ayurveda. Mas Vidal, a leading Ayurvedic specialist in Los Angeles, explained to the reporter that this practice involves striking a balance between three elements: vata, pitta and kafa. This is achieved through a vegetarian diet, avoiding alcohol, coffee, and liquids colder than room temperature in addition to daily meditation.
“Feeling enlightened, but dejected by the prospect of a balanced life without iced coffee, I went to the coldest place on Earth, which, as it turned out, is on La Cinega Boulevard,” continues Abramovich. Located there, Cryohealthcare promises visitors a cure for all inflammatory conditions, from rheumatoid arthritis to musculoskeletal injuries. One treatment session costs $ 65. To do this, you need to strip to your underwear (women - naked), put on a robe, knee-length socks, gloves and a surgical mask and go into a cell that resembles a time machine. "The similarity is appropriate, since you are transported into the Ice Age, your body is enveloped in a terrifying cloud of steam, and the temperature drops to -140 degrees Celsius," the journalist describes the sensations.
Clinic doctor Jonas Kühne assures that low temperatures stimulate cells to produce cytokine proteins that fight inflammation.
“Did I feel good when I stepped out of the cell 90 seconds later? At first, perhaps, yes, but this can be explained by euphoria over the fact that I was still alive,”Abramovich admits.
A distant relative of freezing treatment, cryopreservation, is barely up to immortality. “The urban legend that Walt Disney ordered his body to be frozen after death is a fiction, but today there is such a possibility,” the article says. The most recent example is the famous programmer and cryptographer Hal Finney. After Finney died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on August 28, employees at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation replaced the fluids in his body with a chemical solution of M-22, chilled him to -195 degrees Celsius and placed him in an aluminum capsule. This capsule, in turn, was placed in a 450 liter tank filled with liquid nitrogen. There Finny will be in a state of biostasis until it can be revived.
“How or when this can be done is not yet clear, but according to Alcor's website, nanotechnology will be the key: devices the size of a molecule will be able to“restore any saved person who has remained intact the basic structures of the brain, where memory and properties are encrypted. personality,”Abramovich said.
