Josh Mitteldorf - 9/9

IPAK-EDU Director's Science Webinar '24

IPAK-EDU Director’s Science Webinar

Monday 9/9 @ 7:00pm Eastern
with/ Josh Mitteldorf

“Where Does Aging Come From?”

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Where do you think aging comes from? 

Most people who are science-literate but outside of this specific field have one of two answers:

1. We get old and die because that’s the way nature has arranged it, get us out of the way so life can move on.

2. We get old and die because we wear out. Everything wears out. It’s the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics.

So most people are surprised to learn that the accepted, mainstream biological theory is neither of these. It’s something called “antagonistic pleiotropy”, and it traces to a journal article in 1957 by an up-and-coming evolutionary theorist named George Williams. The content is that there are some genes that producing a lot of offspring is the definition of Darwinian fitness. So there are genes that goose up our reproduction, but they have the unfortunate side-effect of causing damage that eventually kills us.

If this sounds strange to you, I agree — it’s wrong, and there are a number of good reasons to reject it. The correct answer is #1, fixed lifespans have been shaped and selected by evolution. As I say, this is not yet the mainstream answer, but it is the right answer. 

We’ll go into the reasons why this is true — even though it may seem to be anti-Darwinian, in the sense that aging and death are just the opposite of fitness. 

Then we’ll go into the consequences for medical research and anti-aging medicine in particular. Once we realize that the body is trying to kill itself, then our strategy to live longer is not to protect our bodies from outside damage, minimize toxins, eat a natural diet, etc — all those things protect our health in the short run, and they may help us to live out our full lifespan as nature has programmed it. But they won’t slow the aging process. If we want to slow aging, and we accept that aging is natural, we’re going to have to do some very unnatural things to live longer. We’re going to have to throw a monkey wrench into the gears of self-destruction. We’re going to have to trick the body into thinking it’s younger than it really is. The good news is that research on this path is well along the way.

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Once a week, this webinar series brings a focus to science as it applies to public issues of concern. The webinar brings to you expertise from scientists, researchers, data analysts, medical professionals, health advocates, attorneys, and more, all with the opportunity to learn, ask questions, and hear directly from people working at the leading edge.

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