Ponce de Leon (b 1471) in his search for the Fountain of Eternal Youth discovered instead and mapped much of Florida. He never achieved the immortality he sought because at about fifty years of age his search for the fountain was interrupted by a Seminole arrow.
The recent genetic discoveries of telomere shortening in the aging process and the role of the enzyme, telomerase in reversing the cellular aging, in vitro, has led to new speculation. Extending life with enzymatic treatment, or alternatively extending cellular health through a normal life span has been an engaging idea for some scientists. It has also piqued the interest of some entrepreneurs one of which it seems was the pioneer Ponce de Leon.
We are more and more in pursuit of physical health and longevity which is somehow related to happiness. We seek freedom from illness and stress, and so we exercise without goals other than achieving or maintaining self-health. Now, emerging interest and emphasis will be, maintain your telomerase levels and prevent the shortening of your telomeres.
Those of us that are long in the tooth of the health field were often beset by the perfectly fit, { the worried well }, who wanted more, actually the most, and took our time from those who were ill who really needed us. When Oliver Wendell Holmes, a physician wrote "The Deacon's Masterpiece", a one horse shay he was really talking about his patient, like the shay, a metaphor , that lived for a hundred years in pristine health and the fell apart all at once. As I understand it, a complete and expected and necessary, systemic failure.
Those many of my colleagues in Victoria who volunteered freely to work in primitive surroundings for six month stints in Vanuato will recognize that The Fountain of Eternal Youth is a self indulgent fantasy of the affluent world. The scientist who tries to touch this star towards immortallity shouldn't say, " I am doing this because it can be done." but say , " Why am I doing this? " This is a fundamental question in Medicine. It's undoubtedly fascinating research, but why is it that technology always seems to drag ethics a long way behind it ?
The recent genetic discoveries of telomere shortening in the aging process and the role of the enzyme, telomerase in reversing the cellular aging, in vitro, has led to new speculation. Extending life with enzymatic treatment, or alternatively extending cellular health through a normal life span has been an engaging idea for some scientists. It has also piqued the interest of some entrepreneurs one of which it seems was the pioneer Ponce de Leon.
We are more and more in pursuit of physical health and longevity which is somehow related to happiness. We seek freedom from illness and stress, and so we exercise without goals other than achieving or maintaining self-health. Now, emerging interest and emphasis will be, maintain your telomerase levels and prevent the shortening of your telomeres.
Those of us that are long in the tooth of the health field were often beset by the perfectly fit, { the worried well }, who wanted more, actually the most, and took our time from those who were ill who really needed us. When Oliver Wendell Holmes, a physician wrote "The Deacon's Masterpiece", a one horse shay he was really talking about his patient, like the shay, a metaphor , that lived for a hundred years in pristine health and the fell apart all at once. As I understand it, a complete and expected and necessary, systemic failure.
Those many of my colleagues in Victoria who volunteered freely to work in primitive surroundings for six month stints in Vanuato will recognize that The Fountain of Eternal Youth is a self indulgent fantasy of the affluent world. The scientist who tries to touch this star towards immortallity shouldn't say, " I am doing this because it can be done." but say , " Why am I doing this? " This is a fundamental question in Medicine. It's undoubtedly fascinating research, but why is it that technology always seems to drag ethics a long way behind it ?
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