Can Aging be Reversed or Delayed?
Aging is a fact of nature. Everything ages and eventually dies. For people living today this is often a source of fear and anxiety because death, as Shakespeare pointed out, is the “undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveler returns”—in other words, the final point of life that so little is actually known about (Easwaran, 1996). People with faith in an afterlife tend to have less anxiety about death, but faith is not enjoyed by everyone (Alvarado, Templer, Bresler & Thomas-Dobson, 1995). Those who want to put off death as long as possible turn to de-aging techniques and strategies, hoping to delay the inevitable. This paper will discuss the reality of aging and address the assumptions that 1) Aging cannot be reversed; and 2) Aging can be delayed; however, the average person could not afford the cost of treatments to delay aging because one would need a lot of money to engage in delaying treatments.

The first assumption—that aging cannot be reversed—has been challenged by a group of Japanese scientists who think they may have discovered a “switch” that can reverse the aging process. As Mack (2015) notes, “researchers in Japan have found that human aging may be able to be delayed or even reversed, at least at the most basic level of human cell lines.” Previous scientists had theorized that aging was the result of a mutation in the DNA structure. What the researchers in Japan discovered was that there was no mutation to be found: they compared the DNA of elderly persons with the DNA of 12 year olds and found the sequence structure to be the same. The only difference was reduced cellular respiration, which the researchers linked to epigenetic regulation—basically “changes that alter the physical structure of DNA without affecting the DNA sequence itself, causing genes to be turned on or off” (Mack, 2015). In essence, all that may be required to reverse the aging process is for someone to flip the switch of a kind of genetic breaker box in human cells.

The researchers tested the theory by isolating two genes that retained mitochondrial functionality. The scientists flipped the switches on the genes and were able to both create defects and restore the cells’ respiration. As Mack (2015) notes, “in one of the more promising findings, a 97-year-old cell line saw its cellular respiration restored after the addition of glycine for 10 days.” The idea that glycine supplements could one day hold the secret to...…to be discovered. To suggest that the end of aging is at the world’s fingertips would be to get ahead of oneself at this point. The evidence only suggests that it might be possible. This thus shows that the assumptions are faulty.

To summarize, aging may be delayed or reversed—possibly—but whether it could be done safely and over a long period of time is another matter. Moreover, if the cancer drug is required to delay the aging process, it could prove expensive for many people; but if quercetin will work as well then it could be that the average person could afford the process. In reality is very likely that there are other natural compounds that can help delay the aging process by extending natural healthy functioning of the body. But at the same time it has to be remembered that with every promise of a bright future than can be serious side effects that would limit the appeal of a particular product or service for people. Just because one can delay or reverse the aging process does not mean that everything will be all right. They may be able to delay aging in some respects, for example, but not necessarily in others.