What is the limit on life extension possible today with existing technology and life style changes?

The search for the Elixir of life, everlasting youth and even slowing down the ageing process is one that has dogged mankind since the Egyptians thought that mummification would preserve their bodies for eternity. Today, despite huge leaps forward in technology, we're still succumbing to the last ‘great adventure' at the end of our relatively short lives. So how close are we to extending our four score years and ten?

Life extension - a scientific approach
Life extension, also known as anti aging medicine, experimental gerontology and biomedical gerontology, refers to attempts to slow down or reverse the processes of ageing to extend both the maximum and average lifespan. Some researchers in this area, and "life extensionists" or "longevists" believe that future breakthroughs in tissue rejuvenation with stem cells, molecular repair, and organ replacement will eventually enable humans to have indefinite lifespans through complete rejuvenation to a youthful condition. But as yet, the maximum life span a human can reach is around 120 years, with most of us shuffling off the mortal coil in our 70s and 80s.

The best we can hope for at the moment is to ensure that the lifespan we do have is as healthy as possible, and this is why in the Western world we have looked back to what nature can provide us in the way of supplements, vitamins and plant extracts. The television is filled with cosmetics companies, all lauding the latest anti-aging product complete with plant complexes and even things not normally associated with beauty products such as caffeine, but is there any proof that these products actually help prolong if not our lives, then at least our looks?

Ageing is an accumulation of damage to macromolecules, cells, tissues and organs. As yet, science is unable to stop the ageing process at the genetic level, but superficially, it can help to at least make us look younger. A healthy diet free of damaging ‘free radicals' can help to reduce cell damage, but halting the inevitable march of time is as yet a distant dream.

Turning back to nature for the answers
But the relentless search for miracle elixirs goes on. And there are some products that have the scientists excited. One of the most interesting is resveratrol.

Resveratrol is a phytoalexin produced naturally by several plants when under attack by pathogens such as bacteria or fungi. Resveratrol has also been produced by chemical synthesis and is sold as a nutritional supplement derived primarily from Japanese knotweed. In experiments, anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, blood-sugar-lowering and other beneficial cardiovascular effects of resveratrol have been reported, and it is undergoing further trials across the world to see if these effects can be replicated in humans. If the trials are successful, reservatrol could play an important part in the future of genome research and the continuing efforts to find a trigger that can turn off the ageing gene.

The use of vitamins, supplements and minerals such as reservatrol for the purpose of prolonging life is mainly anecdotal, but that doesn't stop the public spending millions of pounds every year in the search for eternal youth and prolonging their life. A healthy diet, regular exercise and supplementing your diet with natural products such as reservatrol may certainly make you healthier and more likely to live longer. But that magic bullet to eradicate ageing, whether it comes from nature, from man's efforts in the laboratory or by nanotechnology, is still a long way off. The best we can do now is to make sure that every day we live is as healthy as possible, no matter how long we're here for.