Old age sickness: Harvard scientist David Sinclair say 'old age na disease', fit get cure

Dis na how majority of us take dey see life, but no be so for geneticist David Sinclair.

Based on im studies of more dan twenty years, im say e possible to delay aging wit few simple habits so dat we go fit get longer and healthier life.

Sinclair believe say e go soon dey possible to do dis wit medicine, wey dem still dey test and say we go probably fit to actually reverse aging.

Di sabi pesin, wey get doctorate from di University of New South Wales for Australia and post-doctorate from di US Massachusetts Institute of Technology, dey in charge of one laboratory for Harvard University wia im dey investigate why we dey age.

Im work don give am many scientific awards. E also make am celebrity (dem vote am among 100 most influential people fr di world by Time magazine and get almost 200,000 followers for Twitter).

Di researcher also get 35 patents and im na founder, plus get hand for several biotechnology companies, some of dem dey dedicated to slowing down or preventing aging.

Di bank Merrill Lynch bin evaluate for 2019 dis industry already get turnover of $110bn and by 2025 e go reach $600bn.

Sinclair also write dibest-selling book Lifespan (Why we age - and why we don't have to).

Inside di book, im argue say, contrary to popular belief, say aging no be must for everybody.Ageing dey natural, you no fit avoid am and e dey everybody destiny.

Im also believe say we must radically change di way we think about ageing: instead of to consider am as common and natural process, we must approach am as disease and as something wey get treatment or even cure.

Sinclair say na only wit radical change on how we tin about old age n aim human beings go fit to seriously increase im life expectancy.

Otherwise, im say, medical progress go give us just few more years: "We have to do better."

Dis na summary of Sinclair tok wit BBC Brazil.

Why we dey grow old?

Sabi pipo don indetify none major tins wey dey cause aging and dem say dem find evidence wey show say one of di cause na di cause of many, if not all of di odas, and e involve loss of information.

We get two types of information for di body wey we inherit from our parents and wey our environment and time dey affect.

One na "digital" information, di genetic code, and di oda na analogue, di epigenome, di system for di cell wey dey control which genes fit dey on or off.

Na di on and offing of one cell 20,000 genes n aim dey tell di cell who e be - e dey give am im identity - and tell am how e suppose to function.

But wit time, di epigenome go begin lose information just like how CDs dey do sake of scratches, and cells go loss di ability to on di correct genes at di right time. Dem go lose dia function.

I tink dat na di reason why we grow old.

You say we no need to grow old. Why?

No law for biology say we must grow old.

We no know how to stop dis, but we dey get beta on how to slow am down.

And, for di lab, we dey able to reverse am (di process).

My point be say di epigenome fit change.

Di way we live our lives get serious impact on di scratches wey dey di CD.

Doing di right tins fit drastically slow down di ageing of di clock, and today we fit measure dat clock, we get blood and saliva tests for dat.

We find say for animals like rats and mice and even whales and elephants and pipo wey get different lifestyles, say ageing fit happun for very different rates.

And say more than 80% of your future health depend on how you live your life, not on DNA.

E get tins wey scientists don discovere by observing pipo wey live long time.

Dis include eating di right types of food, eating fewer calories, and eating less often.

Physical exercise dey also help.

And e get di ones wey tink say changing dia body temperature wit ice and cold water dey useful for dis purpose.

How all dis help slow ageing?

Di reason scientists believe say dis lifestyle habits and interventions work na becos dem dey boost di body natural defence against disease and ageing.

Feeling hot or cold, hungry, and short of breath na ways to activate dis defences.

For di root of dis defence na some genes, and we don study some of dem wey dey control di epigenome and exercise, hunger, fit activate am.

Dis na why we believe say eating di right tins and fasting fit slow down di ageing clock.

Ageing na di cause of most diseases, na by far di main cause of heart disease, Alzheimer's and diabetes.

So di idea na to make you stronger and make you live longer.

One recent study wey dem publish for di journal Nature say dem get invariable rate of ageing for primates but dis dey contrary to your work and show say no fit slow or stop aging?

200 years ago di maximum speed wey human beings fit travel na di speed of one horse.

E get technologies wey we fit use to overcome our biology.

Technology dey solve problems and make us beta dan before.

We be species wey dey creative. Without technology we for no fit survive.

Dat na wetin we don dey do for over one million years and we go also find technologies to overcome am.

Dis na di next step, to overcome di limit of our health wey we bin inherit.

We dey do dis every day, wen we take aspirin or wear dress.

We change our environment and we fit also change our body chemistry.

You propose one different approach to ageing: to treat dis process like disease. Why?

Disease na process wey dey happun over time and e dey result to disability and/or death.

This na di same tin wit getting old.

Aging na disease. E dey common, but just becos sometin dey common and natural no make am acceptable.

E no make am more palatable dan cancer. We dey prove say e dey treatable, say we fit slow am down prevent am from happening.

Di fact say doctors neva dey consider aging as a disease means say dem dey hesitant to prescribe medicine wey fit potentially provide pipo wit many years of healthier lives.

Therefore, we must declare say ageing na disease or at least na treatable medical condition.

Dis dey very different from our current understanding, becos today we see ageing as sometin wey must to happun, but you dey say no be like dat and say we fit treat am, delay am and even reverse am. Dat na radical proposal, abi no be so?

E dey radical, but e also radical to fly aeroplane or use antibiotics and computers.

Dis na di path wey human beings must to follow.

If we want to make serious progress for medicine and longevity - long life - even if we cure all disease today, di average improvement for life expectancy go be just over two years. We need to do beta.

You fit explain more abou how you tok for di laboratory say you don fit reverse di process of ageing?

We dey look for way to zero out di epigenome, to polish di scratches on di CD.

We bin look at many genes to see if we fit safely reverse ageing.

We bin no succeed for many years and even end up causing cancer for di laboratory cells.

But we find three genes wey dem dey call Yamanaka factors, wey fit safely reverse ageing witout making di cells lose dia identity.

We do dis for human skin cells and nerve cells.

We den test am on rats wey dia optic nerves damage and we bin dey able to restore dia vision by rejuvenating di optic nerves.

And dis fit work on human beings for future?

E get investors wey believe say e fit. I bin dey tok to dem for fone dis morning.

Di two years of safety studies on rats dey promising and we go move on to di first human trials for di next two to three years to see if we fit cure blind pipo.

Wetin science don discover so far and wetin e dey investigate about di medicine wey you mention wey fit slow down ageing?

E get molecules, both natural and synthetic, wey show promise of slowing ageing and prolonging di life of animals and even for human studies.

And at least two of dem na medicine wey dey market.

E get good evidence for one of di medicines, metformin, wey dem dey give to pipo wit type 2 diabetes.

E get many promising signs say pipo wit type 2 diabetes dey live longer dan pipo without diabetes.

One study now don dey look at tens of thousands of pipo wey don take metformin and di rate of cancer, heart disease and Alzheimer's.

We dey try to live forever?

No (Sinclair laughs). Wetin be di purpose of di medical research?

To help us get longer and healthier lives?

Yes, and dat na di same here.

Di difference be say we dey get to di root cause of diseases, instead of putting bandage on di disease once dem happun.

And by attacking di root cause, di impact go dey greater. And e go be for di whole body.

We no suppose just slow down ageing of di heart and let di brain age, becos we go end up wit more pipo wey get Alzheimer's disease.

We need approach wey go keep all parts of di body healthy for longer. And dat na di approach wey i dey take.

Wetin go be di impact of dis creativity for society as a whole?

E get individual benefits to wey you go gain if you dey healthy in your 90s and beyond, to dey able to get multiple careers, dey able to play wit your great-grandchildren, not be burden on your children.

Di oda benefit na moni.

My colleagues, myself, and some London economists estimate say, for US alone, to extend life expectancy by just two years go add $86bn value to di economy in di next few decades, and if we extend healthy lives by 10 years, e go be $300bn.

Dis value go come from di fact say people no sick.

America dey spend billions of dollars on disease care, as I like to call am, more dan on medical care. Dis money fit to transform di society if dem use am for education and to fight climate change, for example.

Dis na industry wey Merrill Lynch value in di tens of billions of dollars, and fit soon reach hundreds of billions. Why much money and interest dey invested in dis?

Dis na one of di greatest needs for world wey we neva meet. E no get anybody for dis planet wey no go benefit from dis advances, not even children.

Di ability to improve di body natural defense against disease go revolutionise di world and save billions of dollars for di global economy for years to come.

E go create world wey go different from today as our won different from di one wey bin exist before antibiotics.

You dey involve wit some companies wey develop products and services wit di aim of delaying or reversing ageing. You no worry say dis fit make you look like pesin wey try to profit from dis area, instead of just researcher wey im goal na to help us live longer and more healthily?

My goal na to make people healthier. And di only way to make medicine na to form teams to develop dem.

Dat na wetin I dey do.

You bin no fit do dis as a researcher instead of as a businessman?

No. E dey take millions of dollars to make one single medicine.

But you tink say your involvement for dis companies fit make some pipo suspicious of di science wey you dey publicise?

My science stands on im own. Dem neva prove am wrong.