Daily Archives: November 23, 2014

In the 16th century, Spanish explorer Ponce de Len went on an expedition to discover the mythical fountain of youth, stumbled upon the southeast coast of what is today known as United States. The magical water source supposedly capable of reversing the aging process and curing sickness may have been fictional, but it seems that many latter-day Leons are still searching for it in todays America.

Since America worships youth, men and women advancing in age, hungering to stay relevant, want to live long but look young and healthy. Serving them are the twin drivers of biotechnology and miracle face creams. Freezing time by ridding lines and sculpting the fat off the body is a pursuit universally chased by most oldies. Moneyed geysers often cohabit with women half their age lusting to regenerate their sag-bellied frames, get the old ticker pumping fresh blood by a fling with youth; quenching their thirst with the elixir of youth.

Recent experiments with blood transfusions from young mice to their older mates and vice versa show promise in age reversal. Young blood boosts old brains and bodies making the old mice look younger, while old blood prematurely ages the young mice. Humans are set to be the next guinea pigs and multi-billion dollar beauty and pharma corporations are already salivating at the prospect. Their wait period is over: Come October, human trials giving young blood plasma to older people begins; not for beauty but for medical reasons. A team at Stanford School of Medicine will administer the blood transfusion plasma donated by people under 30 to older volunteers with mild to moderate Alzheimers.

I certainly think that this therapy might be beneficial in a number of different conditions, says Tony Wyss-Coray, whose team pioneered blood transfusions in mice. Blood might contain the fountain of youth after all. And it is within us all thats the crazy thing. It [blood] just loses its power as we age.

Aggressively fighting age is another California-based not-for-profit institute called SENS Research Foundation: A world free of age-related disease is possible, they wager. Their research emphasises the application of regenerative medicine to age-related disease, with the intent of repairing underlying damage to the bodys tissues, cells, and molecules. Their avowed goal is to help build the industry that will end the diseases of aging.

Sexism: the stepchild of Septuagenarians

Until scientists can successfully engineer blood transfusions to fight the decaying process of age, the resounding Aye for a robust splice of youth and spunk fixates our real life drama. The current queen of drama is the former secretary of state Hillary Clinton. While she hems and haws on her candidacy for 2016 presidential elections, her male detractors hasten to remind the American public that age is against the lady with extra baggage, read folds, rumples, puckers and all. Howard Kurtz, the affable host of Fox News Channels Media Buzz remarked recently Hillary she of the ever-changing hairstyles has to worry about wrinkles in a way that male candidates do not. He warned male chauvinists that using her age against Hillary could backfire. Still, Kurtz, like his fellow Fox commenters, is Hillary-appearance-centric.

Charlie Cooks column Is Hillary Clinton Too Old to Run? zeroes in on her age, not her wisdom that she brings to the table. Skeptics, largely men, support Cooks diatribe appearing in the latest edition of the widely read National Journal. Mrs Clinton, the reader is informed, will be pass by the time she ends her two-term presidency (if elected and re-elected). She will be 77! While it was okay for Reagan to be that old when he left the White House; its not okay for Hillary Clinton. Why? Superannuation prevents women from performing the physically demanding job of a president; but not men, says Cook.

Endorsing the overarching view America worships youth, Charlie Cook no spring chicken at 60, says Clinton at 69 will fail to appeal to the younger electorate swiftly overtaking the baby boomers (Americans born between 1946 -64). The Millennials aka Generation Y disdain politicians of Mrs Clintons vintage, having entered adulthood only this century. Shell fail to make herself more relevant to the future, rather than to the past. Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, 72, quips Dont tell me that Democrats are the party of the future when their presidential ticket for 2016 is shaping up to look like a re-run of The Golden Girls [a popular sitcom of the 50s featuring four old women].

Men politicos blow dry their hair, use Botox to pull their sagging cheeks and jowls in a bid to look pretty boys comments a woman who thinks geriatrics like McConnell are sexists. Blame it on politics, celebrity culture and mainstream media whose creed is: to stay young is to be relevant. For the rest, its downhill all the way until you hit the ground six feet under.

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I dont want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying. Woody Allen