Life-Span Extension

Opinions about life-span extension range from the optimistic, fanciful thinking of Ben Bova, a noted science fiction writer, who wrote: "The first immortal human beings are probably living among us today. You may be one of them." (Bova, p. 3), to the realistic views of Steve Austad, a respected researcher on the evolution of aging processes, who wrote: "In Westminster Abbey. . . lie the bones of one rather ordinary man.. . .Thomas Parr's only claim to fame is that he managed to convince a gullible seventeenth-century public that he had been alive for more than 150 years" (Austad, p. 1). There has probably been no more consistent and heartfelt fantasy than to imagine living forever in a youthful body full of health and vigor. From the dawn of written language, there are references to such life extension. Do some people show extraordinary life extension? What can people do to maximize their own life potential? What is known about the mechanisms of life extension? These are some of the questions that will be addressed below.