Lifespan – David Sinclair – Review

Is a long youthful life possible? Can ageing be arrested or even reversed? Can we truly desire for an immortal life? A few deep questions that can have significant impact on the human population at large if it’s proved to be possible. David Sinclair believes to have found the secret sauce to counter aging and live a long life of vitality. A quick look on David’s qualification will bring in semblance of credibility on the outcome attained through decades of research, he has a Phd in molecular genetics, postdoctoral researcher at M.I.T. and held the position of co-director in Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at Harvard Medical School.

He starts of his book with an extremely bold statement, 'aging is a disease'. It took some time to realize the gravity of the statement since for millenniums of human existence, we are taught to believe aging as a natural progression of life. However, the fundamental belief is set to change if David’s research outputs are proved to be true.

The sequence of what shifts a human from a point of youth towards old age and finally death is given below:

Youth –> DNA breakage -> genome instability -> disruption of DNA packaging and gene regulation (epigenome) -> loss of cell identity -> cellular senescence -> disease -> death

This specifically means retaining DNA packaging without breakage will provide a lifelong vitality without degrading into old age.

The research is largely conducted by observing the responses of yeast and rats. Apparently, yeast shares similar genes with human which is used to test new drugs. The initial study was around Werner Syndrome, which is an inherited disorder that speeds up the aging process, increases risk of cancer and a range of other diseases. Though there were no cure found till date, the test and observations led to some key insights towards the nirvana.

On the other hand, really long-lasting living entities were also studied like Bristlecone pine tree which is living for over 5000 years, Greenland shark in which some of them are known to live over 400 years or Cnidarian which is a form of transparent jellyfish that can regrow any of it organs multiple times. However, what caused their longevity still seems to be discovery in progress without much insight.

David Sinclair himself has been taking the drugs for many years as we speak and so is his dad. His chronological age is 53 years but any of his recent youtube videos clearly shows that his biological age will be significantly lesser or maybe just half. The author has also furnished the name of the drugs on page 304 and leaves it to the discretion of the users before popping them in.

Is it a placebo, a nirvana or something with adverse consequences, only time will have the answer. However, considering the massive strides made by scientist and researchers in medical field over the last 200 years, it’s about time we have the counter response to aging as well.