目前，我们生活在一个充满不可预测挑战的世界中，无论它们是以drug resistant microbesand emerginginfectious diseases这威胁了我们的健康或全球影响climate change. Amongst so much uncertainty one trend however is clear: we’re getting older.
In fact, our world is aging at a rate never before seen and for the first time in history most people can now expect to live beyond their 60thbirthday. By 2050 it’spredictedthat the world will be home to 2 billion people above that age (hopefully, I’ll be one of them), around 900 million more than today. For those of you hoping to reach 80 and beyond, you’ll be in good company as it’s thought that within just a few decades there will be as many octogenarians in China alone as are alive today, worldwide. Even within just 5 years there will be fewer children under the age of 5 than there are adults over 60.
You get the point, the world’s getting older, and quickly.
The challenge of population aging
无论您以哪种方式，人口衰老都是一种转变的人口力量。随着人们的寿命和人口年龄的增长，预计全球疾病流行病学的急剧转变：在不久的将来，全球良好健康和生命的损失将因痴呆症和慢性疾病（例如痴呆症）和慢性疾病而更大癌症, than from parasites and infection. Ensuring that both our health and social systems are equipped for this shift is a significant and pressing challenge.
我们为什么年龄？
不是一个简单的问题的答案。在基本生物测井ical level, aging can be attributed to the accumulation over time of compounding and varied molecular and cellular ‘damage’. Our bodies and minds are vulnerable to this process and as we get older the functional capacity of our biological systems deteriorates, leading to declining physical and mental health and a growing risk of disease.
Although the pace of population aging is much faster than ever before, there’s little evidence to suggest that end of life health has improved at anywhere near the same rate. Sadly, few older people today are able to enjoy their later years in better health than their parents could.
重新辩论辩论
除非受到挑战，否则我们中的许多人，包括我自己，似乎都不会质疑与年龄相关的衰落，疾病和残疾的“必然性”：这只是变老的一部分（或者故事的发展）。毫无疑问，科学界将继续发展amazing progressin understanding and treating diseases often considered ‘endpoints’ for the elderly, but perhaps a new approach is needed.
Although our chronological ages are immutable, more researchers than ever are now questioning whether the aging process itself can be modulated. Whilst getting older is inevitable, perhaps disease and disability don’t have to be.
A new precedent
一群著名的研究人员已经计划在一项临床试验中测试该理论用二甲双胍靶向衰老, or TAME for those of you who like catchy acronyms. They plan on giving Metformin, a tried and tested medication used to treat type 2 diabetes, to a large cohort of people already affected by (or at risk of) 3 age related conditions – cancer, cognitive impairment or heart disease. Success for the trial would come in the form of any forestalling of disease onset, potentially setting an FDA approved precedent that aging is a medically treatable disorder. Which would be no small thing.
在您急于在前往青年源的途中购买一些新的泳装之前，我应该说，驯服的人并没有声称自己追求不朽。但是，如果成功的审判可能指出了增加“健康跨度”的新方法，那么即使衰老的速度适度减少也可能会给生活质量带来重大利益。
If viewed as a malleable biological function, rather than an inescapable decline, it’s difficult not to think that aging should be placed at the center of public health research. After all, it’s the only condition guaranteed to affect every person on the planet.
So what if we do find ways to modulate the aging process, what happens next? Let’s hope we all live long enough to find out.
注释