Are people finally starting to believe that reversing aspects of aging might actually be possible?

They should start paying attention at least.

D.T. Max’s fascinating new National Geographic article, Are We on the Brink of Ending Aging?, looks at cellular reprogramming, the emerging science of returning older cells toward a more youthful biological state. And something significant has changed: a cellular-reprogramming therapy has now entered a human Phase 1 clinical trial.

No, aging has not been cured. But this is no longer just an experiment with a mouse.

And when researchers eventually succeed in materially extending healthy human life, the implications for Alberta could be enormous. Like the Wright brothers’ first flight, the breakthrough was not that everything changed overnight, it was that something humanity had long assumed was impossible was suddenly proven possible. Once that happens, the world starts moving very quickly.

This Goes Beyond Healthcare

Longer careers. Later retirement. Different pension assumptions. More years of entrepreneurship. Longer investment horizons. Changes to succession planning, housing and insurance. And potentially an entirely new biotechnology industry.

Alberta already projects that its 65+ population will almost double from about 780,000 in 2025 to 1.5 million by 2051.

What happens to those assumptions if a 70-year-old in the future has the health and productive capacity we associate with someone much younger today?

We don’t know yet. But that is precisely why Albertans should be watching.

The question is increasingly shifting from “Can this possibly be real?”

To “What happens if it works?”

Credit to D.T. Max and National Geographic for an extraordinary look at a technology that could reshape much more than medicine.

Are We on the Brink of Ending Aging? | National Geographic