Dr. Felipe Sierra discusses the concept of geroscience, which focuses on the relationship between aging and age-related diseases. He emphasizes the significant increase in human lifespan but also highlights the problem of increased health issues in older individuals. Traditional medicine treats individual diseases separately, but aging is a major risk factor for various age-related conditions.
Dr. Sierra suggests shifting the focus from treating individual diseases to addressing the biology of aging. By doing so, it’s possible to improve overall health and reduce the burden of age-related diseases. Geroscience aims to uncover the common biological mechanisms underlying aging and age-related diseases, offering the potential to extend the period of active and productive life as people grow older.
He provides examples of interventions like senolytics and Rapamycin, which not only extend lifespan but also enhance overall health. These interventions demonstrate the potential of geroscience in improving health in older individuals.
In summary, geroscience is a paradigm that seeks to address aging itself as a way to mitigate multiple age-related health problems and enhance the quality of life in older individuals.
Geroscience, the interplay between aging and disease, from Felipe Sierra, Ph.D., Director of the Division of Aging Biology at the National Institute on Aging at NIH.