Regenerative Medicine and the Future of Healthy Longevity

One of the many possible future banners for applied longevity science is to call these treatments capable of extending healthy life span simply "regenerative medicine." In past years, regenerative medicine has referred to the output of the stem cell research community: ways to manipulate and transplant cells in order to create regrowth and healing to a degree that would not normally occur. But why not broaden the usage to include repair of damage within cells, and removal of metabolic waste in tissue structures between cells? It isn't such a leap. The stem cell research community is presently largely focused on building treatments for the old, and thus these researchers will have to solve many of the issues affecting old cells one way or another in order to render their therapies effective. Looked at this way, "regeneration" and "rejuvenation" are really not so different in meaning. Aging is a matter of accumulated damage that is beyond the capacity of the body to heal, and regenerating old tissue by removing some that damage might as well be called rejuvenation. Such a treatment would remove some of the differences between old tissue and young tissue, and would aim to restore function to a point closer to that of a youthful, healthy individual. In isn't hard to think of aging as an illness, a progressive medical condition, when looking at things in these terms, and that seems to me to be a good viewpoint on the situation if it inspires more people to help do something about...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Of Interest Source Type: blogs