The field of anti-aging medicine has exploded in recent years, as discoveries about the basic biology of aging have translated into experimental treatments. The latest fountains of youth to emerge from the lab come in the form of vaccines for age-related diseases, including cancer, heart disease, and dementia. The first of these could be available within a decade. Anti-aging injections for all sorts of purposes are also in development (see: “New anti-aging vaccine promises to prevent diseases like Alzheimer’s”).
The benefits of such a vaccine are clear. Anything that can limit the impact of age-related diseases on people who live to old age, and often the loved ones who care for them, should be welcomed. It also promises to reduce the increasingly serious social and economic costs of these diseases.
But as with all anti-aging interventions, there are potential downsides. If millions of people live much longer, we risk a population explosion on an already overstretched planet. If vaccines merely delay the onset of age-related diseases, they will only slow the burden on people and society. And as Nobel laureate Venky Ramakrishnan told us earlier this year, a society that lives longer is likely to stagnate.
These are familiar fears. The answer is that the goal is to increase health span, meaning that people live longer, are free from the diseases of old age, and then suddenly become frail and die.
At least that’s the idea. We won’t know the results until the treatments are rolled out on a large scale, and by then it will be too late to put the genie back in the bottle. But that’s not an option anyway. If vaccines and other anti-aging treatments are effective and affordable, they will be used.
Moreover, no one would argue that innovations such as antibiotics, vaccines, and advanced diagnostics are bad ideas, even though they have ushered in an era of age-related diseases. Likewise, we should not fear life-saving medical advances based on unintended consequences. If we can make life longer and less painful, the downside is a price to pay.
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