The End of Aging

By Dr. Daniela Farkas DPM MS HHP

Living "happily ever after" was a dream and hope of people throughout ages from young to old. It was an aspiration and a goal present in children's stories, religious beliefs, and hopeful wishes. We live in a time when scientific breakthroughs in medicine, biology, epigenetics, and other branches of science accumulated knowledge to convert the healthy, long-living dream into reality. Specifically, understanding the laws that govern the cells, tissue, and organs made possible this very bold statement that age--and, in the future, ultimately mortality--could be conquered. Those discoveries bring a lot of new challenges to the way we govern ourselves and the mindset in the culture we live in.

The understanding we had about diet, sleep, exercise, mental attitude, and risky behaviors are still very important and needed but not sufficient. The next barrier consists in reversing and stopping the process of aging. Aging is a very costly disease, and there is nothing desirable about any condition associated with aging or sickness. To live a long and sick life is a curse, not a blessing. We are striving for a healthy, long life, full of vigor, achievements, and excitements.

This book explains the seven pillars that age and dying are resting on, and ways to prevent every one of them from manifesting. If we understand how we age and why, we can intervene at different points to prevent and break this cycle. The natural cell cycle of age and atrophy of cells is discussed. Different pathways that lead to cancers, "zombie" or senescent cells are discussed with ways to prevent them. Then the powerhouse of the cell is discussed in detail, with ways of strengthening and protecting it. This powerhouse is viewed by many scientists as the kernel where diseases do originate. Also, toxin accumulation inside the cells is discussed, with ways of helping the cells get rid of the overload. Toxin accumulation between the cells is discussed, as well as the relationship between the autoimmune disease and gut health. Different plant involvement in our health and diseases in the forms of lectins are also discussed.

The space between cells and the health of some organs that do assist in the detoxification process are discussed, together with water roles.

Aging could be conquered by a series of steps. It could be viewed as maintenance offered to a very valuable machinery. Some of the needed ingredients for the cells to function optimally, in the form of vitamins, minerals, polyphenols, amines, and other substances, are also given. Staying young and healthy does not consist in a magic pill. It consists of a series of steps taken daily that preserve and strengthen the cells. It is the habit of daily choices taken that confer excellent results.

Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution. It represents the wise choice of many alternatives--choice not chance determines your destiny.

--Aristotle

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 7, 2022
• ISBN: 9781684985050

Book preview

Chapter 1

Introduction

This book is not about diet or exercise or sleep, or about ways of reducing stress, breathing techniques, ways to control the mind, water quality, and ways to eliminate known insults of multiple origins to the body, ways to belong in a community, or having a close-knit group of friends. Those parameters will be mentioned as very important variables as they do affect the quality and longevity of life. Many parameters will be discussed in more details later on in the book. Those variables do not reverse aging. They do help improve the quality of life, and they do extend one’s life span, but we are after aging backwards.

This book is about reversing aging and improving quality of life using known science, medication, and nutritional supplements of multiple origins. Each of these nutrients will be discussed separately and in detail. Also, the seven known reasons of aging and dying that account for most of the deaths will be discussed separately with scientific evidence for each given.

Finally, lessons from nature will be discussed that are related to supporting longevity and health. My sincere hope is that in my generation, people will live well into their 150th year in good health. In the future, hopefully that number will be extended.

This is a very bold statement and goal.

The research will be explained in detail. This book also acknowledges the immense scientific discoveries from the last few years in biology—such as epigenetics—and will build a lot of understanding on it. Scientists hope that in the next five years or so, the pieces of this puzzle called immortality will be solved finally. You also must be made aware that, as ways will be discovered that stops or slows aging, the pharmaceutical company will find ways of profiting so the best will be reserved for whoever has money to spare. You also need to consider that treating chronic diseases might be more financially profitable than curing them.

This book represents the culmination of twelve years of intense research and also represents the hopes and dreams of millions of people in all cultures for centuries.

Chapter 2

Stopping Aging: A Dream, a Hope, and a Reality

Throughout the ages, the dream was to live happily ever after. All the children’s stories had a happy ending with the good characters living happily ever after. However, the fantasy was not reality. The fountain of youth was never in arm’s reach, and the dream soon faded in people’s minds as the reality of everyday living took root. The Bible talks about two periods of time: one pre-flood and one post-flood period. According to the Bible, the people before the flood did live for a very long time, up to hundreds of years—Methuselah lived to 980 years old, according to the Bible. However, floods came and life expectancy did drop very rapidly. What changed? Well, for one, it was the diet. The pre-flood generation had a vegetarian diet. Post-flood generations had an omnivore diet. Another change had to be climate and atmospheric conditions. But if the Bible is hard to accept for many people, then we do have the known history.

Why do people get old and die? Is it worth it to work so hard and to prepare for a future when we don’t know how long the future is? Let’s look into history at life expectancy and reasons for dying. In old Egypt, during the Pharaoh dynasty, life expectancy was in the midtwenties. However, Ramses II is said to have lived to ninety-three years old. Why such a discrepancy between him and his countrymen? Well, he had access to better nutrition, access to the best medical treatment available at the time. So there were always people who did live longer lives, but the overall median was different.

It did not change much for thousands of years. Up to about eighty (see graph) years ago, life expectancy was in the midforties. However, now life expectancy is in the midseventies.

Why did people die so early worldwide in the 1950? For one, the survival perinatal changed. Increased survival during childbirth or around birth was possible due to advances in medicine. If someone survived the childhood challenges, then the primary cause of death in the nineteenth and up to the middle of the twentieth century was infections. This is considered one of the reasons families had so many children in the past—not all survived to make it to adulthood, so by increasing the number of children, someone increased the chances of having offspring that made it to adulthood. But survival perinatal did change as we were able to understand how bacteria, viruses, and parasites infect humans and how to protect ourselves from those infections. We did not completely eliminate all infections, but about 90 percent of them worldwide are conquered. Some of the dreaded infections such as smallpox were eradicated, but others do persist and, as evolution continues, new strands or classifications of viruses, bacteria, or parasites will emerge. A good example is COVID-19, which caused a pandemic, affecting every part of the globe within a small time frame. As the borders between territories are minimized, those viruses or sources of infections will continue to emerge.

In the United States, the life expectancy is about 78.79 years. In other parts of the globe, life expectancy is a little better than seventy-nine years, and in other parts of the globe, it is a little less. It seems that in today’s culture, the people who do eat a vegetarian diet—like the Seventh Day Adventists—do have life expectancy a little longer on average of about seven to nine years compared with the rest of the population. When someone accounts for the other variables, such as living in the same cities, about the same amount of stress, the same air pollution, then the variable that differs is food choices. This was the subject of much study and research in the last twenty years or so.

So if in the past we died of infections mostly, why are we dying now?

There are multiple reasons for death in our generation on the globe—such as starvation, wars, lack of resources, abuse of resources, and so on. But in a developed country such as the United States, the causes of death are different.

In the past, most of the deaths by far were due to infections (like 90 percent) and other causes accounted for about 10 percent.

That changed in recent years—like the last fifty years. Today the causes of death in the United States are as follows:

About 6 to 9 percent of the population die due to infections of different origins (viruses, bacterial, amoeba, parasites…a recent spike in deaths from the novel coronavirus is responsible for this variance),

About 6 percent of deaths in the United States are due to accidents of all origins: car accidents, overdose, wrong medications, suicides, etc.

About 1 percent of deaths are due to genetic deformity, mutations at the level of DNA, etc.

About 85+ percent of deaths in the United States are due to chronic-related illnesses, such as heart conditions, kidney disease, diabetic complications, frailty, hip fractures, etc.

Chapter 3

Population Growth in the Past, the Present, and the Future

Throughout history, the human race was a minority among other species until recently—the last few hundred years. In the prehistoric times, the population was small and living in clans of hunters scattered in different parts of the globe. When history started to count the years (time 0), the whole globe population was estimated to be 190 million people in the world. That represented population growth and was due to the advances in agriculture. People could settle in villages and rely on agricultural products to ward off starvation. The coastal areas were populated initially as they provided a source of food—the fish and a means of transportation via boats and canoes. In the next 1,700 years, the population increased to about 600 million. Advances in science were great—the written language was added, advances in architecture, arts, mathematics, war machinery, and so on. In just the next one hundred years, the population on the globe reached 900 million inhabitants. This explosion of population could be partially explained due to the necessity to provide added work labor for the agricultural fields. The infant mortality was very high as the infections were not controlled at all, so by having many kids, some could make it to adulthood.

Then we experienced as a species a real explosive growth. In the next one hundred years, the population of the globe almost doubled—from 900 million to 1.65 billion of us. By 1928, we were 2 billion people. The time it took to double the population started to be shorter and shorter. From 3 billion in 1960, it only took thirty years to 1990 to get to 6 billion. In 2019, we reached a staggering number of 7.7 billion people. Clearly we were survivors as a species. But also, the population did not continue to increase at such a high rate, and the nativity rate started to slow down.

Well, about population growth, it seems to level off. Also we should be made aware that the projected human growth rate will indeed decline.

Population growth really seems to have already stabilized.

For example, in biology, even if a bacterium has access to all the food it needs, the population in colonies of bacteria stabilized after a while. Sociologists are telling us the same thing will happen with humans.

For the first time in modern history, the world’s population is expected to virtually stop growing by the end of this century, due in large part to falling global fertility rates," according to a Pew Research Center analysis of new data from the United Nations.

By 2100, the world’s population is projected to reach approximately 10.9 billion, with annual growth of less than 0.1 percent—a steep decline from the current rate. Between 1950 and today, the world’s population grew between 1 percent and 2 percent each year, with the number of people rising from 2.5 billion to more than 7.7 billion.

Also, more of us will get older in the coming years. "The world’s median age is expected to increase to 42 in 2100, up from the current 31—and from 24 in 1950. Between 2020 and 2100, the number of people ages 80 and older is expected to increase from 146 million to 881 million. Starting in 2073, there are projected to be more people ages 65 and older than under age 15—the first time this will be the case. Contributing factors to the rise in the median age are the increase in life expectancy and falling fertility rates.¹

The estimated growth rate of the human population as a whole is illustrated in the preceding chart.

So even if we did experience explosive growth in the past, we are witnessing the stabilization of the population and decline in the total number of people on the globe. So many fears that we will outgrow the planet any time soon could be put to rest for a while.

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¹ Anthony Cilluffo and Neil G. Ruiz, World’s Population Is Projected to Nearly Stop Growing by the End of the Century, Pew Research Center, June 17, 2019, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/06/17/worlds-population-is-projected-to-nearly-stop-growing-by-the-end-of-the-century/.

Chapter 4

Challenges of Aging Population

Even if there are no "staggering discoveries that can prolong lifespan, the population will still experience a lifespan increase. According to sociologists…

The Latin America and Caribbean region is expected to have the oldest population of any world region by 2100, a reversal from the 20th century. In 1950, the region’s median age was just 20 years. That figure is projected to more than double to 49 years by 2100.

This pattern is evident when looking at individual countries in the region. For example, in 2020, the median ages of Brazil (33), Argentina (32), and Mexico (29) are all expected to be lower than the median age in the US (38). However, by 2100, all three of these Latin American nations are projected to be older than the US. The median age will be 51 in Brazil, 49 in Mexico and 47 in Argentina, compared with a median age of 45 in the U.S. Colombia is expected to undergo a particularly stark transition, with its median age more than tripling between 1965 and 2100—from 16 to 52.

Japan is projected to have the highest median age of any country in the world in 2020, at 48 years old. Japan’s median age is expected to continue to rise until it peaks at 55 in 2065. It is expected to be lower in 2100 (54). By that time, the country with the highest median age is expected to be Albania, with a median age of 61. ²

A lot of new challenges are emerging with the population growing older. But if we expect life to last long, healthy like about 150 years—then the utilization of too many natural resources could be a problem. Then the older folks will use resources at the expense of the younger population. Today, the aging population does bring unprecedented challenges to the way we govern ourselves.

We need to consider the fact that new laws will be needed to ensure that individuals do contribute to society and not drain the resources to exhaustion—like younger people working to pay health care and housing for older folks who just keep living and living. The laws at this time are not sustainable, and there are currently about two to three working people trying to support a retired person’s medical and housing expenses. So if the population gets older and the nativity goes down, there will be no young people to work to sustain older folks at all. This is one way of looking at it.

Another way to look at the aging population challenges is to realize that older people who are healthy could be very valuable to society. There is no reason to retire early. Older people who worked for some thirty years or so do have life experiences. Most are very reliable and make unbelievable contributions to the places of work. They do not need to become a burden on society at all. If they are incorporated as normal members in society, they can provide inestimable aid to all of us. For example, older ladies can provide babysitting, young people care, supervise deliveries, work in office settings, do arts and crafts, etc. Older people, if they are without dementia or cancer, can work in their respected fields for a long time. If life expectancy extends to, let’s say, 150 years old, few careers could be started later in life: for example, I am a doctor but would like to fly airplanes. Maybe at sixty-five, I would like to become a pilot. That would require me to completely change my career. But it would also require the change in the laws for aviation where, at sixty-five years old, obligatory retirement kicks in. It is like society is expecting sixty-five-year-olds to start to break down and become incompetent.

Maybe at 120, I would like to become a farmer. If I do have the health and the means, why not? Like me, there are millions of people who would love to continue to be active and contribute to society if they are healthy. So the challenges that are arising are ways of keeping us healthy for a much longer time and living a good life. There is no beauty at all to live a long life in a nursing home not knowing your name or hooked to machines, or unable to walk and be independent. In my humble opinion, those conditions are not worth living, for me at least, at all. I want a long, healthy life, to be independent, to be able to support myself and others, and to contribute to society as much as I can. But I never want to become a burden to anyone—my family or the society.

The reasons we die now are very different than in the past. As we specified earlier, about 85+ percent of the time someone dies is because of age-related diseases, such as cardiovascular accidents, metabolic diseases, cancers, and other diseases associated with old folks. This is a horrible statistic and a very costly one.

It means that about 85+ percent of the population do die as a direct result of aging and conditions associated with aging. Dialysis alone in the United States accounts for 6.8 percent of GDP. It translates into billions of dollars annually. Alzheimer’s is a frightening diagnosis that absolutely drains the community of resources and puts an unbelievable burden on the families that deal with such an issue.

In 2018, the World Health Association declared aging a disease. We couldn’t agree more. Indeed, aging is a very costly disease.

Consider the amount of money spent to treat an older person. A picture that comes to mind is a person diagnosed with cancer. Let’s name this patient John Doe. He is, let’s say, seventy-eight years old, has some dementia and diabetes. Due to diabetes, he has some ulcers in feet. And also due to diabetes, his kidneys are failing and need dialysis. Also, he has a little cancer—let’s say colon cancer. Now I do not say that cancer happens only to old people, but most of the cancers that do happen are in the older population. I am a practicing physician, and I know that some children or infants do have cancers. However, statistically, the older population is affected disproportionately, and this will be addressed in the book also. How much are we,