Dr. Aubrey de Grey, in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences of
April 2002 (959: 452-462), explains the basic facts of how science can reverse
aging.
Aging and death result from cellular damage caused by human metabolism.
Fixing this damage can reverse the aging process and postpone death.
Oxidants cause the damage. The body breaks down what you eat into simpler
chemicals for the body to absorb. The last stage takes place as your cells
convert oxygen into water, releasing energy for your body’s use. This energy
release produces waste products called oxidants.
Oxidants make you age. As Dr. Ames discovered, “oxidant damage is much like
radiation damage.”
It is a cosmic trick of nature: metabolism helps your cells absorb energy
and keep it alive, but metabolism’s toxic waste products damage and kill cells.
Oxidants are metabolism’s toxic wastes. Floating in your blood supply in the
form of superoxides, peroxides, and hydroxyl radicals or free radicals,
oxidants damage your cell DNA and attack cell walls, causing injury.
How bad is oxidant damage?
Oxidation is dangerous because it takes place inside you:
Causing as many as 10,000 wounds on each cell
Mutating the cell nucleus and causing cancer
Killing cells quickly – leading to diabetes, unwanted fat, and skin
wrinkles
Paving the way for fatal sicknesses – heart attacks, strokes,
artheriosclerosis
Damaging your mitochondria, the cell’s energy source
Weakening your immune system – causing fatigue, Parkinson’s, and
Alzheimer’s
Oxidation makes your body cells grow old and die, resulting in the cycle of
life and death going on for millions of years that no one has managed to
escape. In the end, we all die.
A major breakthrough came in the 1950s when scientists discovered how the
body repairs itself. Apparently, one of metabolism’s good effects is triggering
the body to produce repair enzymes.