Research show that there are seven, and only seven, ways that oxidation
destroys the cells, leading to aging of your body:
1. Cells die or waste away in the tissues of the heart and in the brain,
where cells cannot replace themselves.
2. Unwanted cells accumulate as fat cells that spread and replace muscles,
leading to diabetes; unwanted cells in our joints cause muscle aches and
arthritis.
3. Chromosomes mutate, with cancer as its most damaging result.
4. Mutations take place in the DNA of the mitochondria, the cell’s energy
production center.
5. Cells collect junk, complex material by-products of metabolism.
6. Junk accumulates outside the cell, within the extracellular fluid, as
aggregates of protein material difficult to break down. The result is amyloid,
found in brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.
7. Proteins stick together outside the cell. Protein molecules in
extracellular fluid gum together and lead to loss of elasticity or thickening
of tissues.
Dr de Grey’s plan to stop, and then reverse, the aging process is to limit
the extent of oxidation damage and, when possible, to repair this damage.
Dr. de Grey calls his comprehensive plan Strategies for Engineered
Negligible Senescence or SENS. Based in Cambridge
University, SENS and Dr de Grey has
taken a leading role in the global effort to put together research findings in
longevity.
He sees aging as an engineering problem that we can fix following a
three-pronged strategy to stop, and then reverse, aging:
Strengthen the Immune System
Gene Therapy
Stem Cell Therapy
These three can solve the seven causes of oxidation damage by:
Strengthening the immune system to stimulate cell division and replace old
and dead cells (1), remove old cells (2) so new healthy ones can replace them,
break down junk inside (5) and outside (6) the cell, and stop proteins from
sticking together (7).
Gene therapy can cure cancer (3) and mitochondrial mutations (4).
Replacing genes with modified enzymes prevent accumulation of old cells (2) and
bring down the level of junk (5 and 6).
Stem cell therapy can introduce new whole cells engineered to fix cell
tissues (1 and 2) and bring in cells that will not mutate (3).