FEATURE
The Longevity Dividend
In Pursuit of the Longevity Dividend: What should we be doing to prepare for the unprecedented aging of humanity? By S. Jay Olshansky, Daniel Perry, Richard A. Miller, Robert N. Butler
Imagine...
Redrawn from Koloman Moser's Frommes Kalendar
Illustrations by Joelle Bolt

an intervention, such as a pill, that could significantly reduce your risk of cancer. Imagine an intervention that could reduce your risk of stroke, or dementia, or arthritis. Now, imagine an intervention that does all these things, and at the same time reduces your risk of everything else undesirable about growing older: including heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer and Parkinson disease, hip fractures, osteoporosis, sensory impairments, and sexual dysfunction. Such a pill may sound like fantasy, but aging interventions already do this in animal models. And many scientists believe that such an intervention is a realistically achievable goal for people. People already place a high value on both quality and length of life, which is why children are immunized against infectious diseases. In the same spirit, we suggest that a concerted effort to slow aging begin immediately...

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