Thanks to new drug research, living until you’re 100 years of age may be as simple as taking a daily pill that could be available as soon as 2012.
The findings were revealed by a leading expert in ageing, New York-based Professor Nir Barzilai, at the Royal Society’s “The New Science of Ageing” seminar in London, the UK’s Sun reported.
Professor Barzilai said the drugs, which were discovered through research into age-related illnesses such as Alzheimer’s, are already in development.
“Pharmaceutical companies are developing these drugs now,” Professor Barzilai said.
“They will probably be available for testing from 2012.”
The researcher said the life-altering pills will be able to be taken once a day by those in their forties or fifties and will promote longer life.
The science behind the drugs springs from intensive research into how cells die as well as studies into the ability some people have to dodge major illnesses, such as some cancers and dementia, and live a healthy life beyond 100.
Professor Barzilai’s team from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine claim they have pinpointed the genetic variants which allow people to live to a long and healthy life beyond 100.
The research found that those centenarians with anti-ageing genes usually die suddenly rather than become sick towards the end of their lives.
“I’m seeing 100-year-olds who are not only 100 years old but in great shape,” Professor Barzilai said.
“People who die between 70 and 80 are sick in the last few years of their life. Centenarians are dying healthy.”
