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Horizon: Don’t Grow Old

For centuries scientists have been attempting to come up with an elixir of youth. Now remarkable discoveries are suggesting that ageing is something flexible that can ultimately be manipulated.

Horizon meets the scientists who are attempting to piece together why we age and more vitally for all of us, what we can do to prevent it. But which theory will prevail?

Does the 95-year-old woman who smokes two packets of cigarettes a day hold the clue? Do blueberries really delay signs of ageing or is it more a question of attitude? Does the real key to controlling how we age lie with a five-year-old boy with an extraordinary ageing disease or with a self-experimenting Harvard professor?

Could one of these breakthroughs really see our lives extend past 120 years?

Director/Producer Nicola Stockley. Executive Producer Andrew Cohen. Aired Wed 3 Feb 2010, BBC Two.

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  1. Relax! WE HUMANS CAN LIVE FOREVER! – BY STAYING ABSOLUTELY HEALTHY ALL THE TIME – A NEW ERA IS DAWNING ON HUMANITY! – NO DISEASES, NO DRUGS, NO VACCINES, NO VACCINE INDUSTRY, NO PHARMA INDUSTRY, NO DOCTORS, NO HOSPITALS, NO “THERAPIES” LIKE SLICING, POISONING AND BURNING, ETC. BS – WE HUMANS WILL STAY ABSOLUTELY HEALTHY ALL THE TIME, LIVING OUR ENDLESS LIVES – Any infections, allergies, cancers, diabetes, polio, TB, cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, genetic and any other diseases, known on Earth, will be erased from the face of the planet in just a few days, if everybody (kids and adults) start doing my discovery (just an exercise for a minute a day – the greatest discovery of all time on Earth and maybe in the Universe) – My WVCD – The Weapon of Virus and Cancer Destruction – By far more powerful than the human immune system, keeping it intact all the time, for any pathogens are killed the moment they touch us – We humans will possess the Infinite Health and we will become Immortal – Just like the Extraterrestrials, like our Creators from the planet of Nibiru – The Anunnaki, if I am paid 5 billion bucks to disclose my discovery – Just 25 million bucks per country in the world – As a proof of the power of my discovery, for more than 5 years now, I never got sick even of the common cold, my blood sugar level is 300 mg/dl, but I am not sick of diabetes, for I cannot get sick of it, or of any other diseases – I am the healthiest person on the planet, I am absolutely free to eat any food I like, no restrictions whatsoever, doing my discovery for just a minute a day – The only way on Earth for everybody to stay absolutely healthy all the time and of course being Immortal, for Infinite Health = Immortality.

  2. Does anyone know what the song is that they play right at the end?

  3. It was a time long ago ~ I was hindered by substance and not sustenance. Epic failure to find hope. If it is your last wish to see your race vanish ~ at least let others in it have a say. Religion is what you make of it morally and not based on society as a whole. Whole society’s are wrong. You must clear your mind of the sickness that has come upon you. Open your eyes to LOVE and be a witness to it. Prayer only works if you LOVE. It makes for a sad world and existence to see it any other way.Pray

  4. Its impossible to hault the aging in humans. Just look at our enviroment. The Air we breath in.. That alone has enough corosive chemicals in it to dissolve metal. now just think of what thats doing to our bodies. Plus not to mention our diets aswell. Perfecting this theory would take another 50 to 100 years ( give or take a few years). just in time for commericalised Fusion reaction

  5. Human body must to be understood under certain level, where we could answer the question cna we stop humans body aging? If yes, than we have to have technologies to make changes in human  body. 
    what we need is real progresion of sience and technologies.

  7. How could eliminating aging be a good thing? We already have population problems. If no one aged and died, then we would be f***ed. How could the planet hold that many people? Ofc on a personal level we want to stop aging but in reality unless we can start colonising the moon and find more resources there’s no way the planet can support it. Already the planet cannot sustain our population living at the excess we do. This technology would cause the massive population boom in the worst places: western countries. Think about it. The rainforests would be cut down at a faster rate, more energy would be used so there would be more pollution. Thats not even to mention food and water. 

    • When I think of overpopulations I think of the “one child rule” in china and all of the consequences they had to endure. I also feel that overpopulation effects can be experienced by unregulated immigration. No matter where it occurs. We have limited resources. Period. Admittedly I don’t live in a communist/socialistic country so may have a bias point of view.

  8. How could eliminating aging be a good thing? We already have population problems. If no one aged and died, then we would be f***ed. How could the planet hold that many people? Ofc on a personal level we want to stop aging but in reality unless we can start colonising the moon and find more resources there’s no way the planet can support it. Already the planet cannot sustain our population living at the excess we do. This technology would cause the massive population boom in the worst places: western countries. Think about it. The rainforests would be cut down at a faster rate, more energy would be used so there would be more pollution. Thats not even to mention food and water. 

    • Even if it is possible to reduce the effects of aging and even live longer, it is still a long way and I do not even know wether it is possible or not to become imortal as you say even doing all the anti-aging treatments in the world and not everyone have the will power to stop doing all the harmful things most people do like smoking, drinking in excess, overeating etc, just to live a little longer, and even if you are able to do that, for it to be effective you would have to start doing that as a kid and not when you are old after a life with all sorts of excesses.There is no miraculous treatment for this and possibly never will.

    • CUT THE AMAZON DOWN AND COLONIZE IT!!!

  9. How could eliminating aging be a good thing? We already have population problems. If no one aged and died, then we would be f***ed. How could the planet hold that many people? Ofc on a personal level we want to stop aging but in reality unless we can start colonising the moon and find more resources there’s no way the planet can support it. Already the planet cannot sustain our population living at the excess we do. This technology would cause the massive population boom in the worst places: western countries. Think about it. The rainforests would be cut down at a faster rate, more energy would be used so there would be more pollution. Thats not even to mention food and water. 

  10. Well, I think it’s a very good thing that we eliminate aging, I would personally like to live forever. Just imagine all the things you could accomplish, why would any one want to live in a world that stops you from accomplishing your dreams and fortifying all your desires? and lets not forget that we live in an era that is very exciting, I would like to see what man kind does in the future 500 years from now, and to see all the new inventions, why die wondering what man kind will do next, I would love to live forever and see it with my own eye’s. We don’t have to worry about over populating our planet, we can have guide lines that will keep those that live forever from creating a new born, and once that person has lived too long, he can then decide that he’s had enough and wants to remove his existence for a new born to step in his place, why should we not put our selves first? why worry about something that is not even alive yet? the day we start selling this miracle invention of none aging, you can all bet your lives I’ll be lined up first with a fist full of cash. 😀 😀 😀

  11. Come on, do we really want people to live longer? We have more than a billion people on this planet, and were looking for ways to make people live even longer? If they do find a way then they should just sterelize the youth, because our population is going to jump. Just what we need, to increase the number of people on this planet. Yes, there just can’t be too many humans.The more the better.

    • 1 billion? Let me shock you: we’re approaching 7 billion. But the most rapid increase happens within the underdeveloped and developing countries. In fact population in many western countries has become stagnant or is even decreasing. But overpopulation is indeed a serious problem.

  12. The documentary is amazing,
    the information provided is good fairly recent!

  13. Isn’t the desire to live longer (i.e survive) a natural instinct? Whether it is using a stick to fight off a predator or using science to fight off aging. I can’t see the difference myself. By your logic wouldn’t something as vital as medicine be a “reversal of reality”? Or am I misunderstanding you?

  14. “Horizon meets the scientists who are attempting to piece together why we age and more vitally for all of us, what we can do to prevent it”

    That’s a classic materialist reversal of reality right there. The arrogance, the idea that we know better than nature, and that it is more important to pervert nature than simply understand it is a classic materialist dogma. Borne right out of the old colonial spirit, “manifest destiny” on a cosmis scale.