On August 29, 2017, TEDMED published a blog and talk by 1997 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award in Aging scholar, 1994 AFAR Research Grant recipient, and AFAR Deputy Scientific Director Nir Barzilai, MD.
In the TEDMED talk, Can we grow older without growing sicker?, Dr. Barzilai explores the prevalence of age-related diseases, the diversity of longevity in centenarians, and how, if the FDA moves to consider aging an indication, drugs like Metformin and Rapamycin have the potential to target aging and extend years of health. He poses: “What if we spent 80 years to get to the biological age of 60? What if instead of taking care of our parents, our parents are going to care of the children and our grandchildren? Those are really exciting things that we are determining and doing now. And this is not science fiction—it’s science now.”
The related blog post, Metformin and the TAME Trial: Magic Pill or Monumental Tool?, highlights how the TAME trial will help decrease age-related disease increasing health care savings. Dr. Barzilai shares: “With one American turning 65 every eight seconds today, the TAME Trial is a small investment that can make huge impact by saving trillions of dollars while invigorating millions of lives. In an era of rising health care costs and unpredictable health care coverage, delaying or targeting aging may could be the most efficient method of achieving primary prevention available to us in this century.”
Watch the full TEDMED talk here.
Read the full blog post here.
Nir Barzilai, MD is the Director of the Institute for Aging Research and the Director of the Nathan Shock Centers of Excellence in the Biology of Aging at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
For more information on TAME, please see our TAME FAQ page here.
