Longevity: ‘money-spinning cult’ or the future of health?
BBC presenter discovers that the longevity industry isn’t just about billionaires trying to cheat death.
This weekend, the BBC will air a special 30-minute technology feature that turns the spotlight on the world of longevity. The Forever Young? episode follows presenter Lara Lewington as she travels to California to meet the tech entrepreneurs and scientists attempting to slow, stop and reverse the aging process. Her journey covers many aspects of longevity – from discovering the concept of healthspan and how to improve it, meeting a tech entrepreneur spending $2m a year to reduce his biological age, and even longevity for dogs.
My take on this: While those already embedded in the field don’t need to be convinced about the value of targeting aging, most people remain blissfully unaware of the exciting work going on in longevity. But times are a-changin’. With mainstream global news channels like the BBC highlighting developments in the sector, more and more people are beginning to take an interest in the science of longevity. It’s always interesting to hear an outsider’s perspective on the field, so we caught up with Lewington to see what she made of her induction into the science – and business – of aging.
Lewington’s interest in longevity was first piqued by news stories that made the longevity field sound like it was purely a whim of US billionaires seeking the fountain of youth.
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“I didn’t know whether I was going into the heart of some sort of money-spinning cult, or whether it was actually people who really cared about scientific development and wanted to lead their best lives,” she says. “Once I started looking into it, I realised it wasn’t anywhere near as sensational as some tech billionaires wanting to live forever. I learned that there was a whole industry out there.”
Read more about Lewington's search for the meaning of longevity, HERE.
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It’s a bit of both right now but with careful governance and good science it will become the future of global health. The trajectory is going in the right direction.
Future-focused Senior Sales Exec working with clients to define goals, develop and execute sales plans to grow revenue in Online Education, AWS Cloud Services, Web Design & Development, Manufacturing, and more.
1 年It's exciting to watch longevity going mainstream! This will be an incredible disruption in human society, in a good way.