Want to live forever?

The worldwide average life expectancy rates have almost doubled over the years, from a dismal 34 to 66.

Today, in 2018 Canadians have some of the highest life expectancy rates in the world, with an average life expectancy of 82.

The increase in life expectancy is largely a result of improved hygiene and medical interventions such as vaccinations and antibiotics. Improved living conditions, clean water and agriculture have also contributed to the increase in life expectancy rates as well.

Unfortunately, this trend has begun to plateau and even decline as modern society has adopted more sedentary lifestyles and diets that are abundant with heavily processed foods.

Our advances in science and technology have done an excellent job of mitigating the risks of infectious diseases.

The gains we've made in life expectancy rates combined with modern lifestyles has made us more susceptible to age related diseases such as:

• heart disease
• Alzheimer's
• dementia
• stroke
• cancer
• diabetes.

Ironically, while our life expectancy rates have increased, our quality of life generally diminishes as we get older.

My father-in-law frequently quips that getting older is no fun and jokingly insists that I never get any older. At which point, we both usually laugh and then the subject changes to something much lighter and less sobering.

The thing is though, he's not totally wrong. I'll be turning 50 this December and while I lead a very active and healthy lifestyle, I'm not going to lie, my body just doesn't feel like it did when I was 20.

In my experience, most people, including me, have no issue with getting older, it's the increased risk of disease, loss of functionality, cognitive decline and other age related health issues associated with aging that concern us.

We have come to accept that aging and death are natural, inevitable facts of life we must all come to terms with.

But science and technology are challenging these long-held perceptions and rapidly changing the way we think about aging.

A rapidly growing body of research is approaching a consensus that aging can not only be stopped, but that it can even be reversed.

Many people are under the impression that life extension research merely seeks to extend human life. The primary goal of life extension research is to increase healthy human lifespan.

In other words, helping humans age without the accompanying diseases and disabilities. Imagine being able to live several hundred years in perfect health with youthful attributes.

Tremendous progress has been made within the longevity community.

In fact, several different medical interventions, each designed to slow and reverse various aspects in the aging process, are currently in clinical trials and fast approaching the development stage.

The first product to market will be likely be a class of drugs called senolytics. These drugs slow one aspect of aging by reducing the amount of dysfunctional senescent cells that tend to accumulate as we age and lead to wide spread health issues in our bodies.

Technology virtually eliminated infectious diseases, gave us antibiotics and put a man on the moon. Based on the current trajectory, many experts predict that science and technology will bring aging under medical control sometime within the next decade or two.

Human kinds loftiest ambition of biological immortality is quickly moving from science fiction to science fact.

Do you wanna live forever?

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.