The Most Surprising Longevity Discoveries | Lifespan with Dr. David Sinclair Rewind

David Sinclair (0:00)

Welcome to Lifespan, a show where we discuss the cutting edge science of aging and how to live healthier at any stage of life.

I'm David Sinclair, a scientist and professor working on understanding why we age and discovering new ways to slow and even reverse the aging process.

On this show, I share an insider's look at the latest from my lab, the field and what's just around the corner.

Hey, everyone, welcome back to Lifespan. One of the most surprising things we learned in season one is that aging is not as fixed as we once believed. For most of human history, we assumed that aging was just the passage of time, the number of times the earth has gone around the sun. You're born, you grow up, you get older, and eventually the body wears out. But the science is now telling us that aging is a biological process, a universal one in every tissue that can be measured, slowed, and in some cases parts of it can even be reversed. In the first Rewind episode, we focused on the practical side of longevity, the things you can do in daily life to help you live longer and healthier. I encourage you to check it out if you haven't already. But knowing what to do is only half the story. The deeper question is how and why any of it works. So in this second Rewind episode, we're going back to the most surprising longevity results that Matthew and I covered in season one.

These are the moments that changed how we think about the biology of getting older, and what may be possible as we learn to measure and modify that process. You'll hear about animals that live far longer than expected, genes that can dramatically extend lifespan in simple organisms, and biological clocks that can measure how old your body really is. We'll also revisit some of the more unexpected findings from season one, including why hyperbaric oxygen, heat, cold, red light, and even small molecules teach us about the body's ability to repair itself. We'll see why even small changes in the rate of aging could have major consequences not only for you, but for medicine, health care, and society itself. These are the discoveries that make longevity science so exciting because they show that aging is far less predetermined and far more controllable than you ever thought. Every insight in this episode has been reviewed against Lifespan's scientific standards. The science we're revisiting remains accurate, relevant, and important today. This show is part of a broader effort to change how we age. I've launched Lifespan, a global community, where you can connect with me and with other experts, access evidence-based insights, and stay up to date with the latest advances in longevity science.

I've also brought on a team of PhDs to produce Lifespan Magazine, a rigorous and accurate resource for people who want to live better and longer. Lifespan is also proud to support medical research and the careers of young scientists. We're here to support one another on our individual health journeys and discover what truly works together. To get involved, visit lifespan.com to sign up for early access and get bonus show content and access to Lifespan Magazine. There will also be exclusive Ask Me Anything sessions, a book club, and much more to come. Of course, this show is for informational purposes only, and it's not meant as medical advice, so please consult a qualified health care professional. The views expressed here are my own, and they're not those of Harvard University or Harvard Medical School. The full disclaimer is in the show notes. Don't forget to click the subscribe and notify buttons to make sure you don't miss any of our new episodes.

There's no law that says we have to age, and we now are learning not just what causes aging, but how to reset the body so that it's young again. And we don't know how many times you can reset the body, but I'm betting that it's more than once. So what happens in a world where you can reset your age multiple times, maybe hundreds of times, that's when things get really interesting. And I think when people look at this podcast and listen to it 100 years from now, they're going to say, yeah, that was the moment when humanity really changed. Aging is now controllable. It's in, we have the technology to control how fast we age. We can measure that, slow it down. This has never happened in human history before.

Matthew (4:29)

If you look across the animal kingdom, there are all kinds of animals that age at different speeds, at different rates. Even though the root source of aging is the same for everything, we age at different rates.