Health
It may soon be possible to vaccinate ourselves against the diseases of old age, keeping our body and brain healthier for longer
By Graham Lawton
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Jon Krause
In just over five years I will turn 60, which is a daunting prospect. I already have one age-related disease – hypertension – and, given the odds, will be lucky not to have been diagnosed with at least one more by then. After that, age-related conditions are likely to pile up until the inevitable end. It will be a similar story, no doubt, for many of you. We are living longer than before, but those extra years aren’t necessarily healthy ones.
Yet if recent developments are anything to go by, my sons may be luckier. Rather than face a laundry list of common ailments in their 70s and 80s, they may be able to immunise themselves against them. They could celebrate middle age with a vaccination that will make them immune to Alzheimer’s, cancer or hypertension. They might even get an anti-ageing panacea that will vaccinate them against all of the above and more, helping them face their later years in a healthier state than most of us can hope for today.
In the battle against the diseases of old age, an age-old medical technology suddenly looks like a game changer. Vaccines, the injections that we most commonly associate with infectious diseases such as covid-19 and measles, are now showing promise in treating non-infectious diseases – particularly those associated with advancing years. So rapidly is this field progressing that, given a fair wind, there are hints that I – and others my age – may even benefit from some of these vaccinations ourselves. It sounds too…
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