Aging is About To Become a Disease of The Poor

The first person to live to 150 has already been born — but it probably won’t be you

Before I let you read this article I have to check something; are you a billionaire or millionaire? Perhaps a tech guru or old money yacht owner? If so, click away, this article isn’t for you.

We’re POOR here and reading this will only make you sad like when your wife left you and took half of your assets and moved in with the pool boy. Nnnyeah. Okay. Bye, bye now!

Phew! Okay. Good, now that they’re gone and it’s just us POORS, let’s talk about something;

AGING.

Yay! I know. Your favorite topic (most probably… maybe) and mine too! So let’s talk about it. Wrinkles, cell senescence, cancer, heart disease, dementia, alzheimers… All classic “old people” problems. Everyone reading this will probably suffer from one or two eventually. That is to say, because we’re POOR.

And by poor I mean there is no way you could afford a CRISPR based antiaging treatment that could add upwards of 10, 20, or even 30 years to your natural lifespan.

And maybe, just maybe, that’s something you (and I) should be thinking more about. Because it’s happening. It’s happening right now as we speak.

In fact the first ever genome based antiaging therapy is already in primate trials with support from both Harvard Medical School and Stanford, with human trials expected to follow in about a decade.

Meaning that if all goes well and the FDA approves we could be looking at a definite treatment that could add anywhere from 10 to 30 years to ones natural life expectancy on shelves, in doctors offices, in as little as 15 years.

But just what could the this magical elixir of life denier of disease cost per treatment? We don’t know for sure at the moment, but we could ballpark $500,000 to 1 million per treatment, considering that’s what one startup charged it’s first 5 trial participants to use an injectable that promised to lengthen their telomeres, thus adding a supposed 10 or more years to their lifespan.

Sigh. Would be nice…

You see, it simply doesn’t matter for little poverty gremlins like you and me. I mean, have you SEEN your mortgage payments lately? Your rent went up 30% just a year ago! And those grocery bills… Sheesh. It’s Walmart, not Whole Foods circa 2016 when quinoa and kale were all the rage, amirite?

You couldn’t possibly afford NOT to die. You have to, because you can’t afford the antiaging treatments — or rent… or food… or literally anything, actually. Yikes.

But, but… Capitalism! I hear you spout, It will save us!

Will it, though?

I mean, sure, maybe, after 20 or 30 years the treatments might cheapen a little. Maybe another pharma company will create a generic for half the price, ya know, like they did for viagra and Zoloft. Maybe.

But this is a bit more serious than that because it involves simply NOT dying. You know what people do when they *just don’t die?* They LIVE.

and LIVE and LIVE and KEEP their ASSETS and keep on LIVING.

Moreover, it’s not just about NOT dying, but also NOT getting dementia, Alzheimer's, or heart disease or some other used-to-be disease of the “past” or the “old” (which itself will no doubt become a concept of the past).

Pfft, I hear you scoff. Yeah well the antiaging treatment can’t cure those diseases, can it! Suck it, Bezos! Hope you don’t have the genes for Alzheimers!

Wow. Sarcastic, rude, but OK, I hear ya.

— but at the same time, you don’t have to worry because CRISPR and other genome based cures for those diseases are also already underway.

Not aging AND curing alzehimers and dementia? Curing heart disease, even?? Thats, like, the trifecta, or something… Wait, no… one, two, three… four… That’s like the quad of antiaging, or something!

You didn’t know that, though. Of course you didn’t. Because COVID, and Donald Trump, and now everything is expensive and aliens are supposedly REAL, mars rocket, Elon Musk, Barbie movie, and blah, blah, blah.

You didn’t know that because you’re distracted aaaand it doesn’t matter because you’re too poor to afford it, anyway.

Anti-aging and reverse-aging injectables are almost here! and so are the first tentative cures for dementia, heart disease, and most forms of cancer! I tremble as I write this. How exciting! If only I could get my hands on… Oh, wait…

Nope. No house for you. No health insurance. No cars. No Costco membership — oh and also, you’ll be dead by 72 while the billionaires and millionaires are laughing in their rockets all the way to Mars and back, which is totally feasible because now they’ll live to 130.

And we end with a sigh.

I want a Mars rocket. I want to shop in the fish and cheese aisles without breaking out in a nervous sweat. I want to live to 130 — or longer.

BUT, unfortunately, I’m just a poor epidemiologist, watching as people who are grossly and disgustingly rich live much better lives than me while also restricting our personal rights and hoarding assets for themselves.

Soon, probably, they will create a new distraction for us all. This issue, the antiaging issue, will be coming to a congress near you SOONER than you think.

“Anti-aging is unethical! People weren’t meant to live to 150! The Bible and Jesus!” (Ron DeSantis was secretly paid millions to say that)

“Everyone has a right to live a long life! Antiaging for all!” (Bernie Sanders, probably, who also cannot afford the treatments)

“Anti-aging is new and therefore scary. We should delay it from the public for no reason at all,” (Some grey haired millionaire politician who secretly got the treatment for free and will live to see his great-great-great grandchildren die.)

Abortion? Universal healthcare? Higher salaries? Higher taxes for the rich?

Yes to all the above but also I posit; Anti-aging. Anti-aging as a medical treatment, but also a social issue. The first person to live to 150 has already been born. It probably won’t be you… or is it?

Think about it and get back to me. Ya know, if you live that long. ;)

Light reading and sources:

Telomere therapy trial:

Genome based therapies:

Best,

A.