In 2020 the sudden arrival of the novel corona virus suddenly highlighted for us the fragility and uncertainty of human life. The initial chaos and resentment at whatever was one’s favourite target — local government, the hospital system, China, Bill Gates — was followed by resignation. As the pandemic grew relentlessly with seemingly no end mortality statistics became keenly followed score cards. By end 2021 no one was sure whether life would ever get back to normal. But it did. And by now (in April 2023) we can even laugh about the time when we had to cook, clean and shop for ourselves with no help. At least that’s the discourse in urban middle class India, accustomed as we are to our boring day-to-day chores being taken care of by domestic help.
Of course we remember, but don’t talk much about, the friends, relatives and acquaintances who lost their lives suddenly and unexpectedly as the Covid wave cut years and sometimes decades from the life of many amongst us. The years 2020 and 2021 highlighted for all of us that the most valuable of all our possessions is good health. We had to make do without many of the things that we pursue for enjoyment— dining out, travel, meeting friends etc — but the dominant thought in our collective minds in those years was how to get out of it alive.
Of course there’s no getting out of life alive. We all die and we know it. What scares us is the prospect of untimely, premature death.
Interestingly, at around the same time that Covid was ravaging the World, there was another subject related to death which was gaining centre stage — longevity.
We all know we will die and most of us believe that longevity is a God given gift that’s randomly bestowed. To some extent that’s true of course. But the explosion of literature and discussion on longevity in the last couple of years is triggered by another idea. The idea that we may have some say in and some control over how long we live is a relatively new idea. It owes it origins to the work of various scientists working in many laboratories all over the World but was arguably triggered by the accidental discovery of rapamycin — a compound found in nature that had amazing immunosuppressant capabilities. It was found to be a boon for success of organ transplant surgeries because it prevented the host body attacking the transplanted organ.
Rapamycin was found to be the agent which deactivated a nutrient sensing pathway in the human body (MtOR). By switching off MTOR the human organism would act as if it was fasting and hence go into survival mode which enhanced its longevity. Scientific experiments confirmed two things — MTOR was present in all organisms from the simplest to the most complex and suppressing MTOR enhanced longevity of every organism — by as much as 30%.
How major this discovery of MTOR was can be judged by the fact that it was the first ever molecule that has been discovered that can increase longevity.
A friendly doctor suggested jokingly to me in 2009 that o should stop smoking for ten years “Because”, he said, “modern science will find a way to keep you alive after that.”
By a strange co-incidence that was pretty much around the time scientists discovered that rapamycin, if it could be administered safely (it can’t as of now), could extend lifespan significantly.
The race to find ways in which lifespan of human beings can be extended has already begun and in decades if not years we will see more and more exciting findings in this area.
Interestingly it might never have happened if a scientist of Indian origin, Dr Suren Sehgal, had not defied his employer’s instructions to destroy a quantity of rapamycin which was in the lab. Sehgal instead stored it in his refrigerator at home labelled “Do not eat” and started research on it after he moved to Princeton to work for the pharmaceutical firm Wyeth. When his new employer asked him if there were any favourite projects he would like to pursue, apparently Suren took out the sample he had stored in his home fridge and asked for permission to work on it.
With that he may have set the stage for the beginning of a multi billion dollar industry — the study of why we age and how to slow down and reverse aging. In the not-too-distant future age may be measured by the biological state of your internal organs rather than the day you were born.
Why longevity
Anand, directed by Hrishikesh Mukherjee, was one of the most memorable Hindi movies of all times. Released in the seventies the movie starred two of the greatest actors who have acted in Hindi films. At least greatest for those who started watching movies in the seventies. Amitabh Bachchan was not a star then — not even a small one. And Rajesh Khanna, who had captured the hearts of millions in a way no star had ever done before or after, was the reigning superstar. The signs of a powerful actor were there already however as Amitabh delivered a power packed performance as a cancer specialist frustrated with the limitations of science.
Anand was a brilliantly crafted film with a climatic scene which is the best directed ever that I have seen. A dying Rajesh Khanna gasps before losing his breath and his friend/doctor arrives breathlessly moments later and rages in frustration (not the last time we have seen Amitabh let loose his anger). The scene is a tear jerker which will rank with the best. As the irrepressible Johnny Walker would have said — kya exit liya bandhu!
Despite the tragic note in which the film ended in reality the director spared us the real horror of the disease. Anyone who had the misfortune to have a close friend or relative go through the last stage of a debilitating disease like cancer knows how heart breaking it can be and his disturbing to see the deterioration of the body and mind which precedes death.
Death may be romanticised in drama but in real life it can be frustrating and painful when it’s prolonged and devastating when it’s untimely and sudden.
So I find the recent focus on longevity fascinating. Not because they will help us and those we love live longer although that may happen. But mainly because it may mean that our life on this earth will come to an end peacefully the way we go to sleep. We all would like an end that is not preceded by the body being ravaged by painful diseases like kidney failures, strokes and, even worse, diseases that degenerate the brain.
Imagine playing a round of golf and driving out for dinner with your spouse, children and close friends the week before you depart this beautiful world for ever. Whether that happens at 70 or 90 or 120 matters less — it’s much preferable to dying in a hospital bed. Hopefully that’s the direction in which the longevity research will lead us to.
