How we can finally win the fight against aging | Aubrey De Grey | TEDxMünchen

Summary

El discurso aborda la lucha contra el envejecimiento como la problemática más importante del mundo, comparando su complejidad con la de una máquina que acumula daños. El orador, un científico que cambió su enfoque de la inteligencia artificial a la biología, argumenta que las enfermedades asociadas con la edad son en realidad parte del propio proceso de envejecimiento y no son curables como se cree. Propone un enfoque innovador basado en la reparación periódica del daño corporal, destacando siete categorías principales de daño y sus respectivas soluciones. El discurso invita a la acción y a la inversión en investigación para acelerar el progreso hacia una solución.

Takeaways

• 🔬 La lucha contra el envejecimiento es una de las áreas más importantes de la ciencia y la medicina, ya que afecta directamente a la salud y la vida de las personas.
• 💡 El enfoque del hablante en su carrera científica es cambiar la percepción del envejecimiento como un proceso natural y universal, y en su lugar, como un problema físico que puede ser solucionado.
• 🤔 La gente a menudo subestima la importancia de abordar el envejecimiento y sus consecuencias, lo que lleva a una falta de investigación y soluciones.
• 🧐 El hablante argumenta que el envejecimiento es el acumulo de daños en el cuerpo, un proceso similar a lo que ocurre en máquinas, y no un fenómeno biológico único.
• 🛠 Para abordar el envejecimiento, se sugiere que en lugar de tratar de ralentizar el proceso de daño o la creación de patologías, se deberían reparar los daños periódicamente.
• 📊 El hablante presenta una clasificación de los tipos de daño que se acumulan en el cuerpo humano, y para cada uno de ellos, hay un enfoque plausible para su reparación.
• 🌟 El progreso en la investigación del envejecimiento se ha dado impulso por organizaciones como la Sense Research Foundation, que el hablante representa.
• 💼 El hablante enfatiza la necesidad de una mayor inversión financiera para acelerar el progreso en la comprensión y tratamiento del envejecimiento.
• 💡 El envejecimiento es responsable de una gran proporción de muertes en el mundo, lo que subraya la urgencia de encontrar soluciones.
• 🤝 Se hace un llamado a la comunidad de visionarios para unirse a la causa y contribuir financiera y/o intelectualmente a la solución del envejecimiento.
• 🌱 La perspectiva del hablante es que, con el tiempo y el esfuerzo colectivo, es posible abordar y posiblemente revertir el envejecimiento, mejorando la calidad y la duración de la vida humana.

Q & A

¿Qué profesión tenía el orador antes de decidirse por la biología?

El orador trabajó en investigación de inteligencia artificial antes de cambiar su carrera y convertirse en biólogo.

¿Cuál es la razón principal que llevó al orador a la biología?

El descubrimiento de que casi nadie estaba trabajando en el problema más importante del mundo, que es la enfermedad y la muerte asociadas a la edad.

Según el orador, ¿qué es la principal diferencia entre enfermedades infecciosas y enfermedades relacionadas con la edad?

Las enfermedades infecciosas han sido prevenidas y combatidas con éxito, mientras que las enfermedades relacionadas con la edad no han tenido el mismo progreso.

¿Qué define el orador como el proceso de envejecimiento?

El envejecimiento es el acumulo de daños en el cuerpo como un efecto secundario de su operación normal, un proceso físico que ocurre tanto en organismos vivos como en máquinas.

¿Cuál es la propuesta del orador para abordar el envejecimiento y las enfermedades relacionadas con la edad?

El orador propone una alternativa de sentido común que es la reparación periódica del daño acumulado en el cuerpo, similar al mantenimiento preventivo de máquinas.

¿Cuántas categorías principales de daño el orador clasifica en el cuerpo humano?

El orador clasifica el daño en siete categorías principales en el cuerpo humano.

¿Qué es la Sense Research Foundation y qué relación tiene con el orador?

La Sense Research Foundation es una fundación creada alrededor de la idea de reparar el daño acumulado en el envejecimiento, y el orador es su oficial jefe de ciencia.

¿Por qué el orador cree que la gente no se involucra más en la lucha contra el envejecimiento?

El orador cree que la gente tiene miedo de alzar sus esperanzas y aceptar que podrían estar cerca de controlar el problema más importante de la humanidad después de toda la historia de la civilización.

¿Cuál es la cifra que el orador menciona para ilustrar la magnitud de muertes causadas por el envejecimiento?

El orador menciona que el envejecimiento mata a 100,000 personas cada día, lo que representa aproximadamente el 70% de todas las muertes en el mundo.

¿Cómo el orador sugiere que podría acelerar el progreso en la investigación del envejecimiento?

El orador sugiere que si se pudieran obtener más fondos, específicamente entre 10 y 40 millones de dólares al año en lugar de los 4 millones que tienen, podrían acelerar el progreso en aproximadamente 10 años.

Outlines

00:00

🔬 La lucha contra el envejecimiento como una misión científica

El orador expresa su dedicación a combatir el envejecimiento desde una edad temprana, tras descubrir la falta de atención hacia esta problemática crucial. Tras trabajar en inteligencia artificial, se convierte en biólogo, buscando entender por qué las personas enferman y mueren. Enfatiza la importancia de abordar problemas importantes y difíciles, como el envejecimiento, y critica la actitud de aquellos que no buscan aspirar a grandes logros. Plantea la pregunta de qué tipo de diferencia se puede hacer en el mundo, destacando la importancia de abordar problemas significativos y factibles.

05:02

🤔 La definición del envejecimiento y su enfoque como problema físico

El orador desafía la noción común de que el envejecimiento es una parte inevitable de la vida y sugiere que, en realidad, es un proceso de acumulación de daños similar al que ocurre en máquinas. Define el envejecimiento como un fenómeno físico basado en la acumulación de daños no reparados en el cuerpo, y argumenta que los problemas de la vejez son en realidad manifestaciones de este envejecimiento y no enfermedades independientes. Destaca la necesidad de una nueva perspectiva para abordar el envejecimiento y critica enfoques tradicionales en medicina geriátrica y gerontología.

10:04

🛠️ La alternativa de la reparación de daños como solución al envejecimiento

Se presenta una alternativa al enfoque de tratar los síntomas del envejecimiento como enfermedades independientes: la reparación periódica del daño acumulado en el cuerpo. El orador compara esta idea con la mantenimiento preventivo de máquinas y argumenta que, al igual que se hace con máquinas, se podría ralentizar el envejecimiento al reparar los daños. Detalla siete categorías principales de daños en el cuerpo humano y sugiere que para cada una de ellas existe un enfoque de reparación viable, mencionando terapias con células madres como un ejemplo.

15:05

🌟 El progreso en la investigación del envejecimiento y la necesidad de apoyo

El orador informa sobre los avances en la investigación del envejecimiento, destacando el trabajo del Sense Research Foundation y la creación de una clasificación de daños en el cuerpo humano. Resalta la aceptación de esta aproximación por parte de científicos líderes y la creciente atención que está recibiendo en la comunidad científica. Sin embargo, subraya la importancia de continuar recibiendo apoyo financiero para acelerar los avances y reducir el tiempo necesario para encontrar soluciones efectivas contra el envejecimiento, enfatizando la magnitud de la problemática y el impacto que podría tener una solución en la vida de las personas.

Keywords

💡Envejecimiento

El envejecimiento es un proceso natural que todos los seres vivos experimentan, caracterizado por un deterioro físico y una disminución de la función biológica con el tiempo. En el video, se discute cómo el envejecimiento no es solo una parte inevitable de la vida, sino también un problema que puede ser abordado y posiblemente revertido mediante la ciencia, como se menciona en la frase 'trying to fix it'.

💡Ciencia

La ciencia es el estudio sistemático del mundo natural y la aplicación de principios y teorías para entender y manipular la realidad. En el contexto del video, la ciencia es vista como una herramienta para hacer una diferencia en el mundo, especialmente en el campo de la biología y la investigación sobre el envejecimiento.

💡Biología

La biología es la ciencia que estudia la vida y todos los aspectos relacionados con los seres vivos, desde el nivel molecular hasta el de la ecología. En el video, el narrador menciona su cambio de carrera a la biología para trabajar en la comprensión y posible solución del envejecimiento.

💡Investigación

La investigación es el proceso de recopilar información y analizar datos para comprender un fenómeno o resolver un problema. El video enfatiza la importancia de la investigación en el campo de la biología para abordar el envejecimiento y sus efectos en la salud.

💡Daño celular

El daño celular se refiere a los cambios estructurales en el cuerpo que no son revertidos automáticamente por los mecanismos naturales del organismo. En el video, se argumenta que el envejecimiento es en realidad la acumulación de daño celular a lo largo del tiempo, lo que es un concepto clave para entender la causa del envejecimiento.

💡Metabolismo

El metabolismo es el conjunto de procesos químicos que ocurren dentro de las células para mantener la vida. En el video, se menciona que el metabolismo es el proceso a través del cual el cuerpo se mantiene vivo, y es en este proceso donde se produce el daño que eventualmente conduce al envejecimiento.

💡Patología

La patología es el estudio de las enfermedades, sus causas y efectos en el cuerpo. En el video, se sugiere que el envejecimiento y las enfermedades asociadas a la edad son en realidad consecuencias del daño acumulado a lo largo de la vida, y no enfermedades en sí mismas.

💡Geriatría

La geriatría es una especialidad médica que se enfoca en el cuidado de las personas mayores y las enfermedades asociadas con la edad. El video critica la abordaje de la geriatría, que trata las enfermedades del envejecimiento como si fueran infecciones, lo cual es ineficaz según el narrador.

💡Gerontología

La gerontología es el estudio multidisciplinario del envejecimiento humano, que incluye aspectos biológicos, psicológicos y sociales. En el video, se menciona que los gerontólogos han intentado comprender la longevidad de algunos animales para aplicar esos conocimientos a los humanos, pero este enfoque no ha dado los resultados esperados.

💡Reparación del daño

La reparación del daño es la idea de corregir el daño celular acumulado a lo largo de la vida para prevenir o retrasar el envejecimiento. El video presenta esta idea como una alternativa sensata y eficaz para abordar el envejecimiento, en lugar de tratar solo los síntomas o enfermedades asociadas.

💡Células madre

Las células madre son células no diferenciadas que tienen la capacidad de desarrollarse en distintas células especializadas. En el video, se menciona el uso de terapias con células madre como una forma de reparar el daño celular, específicamente la pérdida de células que no son reemplazadas por la división celular.

Highlights

The speaker is working on aging with the goal of fixing it and believes they are making progress.

Aged eight or nine, the speaker decided to make a difference in the world, leading to a career in science.

The speaker transitioned from artificial intelligence to biology to address the world's most significant problem: aging.

The speaker challenges the audience at a TED event to consider the importance of tackling aging as a solvable problem.

Aging is often misunderstood as a natural, unsolvable process, but the speaker argues it's a phenomenon of physics, similar to machine wear.

The speaker defines aging as the accumulation of damage in the body that isn't automatically reversed.

The speaker argues that the approach to keeping people healthy in old age, such as geriatric medicine, is flawed.

Gerontologists' attempts to understand aging through the variability of lifespans have not been successful.

The speaker proposes a common-sense alternative to slow down the aging process by repairing damage instead of just treating symptoms.

Damage in the human body can be categorized into seven major types, each with a plausible approach to repair.

The speaker has been working on classifying the types of damage that accumulate in the human body for the past 15 years.

The Sense Research Foundation, led by the speaker, is making progress in the fight against aging.

The speaker emphasizes the importance of funding to accelerate research and potentially save lives.

Aging is responsible for a significant number of deaths worldwide, making it a critical issue to address.

The speaker calls for collective action and funding to speed up the process of solving the problem of aging.

The speaker concludes with a call to arms, urging the audience to contribute to the fight against aging to save lives.

Transcripts

I I work on aging and I'm not in favor

of it I I'm trying to fix it and I seem

to be doing okay um so um I've got a

question for you here's the first

question in fact I've got a few

questions over the next few minutes

um I decided when I was really young

like eight or nine years old that I

wanted to make a difference in the world

and that eventually led me into science

for several years I worked in artificial

intelligence research and then when I

was in my late 20s I switched careers

and became a biologist and the reason I

did so was because I found out that

hardly anyone was working on the world's

most important problem namely the fact

that we get sick when we were born a

long time ago and then we die and that's

kind of like not a good thing

um so so I um you know I I really want

to know why people don't get this and at

Ted or Ted X events I have the right

kind of audience for this because these

guys people who come you guys people who

come to conferences like this ultimately

you are Visionaries or at least you are

WN to be Visionaries right you you you

you would kind of like to um you know to

make a difference in the world so you

know let's look at the let's look at the

kind of things that I don't think are

very controversial that that that you

probably all agree with you know you

care about people um you're not SC

you're a Visionary right you're not

scared to aim high you see that there

are lots of people out there who are not

Visionaries who are scared to aim high

and ultimately it's not a crime not to

want to aim high you may not think much

of those people but the fact is you want

to help them anyway so um let's aim high

what does that actually mean well it

means making a difference perhaps making

a really I mean really big difference

and the question then is what is a

bigger difference and what is a smaller

difference I think there are two

Dimensions to that two things that

determine whether you how big a

difference you're going to make number

one how important the thing is that

you're going to work to change and

number two how easy it is to change it

those two things both have to be looked

at because unimportant things we can

forget about those they're definitely

not big but important things actually if

they're easy then they're already done

or at least a lot of other people are

already trying to do them so you're not

going to make much of a difference by

being just another person who's also

trying to do them then again there's the

other end of the spectrum things that

would be great but unfortunately they

are completely impossible like perpetual

motion okay now that's just you know

life we know that perpetual motion is

genuinely

unsolvable but the thing is it's

actually quite hard to tell whether

something is unsolvable by and large

really hard thing are actually solvable

but they're also the most important

things because they're not easy so the

first step is to distinguish the two and

that's not trivial most people get it

wrong most people think that hard things

actually are impossible

unsolvable that's what we need to fix so

now what is the most important hard but

not impossible

problem climate

change well it's pretty

hard and it's probably solvable in the

fullness of time how about these you

know I mean world peace that'd be quite

nice um you know Prosperity stuff like

that disease fact is everybody wants to

be healthy being sick is seriously no

fun hands up anyone who wants to be sick

tomorrow

right in particular there are a

particular subset of diseases called the

diseases of old age diseases that people

in their 20s and 30s and 40s basically

never get but pretty much everyone gets

them when they get to be 70 or 80 or

90 what is special about those what's

special about them is everybody gets

them because everybody avoids the other

diseases so now the topic of the talk

the real topic why is it that most

infectious diseases you know

tuberculosis Thia things like that have

been prevented now you may not know this

but 200 years ago in every country even

the wealthiest countries more than

onethird of babies would die before the

age of one more than 130 with around 40%

in any country that tells you how far we

have come against infectious diseases

but age related diseases ain't the same

we've made almost no progress what's

going on what's so different well is it

like you know is it something that we

can solve or is it

unsolvable first thing I want to look at

is the question of what is aging because

people think well there's aging and

there's the diseases of old age and that

aging is this kind of natural thing

that's Universal and fixing it is like

Perpetual em motion and we might as well

just get over it but

actually that may not be true because

the diseases of old age we don't think

about them that way we think of them as

curable you know things that we can't

cure yet but we'll get there in due

course

right

wrong now when you look at the problem

of um aging and the ill health of old

age most people will say well actually

the thing is yeah maybe it's solvable

but it's just so intractable there's so

many things that go wrong and they go

wrong almost at the same time and they

interact with each other and make each

other worse you know it's just so

complicated that's what's been holding

us back don't worry you're not supposed

to be able to read this slide it's just

right but actually that's not the main

thing that's holding us back so I'm

going to spend the next minute or two

telling you what is holding us back and

I'm going to start by giving you a

definition of Aging that turns out to be

necessary because if you ask 10 people

what that what aging is then you'll

generally get about 11 different answers

the thing is that people don't have a

good sense of what aging really is so

I'm going to give you a definition of

Aging that is first of all it's it's

clear it's mechanistic it says what

happens and you know cause and effect

but also this definition demystifies

aging it tells you what aging is in a

way that helps you understand that you

already do understand what aging is

aging is not not a phenomenon of biology

really at all it's a phenomenon of

physics which is to say it's the same

process in the human body or in any

other living organism that it is in a

car or an airplane or any other machine

with moving Parts whether or not it's

alive it's the accumulation of damage

that the machine does to itself

throughout its operation as a side

effect of the normal operation of the

machine damage is simply the changes in

the structure of a body that are not

automatically reversed by Machinery

that's built in and the body like any

simple machine can tolerate some damage

but only some not too much if you have

too much you go downhill so it's like

this in a living organism metabolism is

the word that biologists use to denote

the um all the the entire network of

processes that they um that the body

does to Keep Us Alive from one day to

the next and damage happens throughout

life even starting before we're born and

eventually that damage causes pathology

and I've drawn these little arrows in

this strange way to indicate what we

would like to do we would like to slow

down those arrows but actually at this

point we

can't so here's the problem I told you

earlier that the popular conception of

the problems of ill health in old age is

essentially there's aging and there's

diseases so we could say it in the way

that I'm describing on this table there

are in most people's heads there are

three types of disease there are

infections that's column one then there

are genetic diseases that's column two

things that are few people inherit from

their parents and then there are the

chronic progressive diseases of old age

and then way out there in the

stratosphere there's this completely

different thing that isn't a disease

that's the um the somewhat like you know

nebulous things that we call aging

itself sarcopenia that's the loss of

muscle mass as we get older that kind of

thing that's what most people think but

this is how you ought to think all the

columns are the same as they were on the

previous slide but as you can see the

big black line is in a different place

the point here is that column three is

misinterpreted and

misclassified the diseases the chronic

progressive diseases of old age are not

really diseases at all they are not

things that can be cured they are parts

of Aging the only difference between

column 3 and column 4 is terminology we

have chosen to give some of the aspects

of Aging diseasel likee names and not

other ones and that's all now once you

get that right a couple of things come

into um perspective you get to

understand a lot of things first thing

is you can understand that the way that

we've tried to go about keeping people

healthy in old age is obviously never

going to work it's called geriatric

medicine and geriatric medicine

essentially consists of attacking the

things in column three as if they were

in column one attacking the diseases of

old age as if they were infections

attacking the pathologies the symptoms

directly it's never going to work and

even from this simple diagram it's

obvious why it's never going to work

because the damage that the body does to

itself in the course of life is

continuing to accumulate and so anything

that attacks the consequences of that

damage is going to become progressively

less effective as the person gets older

now I'm not the only person to point

this out this has been realized by a few

people for more than a century now and

that's why we have a field called

gerontology but unfortunately

gerontologists don't get it right either

what gerontologist do is they say well

okay some animals live a lot longer than

other animals they age more slowly maybe

if we study that

variability and we try to understand it

really well we might be able to

translate that understanding into actual

uh

treatments it's not worked essentially

this is why it's not worked metabolism

is rather complicated this diagram is a

simplified diagram of a small I'm I'm

sorry it is of a small subset of what we

know about how the body works and um you

know it's rather a mess hands up anyone

who writes

software right a few people right so

anyone who writes software will

understand that this is the Ultimate

Nightmare of uncommented spaghetti coat

there is no way there is no way that

we're ever going to be able to tweak

this thing to stop it doing the thing we

don't want it to do the creation of

damage without at the same time having

unintended consequences that stop it

from doing things we need to do and

that's actually an statement the real

problem is not that this is a simplified

diagram of a small subset of what we

know about how the body works it the

real problem is that it's a simplified

diagram of a small subset of what we

know about how how the Body Works which

is Tiny compared to the astronomical

amount that we don't know about how the

body works even ignoring all the stuff

that we don't even know that we don't

know yeah so it ain't going to happen

all right uh but luckily there is a

common sense alternative a third

alternative that was overlooked for a

very long time until I started to point

it out about 15 or 16 years

ago rather than trying to slow down

those two arrows the um the process

where metabolism creates damage or the

process where damage creates pathology

instead we can separate the arrows from

each other we can go in and periodically

repair the damage so that even though

it's being created at the natural rate

nevertheless it will um not actually

accumulate to the point where it it's

bad for you and of course that's what we

already do coming back to my point that

aging is a phenomenon of physics it's

what we already successfully do with

simpler machines with man-made machines

this car of course is more than 100

years old and it was not designed to be

that old it was probably designed to

last no more than 10 years or 15 but

because it's had periodic preventative

maintenance throughout its existence

it's doing just as well now as when it

was built so if it's so simple if it's

so obvious then why the hell do I have

to come and give these bloody talks I

mean I mean honestly um the answer

really is people are scared of

getting their hopes up of believing that

after the entire history of civilization

having failed to bring the world's most

important problem under control that

finally we might be in Striking Distance

of doing it nobody wants to get their

hopes up so they like to make their

peace with aging and put it out of their

minds and get on with that miserably

short lives and and and make the best of

it but I say that's I say that

um I say that we ought to fight to

actually U save some lives and that's

why I'm saying we need to wake up and

act decisively it turns out that we can

um for the past 15 years I've been

working on essentially this uh

dissection of the problem uh the types

of damage that accumula in the human

body can be classified into only seven

major categories which I'm listing on

the left here of course I don't have a

chance to go through them today cuz I've

only got another 2 minutes and 50

seconds um but the what you really need

to know is that for each of those seven

types of damage there is a very

plausible and viable approach to fixing

it you've heard of stem cell therapy

that's the way to fix one of those types

of damage the one at the top loss of

cells which is just cells dying and not

being automatically replaced by cell

division it seems very clear now that

this categorization this classification

really is actually exhaustive there's

not some category number eight lurking

out there waiting to be discovered

furthermore this is getting traction

among very elite and authoritative

scientists uh this is here is just a

picture of our research Advisory Board

25 extremely prominent and um world

leading specialists in their various

areas who are very much signed up for

this damage repair approach uh

furthermore other people are beginning

at this point to actually uh reinvent

this idea and pretend it original this

paper came out 3 years ago and it's

getting cited roughly once every two

days by other papers so it's really um

saying something that people believe in

and it's identical to what I just told

you this is they divided aging into nine

categories rather than seven but it's

essentially the same idea each of them

they have a a particular repair approach

so that's all nice um now the question

then is um what progress are we making

well the good news is quite a lot of

course there is progress world wide by

various scientists and Laboratories

around the world um there's also a

charity a foundation called sense

Research Foundation which been created

around this idea and of which I'm the

chief science officer this is a

selection of the papers that we've

published over the past few years

demonstrating our progress so it's

happening it's re we're really getting

there it's got there's a long way to go

though I mean if you get this book which

I wrote a few years ago which actually

was translated into German it's called

nal's Al and

and you can get it um uh but yes it's

it's it's detailed there's a lot of

material here because the fact is aging

of the human body is really really

complicated and fixing it is not going

to happen overnight but we are making

more and more progress as time goes on

we're going to get there but the

question is how soon the question is how

soon we actually have to remember how

important this problem is coming back to

the what I said at the beginning of the

talk this problem the problem of Aging

kills

100,000 people every day that's roughly

2third of all deaths it's about 70% of

all deaths worldwide in the

industrialized world it's about 90% of

all deaths are caused by the ill health

of old age that's quite

bad um you know and we've got we've had

a few I'm delighted to say that we have

had a few uh wealthy supporters

including a guy named Michael Graver

from Berlin who started . de and flu. de

and um last minute. de so you probably

heard of those websites you'll hear of

Michael gra as well fairly soon because

he's giving us quite a bit of money to

get this done but he's not giving us

enough we need your money too we need

every we need everybody's money so uh

the fact is you know think about it how

much difference do you want to make look

at that bottom line you can save a life

with $1 if you think about how quickly

we're going to solve this I reckon that

if we could get maybe 10 20 30 $40

million per year to do this rather than

only 4 million which is what we have at

the moment we could probably get this

done about 10 years more quickly and

that come if you work it out that comes

to about a dollar per life so that's

worth doing thank you very much

[Applause]