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[Michael Lustgarten]

[Mind]

While infectious agents are associated with aging and age-related disease and there may be some new technologies to help eliminate some persistent infections, I am worried about undue focus/energy on infectious illnesses, because:

 

From a high-level ecological view, which was touched upon briefly in the video, viruses and other infectious agents are part of our world. They are everywhere outside and inside our body (in plants, in animals, in the soil, in the water, in the air). If you could light up every virus that is currently in your field of view, you would be blinded. Yet, when you look out at a park or lake, you see health and beauty - not an infection. Some virologists and ecologists have speculated that we are in a beneficial symbiotic relationship with most microbial life and viruses (the whole world in fact). I don't want to sound too woo-woo, but I suspect that if we try to eliminate every virus and microbe in our body, there will be dire unforeseen consequences. In addition, most anti-viral drugs have significant side-effects and we might eliminate too many beneficial microbes/viruses.

 

We know that some people live quite robustly to 100 and beyond, all the while being exposed to every infectious agent that everyone else has been exposed to. I think more energy and resources should be invested in figuring out how to keep the immune system and our internal regenerative processes active and strong. Part of it might be to clear out some troublesome infections, sure, but I think most of it has to do with more fundamental aging processes that cause or allow our immune system to fall into disrepair.