soup & stockpots
eternity soup inside the quest to end aging
mix the latest and most rigorous scientific research irrepressible old fashioned entrepreneurship and the ancient human desire to live forever or at least a lot longer and the result is todays exploding multibillion dollar antiaging industry . its achievements are so far mostly marginal but its promises flow with all the allure of a twenty first century fountain of youth . in eternity soup acclaimed science writer greg critser takes us to every outpost of the antiaging landscape home to zealots and skeptics charlatans and ingenious clinicians and academics . br we visit a conference of the caloric restriction society whose members inspired by certain laboratory findings involving mice live their lives in a state just above starvation . its only the first five years that are uncomfortable says one . we meet the new wave of pharmacists who are reviving the erstwhile art of compounding using mortar and pestle to mix extravagantly profitable potions for aging boomers seeking to recapture flagging sexual vitality . here too are the theorists and researchers who are seeking to understand the cellular level causes of senescence and aging and others who say why bother with that instead we should just learn how to repair and replace organs and tissue that break down like a vintage automobile collector who keeps a century old model t shining and running like new . br eternity soup is a simmering brew of tes tosterone patches human growth hormone so promising and so potentially dangerous theories that view aging as a curable disease laboratory grown replacement organs i want to build a kidney says one proponent . it is such a stup eed organ and bountiful other troubling hilarious and invigorating ingredients . critser finds plenty of chicanery and credulousness in the antiaging realm but also a surprising degree of optimism even among some formerly sober skeptics that we may indeed be on the cusp of something big . and that elicits its own new set of concerns how will our society cope with a projected new cohort of a million healthy centenarian americans how will they liberate themselves from the age segregation that shunts them off to gods waiting rooms in the sunbelt where will they find joy and meaning to match the inevitable loss that comes with longevity eternity soup is an illuminating wry and provocative consideration of a long dreamed about world that may now be becoming a reality .
an analysis of longevity science and anti aging medicine offers insight into the anti aging industry reveals groups who are profiting from dubious products and considers the transformation of health care for the purpose of extending life expectancy .