Alcohol’s Newest and Deadliest Manifestation

In the last 12 months, Washington has heard from the scientific community of the stunning results and capabilities emerging from the laboratories of our scientists and engineers. Breakthroughs are being made in the fields of life-extension technology, leading us ever closer to slowing down aging and repairing our cells to their former youthful state. At this point for every year we live, the average persons expected lifespan is extended by three months. Statistics are showing that half of Americans born in 2000 will live to be a spry ninety years old. Keep in mind that this prediction is based on yesterday’s statistics and yesterday’s technology.

When it comes to alcohol and longevity the most recent and amazing correlation was observed when statistics were pulled on Russia. In 1999, the life expectancy for men in Russia and parts of the former Soviet empire countries dropped down to 59.9 years, due to alcohol abuse. As amazing as that seems now, it pales in comparison with what we have recently found out about longevity, biotechnological engineering, metabolism and just how much life we may be throwing away due to alcohol abuse.

As stated earlier, life expectancy statistics are blind to the future. They do not take into account the science or technology of today and are oblivious to the technology in our near future (the next fifteen years). Such statistics can give us no idea as to what the true life expectancy will be twenty-five years from now. This point that has recently been made by gerontologists and many in scientific, economic and political fields is due to increasing influence of the emerging technologies of genetics, nanotechnology, neuro/computer science and artificial general intelligence (AI). Genetics is already helping us extend lives and the near future prospects look promising. Nanotechnology has gone into play as far as giving better properties to materials but it probably will not hit strongly in the medical field until around 2019, followed shortly thereafter by AI’s presence, which will rapidly accelerate our technological advancement.

North Americans’ life expectancy is longer then any other continent in the world. We also have the luxury of the world’s best research facilities. This wonderful situation means that for those of us that abuse our bodies through alcohol, drugs or food are about to miss out on a great new period in life extension, even bigger then the one that occurred in the last century. In 1900, the average American lived to 47 years, and by the year 2000, it was 77 years - an increase of 64% (or an increase of 30 years). If we were to use this as a guide, and we estimated the amount of progress in extending the average citizen’s lifespan, that would put it at over 126 years in 2100. Of course in 1950, the Chinese lived to be 50 years old, and 50 years later, the average life expectancy was 71 years. If we extrapolated this fifty year increase into the next 100 years, we would say the average age would be 143 years old in 2100. So as you can see this simple method of multiplication is flawed.

One of the many approaches to extending our lives is through correcting the part of our normal metabolism that slowly damages the cell and surrounding area, which as we age, eventually kills the cell, then the tissue, and then organ or system failure. These approaches will stop both hard and soft plaque from forming in our arteries, which will in turn prevent heart attacks. It will also stop plaque from forming in our brain, plaque that causes Alzheimer’s disease. By abusing alcohol, we accelerate the cellular damage that affects the heart, brain, and liver. Unfortunately, these affects bring about alcoholic cardiomyopathy (an enlarged and weak heart), and congestive heart failure. Alcoholism also facilitates strokes, and, of course, cirrhosis of the liver.

Another solution they are working on, will allow the mitochondria (the “powerhouse” of our cells) to repair the DNA damage that occurs from the energy making process it performs.

There are seven key problems of our ageing and metabolism, and they are being addressed through out the world.

According to the law of accelerating returns, today’s predicted future lifespan’s are not even close to accurate. In the last century, the major variables that increased lifespan were nutrition, sanitation, and public health, with only a small increase from medicine. Now, our technology has accelerated to the point of doubling every year and a half (18 months). This rate of technological advancement has been exponentially accelerating throughout history, but it has not been noticed by the general populous or the very few specialists in their fields. One of the reasons that the law of accelerating returns works, is that the quality of current technology is more complex, faster, and cheaper then that of the past technology. Likewise, today’s technology is simpler, slower, and more expensive then the future technology. Some examples are Moore’s law (doubling the number of transistors in a processor every 18 months), and the Human Genome Project. Initially the plan was to sequence every human chromosome within fifteen years. But by the time nine years past, only one percent of the genome had been decoded. But during the planning of the project, the law of accelerating returns was taken into account, and the Human Genome Project actually finished ahead of schedule. Technology grows exponentially, not linearly.

Alcohol abuse is the inverse of what our society is working so diligently to acquire. The laundry list of medical problems associated with alcohol abuse is a veritable “what not to get” if you want to live a long and healthy life. Such things as cancer of the pancreas, pharynx, esophagus, larynx, rectum, breast, mouth, and liver. How about neuropathy and dementia? This list is hard to write. The well known fatty liver, alcoholic hepatitis and cirrhosis of the liver. As you abuse alcohol, you may get protein-energy malnutrition and even if you occasionally attempt to eat well there is a good chance your body won’t absorb Vitamin D, phosphorus, zinc and calcium properly. Excessive alcohol increases your chance of arthritis, and increases your blood pressure.

Other approaches are being made as we speak, such as individual DNA sequencing, so personalized medicine can save many more lives. We can also use our own DNA/tissue to grow replacement organs that will not be rejected. Nanotechnologists have even designed red blood cells in a computer model that are hundreds of times more efficient then our own, which will allow us to hold our breath for an hour or two. This way, if you do have a heart attack, stroke or major injury, you would have hours to casually wander to the hospital and have it taken care of. Nano-particles are being made to diagnose diseases. Nanotechnologists are coming close to having the ability to physically construct the many nano-medicines, motors, and machines that they have created in their computer models. Recently a stimulated emission depletion (STED) microscope has been used with fluorescence that switches on and off to provide us with nanoscopy that is optical and atomic force microscopes (AFMs), can produce nano-range images and manipulate individual atoms. These technological breakthroughs are occurring daily.

New models of life expectancy have been created that include the technology in the labs today, and the technologies that are scheduled to be in use using the exponential rate.
One such model is called the actuarial escape velocity (AEV) predicting that approaching the year 2030 one type of life-extension treatment will extend life by twenty years, and within those twenty years, technology will create another life-extension treatment that will extend life 20 more years, and as time goes on more treatments are applied, and some of the earlier treatments are reapplied, thus allowing us to keep on living, baring some type of accident.
Another prediction made by surveying the current technology and applying the law of accelerating returns predicts that by the year 2022, for every year you are alive, another year will be added on to life expectancy again allowing us to keep on living.

With such a brilliant opportunity on our horizon, taking care of ourselves now makes more sense then ever. Wasting away our body and mind while we get drunk will kill us in the short term, and in the long term we throw away a clear, sharp mind, thousands upon thousands of great life experiences, and many many years of life.