The biological aging is our inescapable fate--but can we modify it?

The quest for postponing ageing has been in the mind of man since the earliest civilisations and the ancient symbols (healing water, herbs, sleep and the snake) are also found in the attempts undertaken today. Maximum life span, however, has not changed much due to these efforts. The rate of increase has been estimated to be about 10 year per million years. Mean life span has, on the other hand, increased dramatically, due to major environmental improvements, from about 30 to 80 years. Much of this increase is due to decrease in childhood and early adulthood mortality and has occurred during the last 130 years. Whether and to what extent this increase will continue is not clear. The complexity of the human genome is discussed together with current knowledge of gene technology and ethical problems in this context. Life extension in primitive animals with much simpler genomes, and inheritable diseases with premature ageing in man are used as examples for how new knowledge can be gained in this field. Transgenic animals and knockout mice are used as examples for progress in gene technology. It is emphasised that at present the best possibilities to ameliorate the effects of the ageing processes are having a healthy lifestyle, which includes a balanced diet, avoiding being overweight, drinking some red wine and doing a moderate amount of physical exercise.