Key Points:
- Dr. Roizen gives a rundown of techniques for eliminating dysfunctional cells that accumulate as we age — senescent cells — which may reverse age-related conditions like Alzheimer’s disease.
- He also says drugs are in the works that reduce inflammation and enhance memory, which utilize a protein secreted from stressed muscles called irisin.
- Dr. Roizen speaks about undergoing pure oxygen therapy in a pressurized environment — hyperbaric oxygen therapy — to rejuvenate tissues via stem cell restoration.
Dr. Michael Roizen, the Chief Wellness Officer at the Cleveland Clinic, says in a 2024 Aviv Longevity Summit presentation that he believes we have an 80% probability of making 90-year-olds 40 again within the next 10 years. To accomplish this, aged people may undergo therapies that restore the physical vigor they had during their middle-aged years.
He also says that new medical developments coming in the next decade may prolong human lifespan by about 30 years. Average life expectancy increased about 2.5 years with each passing decade between 1850 to 2020, so the predicted 30 years added to human lifespan between 2020 and 2030 constitutes an exponential leap.
“I really believe that sometime in the next 10 years, it will be very easy for you, in fact, to get to be 40 again,” says Dr. Roizen.
According to Dr. Roizen, having a physically restored population will be important so that people can work longer. In 2023, for each retiree receiving social security benefits, there were approximately 2.7 individuals in the US workforce paying taxes that helped fund social security benefits. Compare this to 1950 when there were 6.6 tax-paying workers per retiree receiving social security benefits. By 2035, there will only be 2.3 workers per retiree receiving social security benefits. According to Dr. Roizen, lower numbers of workers per retiree cannot support all of the aged individuals in our society. This scenario makes physical restoration against aging from new medical developments crucial so that people can work longer.
New Potential Longevity-Promoting Interventions in the Works
The predicted exponential leap in human lifespan extension comes on the heels of dramatic medical developments. As an example, the human genome that identified all 20,000 to 25,000 human genes cost around $2.7 billion. However, analyzing all of an individual’s genes — the genome — now costs only around $100. Dr. Roizen uses this example to illustrate the exponential changes clinicians and scientists are making with medical developments.
Regarding some of the new medical developments in the pipeline that may work against aging, Dr. Roizen gives examples like new drugs called senolytics. These compounds selectively eliminate dysfunctional cells that accumulate with age (senescent cells). Senescent cells can drive low-grade systemic inflammation during aging and trigger other surrounding cells to enter senescence. Senescent cells become especially prevalent after age 30, because around this age, the immune system loses its capacity to remove them. Through the selective elimination of senescent cells with senolytics like fisetin and quercetin, we may reduce the abundance of these cells and alleviate inflammation.
According to Dr. Roizen, another technique called plasma exchange works in a way similar to senolytics and can reverse Alzheimer’s disease. Plasma exchange therapy involves donating your blood and replacing the plasma with new saline — a mix of salt and water. The blood cells as well as fresh saline are then infused back into the patient.
In a study, after undergoing plasma exchange, Alzheimer’s disease patients with fresh plasma showed better cognitive function. Dr. Roizen says that plasma exchange improves cognition and reverses Alzheimer’s disease by removing proteins emitted from senescent cells called the senescence-associated secretory phenotype (SASP). The SASP proteins drive inflammation and can induce senescence in cells that come within their vicinity. Reducing senescent cells and SASP proteins with senolytics or plasma exchange in aged adults may serve as a way to improve cognition, according to Dr. Roizen.
Furthermore, Dr. Roizen discusses how you can influence the activation of beneficial genes to combat the effects of growing older. One example he gives for activating beneficial genes is exercising, which stresses muscles. Exercise’s muscle-stressing effects turn on a gene that produces a small protein called irisin that goes to the brain and increases levels of a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic growth factor — BDNF. According to Dr. Roizen, BDNF then increases the size of a brain structure that forms and retains memories — the hippocampus — and improves memory function.
Along these lines, there is also evidence that irisin dampens inflammation and modulates immune function. Interestingly, Dr. Roizen says Harvard, MIT, and UC San Francisco researchers are currently trying to patent drugs that increase irisin levels in your blood. In this way, researchers continue their exploration of ways to harness exercise’s molecular benefits with new drug developments.
Finally, Dr. Roizen talks about how stem cells, cells that give rise to all new cells in the body, are crucial for healing. Stem cells’ healing properties are especially important as we grow older for preventing declining tissue function in organs like the heart. Unfortunately, stem cells lose their healing capacity with age. Dr. Roizen says that this comes, in part, from the shortening of protective caps composed of DNA at the ends of chromosomes — telomeres — within stem cells as people get older. Accordingly, when stem cell telomeres shorten, the stem cells lose their capacity to divide and make new cells for healing.
Through techniques used to elongate telomeres in stem cells, Dr. Roizen says that we can restore younger cartilage, cells, and tissues. One way that Dr. Roizen suggests to extend telomeres and possibly improve stem cell function is undergoing hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy encompasses spending time in a hyperbaric chamber — a cylindrical device that your body fits into. In a hyperbaric chamber, you breathe pure oxygen in a pressurized environment. Paradoxically, according to Dr. Roizen, hyperbaric oxygen therapy induces stem cells to undergo conditions with lower oxygen (hypoxia) that stimulate telomere elongation and stem cell proliferation. In this way, Dr. Roizen believes that hyperbaric oxygen therapy may improve stem cells’ tissue healing capacity and provide a possible intervention against aging.
Takeaways from Dr. Roizen’s Presentation
According to Dr. Roizen, new potential wonder drugs and interventions against aging are in the works that could dramatically extend human lifespan. Undergoing plasma exchange therapy to eliminate senescent cells is very expensive, costing roughly $10,000. In that regard, a more affordable alternative to plasma exchange therapy to eliminate senescent cells and SASP proteins could be to use senolytics like fisetin and quercetin.
As for irisin, levels of this protein increase in the body’s circulation with exercise. Accordingly, until irisin-derived drugs are available that maximize its benefits, exercising regularly is likely the best option to optimize irisin levels.
Finally, hyperbaric oxygen therapy costs from $250 to $600 per session. As such, anyone can undergo this therapy somewhat affordably. Doing so may promote telomere elongation and stem cell proliferation to potentially boost the body’s healing capacity.
As another alternative, the nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) precursor nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) has been shown to increase telomere length in immune cells of adults. The possibility remains that NMN increases telomere lengths in other cells, such as stem cells, to improve their proliferation.
Furthermore, other NAD+ precursors like nicotinamide riboside (NR), shown to have similar effects as NMN, may also increase telomere length in stem cells. Along these lines, some evidence suggests that NR prevents telomere damage in human cells, and NR may preserve stem cell function if it also protects stem cell telomeres. These ideas still need to be tested, though.
To optimize senescent cell clearance with senolytics and potential telomere elongation effects from NAD+ precursors, you could try a supplement that combines them. One formulation of this kind is RESTORIN, which includes senolytics and an NAD+-boosting compound. Using this type of formulation along with exercising to increase circulating irisin may help you get some of the longevity-promoting benefits Dr. Roizen describes at a lower cost.
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