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Centenarian Consciousness: A Paradigm Shift for Healthy Longevity
While molecular biology has made significant advances in identifying genetic and epigenetic markers of aging, the interventions offered are the usual suspects known for more than 30 years, including lifestyle change, exercise, meditation, cognitive behavior therapy, and supplements, as well as short-term benefits from the most advanced biomechanical procedures, based on reductionist models of aging. Although most of the treatments offered may be necessary, none is sufficient for sustainable biological age reversal. Knowing that, in general, these interventions can be beneficial in reducing and reversing the wear and tear of aging, what would be the point of using sophisticated biological markers to prescribe what we already know works?
Additionally, although research with animals is relevant in understanding longevity, meaning-making humans require much more than learning how to prolong the lifespan of rats. The greatest effector of human longevity is how our biology responds to the attributions we give our experiences.
But before proceeding with the paradigm shift I am proposing, based on my extensive work with healthy centenarians (100 years and older), let me interject Thomas Kuhn’s caveat about hurdles for new models that defy dogmatic attachments of conventional science. Disdain is the initial reaction…
