The recent research study reporting that scientists found the scent to the fountain of youth brought international press and attention to a study that included Dr. Steve Horvath. The relatively small study reported that individuals who were fed a human growth hormone cocktail for over a year demonstrated a reversal in the biological aging—in other words, they became younger.[1]
This research builds on a growing body of scientific evidence that aging should be viewed as a disease and treated as such. Defining aging as a disease and treating it medically, as we do heart disease or cancer, will bring emerging and innovative therapies more rapidly. This is the central theme of the book Lifespan [2], recently published by geneticist David Sinclair and journalist Matthew LaPlante, which suggests that living beyond 120 will be commonplace in the not-too-distant future.
One of the exciting aspects of the study was that it was featured on one of my favorite podcasts—Joe Rogan Experience #1349 [3] with David Sinclair as his guest. Within the first few minutes of the podcast, at 2:22 to be exact, David discusses the use of the Horvath Clock to measure biological aging, how it works, why it works, and why it is the standard in measuring biological aging.
“Shazam,” I say! Wow! Here we go! Within three minutes of this podcast, over 1,290,0471 viewers had learned what we learned back in early 2015: that Dr. Steve Horvath is the “Clock Watcher” and his work on the development of epigenetic clocks is a revolutionary new tool that has only grown in strength and predictive power since its original discovery in 2014.[4]
Congratulations to Dr. Horvath and the Horvath Clock for becoming a permanent fixture in understanding the measurement of biological aging. Thank you, Dr. David Sinclair, for your continued research and perseverance to discover treatments for the disease of aging. And thank you, Joe Rogan, for making this discussion possible and bringing the great work of these scientists to light!
These are exciting times to be involved in the science of aging and witness to step-change movements in the understanding and treatment of human longevity!
[1] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/acel.13028
[2] https://www.amazon.com/Lifespan-Why-Age_and-Dont-Have/dp/1501191977
[3] https://youtu.be/ZGLL77wYxe8
[4] https://www.nature.com/news/biomarkers-and-ageing-the-clock-watcher-1.15014