A Well-Oiled Machine

From head to toe and inside out, here's how to age well

- By Lisa Fitterman. Photographs by Victor Wong

Remember when we were young and thought we'd live forever? We are, in fact, living longer, but time still takes its toll on our bodies, from extra pounds to wrinkles and aches. Our hearts may not pump as well as they once did, and there are leaks, fading vision, so-called “senior moments,” and maybe even a cancer diagnosis.

Like a machine, everything in our bodies is interconnected—and the bits and pieces eventually malfunction. Dr Berndt KleineGunk, a gynaecologist and head of the German Society for Anti-Ageing Medicine, suggests we think of the human body as a basket of apples in which one rotten specimen can infect the others. In medical terms, these “rotten apples are called senescent, or zombie, cells, because they continue to age but stop dividing and refuse to die. As they accumulate, they contribute to everything from age spots to cancer.

In other words, rather than cells that divide and spark health, we've got zombie cells eliminating it, says Dr Kleine-Gunk. “That's why scientists are looking at what happens when zombie cells are removed from the body before they cause damage.

With 727 million people over the age of 65 in the world-a number expected to jump to 1.5 billion by 2050-scientists are making significant strides in the field of gerontology, with better diagnostics and more advanced treatments. Dr Kleine-Gunk points to the number of startup companies working on drugs that either suppress the damaging molecules that zombie cells secrete or kill them outright.

He also mentions clinical trials in the US collectively known as TAMETargeting Ageing with Metformin-a drug used to treat Type II diabetes. The trials came about when researchers found that patients taking metformin outlived non-diabetics, and that, in separate studies, it had a preventative effect on dementia, heart disease, and cancer.