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'Baby boomers to reach 120'
QUANTUM leaps in
medical technology could see many baby
boomers and their children reach the grand
old age of 120, an American specialist has
claimed.
The longer lifespan would be driven by
developments in biotechnology, gene therapy,
nanopharmaceuticals and diagnostic and
therapeutic advances.
Dr Robert Goldman,
Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at
Oklahoma State University's Department of
Medicine, will present his vision to GPs at
a conference in Melbourne tomorrow.
Dr Goldman said
lifespans had increased dramatically over
the last two centuries and would continue to
do so.
"I don't think tomorrow
you're going to see millions of people
living beyond 120, but I think that will be
something that will be achievable over
time," he said.
"You're going to have very
large segments of the population that are
100, 110, 120 in relatively good health at
some point in the not too distant future.
"Certainly within 50
years we'll see quite a few of those."
He said as recently as 200
years ago the average lifespan was around 26
years.
People could expect to make
it to 48 at the turn of the last century,
and today people in developed countries
lived for an average of 70 to 80 years.
That was already being
increased to 85 to 90 years thanks to more
effective methods of detecting and treating
disease, he said.
Dr Goldman predicted
within the next 25 to 50 years medicine
would advance at the same rate as
telecommunications and the internet had in
recent years.
The next increase would be
driven by developments in biotechnology,
gene therapy, nanopharmaceuticals and
diagnostic and therapeutic advances.
Miniaturisation of drug delivery
technologies would make pharmaceuticals more
powerful and effective than ever before,
while about 60 new neurophysiological drugs,
for the treatment of brain diseases, were in
the pipeline, he said.
Not only would people live
longer, they would die healthy, he argued.
"If you go back 100 years the
three main causes of death were pneumonia,
diarrhoea and influenza.
"Today it's heart disease,
cancer and stroke.
"In the future it will
probably be suicide, homicide or aerospace
accidents."
Dr Goldman said: "In the US
there are over 80 million baby boomers who
want this, who do not want to age like their
parents are, and these people are willing to
pay for this type of care.
"Initially many of these
therapies will be expensive and only subject
to those people who can afford them or are
willing to pay for them.
"Over time there will be more
people that will be able to afford them just
like they can afford a cell phone."
Despite the vistas opening up
in terms of longevity and lifelong good
health, Dr Goldman says would-be
centenarians will have to match medical
opportunity with lifestyle factors to
benefit.
No magic pill would ever
eliminate the need to exercise, eat well,
visit the doctor and follow medical advice,
he said.
Dr Goldman is founder of the
National Academy of Sport Medicine and the
American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine.
He will address the
Australasian General Practitioner Conference
and Exhibition (GPCE) at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre.
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