First Person to Reach the Age of 150 Is Already Born Eire Region

LEADING Irish scientist believes researchers are on the brink of finding a cure for ageing.

RTE's startling documentary, The End of Ageing, told last night how many scientists believe that the first person to reach the age of 150 has already been born.

In Trinity College Dublin, geneticists are conducting research into why different organisms die at particular points in their lives.

Dr. Kevin Mitchell, from Trinity's Department of Developmental Neurogenetics, said science is on the brink of discovering a gene therapy which will halt ageing.

He said: 'Genetics is providing more and more answers all the time to questions that have occupied philosophers for millennia. 'The reason that we age and the reason organisms age is simply that their cells undergo a process of wear and tear. It turns out there are genes whose job it is to try and prevent that.' The documentary reveals how geneticists have discovered that when a cell thinks food is scarce it shifts its focus away from growth and into preservation.

It also reveals how pharmaceutical companies are working on designing drugs that will fuel cells into preservation mode. 'The future may bring some very surprising results, with some treatments making it impossible to tell a person's age,' said Dr. Mitchell in the documentary.

'We now know that one of the more robust ways you can get an organism to age more slowly is to restrict the amount of nutrients it gets. The hope is that by administering these types of drugs you may see a significant increase in human life span.

'The hope would be that by blocking the cellular aging process itself in one fell swoop you would actually stop many agerelated diseases.' Professor Davis Coakley, Consultant physician at St. James Hospital, said that poor diet plays a huge part in the ageing process.

He added: 'It's been estimated that about 60 per cent of health problems in old age can be traced back to poor diet. It can produce cardiac side-effects, weak muscles and weak bones.

'Exercise is a key factor in promoting healthy ageing. You don't have to spend hours in the gym, a brisk walk of ten minutes three times a week has been shown to produce positive effects.

'Never before in the history of mankind have we a society where so many people have the privilege of living into old age.'

'Stop age-related diseases'