New you by 2020: healthier, stronger, younger looking

By Dick Pelletier

      

    In just ten short years, you may be looking into the mirror and wondering, "Who is that gorgeous creature?" Your reflection would reveal a much younger and healthier you; with natural hair color, resilient skin, perfect vision, real teeth, and an incredibly sharp mind and memory.

    Welcome to tomorrow's futuristic world of biotech enhancements, which experts believe will be widely available and affordable by 2020. Medical advancements that sound like science fiction – growing your own organs, being cared for by robotic nurses, enjoying a radically extended healthy lifespan – are all either at or near reality today.

    No matter what Congress decides about how we deliver and pay for healthcare, the procedures in which our bodies and diseases are being treated are about to undergo major changes.

    Institute for Global Future's James Canton believes a multi-trillion dollar health enhancement market will evolve in the next decade. And 100 million older Americans are anxiously awaiting its products, which include biotech and nanotech miracles to replace aging organs, muscles, bones and skin.

    Some enhancements are already available today. Fertility science, prosthetic limbs, wonder drugs like Prozac and Viagra, even steroid use, are all designed to improve human performance. Last year, 12 million opted for plastic surgery in their quest to look and feel better, giving the cosmetics industry its largest success ever.

    But over the next ten years, stem cell and gene therapies, initially developed to cure sicknesses, will dwarf what can be accomplished with the knife. These medical wonders promise far less intrusive means to achieve that "younger body" look. And ‘boomers and seniors can't wait to take advantage of these breakthroughs.

    Today, we fight heart disease with statin drugs, which are designed to reduce cholesterol buildup in veins, but in tomorrow's biotech wonderworld, we will simply grow new veins; in fact, if a new heart is needed – or any organ – a new one can be easily created using stem cell therapies.

    In a recent 60 Minutes TV show, reporter Morley Safer interviewed Dr. Anthony Atala, of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Atala explained that skin cells can be reprogrammed to grow into any organ or tissue desired. He then produced an example of a live, beating heart muscle grown in his lab.

    Ray Kurzweil, in his best-selling book Fantastic Voyage: Live Long Enough to Live Forever, confirmed that we are in early stages of an anti-aging revolution. "By 2020," Kurzweil says, "biotech upgrades will add more than one year of life expectancy to our lives each year." Kurzweil predicts we could soon be enjoying an indefinite lifespan with only accidents and violence bringing on the Grim Reaper.

    How about an in-home helper who never gets tired? iRobot, maker of Roomba vacuum cleaners is developing a robot nurse that can carry adults up a flight of stairs, gently dispense medicine, and if a patient falls down, can roam the house looking for them. Robots like these will add years of independence to handicapped seniors.

    Tomorrow's technologies could return today's elderly to a more vibrant, youthful form. The smart, sexy, strong years, once thought long lost, might soon be recaptured as we approach this 2020 "magical future."

This article appeared in various print publications and on-line blogs. Comments always welcome.