New you by 2021: healthier, stronger, younger-looking

By Dick Pelletier

      

    In just ten short years, you might look in the mirror and ask, "Who is that gorgeous person?" Your reflection would reveal a revitalized, more youthful and healthier you; sporting a dazzling smile, with wrinkle-free skin, perfect vision, natural hair color, real teeth, and an amazing sharp mind and memory.

    Welcome to the future world of biotech enhancements, which many experts believe will become widely available and affordable as we trek through the years ahead.

    With today's medical research producing breakthroughs almost daily, by the time we reach the 2020s, experts predict that doctors will be able to direct stem cells to renew wrinkled skin and strengthen frail bones and muscles. This medical tool will one day repair or replace nearly all of our aging body parts.

    Gene therapies will progress too. Drugs that can rewrite faulty DNA will produce cures for, and/or shield us from, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, dementia, unsuitable body height, and many other inherited disorders.

    Institute for Global Future's Dr. James Canton believes a multi-trillion dollar health enhancement market is about to evolve; and many of America's 'boomers and seniors are anxiously awaiting its products.

    Some enhancements are available now. 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 better, giving the cosmetics industry its largest success ever.

    However, 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 enhancements promise less intrusive means to achieve that 'younger' look. Today's 'boomers and seniors choose to go beyond their limitations of age and health. They welcome new medical procedures that enhance their intelligence and stamina.

    Today, we fight heart disease with statin drugs that reduce cholesterol buildup; but in the 2020s biotech wonderworld, we will simply grow new veins; or even a new heart if necessary. In fact, nearly all of our organs, bones, muscles, hair, and skin will easily be rejuvenated or replaced with stem cell therapies.

    In a recent 60 Minutes TV show, reporter Morley Safer interviewed researcher Anthony Atala, of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine. Atala explained that skin cells could be reprogrammed to grow into any organ or tissue desired. He then produced 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." This positive thinker predicts we could soon be enjoying an indefinite lifespan with only accidents and violence bringing on the Grim Reaper.

    However, the concept of enhancing bodies to reject aging causes some to ponder. On one end, human nature includes a natural instinct to improve oneself. On the other end though, it is through natural human form that we perceive ourselves. Conservatives believe that eliminating the 'older look' in our senior citizen populations could risk undermining our identity and dignity as human beings.

    Nevertheless, advocates counter that no one wants to suffer the pain and agony of growing old with failing health; and Kurzweil reminds us that we are the species that always seeks to extend our abilities.

    Throughout history, improvements in healthcare, diet and environment have resulted in an increased average human lifespan. Today, healthy people can expect to live into their 80s and beyond, but advances predicted for the 2020s could extend both health and life to an indefinite time. During this next decade, positive futurists see an era of huge excitement for science and great hope for humanity.

    Technologies of the 2020s, promise to return many of today's elderly to a more vibrant, youthful form. The smart, sexy, strong years, once thought long lost, might soon be recaptured as we move closer to this future time. We will soon have at our disposal, an awesome array of innovative medical technologies that promise to improve health and provide us with a lifespan that will one day approach immortality.

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