Sunday, March 30, 2014

Would you rather live longer or be able to have kids?

If you had the choice between staying alive longer or having children, what would you choose? The idea that fertility and longevity was first proposed by gerontologist Tom Kirkwood in the 1970s. His idea was called the "disposable soma" hypothesis and proposed that we have a limited amount of energy in our bodies that can be used to either repair damaged cells, or saved to allow us to reproduce. Thirty years later while studying the behavior of worms, biologist found that worms have a hormone, IGF-1, that controls when they go into hibernation. Scientist then found the same hormone in mammals, including humans, which controls the way energy is used. When IGF-1 production is low or turned off,  energy allocation is switched from the reproductive organs, to the DNA repair and maintaining the body. In an experiment where mice's ability to produce IGF-1 was shut off, it was seen that these mice lived longer than the control mice but they were also infertile. It was also found that middle-age adults with high levels of IGF-1 were at more of a genetic risk of getting Alzheimer's disease.
            This is going to be a very interesting dilemma for people in the future. The only problem is there isn't one true way to shut off IGF-1. For the mice, scientist put them on a very low calorie diet but now research is being done on a new substance called resveratrol which is found in red wine. So it might actually that getting drunk might help us live longer. Also this might help the problem that may come up in the future that too many people will be on the Earth but there will not be enough resources.

1 comment:

  1. Are you saying that getting drunk might also help someone live longer? You should try this hypothesis out. Seriously though, this is interesting and I would hope people wouldn't choose to live forever. Unless they were on some amazing mission for the betterment of humanity or someone who was secretly keep of track of humans to teach the future or aliens. Then they can live forever. I don't think that someone is born with a certain amount of energy but that is cool to think about. If I ever have kids, I will joke around with them for stealing my energy and life though because that would make me a great parent.

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