An old Bob Dylan song contains the lyrics, “He not busy being born is busy dying.” That claim is the realization that every minute that occurs after our birth is leading us to our death. I’m not getting any younger, as they say. That’s a cliché but is it a disease? Some scientists believe so and would like the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to classify aging as exactly that, not a function of our calendar that inevitably leads to diseases of old age, but a disease itself.
An improving scientific understanding of the biology of aging is leading some scientists, doctors and entrepreneurs to argue that aging is a disease. It’s a major driver of illness and death, they say, and classifying it as such could make it easier to get drugs approved to treat aging itself, rather than just age-related health problems.
You have probably heard someone say something similar to, “Mrs. Jones died of old age.” It’s an admission that death is inevitable and not something to be stopped. You can treat age-related cancer but not old age. You can treat age-related heart disease, but old age itself is not amenable to therapy. You can visit a plastic surgeon for a facelift but that only reduces the appearance of aging, not age itself. Public health advocates advise eating a balanced diet, exercising, getting enough sleep and avoiding excess alcohol, all of which scientists say is likely to extend your life. What if all that came in pill form? Such a pill would truly be an anti-aging drug.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t currently classify aging as a disease, and there is no drug approved by the agency to treat human aging.Last year, two groups submitted citizen petitions to the FDA to try to change that. A burgeoning longevity field has attracted billions of dollars in investment and moved the quest to fight aging more into the mainstream. Longevity enthusiasts are hopeful that the agency will be more sympathetic under President Trump’s new proposed commissioner.
There are several schools of thought on whether aging is a disease. Advocates for the aged fear such a move would stigmatize aging and old people.
Such a shift could lead doctors to dismiss health conditions as “just old age,” detractors say, resulting in worse medical care for seniors. Others worry calling aging a disease could lead to financial exploitation by the antiaging industry, capitalizing on quick fixes to “cure” aging.
I’m in the latter camp. If aging is classified as a disease, all manner of drugs will begin to be billed to insurance. That is the holy grail for the anti-aging industry. Numerous new longevity elixirs, the efficacy of which won’t be known for decades, will fill pharmacy shelves. Once aging is classified as a disease, we will all be officially sick. Everyone will be a candidate for anti-aging medications. I take Metformin, prescribed off label for antiaging. I pay cash for it but in the future, everyone may expect health plans to reimburse anti-aging drugs. Premiums are bound to rise when there is a whole industry trying to develop drugs purported to slow the aging process even if only by mere minutes per lifetime.
Conversely, if aging is not a disease, drugs developed to slow the aging process have a harder time getting approved. The definition of a drug is, “any substance, other than food, used in the prevention, diagnosis, alleviation, treatment, or cure of disease.” The FDA is reluctant to approve chemical compounds that are not for a disease, due to the perceived risks of taking drugs.
Read more at WSJ: The Scientific Fight Over Whether Aging Is a Disease