Longer life?

Selecionado pela AMICOR Maria Inês Reinert Azambuja
AGING The downside of living a longer life 
SCIENCE sciencemag.org 30 JANUARY 2015 • VOL 347 ISSUE 6221 517
Over the years, scientists have identified many factors that increase longevity in animal models. But do these interventions also let animals stay healthy longer, giving them an extended “healthspan”? To find out, Bansal et al. measured a range of physiological parameters over the lifetime of worms with mutations that extended their lifespans. The effect of these mutations on healthspan was variable. In fact, control worms had the greatest healthspan when calculated as a percentage of total lifespan. Extending the period of ill health  of an increasingly aged human population could be devastating, suggesting that researchers should focus on optimizing healthspan rather than lifespan. — LBR Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 10.1073/ pnas.1412192112 (2015)