TY  - JOUR
AU  - Libertini, Giacinto
PY  - 2017
DA  - 2017/04/13
TI  - The Feasibility and Necessity of a Revolution in Geriatric Medicine
JO  - OBM Geriatrics
SP  - 002
VL  - 01
IS  - 02
AB  - Nowadays, geriatrics is mainly the treatment by palliative methods of the disorders that characterize senile decay. This is perfectly compatible with the prevailing view that aging is the inevitable result of multiple degenerative processes that can only partially be treated as they are in themselves inevitable and irreversible.

This interpretation of aging clashes with a mass of data and arguments that, conversely, indicate aging as a specific physiological function, favoured by supra-individual natural selection and genetically determined and modulated. Under this concept, it is possible to modify or even cancel aging by actions on its primary mechanisms. This is entirely different from the current interventions of geriatrics that act only on the effects of such mechanisms.

The goal of having complete control of aging may appear utopian; however, it is quite rational and feasible if we consider the already proven reversibility of aging at the cellular level and in some in vivo models. The method for achieving this objective by no means contrasts the countless alterations that characterize aging. On the contrary, it is the control of the telomere-subtelomere-telomerase system, which appears to be the general determining factor and regulator of aging. This system appears quite easily controllable by actions on telomerase activity, or even, as suggested recently, along with actions on telomere and subtelomere structure.
In a first step, these actions must be mainly addressed in the care of some aging manifestations, such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and age-related macular degeneration, which are particularly harsh and harmful due to the suffering and the economic burden that they cause. Effective solutions to these diseases will be the first pivotal step for a revolution in geriatric medicine, which is now possible and also necessary. This revolution will have implications and developments that will extend well beyond the boundaries of geriatrics.
SN  - 2638-1311
UR  - https://doi.org/10.21926/obm.geriatr.1702002
DO  - 10.21926/obm.geriatr.1702002
ID  - Libertini2017
ER  -