The greatest risk factor for the leading cause of death is ignored
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OPINION
The greatest risk factor for the leading cause of death is ignored Leonard Hayflick
Received: 8 September 2020 / Accepted: 23 September 2020 Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract All major United States institutional advocates for research on the biology of aging and for the leading causes of death assert that aging is the greatest risk factor for these deaths. Nevertheless, all fail to support research on the etiology of aging despite having mechanisms to do so. Aging is a problem in physics and not biology. It is a multibillion dollar miss-understanding to believe that the resolution of any or all age associated diseases will reveal information on the underlying aging process. The goal in research on the etiology of aging is to use the new revolutionary methods to study single molecules and their constituent atoms to uncover the qualitative and quantitative status of molecules in old cells that differ from that in young cells. These differences are the conditions that can explain why a common cause may exist for the risk factor for all age-associated diseases. The tyranny of the phrase ‘‘research on aging’’ could apply to almost any human institution. In the absence of a strict definition when used it has become a costly error in gerontology communication. Research on the biology of aging has become its greatest victim. Because aging is a universal manifestation of the fate of all matter, it is the provenance of the National Science Foundation because its stated purpose excludes research in the medical sciences. L. Hayflick (&) University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA e-mail: [email protected]
Keywords Risk factor Aging Etiology of aging NIH NIA AFAR Alzheimer’s association NSF Tyranny of ‘‘research on aging’’
Introduction Bordering on scandal, research on the cause of aging in life forms is not a major priority for any organization in this country with ‘‘Age’’ or ‘‘Aging’’ in its title. This neglect is inexplicable because the mantra believed by most physicians, geriatricians and biogerontologists is that ‘‘Aging is the greatest risk factor for the leading causes of death.‘‘ It does not require a great leap of intellect to ask: ‘‘Then, why is research on the etiology of the greatest risk factor that increases vulnerability to cancer, cardiovascular disease, stroke, and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), ignored?’’. This question arose as early as 1942 (Cowdry 1942) and again in 1951 when, after surveying dozens of laboratories worldwide, the father of American gerontology, Nathan Shock, found that ‘‘…relatively few are planning to pursue fundamental studies on the aging process (Shock 1951).’’ Nothing has changed to this day despite the repetition of this complaint (Strehler 1962; Comfort 1979). My efforts and those of others, to encourage funding for research on the etiology of aging by major institutions like the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the American
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Biogerontology
Federation on Aging Research (AFAR) have been met with
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