Reversing aging may be possible

In 1986, California-based cryobiologist and biogerontologist Greg Fahy read a rodent study. As per the paper, researchers injected rats with cells that secreted growth hormones among the animals. As rats grow older, their thymus shrinks. In human beings and rats, the thymus is a primary lymphoid organ of our immune system. It consists of Thymus cell lymphocytes that are also known as T cells that are important to our adaptive immune system. Due to the thymus’ involvement in the immune system when it shrinks, rats are less likely to fight off illnesses and get sick. However, researchers found that injecting rats with growth hormones reverses thymus shrinking. As a result, rats can easily fight off diseases. The findings are important to humans because the thymus gland shrinks in human beings also as we grow older. This decreases the overall functionality of our immune system. This can also be the reason why older adults get the flu easily. After several years of reading this rodent study, in 2003, Greg injected himself with DHEA (dehydroepiandrosterone) and human growth hormones. After one month, he noticed that his thymus increased in size. Motivated by this success, he started the company ‘Intervene Immune’ and injected nine volunteers with DHEA, growth hormone, and Metformin. As a result, the participants’ thymus increased. In addition to this, Greg also found that volunteers’ Epigenetic age decreased by about two years. That means these people turned out to be genetically younger. Now, Greg and his company are working on a larger trial that is to be finished soon. This study is fascinating because these drugs are extremely cheap, and these could become the first commercial drug for reversing aging.