Introducing Cryonics: Putting Death On Ice

There is a potent thread winding its way through generations of human culture. From Ancient Egyptian rituals to Kurzweil’s Singularity, many paths have sprung up leading to the same elusive destination: immortality.

Today, as Visual Capitalist"s Nick Routely notes, the concept is as popular as it’s ever been, and technological advances are giving people hope that immortality, or at very least radical life extension, may be within reach. Is modern technology advanced enough to give people a second chance through cryonics?

Today’s infographic, courtesy of Futurism, tackles our growing fascination with putting death on ice.

Courtesy of: Visual Capitalist

THE PROSPECT OF IMMORTALITY

Robert C. W. Ettinger’s seminal work, The Prospect Of Immortality, detailed many of the scientific, moral, and economic implications of cryogenically freezing humans for later reanimation. It was after that book was published in 1962 that the idea of freezing one’s body after death began to take hold.

One of the most pressing questions is, even if we’re able to revive a person who has been cryogenically preserved, will the person’s memories and personality remain intact? Ettinger posits that long-term memory is stored in the brain as a long-lasting structural modification. Basically, those memories will remain, even if the brain’s “power is turned off”.

DESCENDING INTO THE DEEP-FREEZE

There are three main steps in the cryogenic process:

1) Immediately after a patient dies, the body is cooled with ice packs and transported to the freezing location.

 

2) Next, blood is drained from the patient’s body and replaced with a cryoprotectant (basically the same antifreeze solution used to transport organs destined for transplant).

 

3) Finally, once the body arrives at the cryonic preservation facility, the body is cooled to -196ºC (-320.8ºF) over the course of two weeks. Bodies are generally stored upside-down in a tank of liquid nitrogen.

THE ECONOMICS OF CRYOPRESERVATION

At prices ranging from about $30,000 to $200,000, cryopreservation may sound like an option reserved for the wealthy, but many people fund the procedure by naming a cryonics company as the primary benefactor of their life insurance policy. Meanwhile, in the event of a death that doesn’t allow for preservation of the body, the money goes to secondary beneficiaries.

Even if we do eventually find a way to reanimate frozen humans, another important consideration is how those people would take care of themselves financially. That’s where a cryonics or personal revival trust comes into play. A twist on a traditional dynastic trust, this arrangement ensures that there are funds to cover costs of the cryopreservation, as well as ensure the grantor would have assets when they’re unthawed. Of course, there are risks involved beyond the slim possibility of reanimation. The legal code in hundreds of years could be vastly different than today.

If you created a trust for specific purposes in 1711, it is unlikely it would function in the same way today.

 

– Kris Knaplund, Law Professor, Pepperdine University

COLD HUMANS, HOT MARKET

At last count, there are already 346 people in the deep freeze, with thousands more on the waiting list. As technology improves, those numbers are sure to continue rising.

Time will tell whether cryonically preserved people are able to cheat death. In the meantime? The cryonics industry is alive and well.

New Innovation In Telomere Extension

Telomeres are the caps at the end of human DNA strands known as chromosomes that protect the DNA code of the genome. As humans age, telomeres begin to decrease in size, causing cellular aging. After telomeres reach a certain length, the cell is no longer able to divide and will die. This process has been associated with disease, aging, and death. Antioxidants are often credited as providing nutritional support that can help protect normal telomere size and function.

Telomere Extension: Is It Possible?

Studies have shown that a healthy lifestyle and stress reduction can have a huge impact on telomeres, causing them to grow longer, potentially even lengthening lifespan. Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have recently uncovered a new procedure for quickly increasing the length of telomeres in the laboratory. ^[1]

Scientists discovered that cells treated with this type of procedure acted as though they were much younger than untreated cells. Cells that had their telomeres lengthened by the treatment multiplied up to 40 times more quickly than untreated cells. By increasing the number of times cells are able to divide, the procedure essentially turns back the aging clock in cultured cells.

While the procedure causes telomeres to lengthen initially, the effect is only temporary. After 48 hours, telomeres resume shortening regularly as cells divide. The temporary nature of this new technique is key to the procedure’s potential for success, since infinitely dividing cells could create a risk of cancer if used in humans.

The discovery offers numerous potential benefits for humans, paving the path to treating and preventing aging diseases and other conditions associated with shortening telomeres. By developing telomere extension therapies, scientists can improve existing cell therapies and possibly treat aging conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes, or target types of muscle cells in cases of muscular dystrophy. The procedure may also increase the amount of cells available for research and studies like disease modeling and drug testing.

Ways You Can Protect Telomeres

Currently, researchers are testing the procedure on different cell types. By working to understand and overcome the differences among cell types, scientists hope they can make the procedure more universally useful. Things that you can do to protect telomeres from shortening prematurely include eating a diet rich in antioxidants, reducing stress, exercising, increasing vitamin D production, and improving the quality of your sleep. Some research has also shown that tea drinkers have longer telomeres than non-tea drinkers. ^[2]

What are your anti-aging protocols? We’d love to hear about your suggestions and opinions in the comments!

References:

1. Ramunas J, Yakubov E, Brady JJ, et al. Transient delivery of modified mRNA encoding TERT rapidly extends telomeres in human cells. FASEB J. 2015 Jan 22. pii: fj.14-259531.


2. Sheng R, Gu ZL, Xie ML. Epigallocatechin gallate, the major component of polyphenols in green tea, inhibits telomere attrition mediated cariomyocyte apoptosis in cardiac hypertrophy. Int J Cardiol. 2013 Jan 20;162(3):199-209. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2011.07.083.

New Innovation In Telomere Extension

Telomeres are the caps at the end of human DNA strands known as chromosomes that protect the DNA code of the genome. As humans age, telomeres begin to decrease in size, causing cellular aging. After telomeres reach a certain length, the cell is no longer able to divide and will die. This process has been associated with disease, aging, and death. Antioxidants are often credited as providing nutritional support that can help protect normal telomere size and function.

Telomere Extension: Is It Possible?

Studies have shown that a healthy lifestyle and stress reduction can have a huge impact on telomeres, causing them to grow longer, potentially even lengthening lifespan. Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have recently uncovered a new procedure for quickly increasing the length of telomeres in the laboratory. ^[1]

Scientists discovered that cells treated with this type of procedure acted as though they were much younger than untreated cells. Cells that had their telomeres lengthened by the treatment multiplied up to 40 times more quickly than untreated cells. By increasing the number of times cells are able to divide, the procedure essentially turns back the aging clock in cultured cells.

While the procedure causes telomeres to lengthen initially, the effect is only temporary. After 48 hours, telomeres resume shortening regularly as cells divide. The temporary nature of this new technique is key to the procedure’s potential for success, since infinitely dividing cells could create a risk of cancer if used in humans.

The discovery offers numerous potential benefits for humans, paving the path to treating and preventing aging diseases and other conditions associated with shortening telomeres. By developing telomere extension therapies, scientists can improve existing cell therapies and possibly treat aging conditions, such as heart disease and diabetes, or target types of muscle cells in cases of muscular dystrophy. The procedure may also increase the amount of cells available for research and studies like disease modeling and drug testing.

Ways You Can Protect Telomeres

Currently, researchers are testing the procedure on different cell types. By working to understand and overcome the differences among cell types, scientists hope they can make the procedure more universally useful. Things that you can do to protect telomeres from shortening prematurely include eating a diet rich in antioxidants, reducing stress, exercising, increasing vitamin D production, and improving the quality of your sleep. Some research has also shown that tea drinkers have longer telomeres than non-tea drinkers. ^[2]

What are your anti-aging protocols? We’d love to hear about your suggestions and opinions in the comments!

References:

1. Ramunas J, Yakubov E, Brady JJ, et al. Transient delivery of modified mRNA encoding TERT rapidly extends telomeres in human cells. FASEB J. 2015 Jan 22. pii: fj.14-259531.


2. Sheng R, Gu ZL, Xie ML. Epigallocatechin gallate, the major component of polyphenols in green tea, inhibits telomere attrition mediated cariomyocyte apoptosis in cardiac hypertrophy. Int J Cardiol. 2013 Jan 20;162(3):199-209. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2011.07.083.

5 Reasons Why You're Living In The Strangest Time In Human History

Authored by Daniel Lang via SHTFplan.com,

The world is changing faster than ever before, but that doesn’t mean that we aren’t being acclimated to it. It’s truly a testament to the ability of humans to adapt to just about any circumstance. We have more food, wealth, and life-saving technologies than anyone in our history. We have a nearly unlimited stream of entertainment and information. Yet we take it all for granted.

Because we’re so acclimated to this world, we often forget how strange it is compared to previous eras. Sometimes we forget to stop and appreciate just how freaking bonkers it all is. If you don’t believe me, I’ve collected five news stories to prove it. They’re not necessarily relevant to each other in any way, but if you told someone 30 years ago that the following stories would someday come true, they’d probably think that you were pitching some bizarre sci-fi novel.

3D Printing

You’ve definitely heard about this technology already. 3D printing has been in the news countless times over the past few years. However, that doesn’t mean that it is old hat. It seems as if every year 3D printing is used to create something that no one had considered before.

The fact that we live in a world where a novice can print out his own gun parts is freaky enough, but now it’s believed that 3D printers can create camera lenses as small as a grain of salt. This could be used to create billions of tiny sensors that could be scattered throughout the world; a concept known as “smartdust.” Alternatively, 3D printers can also be used to build objects as large a house in 24 hours.

Lab-Grown Meat

For all of human history, meat was something you raised and produce was something you grew. Not anymore. Since 2013, scientists from around the world have successfully grown meat from cultured animal cells on multiple occasions. In fact, just this week a startup from San Francisco managed to create the first lab-grown chicken strips. The people behind these projects believe that lab-grown meat will become a normal staple in grocery stores in the very near future, because growing meat in this fashion is a lot less resource intensive, and the taste is almost indistinguishable from natural products.

Acceptance of Government Surveillance

Between Edward Snowden and the Vault 7 Wikileaks, the public is finally aware of how invasive the government’s spying really is. We know that the government is tracking and recording every word that we say and write over the internet and over our phones, and we know that the government can spy on us through countless electronic devices in our homes.

But that isn’t the freaky part. What’s strange is how we’ve come to accept it. There are no riots or protests in the streets because of this. No one is being arrested and thrown in jail for something that is clearly illegal. Privacy died, and it’s like no one noticed. What would have outraged everyone a few generations ago, is now met with a shrug.

Santa Muerte

This is the only entry on this list that doesn’t have something to do with technology, but I can’t help but find this story to be a totally unexpected development.

If you ask most people what the fastest growing religion in the world is, they’d probably say Islam. However, it could actually be a strange new subset of Christianity from Mexico called Santa Muerte, or Holy Death. Santa Muerte is a female folk saint whose popularity in Mexico and the United States is spreading rapidly; from being practically unheard in the year 2000, to being worshiped by 10-12 million people in 2014.

Statues and visages of the saint, which appear as a skeleton clad in vibrant robes and carrying a scythe, have popped up all over the world. The religion is popular among a wide variety of people in Mexico, from narco gang members to impoverished farmers, who often pray to the saint for protection. Though Santa Muerte is venerated in the same way as most saints, the Catholic church has condemned the religion, which of course hasn’t had any effect on its popularity.

Anti-Aging Drugs

For most of human history, trying to halt the aging process was synonymous with either magic or pseudoscience. Until recently, the idea that you could slow down or even stop the aging process with drugs, was simply inconceivable to scientists. But now there are companies who are actually beginning human trials with drugs that could slow down aging. And now that science is gaining a firm grasp on what causes the aging process, it may not be long before we’re able to stop and reverse aging. That of course, would change our species forever in ways that we can’t even imagine yet.