Excerpt from Life Extension Report 10(7): 51-52 July 1990 By Saul Kent
"At the age of 100 - when all but the healthiest and hardiest among us have already died - the odds of reached 101, are only about 50/50........ <large snip>
Resistance to New Ideas
It is thus clear that aging is the primary cause of death in medically
advanced countries such as the United States. This is as clear as the sky
is blue. To me. To most of my friends. To the readers of Life Extension
Report. And to a few other enlightened souls.
But to most people, the idea that aging is the major cause of death has
never entered their minds. In some cases, this is because they have never
been exposed to the idea. In most cases, however it is because they are
resistant to it.
I've had numerous experiences in which I've explained how aging causes
death to intelligent, highly educated people. To medical doctors and Ph.D.
scientists. My explanation to these people was every bit as clear as in
this article. Even more so.
But, as I soon found out, I might as well have been talking to a rock. Or
to a brick wall. For in each of these cases, the people, who nodded their
heads when I spoke, as if they understood what I was saying, soon made it
clear that they hadn't the foggiest notion of what I was talking about. It
was as if, they were in a hypnotic trance in which they were "forbidden" to
let in new ideas. To even let themselves experience the taste of a new
idea.
A Monumental Waste of money
The idea that aging is our primary enemy, and that it should be the
primary enemy of medical science is new and, as a result, has not yet
penetrated the minds of the majority of Americans. As a result the money
that is seized from us each year in the form of taxes has been wasted
tremendously in the past 30 years in the pursuit of the wrong goals, under
guidance of the wrong concepts.
The government has been spending almost all the money that's been
allocated for medical research in the pursuit of treatments for specific
diseases instead of searching for ways to slow down or reverse aging.
Billions of dollars has been wasted on research which, at best, could
provide us with only limited benefits, while very little has been spent on
interventive aging research that, if successful, would provide us with
enormous health benefits."