THE WORLD’S OLDEST human, Jeanne Calment, died in 1997 at the very impressive age of 122. But what if living to 110 or 120 was a commonplace occurrence?
By global averages, the human lifespan is now double what it was back in 1900. Much of that is down to improvements in diet, hygiene and the economy, of course, but scientific advances like the discovery of smoking risks in the 1950s and the stabilisation of penicillin in 1938 have also had a significant impact.
So what’s happening right now in the world of pharmaceuticals, med-tech and science that could transform our health?
Here are some of the advances getting everyone closer to the 122 mark…
Patients with locked-in syndrome (also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease or ALS) are fully paralysed but have full brain function. Many ALS patients learn to communicate with eye movements or finger taps, but as the disease progresses, even those functions disappear.
But in Switzerland, scientists have tested a new brain-computer interface system that allows for communication via thoughts, using tools that measure blood flow and brain oxygen levels to decode what a patient is thinking.
Breast milk is known to contain beneficial ingredients that help establish a collection of healthy bacteria in the baby’s gut, assisting the fighting of illness later on.
But if a baby is not or cannot be breastfed, there are other potential ways to give them those nutrients – like a supplement containing key components of breast milk, or the feeding of specific probiotics to newborns.
The approval of groundbreaking drugs like Pfizer’s Ibrance (manufactured in Cork) and Eli Lilly’s Verzenio has been a huge step forward in the treatment of breast cancer.
Both are currently used to help prolong the life of late-stage cancer patients, but there have been advances in early stage breast cancer diagnosis and treatment too – like the use of the drug olaparib to fight the hereditary genes that cause breast cancer.
The gut-brain link – that is, the link between the microbacteria in our gut and our thoughts, feelings and emotions – has had plenty of publicity in the last couple of years.
Now, scientists at Cork’s APC Microbiome Institute say they may soon be able to pinpoint dietary changes that could help with stress-related disorders like depression or anxiety. By adding certain ‘prebiotics’ (non-digestible fibres that promote the growth of good bacteria) to a patient’s diet, it’s thought stress hormones could be better managed.
For older patients or anyone taking a wide range of medicines, remembering to take the right tablet at the right time can be tough. But what if you could use an oral implant or patch to deliver the right dose exactly as you needed it?
This kind of advance is closer than you’d think, according to Professor Abhay Pandit of Ireland’s Centre for Research in Medical Devices. “If you have diabetes for example, a patch could give you the required dose of what you need at the required time,” he told TheJournal.ie.
Should you be focusing on your sprinting PB or aiming for a long-distance run? Do you perform better on a carb-heavy diet or a low-carb one?
The answer lies in your DNA – at least according to some UK and US companies who’ll analyse your DNA profile for a fee and tell you how you should be training, what you should be eating and when. Tempted to skip that morning spinning class again? Now you can use your DNA results as an excuse.
Ireland is at the forefront of pharmaceutical advances – did you know that five of the world’s top twenty leading drugs are manufactured here? If you’re ready to make your mark in a thriving global sector, check out the range of pharmaceutical science courses on offer from Griffith College and Innopharma.
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