Zombie cells central to quest for active, vital old age

“I’m not looking for the fountain of youth,” Wiley says. “I’m looking for the fountain of not being sick when I’m older.”

This seems like a much more realistic objective than the typical "much longer life" that other people are focused on, and it would be also much more productive for society in general, letting people be productive until the later years of their lives, and without stressing public health services since everybody would be in much better health.

It would be extremely useful if pharmacological treatments to eliminate senescent cells can be developed and many different health problems could be dealt with more easily, specially because as mentioned exercise is already a well known way to do this in a limited way, people could do both to get a much stronger effect.

The best 'predictor' of delayed senescence, that is 'longer life', that we know of today is to have parents and grandparents who have (or had) longer lives. Senescence and death is an absolutely essential part of a genepool's ability to adapt to changes in its context over generations. 'Sex' constantly mixes all of the various bits of information carried by the parents and death determines how well those combinations work together. 'Natural death' was actually a rarity at the time Humans were becoming us and contextual 'vitality' rather than just delayed senescence probably contributed more to selection of the most 'fit' combinations. One of the most telling features of senescent cells is the condition of their mitochondria which power the cell and hence the body, as one ages, become much less regular in shape, more damaged looking with broken membranes. The mechanism for this is thought to be their constant exposure to oxidative free radicals. Recent work not mentioned here has shown, in vitro, that increasing the amount of NADH (nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) + hydrogen (H) seems to 'heal' these damaged mitochondria and restore vitality to the cell. If you're interested in this, WebMD has an article describing its use therapeutically and what effects it can have on a number of physiological processes: https://www.webmd.com/vitamins/ai/ingredientmono-1016/nadh

Not care so much about wrinkles but definitely interested in staying fit until die.

With rather a sedentary lifestyle, 30 mins daily dumbbell exercise and stretching are secured but feel like it's just a drop in a bucket after reading this article...