We continue our examination of man’s effort to turn back the clock. As we sit here today, science is rewriting the rules of human longevity. And ordinary people are clamoring for ways to push the boundaries of life span beyond what we’ve long been taught are the limits.

The following is a transcript of a report from “Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson.”
Watch the video by clicking the link at the end of the page.

Don and Tammy Hoover are regulars at Bloom Wellness Clinics in Phoenix, Arizona.

Sharyl: How long have you all been coming here?

Tammy Hoover: We were trying to figure that out maybe 10 years.

Don Hoover: Probably at least 10 years.

Sharyl: How old are you guys, if you don’t mind me asking?

Tammy Hoover: I’m 58.

Sharyl: And?

Don: I’m 67.

Sharyl: You guys look good. What are your thoughts about growing older?

Tammy Hoover: Quality of life. Quality of life and how, I mean, as we age, it doesn’t get easier. So as much as we can do to preempt that or to take care of ourselves. Be proactive rather than reactive.

Today, nurse practitioner Carli Larson, owner of Bloom Wellness is inserting under Tammy’s skin a rice-sized pellet containing crystallized hormones. The pellet will slowly dissolve for a steady release.

Carli Larson: So this is a painless procedure once we get the lidocaine in there it doesn’t take very long

Sharyl: What is a wellness clinic?

Larson: So the wellness clinic, we focus on mostly hormone replacement therapy, but we also focus on anti-aging treatments. So it’s a wide range of, you know, services, but mostly preventative and longevity services.

Longevity or a long-life span has long been a Holy Grail. Eternal youth a constant theme in popular culture.

The Picture of Dorian Gray based on an Oscar Wilde novel, explores the pursuit of immortality through a character that remains young while his portrait ages.

The 1985 film Cocoon examines the allure of immortality through a group of seniors in Florida who stumble upon a swimming pool infused with alien life force that restores their youth.

From Cocoon: We’ll never get sick, we won’t get any older, and we wont ever die.

Today, with the over-65 population rapidly approaching a billion the quest to enhance and extend life has stepped out of the movies and permeated mainstream medicine.

Sharyl: Is there a trend toward people looking for what we might call wellness or longevity information?

Larson: I definitely think that there’s more people on the trend of trying to live longer, to be more proactive with their health, things like that.

Sharyl: What are you hearing from them that they’re not getting from other doctors?

Larson: They’re not getting, they’re being told that, you know, “Oh, you’re just depressed. That’s normal. That’s a normal part of aging.” So they just kind of wipe it under the table. And they’re not really listening to the patient or treating the patient appropriately to be honest. And that’s when, that’s when they come over here is because their, their primary care isn’t really listening to them. A lot of ’em are healthy coming in and they want to do what they can to live longer, to be their healthiest person.

Leading the charge are visionary scientists whose work is transforming theory into tangible advances.

Visionary scientist David Sinclair has popularized supplements that boost levels of a crucial coenzyme, potentially delaying age-related decline.

At the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, researcher Eric Verdin explores how metabolic shifts can extend healthy years.

Maria Blasco of Spain’s National Cancer Research Center focuses on telomeres, a piece of DNA at the end of animal chromosomes protecting them from degradation.

Nir Barzilai, director of the Institute for Aging Research at Albert Einstein College of Medicine, is leading a study testing the diabetes drug metformin as an anti-aging agent.

And Vadim Gladyshev at Harvard is investigating rejuvenation by reprogramming or “resetting” cells without turning them cancerous.

As researchers work to crack the code on aging and how to slow or stop it, there’s a philosophical and scientific divide: Is aging a natural, programmed part of life, or a treatable condition akin to a disease that can be “cured”?

Antonei Csoka: I see aging as a kind of great challenge to humanity. It’s not something that we have to accept as inevitable.

Antonei Csoka is an associate professor at Howard University who studies the cell and molecular biology of aging.

Sharyl: Do you see it as an illness, a disease, a common process that could be reversed?

Csoka: Great question. Great question. So I actually call it a meta disease, in the sense that it is the cause behind almost every other disease. So it’s like the molecular damage, the DNA mutations, the telomere loss, even the epigenetic changes accumulate over lifespan and lead to these diverse diseases. But they’re all really being caused by aging. So it’s like the generative mechanism behind all of them. It’s the cause and the diseases are the effect.

Whatever the theory, advances are arriving at breakneck speed. And there’s been an explosion in the practice of medicine surrounding aging and longevity.

Csoka says he hopes we’re on the cusp of virtual immortality.

Sharyl: Do you think in your lifetime we’ll be seeing people live to what age, you know, more people living to 120?

Csoka: I think it’s quite possible. Yeah. I think we’re actually in an incredibly unique time. Like maybe a time that only happens once in human history. And that time is where the people alive today could determine whether they live a very long time, you know, potentially like, you know, extreme long old age, you know, a thousand years, for example.

Sharyl: You think that’s possible that people can live a thousand years?

Csoka: Yeah, I do. Yeah. I don’t think there’s any like, biological law that, that denies that possibility. But in the past, you know, people dreamed of, of immortality and the fountain of youth and so on, but it was basically impossible. Like the, the science didn’t exist. And in the future, I think it will be solved. Like it will be, you know, say a hundred years from now, the aging will be fully understood and potentially fully reversible. So we’re kind of in a very unique, very unique sliver of time.

Watch video here.