An international team of researchers has proposed a radical change in the way we approach longevity research, arguing that the current focus on the elderly may be too late to achieve effective results.
The team calls for health interventions to begin at very early stages, including pre-pregnancy and childhood, rather than waiting until old age.
The researchers published their scientific paper in the journal Nature Health, in which they presented the idea of establishing a new scientific alliance called "PROSPER", which aims to study health and aging across the entire life course, from the embryonic stage to early childhood.
The researchers explain that most current studies focus on treating the problems of older adults too late, when the body has accumulated cellular and genetic damage over decades. They emphasize that there is a golden opportunity being overlooked in the early years of life, where early intervention can achieve more effective and lasting results.
The team points out that the concept of "biological age" differs significantly between children and adults. In childhood, bodily indicators do not reflect the accumulation of damage as they do in the elderly, but rather the child's capacity for growth and adaptation. This means we need specific standards and indicators for each age group, which is what the Prosper team will be working on.
Researchers are also proposing a new concept: "peak age" (peakspan), the period when a person is at their physical and mental peak. They believe that the goal of medicine should not only be to extend the number of years we live without disease, but also to increase the number of years we live at the height of our health and activity.
The Prosper team aims to collect and analyze massive amounts of health, biological, and functional data across different life stages, to create biological maps that help predict health risks and provide early interventions.
It also seeks to develop diagnostic and therapeutic tools that are appropriate for each age group and are integrated into the routine care of pregnant women and children, so that medicine becomes preventive and proactive rather than just curative.
The researchers acknowledge that the idea is still in its early stages and needs more details, but they emphasize that creating this alliance will bring together scientific disciplines that currently work separately, and will open new horizons for discoveries that benefit people of all ages, not just the elderly.
