Will New Longevity Drugs Change Caregiving?

The development of several new drugs that target mitochondria, or cellular engines, suggests potential breakthroughs in terms of a virtual cure for the diseases of aging, like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. (See Wired story.)  Doug Wallace, a pioneer of mitochondrial medicine at the University of California at Irvine thinks that ”It’s going to revolutionize western medicine.”  The Wired article goes on to point out that these new drugs likely won’t extend the lifespans of healthy individuals, but they could prevent a wide range of age-related illnesses.  Whether mitochondria-targeting drugs will provide a breakthrough for increased longevity remains to be seen.

This news comes at a time when vitamins and other supplements, long thought to mitigate the effects of the common cold, hold free radicals in check, and generally improve immunity and promote overall wellness aren’t finding much evidentiary support from a number of studies. As Tara Parker-Pope notes in her recent NYT blog post, “The best efforts of the scientific community to prove the health benefits of vitamins keep falling short.” Parker-Pope reviews the recent scientific evidence failing to prove many of the hailed benefits of popular vitamins and supplements, noting that consumers nevertheless are reluctant to give them up.  And several notable alternative and complementary/integrative medicine groups have leveled serious criticism at some of the studies.

What is striking about the coincidence of these developments, however, is that the scientific evidence may be starting to point in a new direction — away from traditional notions about the value of vitamin and mineral supplementation, away from conventional targeting of specific diseases in the sights of medical therapies, one at a time, and towards a very different approach that hits a number of age-related diseases at a common root cause.  If so, it could signal a new era in medicine and the way we think about age-related diseases just as the big wave of baby boomers is starting to hit retirement age.

The impacts to caregiving, especially the expected growing need for family caregiving, could be dramatically reduced if many fewer baby boomers, Gen X’ers, Y’ers and following generations show significant decreases in the incidence of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, heart disease, cancer and diabetes.  One statistic, from The Center on an Aging Society at Georgetown University, suggests that the need for family caregivers only will grow in the years ahead, with the number of people over 65 expected to increase at a 2.3% rate, but the number of family members available to care for them increasing at only a 0.8% rate.  Do we dare hope for a time in the not too distant future when the primary focus of family caregiving for aging family members might be on wellness support, maximizing mobility and patient advocacy?