Interview with Dr. Ilia Stambler
Chairman of Vetek (Seniority) Association – the Movement for Longevity and Quality of Life, Israel
Q - Longevity today, what is the state of affairs?
The longevity field is now growing immensely. When I first became involved in longevity activism, over 20 years ago, at the beginning of this century, very few people even dared to think about therapeutic intervention into the aging processes, and significant extension of healthy life. Now (I hope also thanks to all our educational efforts) it is basically a common mainstream topic, that is discussed in mass media, prestigious academic institutions, and governments. The public awareness about the longevity field is now massively increased. Which I cannot say about our actual practical medical capabilities to actually extend healthy human life. I do not see these practical capabilities to progress, compared to the beginning of the century, or even earlier. In fact, in the years 2020-2021 the global life expectancy declined dramatically, almost by 2 years globally, and only now the life expectancy is beginning to slightly recover to the pre-crisis values of 2019, in some countries. Yet, the longevity technologies do develop in this time, predominantly from the technical perspectives, and there are many proofs of feasibility of intervention into aging, and extension of healthy longevity, mainly in animal experiments. It is our task as longevity researchers and activists, to help bring these studies from the fundamental theoretical and experimental level toward becoming effective therapies for human beings that can improve their health and longevity.
Q - What is the state of life-extension and longevity research in Israel, in this time?
The state of longevity research in Israel is similar to most of the developed countries, as described above – there is now much more public awareness and more technological capacities, but not much more practical clinical capacities to verifiably extend healthy human life. And here too, we remain optimistic that the task is possible, but more intelligent and more vigorous efforts must be made for that purpose. And here too, much of longevity research, development and education was hindered by the COVID crisis. Thus, before the crisis, in 2019, Israel issued its national masterplan on aging, including the section on "enhancing research, development and education for healthy longevity and prevention of aging-related diseases". Israel held the international conference "International perspectives on geroscience" in the Weizmann Institute, in cooperation with the NIH. Several calls for research proposals were issued. Several programs and consortia on aging research were being formed. I am happy and proud to have been involved in advancing these initiatives. Yet, with the emergence of the COVID crisis, many of these programs were slowed to a halt or stopped completely, hindering the development of the field in Israel.
In the beginning of 2023, there was an increase in activity, as we held the international conference "the Longevity Nation" in Bar-Ilan University in March 2023, and several programs were beginning to be revived and reinforced. And now again, the war broke out, and all those programs were stopped in their tracks. Yet, we remain optimistic that the security situation will improve and we can intensify and implement our efforts for the advancement of longevity research. But even now, even in this situation, we should and are still doing our best to maintain the longevity field as much as possible, to keep the basis on which we can build later on to a large extent.
Q - State of the world, 2 ongoing wars, 1 in Israel, how do you see it?
The pursuit of longevity is a part of the general positive humanistic pursuit for the improvement of human life, human mental and physical capabilities, the quality of life, and environment. These humanistic pursuits are of course hindered by the wars and crises. And accordingly, also the longevity pursuit is hindered. We all hope for peaceful resolutions of the conflicts. And we remain optimistic for a positive general vision of the future. But of course, we need to remember the real causes of the conflicts, and make sure these causes do not reappear, or are kept to a minimum so they cannot raise their atrocious heads again, as much as it is in our power. And even in the times of war and crisis, we should maintain and develop out human capacities that will help us overcome the adversity now, as well as help us build a better future for longevity and quality of life. Such capacities include maintaining physical fitness, self-control and discipline, rational calculations, scientific and technological knowledge and skills, that can all help us survive and overcome now, and help us thrive and develop in the future.