In a new two-part documentary, presenter Kathryn Thomas explores the boom in anti-ageing science and longevity research.<\/p>\n
‘Young Forever: The Death of Ageing?’ explores the many routes – some in the extreme \u2013 that people are taking in the pursuit of extended youth and longer life.<\/p>\n
Kathryn told Behind the Story that people known as \u2018biohackers\u2019 are using all their resources to try and stay young.<\/p>\n
“A biohacker is somebody who spends their entire life trying to reduce their chronological age,” she explained.<\/p>\n
“They are taking matters into their own hands – using supplements, data and social media – to actually reduce their chronological age and increase their health span.”<\/p>\n
\u2018The worried well\u2019<\/p>\n
Kathryn said the biohacking world is about taking a preventative approach.<\/p>\n
“We wait until we get sick before we do anything about it,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Whereas the biohacking world (believe) we need to get behind preventative medicine – we don\u2019t need to be presenting [for medical attention] when we\u2019re sick, we need to try and reduce the fact that we will present at all.”<\/p>\n
Kathryn says much of the anti-ageing\/longevity industry is aimed at those with financial resources.<\/p>\n
“The world-wide wellness industry is worth $33tn \u2013 it\u2019s big money,” she said.<\/p>\n
“You\u2019re really feeding into the worried well.<\/p>\n
“This is a very, very lucrative industry where people that can afford to buy into it are buying into it.”<\/p>\n
\u2018A normal part of society\u2019<\/p>\n
She believes attitudes are also changing as to how people view cosmetic procedures.<\/p>\n
“I think since COVID, everybody sitting and looking at themselves in a laptop screen for wo years, the demand for cosmetic treatments, facial treatments, went through the roof globally,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I think (it\u2019s) because it\u2019s just become a normal part of society now, whether we like to admit it or not.”<\/p>\n
1926 Census<\/p>\n
Fran and Evelyn also discuss the publishing of the 1926 Census online, which will give people an insight into the lives of people living in Ireland 100 years ago.<\/p>\n
The initiative includes 48 \u2018Centenarian Ambassadors\u2019, who were alive at the time the census was taken.<\/p>\n
The ambassadors were born between 1920 and 1926 and live all over Ireland – as well as those representing the Irish diaspora abroad.<\/p>\n
You can listen to Behind the Story on the RT\u00c9 Radio Player.<\/p>\n
You can also find episodes on Apple here<\/a>, or on Spotify here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a new two-part documentary, presenter Kathryn Thomas explores the boom in anti-ageing science and longevity research. ‘Young…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":405116,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-405115","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=405115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405115\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/405116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}