Trying to slow, stop, or even reverse the aging process is often held up as the best goal both beauty and medicine can aspire to achieve. People the world over constantly slave away trying to figure out just how to do it. We benefit every day from the tricks and products that people have discovered along the way. But how close are we to a true “cure” for aging? The answer varies depending on who you ask, but Elizabeth Parrish believes the cure or its pieces are already in play in the world. OROGOLD recently heard about Parrish and decided to take a deeper look at what the future might hold and what risks might be involved in trying to achieve the dream of immortality.

Who?
Elizabeth Parrish is a woman of ideas and appears to be running her company out of a small home in Seattle. This isn’t stopping her from dreaming big though as she announced that she voluntarily underwent two particular gene therapies that she believes could at least stop the aging process. Some scientists who have listened to her claims say that the types of gene therapy she’s described may have some result, but most are dubious given the research into these applications for gene therapy is still in its infancy. There is also the fact that people are having a hard time verifying a lot of the things that Parrish has claimed beyond the therapies themselves. She has also opted to dodge entirely out of regulatory oversight and testing by maintaining the therapies need to be received overseas to avoid meddling. These combined with Parrish’s apparent lack of any relevant background to the research are starting to make a lot of people wonder.

What’s the Problem?
Dodging oversight is a large problem for many scientists who are actually interested in Parrish’s claims as it makes reviewing the work that ostensibly went into the therapies difficult. As an emerging application of gene therapy, it is important for everyone involved that the science be done correctly and refined to get the best results. A former member of Parrish’s team who was otherwise enthusiastic about the project left her employ over Parrish moving things overseas. The lack of clinical trials to prove safety and efficacy was particularly troubling to him. An even more important aspect of Parrish moving beyond regulation and making her claims is that ethical oversight is no longer a part of the research. Parrish and her team could potentially take steps dangerous to themselves, and may already have, that ethical oversight would otherwise prevent. OROGOLD would like to highlight this makes the research especially dubious for anyone who wishes to ensure products and treatments they use were humanely obtained.

The Nature of Aging
Even stepping beyond the problems of ethics and clinical trials, there is also the matter that Parrish is making claims based on two experimental treatments based entirely on research that said little beyond, “This is potentially a way to treat one aspect of aging.” The idea of a single cure for aging is as appealing as a universal cure for cancer, but also equally unlikely. Aging is a complex, multi-faceted process in the body that we can manage and treat certain aspects of each in their own way. At the moment, there is no research indicating there is a solid way to simply turn off or turn back the clock in every aspect in the body. Parrish’s claims are full of the enthusiasm and fervor of someone who wants something to be true, but seem to lack the full scope of knowledge to lend her credibility.

Gene therapy may well be the way forward when it comes to fighting aging in the future, but at the moment it is an uncertain mess. Parrish and people like her are trying barely guided “treatments” that are stepping beyond the bounds of ethical control and proper scientific procedure. While the idea of a lone maverick finding a miracle cure is an attractive idea, science has long since passed the low hanging fruit most of the historical examples of that figure represent. Science is now about teams, time, and proceeding humanely through the research. OROGOLD cannot recommend that anyone try experimental gene therapy overseas as there is a far higher potential to hurt your health than help. Keep an eye on the science of anti-aging, but try not to be distracted when a previously unknown person claims they know how to find a miracle.