Music and immortality

The curative effects of music in modern medicine are now well accepted. However, during the Victorian era, psychiatric asylums had implemented what we would now call music therapy as integral for patient care, with little concrete scientific evidence of its efficacy, bar anecdotal confirmation. Towards the start of the 20th century, with the introduction of a more ‘scientific’ approach to psychiatry, music therapy decreased in popularity. However, with recent resurgence and modern evidential support, it can be said that even in a pre-evidence-based world, the Victorians had it right all along.

People have always sought eternal life and everlasting youth. Although the causes of ageing remains largely mysterious, hundreds of genes are now known to regulate ageing in model organisms. Genes can increase longevity by up to 10 fold and retard ageing animals. Applying this knowledge to improve human health would have huge benefits. Besides, lifespan varies dramatically between similar species: mice die of old age at 3-4 years of age, dogs cannot live more than 30 years, yet humans can live over 100 years and some animals can live even longer. Studies of species with exceptional longevity or disease resistance, like bowhead whales that live over 200 years, may help treat and prevent human diseases.

We all eat food throughout our lives, but the importance of the food we eat changes as we get older and may be the reason why we experience muscle mass loss with aging. You then may be wondering, is there a way to combat the loss of muscle mass by changing the source or amount of food we eat? In this talk I will showcase the current topics of animal based and plant-based meals and foods for our muscle mass and offer insight into how we can best support our muscle mass from our 20s right through to our 90s, irrespective of the diets we choose and with a little help from exercise!