Time, Part 5: Mitochondria

Remember my intro where I said I was going to travel down the science route but I was likely to stumble over my words? Well, I'm sure you've noticed that already. Today I'm going to write again about something that I don't understand. Your bodies have life-giving material called mitochondria. I don't know where it comes from or even what it is. What matters is that it powers our existence. It keeps us alive. According to one of the shows that I watched regarding time, humans aren't programmed to die. That is, aging isn't written into our DNA. Aging is a result of destruction, not genetics. Your DNA doesn't read a line of code which eventually comes to the point of your death. Mitochondria continually makes new our cells. However, there is something working against this. Our daily actions continually cause damage to our bodies. What we eat is often not good for us. We brake bones or put stress on our bodies. It's the continual destruction of our bodies that outweighs the construction of mitochondria. We can't keep pace. Something is aiding this process. This something is known as "free radicals." No, not "New Radicals," the one-hit-wonder band with the song "You Get What You Give." But, thank you for bringing that up. I just downloaded it from iTunes a week ago. Great song. Anyway, free radicals are produced in our bodies just like Mitochondria. These free radicals go around destroying cells. (I don't begin to understand why they are there.) What matters is this: we know that they are there and there may be a way to reduce them. If we can find a way to cut the amount of free radicals down, then we might be able to slow down or even stop the aging process. (By the way, we're working on this in rats, and we're making progress.) Obviously, this doesn't help with accidents or war, etc. As medicine continues to understand more and more, we may be able to prolong life. From the program, it appeared that this could help even with diseases. So, I'm guessing something like cancer wouldn't be able to be a quick killer. That part, though, wasn't discussed much. The main thing they focused on was to say the "125 year" limit could become a memory due to the possibilities of blocking free radicals.

What would this mean to life? Our time on earth would change. I can't even come close to discussing all the ways that would change our lives but consider this one: How about knowing your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great Grandfather. You better remember his birthday this year or you'll get it. Anyway, what I found so interesting about the show was the amount of years it was suggested we could live. Can you guess? One thousand. Now, where have I heard that before? Think back to the Bible. Remember those stories in Genesis about how there was a time when people lived 900+ years? How do we rationalize that? Why did they live so long? Why don't we? Why does it appear people will live 1,000 years in Revelation? (I'm not going into the question of whether the 1,000 years is literal or not). I just found it interesting that the host of the show said "1,000" years and Revelation seems to say the same thing.