Evolutionary aspects of ageing with Steven Austad
This episode is with Steven Austad. He is the Protective Life Endowed Chair in Health Aging Research, a Distinguished professor and Chair of the Department of Biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Steven has been at the forefront of unraveling the mysteries of why some individuals live longer and healthier lives than others. His work covers a diverse array of topics, from the cellular mechanisms of aging to the evolutionary aspects of longevity in various species. In this conversation we talk about what is ageing?, biggest challenges in the field of ageing, evolutionary aspects of ageing, chronic illnesses and how to increase human life span?
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Timestamps:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:08 How did you decide to work on ageing?
00:03:21 Why some species age faster than others?
00:03:56 Evolutionary perspective of ageing
00:05:42 What is ageing?
00:06:13 Challenges in studying ageing
00:09:49 What is longevity and longevity quotient?
00:12:18 How does flight affects ageing?
00:17:21 Correlation between habitat of animals and their lifespan
00:19:07 Factors affecting lifespan of animals in the wild or in captivity
00:20:59 Importance of regeneration for the survival
00:22:58 Flight independently evolved four times
00:25:55 Temperature dependent change of sex
00:27:10 Wisdom- the oldest confirmed wild bird
00:28:58 What are the challenges to get the age of an animal correctly?
00:37:12 Relationship between size of the animal and longevity
00:40:42 Vampire bats
00:41:41 Lifespan of naked mole rats
00:44:31 Impact of high altitude on human health
00:46:37 Lifespan of hummingbirds
00:49:22 Lessons for human longevity from evolutionary biology
00:56:04 Steven's work on Restrictive eating
01:02:04 It is important to couple restrictive eating with weight training
01:04:40 Comment on diets
01:06:58 There are no biomarkers for ageing
01:08:27 When can we have a good consensus on healthy lifestyle?
01:10:10 Life at the age of 77
01:11:28 Ethical implications of increasing human lifespan
01:13:53 Thank you
Music by: Ahmed Hassan (https://www.youtube.com/@2ays577/featured)