Immortal? : a Horizon guide to ageing.

A Horizon special which looks at the science of ageing. How do we stay young forever? Since the end of the Second World War, healthcare has improved radically, this has meant that people have been living longer lives. With longer life expectancy has come the problem of old age. Presenter Johnny Ball looks back over the 45 years that Horizon - and he - have been on air to find out what science has learned about how and why we grow old. Alex Comfort, a UCL professor, states old age is a pretty miserable business and this documentary looks at the scientific development and understanding of ageing. Over the years many people have claimed to have found the answer to combating ageing; their methods have ranged from consuming 35 different substances a day, undergoing expensive skin therapies to rainbow diets and calorie restricting. Ball looks at how much one’s age is influenced by our DNA, environmental factors, diets and even mental state. Different scientists have focussed on various subjects for their research. Experts like Denim Harman thought that the speed at which one ages depends on the level of anti-oxidants in the body. More recent experts have looked at other factors. This documentary looks at many experiments that were done by scientists who were also curious about answering this question. For example, Professor Ellen Langer of Harvard University adopted the term ‘you are as young as you feel’, quite literally in her experiment, when she took a group of 75 year old seniors for a week and made them re-live their lives the way they would have done 20 years previously. By the end of the week many found that they were very capable of taking care of themselves and much fitter than they thought they were. Ball concludes by stating that no revolutionary product or answer has yet been found, ageing requires a mental effort that doesn’t need expensive treatment or genetically engineered organs but can be done through adopting the right attitude of mind.