My guess. . . and it's only a guess. . . is that trying to 'dramatically' extend the life span won't really happen. It sounds like the fountain of youth people have been searching for since the Middle Ages. This sounds like the same goose chase, except with some 'scientific' dressing on it. These people might save themselves from heart disease or diabetes maybe. But something else will get them. I suspect they will find an Oooops in there somewhere.

Oddly enough, in western societies, the LONGEST-LIVED people right now, according to the article below, are slightly overweight.

Underweight people actually have a higher death rate.

http://www.techcentralstation.com/072203E.html

"The level of underweight sanctioned by these cultural images and in life insurance tables is known to be dangerous, but never mentioned, Paul Ernsberger, Ph.D., associate professor of Medicine, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, Case Western Reserve School of Medicine, has said. "The health risk of even slightly underweight is real." Slender weights, especially as we age, is an indicator for poor survival, he noted.

Indeed, multiple studies published in the International Journal of Obesity-Related Metabolic Disorders have found that those who are thin or who've lost weight not only increase their risk of premature death, they have the highest risk. In short, those who seek culturally "ideal" bodies will die earlier than heavier people.

A long-term study by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), published in a 1998 Journal of Public Health, for example, found that those with BMIs of 20 or less, or with even modest 10 percent weight losses after age 50, have higher premature death rates than those overweight, even when other variables such as smoking are taken into account. A clinical study at the University of Maryland published in the December 1999 Journal of American Geriatrics Society, found voluntary weight loss in mature women, no matter what they weigh, appears especially dangerous, quadrupling their likelihood of dying prematurely."





Like most of this stuff. . . everything depends on who you ask. The scientific data is stubbornly and annoyingly ambiguous.