Anti-ageing procedures have seen a particular rise in popularity, with a 42% rise in facelifts and a 50% rise in eyelid surgery.

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Professor James Goodwin, head of research at Age UK, believes access will quickly emerge as a key issue, should effective anti-ageing medical treatments be developed.

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Unlike those trying to fight the causes of ageing or to repair the damage done, Dr Sinclair thinks he has found, in caloric restriction as the technique is known, a specifically evolved natural anti-ageing mechanism that is quite compatible with disposable-soma theory.

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Cynthia Kenyon, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, and a co-founder of Elixir Pharmaceuticals, another company looking into anti-ageing drugs, believes that molecules such as resveratrol are likely to be approved in the next five to ten years, for use as prophylactics against age-related diseases.

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