Maybe aging can be stopped, if that is what you want

kw: observations, medicine, aging

This little girl is sixteen years old. I saw a TV special about her last evening. Brooke Greenberg is a wholly unique person, so far as is known. She hasn't aged significantly since shortly after birth. She weighs about 15 pounds (7kg) and has the physical and mental development of a 6- to 9-month old. An ordinary sixteen-year-old has learned to drive; Brooke cannot walk or speak.

There is a ton of material available about her, which I don't need to repeat here. On the TV show her father expressed the hope that something about her might unlock the secret of aging, and perhaps lead to a "fountain of youth." I find this most intriguing. If this is the fountain of youth, I am not sure it is worth having: to be unable to grow means to be unable to learn. I am sure if Brooke were capable of understanding things, she would prefer to be a more ordinary 16-year-old. Her family evidently agrees; a doctor they contacted tried dosing her with human growth hormone. The astonishing thing is that it had no effect at all.

That, by the way, may be the clue staring us in the face. If she lacks receptors for that hormone, then her body and brain just aren't getting the signal to develop further. A single defective gene or a small cluster of defective genes, needed to form the HGH receptor, could do the trick.

There is some evidence that HGH is part of the signaling network that forms memories. Cut the hormone off, and you may not age, but you won't remember anything new either. If that is the case, the price of "eternal youth" is too high.