A scientific approach to anti-ageing therapies: state of the art.

A lasting dream of human beings is to reverse or at least postpone ageing. During the last years, an increasing number of scientific meetings, articles, and books have been devoted to anti-ageing therapies. This subject, full of misleading, simplistic, or wrong ideas, is very popular among the general public, whose imagery has been fascinated by all possible tools to delay ageing, getting immortality. Here, we discuss anti-ageing strategies aimed not to rejuvenate but to slow ageing and delay the onset of age-related diseases. These approaches should be able to substantially slow down the ageing process, extending our productive, youthful lives.