Liz Parrish - Extending Health Life Spans Using Gene Therapy

Our guest today is Liz Parrish, founder and CEO of BioViva Science USA, a company committed to extending healthy life spans using gene therapy. Liz shares the advances BioViva has made in gene therapy research, as well as her own experience undergoing one of their pioneering therapies, which may make her the first human GMO.

Liz Parrish of BioViva wants to genetically engineer you.

Telomere Attrition and the Disease of Biological Aging

Liz is a humanitarian who was initially drawn to reversal of aging research through her interest in curing childhood disease. Telomeres are the caps at the end of each strand of DNA that protect our chromosomes, and the shortening of those telomeres begins from the moment we are born. This telomere attrition is responsible for biological aging, which underlies almost every disease.

Liz and her team at BioViva want to not only extend people’s life expectancy, but to allow people to live to be 120 or older in a youthful and capable way by tackling biological aging as a disease in and of itself.

Part of what makes this research so exciting is the fact that extending healthy life spans has broad-reaching humanitarian implications. If we become a healthier and longer-lived population, that increases our humanitarian outreach, how we cultivate land and how we see the future. In short, we make better choices.

Overcoming the Negative Reputation of GMOs

GMO has developed a bad reputation due to its use in food products. But treating humans as GMOs is a different story. For example, no one would malign children who undergo gene therapy for muscular dystrophy. When looking at a new medical science, it’s important to keep in mind that all modern medicine was considered heresy at some point.

Liz wants to stress that gene therapy isn’t scary, but rather an eloquent and beautiful science — disease mitigation at its best. The injection of genes directly into your cells is a cleaner, better process for your body without the negative side effects that come with taking pharmaceuticals.

We see the most benefit when we tackle biological aging as opposed to spending billions of dollars on trying to cure individual diseases. The key is for the NIH to recognize biological aging as a disease in and of itself, which will open up funding and resources for researchers.

When you get older, you don’t look in the mirror for as long.” – Liz Parrish of BioViva.

What Comes Next…And What Do We Do While We Wait?

The next step is for BioViva is to run a clinical trial against a disease – Alzheimer’s is the best candidate — in order to ensure the therapy is safe and eventually make it available to the public.

In the meantime, Liz reaffirms that the best way for individuals to increase life span is through moderate exercise every day, a healthy diet and avoiding the consumption of excessive sugar.