Father of biohacking hints that highly-addictive drug could be the next longevity breakthrough

Could a notoriously habit-forming drug be a key to prolonging life?The founder of the biohacking movement, Dave Asprey, is highlighting research that suggests it could be.If you’ve had a nasty allergy or cold that made you horribly congested, you might have tried Afrin.The nasal spray is available over-the-counter at any drug store and can be a godsend — immediately opening up your airways so you can breathe with ease.But there’s a warning you’ll find on every label: Do not use for more than three days in a row.The body quickly adapts to the drug, and becomes reliant on it to keep airways free.

If this happens, when you stop using the drug, your sinuses will swell much larger than before you started using it in the first place.It’s an easy trap to simply reach for a spray of Afrin again for some relief.“I’m snorting Afrin for longevity.

Kidding,” Asprey wrote in an Instagram post.“That’s a bad idea.”That said, researchers are seeing evidence the drug’s active ingredient, oxymetazoline, could be repurposed in the future to keep our cells young and functional.

Asprey says a solution that looks familiar and is readily available could be the “next longevity breakthrough.”“Some of the biggest longevity wins will come from a drug that’s already sitting on a shelf, not from some new molecule,” he wrote.“I’ve been saying this for years.”Researchers from Northeastern University looked at 6,442 drugs to see how they might impact 11 biological processes called “hallmarks of aging.”These include changes to whether genes are turned “on” or “off” (called epigenetic alterations) and cells losing the ability to clear proteins inside it, allowing them to accumulate.Researchers found that oxymetazoline, the active ingredient in Afrin, could help with one of these “hallmarks” – cell-to-cell communication.Aging affects how cells send, receive, and process chemical messages across the body.

This has a number of negative effec...