When I was 13 years old, my grandfather died of dementia.

My early childhood years were full of frequent visits to the nursing home where he lived, which slowly increased in number as the years passed. It had always been in the back of our minds that our time with him wouldn’t last forever, but in the end, that knowledge didn’t make the loss any less worse.

Truthfully, I didn’t spend enough time with him growing up, swapping out that time for more high-dopamine things like watching TV or posting on social media. When he was gone, I lamented the loss of potential time with him, and the ability to get to know him better. It was gone, and I had screwed my past opportunity up.

            I don’t want anybody else to feel that way; it’s a horrible feeling. However, this is a natural part of life now. People live and die of aging-related diseases, and our toleration of this doesn’t make any sense. Why would we let aging, something we can fix, hurt the lives of millions? I hope that one day we will stop the damage aging-related diseases do and gain back the time they have stolen.

Nina Khera is a human longevity researcher. She specializes in senescent cells & their eradication and is a co-founder of http://bioteinresearch.ca.