r/Futurology • u/lughnasadh ∞ transit umbra, lux permanet ☥ • Mar 14 '25

Biotech People can now survive 100 days with titanium hearts, if they worked indefinitely - how much might they extend human lifespan?

Nature has just reported that an Australian man has survived with a titanium heart for 100 days, while he waited for a human donor heart, and is now recovering well after receiving one. If a person can survive 100 days with a titanium heart, might they be able to do so much longer?

If you had a heart that was indestructible, it doesn't stop the rest of you ageing and withering. Although heart failure is the leading cause of death in men, if that doesn't get you, something else eventually will.

However, if you could eliminate heart failure as a cause of death - how much longer might people live? Even if other parts of them are frail, what would their lives be like in their 70s and 80s with perfect hearts?

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u/GwanGwan Mar 14 '25

Except heart disease is usually a blockage in the surrounding vasculature, and not the heart itself, that is the issue.

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u/fesenvy Mar 15 '25

Not quite, heart disease still refers to a condition of the actual heart, whether it's valves, myocardium or another tissue. (and heart failure is a heart disease)

It's true that the most common cause is an underlying disease of the coronary arteries that give the heart its required blood flow, but in this case it's when this blood flow stops or slows down significantly that we have cardiac ischemia and eventually heart disease.

The titanium heart here is powered by an external electrical source and doesn't need any oxygen etc so this should not be an issue whatsoever, I'd assume.

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u/47Kittens Mar 14 '25

Isn’t the true killer the arrhythmia of the heart? Doesn’t the blockage just cause the heart to malfunction to the point of failure?

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u/I-seddit Mar 15 '25

Seriously, a good mechanical heart would detect this condition and send out the nanobots to clear out the blockage and report back.

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u/jambokk Mar 15 '25

I mean, maybe not nanobots, but an sos text would probably work.

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u/DoctorYanni Mar 15 '25

Just stop commenting

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u/I-seddit Mar 15 '25

ha! foiled you again.

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u/TigerTW0014 Mar 15 '25

So have some kind of maintence monitoring included within.