8-year-old Never Ages: TLC Airs Documentary On Biological Immortality

8-Year-Old Never Ages, Could Reveal ‘Biological Immortality’

Search for the Cure to Old Age

Gabby Williams, an 8 year old girl from Billings, Montana, still has the body of an infant. Her skin is still baby soft and her body functions as an infant’s would.

Gabby weighs in at about 11 pounds and wears size 3-6 month clothing.

Williams’ slow rate of aging is not without precedent. According to a new TLC television special entitled “40-Year-Old Child: A New Case,” a 31-year-old woman in Brazil has the body of a 2-year-old, while a 29-year-old man in Florida appears to be a 10-year-old. The special, which airs on Monday, Aug. 19, at 10 p.m. EDT, will attempt to identify the link between Williams and the two other cases of those who never age.

Doctors have been studying the little girl’s condition and two others who have similar symptoms. This rare disease known as Benjamin Button’s disease has baffled doctors for many years.

In an interview with ABCNews.com, Dr. Richard F. Walker explained he does all his research at Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, Florida. He has focused his career on the aging process.

Dr. Walker explained that his fixation has been on the cause of aging not the consequences of it. All of Dr. Walker’s patients grow at 1/5 the rate of everyday people.

“My whole career has been focused on the aging process,” he told ABCNews.com. “My fixation has been not on the consequences but the cause of it.”

They often exhibit other medical problems such as: deafness, in ability to eat or drink, and unable to walk.

“Gabrielle hasn’t changed since pretty much forever,” said her mother, Mary Margret Williams, 38. “She has gotten a little longer and we have jumped into putting her in size 3-6 month clothes instead of 0-3 months for the footies.

“Last time we weighed her she was up a pound to 11 pounds and she’s gotten a few more haircuts,” she told ABCNews.com. “Other than that, she hasn’t changed much since the [2012] show.”

Dr. Walker believes that if he can find the gene that causes this rare disease, then we can potentially stop the aging process. This would mean that aliments such as Alzheimer’s that strike the elderly would no longer be a concern. People could simply stop aging in their thirties. This wouldn’t stop death as illnesses and accidents would still occur, but it could curtail the aging process and the onset of old age.

“If we could identify the gene and then at young adulthood we could silence the expression of developmental inertia, find an off-switch, when you do that, there is perfect homeostasis and you are biologically immortal,” Walker told ABC News. This “biological immortality” would not keep a person alive forever, but it would counteract the normal effects of aging. “You wouldn’t have the later years—you’d remain physically and functionally able.”

As for Gabby’s life span, her doctors cannot say what that will look like.
“From the time of her birth, we didn’t think she would be with us very long,” said her mother. “The fact is she is now going on 9 years. She kind of surpassed my expectations from the get go.

“It’s not something I worry about,” said Williams, who said she trusts that God has a plan for her infantile daughter.

“When he is ready to take her back, it will be sad,” she said. “But what a glorious thing it will be for Gabby to go to heaven one day. I know it will happen, but I am not hoping it’s any day soon.”

8-year-old never ages: TLC Airs Documentary On Biological Immortality

On The Web:

8-Year-Old Never Ages, Could Reveal ‘Biological Immortality’
http://gma.yahoo.com/8-old-11-pounds-never-ages-040317717–abc-news-health.html

8-Year-Old Never Ages: TLC TV Show Searches for Secret to ‘Biological Immortality’ (VIDEO)
http://www.christianpost.com/news/8-year-old-never-ages-tlc-tv-show-searches-for-secret-to-biological-immortality-video-102476/

TLC Airs Documentary on 8-Year-Old Who Never Ages: “40-Year-Old Child, a New Case”
http://news.softpedia.com/news/TLC-Airs-Documentary-on-8-Year-Old-Who-Never-Ages-40-Year-Old-Child-a-New-Case-376249.shtml