Could reversing aging be the key to preventing age-related diseases like Alzheimer’s? In a University of California, San Francisco study, scientists found that old mice showed significant improvement in learning and memory after receiving blood from younger mice. Study leader Saul Villeda says that although human application is still far off, the idea of reversing aging could be a game changer.

"We’re keeping you healthier for a longer period of your life. I think that is huge because it’ll have a huge impact on things like healthcare, and even the way that we really think about just disease—not targeting it, but merely reversing aging to prevent it from happening."

Villeda explains that the changes that occur naturally with aging are what allow the brain to become susceptible to age-related diseases.

"So the idea is that the young environment, the young brain, has a natural way of counteracting these effects. Even if you have predispositions for some of these diseases, you don’t have the hallmarks of these diseases. So a 20-year-old is fine, even if you will develop Alzheimer’s later in life."