Occasionally, I watch Youtubers review games or animes, and I saw the episode discussing Eri's Quirk. On the same day, I talked with another person about my fasting. Then I realized the connection. But, let's clear things up first.
Who Is Eri And What's Her Quirk?
"My Hero Academia" is an Anime playing in a world where people are born with special abilities, called quirks. They pass these down through genes. In the fourth season, they rescue a girl named Eri. Her ability rewinds a person's body to a previous state. Using it too much will revert the person to a baby and eventually to stop existing. While this sounds like a bad thing, rewinding injuries is possible as well.[1]
Just Fantasy Right?
So, reverting injuries, returning your eyesight, undoing cancer, etc.. Living forever. These all seem surreal, but they're not far fetched. Our bodies heal and repair themselves already, which is done by reproducing cells. However, every time reproduction happens, there can be errors, mutations, and damage, the current principal behind aging. There's a solution, though.
Longevity Genes - Core Of The Quirk
The longevity genes repair the damage done to the DNA during reproduction. However, living organisms have two modes of living. The "growth and reproduction" mode, during good times, and the "protect and repair" mode, under severe conditions. These conditions can be reached by eating less in general, eating less meat, being uncomfortable cold or hot, and during high intensive exercising.[2] During the latter, the genes will slow down aging, But, the quirk doesn't only slow it. It also stops and undoes aging.
Gene Therapy
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| Image of DNA from https://www.pxfuel.com/en/free-photo-jrtql |
Using gene therapy, scientists reset the epigenome of mice, resetting their age. However, when not careful, the cells may become pluripotent ones. Meaning they don't know their purpose yet - being tumors. Switching this procedure on and off on mice worked well. Unfortunately, given the approximately 37.2 trillion cells of a human[3], we're not there yet. But now it doesn't seem as far fetched anymore.
So, In Comparison
To recap and compare. Both Eri's quirk and gene therapy can revert cells to a previous state. Allowing the healing of damaged cells, blindness, cancer, and more, enabling us to live forever. Additionally, they both share the problem of resetting too far. But neither scientists nor Eri, have figured out how to control this. We're unable to revert a lot of cells at the same time, while Eri isn't able to control the intensity or ending it. Another difference is, we don't need to evolve this quirk. It's already built-in for us.
[1] My Hero Academia: Season 4 Episode 13 & 14
[2] How to Slow Aging (and even reverse it) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QRt7LjqJ45k
[3] https://www.wonderopolis.org/wonder/how-many-cells-are-in-the-human-body
