"Is gravity why we age?" asked Eternal CEO Deepinder Goyal in a post that went viral on social media.
"Newton gave us a word for it. Einstein said it bends spacetime. I am saying gravity shortens lifespan," mentioned Goyal in the post, which created a social media frenzy over the claims.
What his social media post claims:
In a thread, Goyal mentioned that gravity reduces blood flow to the brain, which is a reason that leads to brain ageing. This, he says, as per science, our brain sits above our heart. So, as we spend most of our lives upright, gravity pulls blood away from the brain. This reduced blood flow to the brain, when compounded over decades, leads to brain ageing.
An aged brain, again, leads to an aged body, because long-term reduction in blood flow to some specific areas of the brain weakens them, leading to systemic dysregulation and faster body ageing, as per the post.
As per Continue Research, which shared the hypothesis, they have not been able to find a single contradiction to the hypothesis.
Adding to the above observations, the 42-year-old co-founder of Zomato also adds three facts that he says connect to the hypothesis:
1. Upright posture reduces blood flow to the brain by small amounts, compounding every day for decades.
2. Neurons in the hypothalamus and brainstem are highly metabolic and depend on tiny perforating blood vessels, which makes them very sensitive to even small drops in blood flow.
3. These regions control aging itself: Hormones, inflammation, metabolism, autonomic balance, and repair.
Social media reacts to Goyal's claims:
Dr Cyriac Abby Philips, better known as TheLiverDoc on social media, outrightly said the claims were wrong.
"This hypothesis is not only unsupported by robust 'lack of' evidence studies, but is actively contradicted by a substantial body of physiological, cellular, and molecular data," mentioned a post by Dr Philips.
He suggested that Goyal invest the hard-earned money in proper, effective and satisfactorily testable theories of ageing.
"Tortoise lives up to 150 years. They don’t hang upside down," tweeted another user.