What is Cryonics? — Tomorrow Biostasis
So you want to live longer, much longer. How do you go about it? You’ve been on diets, you exercise a lot, you’ve even taken vitamins. Maybe you’ve investigated longevity science already — perhaps that’s how you heard about cryonics? But what is cryonics?
In this article, we’ll cover some of the basic information related to this potentially life-saving technology.
Let’s start with a definition:
Definition
Cryonics is the practice of preserving human bodies at sub-freezing temperatures (-196°C) with the intent of restoring good health when medical technology has the capability.
Understanding Cryonics
To better understand cryonics, you should know what happens within the body when the temperature is lowered. You may have heard stories in the news about people surviving for over an hour after falling into frozen lakes before being rescued. Their hearts had stopped beating but they lived to tell the tale. How was that possible?
The icy water lowered their temperature, slowed their metabolism and greatly reduced their brain function to the point where almost no oxygen was required. So the temperature of the icy water had put their body into a kind of suspended animation.
Cryonics uses a similar, but more complex process. At even lower temperatures, cell decay is stopped entirely. So a type of biological pause is initiated. Once in this state, people can theoretically be stored indefinitely, allowing time for technology to advance to a point where treatment of their cause of death and revival is possible.
So, even though they’re ‘dead’, cryonics patients can still be treated. Just not today.
So what happens when my heart stops beating?
Cryopreservation can only begin once someone has been declared legally dead. It is important to begin the process as close to this moment as possible.
Once you die, your vital organs are starved of oxygen as your heart isn’t able to pump oxygenated blood to them. Cells within your body begin to decay as a result. Starting the cryopreservation process as close to legal death as possible will slow down and even stop the processes of death.
How does cryopreservation work?
By reaching someone quickly, lowering their temperature and performing certain steps, we are able to limit the amount of damage that death can cause.
Minimizing the damage to the body and brain is important because it means that you are preserved in a better state. This means that future technology does not need to be as advanced in order to revive you. So you could be revived sooner, rather than later.
Initial Cool Down and CPS
Only after legal death is declared, can cryopreservation begin. The temperature of the patient is immediately brought down as quickly as possible, this is done with a water bath and slurry of ice.
Cardio-pulmonary support (CPS) is then started. CPS is similar to CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) however the key difference is that CPS isn’t trying to revive the patient. Instead, oxygenated blood is manually pumped through the body to slow down cell degradation.
CPS is used until a heart-lung machine can be attached to the patient. This is a machine that oxygenates the blood and keeps it moving through the patient. (It also plays a role in the subsequent perfusion, but we will cover that below.) This all acts as a way to hold back the damage of cell decay.
During all these steps, your temperature is gradually being brought down. This is important because, like when people have fallen in frozen lakes, lower temperatures slow your metabolism and cell decay. At lower temperatures, cells require less oxygen to survive and so your bodily degradation is drastically slowed down.
Initial cool-down stages can be performed by the people around a patient at the time of death, but the next steps must be carried out by specially trained teams called standby teams. Most cryonics organizations deploy their own standby team to you before your death, but local voluntary teams can also be used in emergencies.
Perfusion and Vitrification
Once your temperature reaches around 4°C, perfusion can begin. This is a process where water within your body is replaced with a type of medical-grade antifreeze — a cryoprotective agent (CPA). The heart-lung machine attached to the patient pumps these CPAs around the body. CPAs protect against the damaging formation of ice when the body reaches sub-zero temperatures.
Once the body has been perfused, the temperature can gradually be lowered further. At around -125°C, the body passes the so-called glass-transition temperature and solidifies but doesn’t freeze. This is called vitrification — turning into a glass-like amorphous state. Once vitrified all biological processes in the body stop, meaning patients can remain preserved in this state indefinitely without degradation.
Long-term storage
After you have been vitrified you can be transported to a long-term storage location. Once there, your temperature will be brought down slowly over the coming weeks until you reach -196°C (the temperature of liquid nitrogen). You will then be stored in a metal container (called a dewar) and your temperature will be maintained indefinitely.
This is achieved with monitoring by staff and receiving a constant supply of liquid nitrogen. Your long-term storage is sustained by the fund management of a separate foundation whose sole function is to maintain your funds securely. They make extremely low risk investments with your money as a way to match inflation and cover your ongoing costs. To find out more, click here.
Revival
Because you can afford to be kept in long-term storage indefinitely, technology will have time to significantly advance. Who knows what will be possible in 50, 100, or 1,000 years! Once revival is possible, you will be revived.
The technology involved in revival will no doubt be expensive upon its initial conception. However, over time, as the technology is understood more, the price will come down. But you are able to remain cryopreserved indefinitely, so there is time for the cost to come down. Time is on your side.
Why do people believe it will work?
There is increasing interest in cryonics. Not merely because of the rapid speed of scientific and technological advancements we are seeing, but also because cryopreservation is already widely used within science.
Preservation techniques similar to whole body cryopreservation are commonplace in medicine already. So it is not absurd to believe that cryonics won’t eventually be too.
Most commonly, human embryos, sperm, blood and eggs can all currently be cryopreserved for years at low temperatures. All of which can be thawed and used in reproduction.
We can all agree that the world is rapidly changing around us. Scientific discovery is at the forefront of technological developments. One particular field of science that could revolutionize society is Nanotechnology. We are now able to envisage the ways in which we will be able to repair biological structure. Nanotechnology could conquer cell repair and regeneration. It could theoretically assist in reanimating those that are cryopreserved.
There is no evidence to suggest that cryonics won’t work. Just because we don’t have the technology to reanimate someone today, doesn’t mean it will never happen.
The Future
Cryonics could be a bridge to the future. It is a potentially life-saving medical procedure that would transport untreatable people to the hospital of the future. Just because someone can’t be saved today, doesn’t mean they can’t ever be saved.
Nobody knows what will happen in the future, but what we do know is that you can be cryopreserved today. Cryonics is currently the only technology that could bring you to that future. What have you got to lose?
Book a consultation with one of our team members or if you’re ready…
Originally published at https://tomorrowbiostasis.com on June 18, 2021.
