Name: What If You Started as an Old Baby?
Uploaded: 2026-01-26T17:17:20.000Z
Duration: 5 min 26 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

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We're very excited to say that this video is sponsored by Nautilus.

If you love learning and art, just like Life Noggin does, stay tuned at the end of the video to hear more about the cool work done by Nautilus and how viewers of Life Noggin can save Big.

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Dear Blocko, I just watched Benjamin Button with my grandma and I'm curious if that's real, but

Oh, before I forget, Ryan, tell your grandma she makes the best cookies.

Scott Fitzgerald wrote a short story titled the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, who was born an old man and aged backwards throughout his life, eventually becoming an infant and then nothing.

But the actual disease that this story is based on doesn't really work like that.

It's called Hutchinson's Guilford progeria syndrome, or HGPS, and it was first documented in 1886.

It occurs in 1 out of every 4 million babies.

But instead of being born as an elderly person and aging backwards, those with HGPS are born normally, but

These children start to show signs of the disease in their first year of life.

Symptoms include slowed growth, a larger head and eyes, a smaller jaw, a thin nose, wrinkled skin, hair loss, and

As they get older, they begin to experience health issues typically of a 50 year old, like bone loss, cataracts, arthritis, hardening of the arteries, and

They usually die of a heart attack or stroke.

The condition is always fatal, with an average lifespan of just 13 years.

There are a couple of related diseases that fall under the progeria umbrella of rapid aging.

Wiedermann Rothenstrau Syndrome appears in babies before they're born, and

the symptoms of Werner Syndrome normally occur in teenagers.

HGPS is caused by a genetic mutation in the Lamin A or LMNA gene.

This gene makes the lamin A protein which has an incredibly important job.

It holds the nucleus in each of your cel cells together, but with just a tiny mutation.

The LMNA gene in those with HGPS instead makes an abnormal form of the protein called progerin.

This makes the cells unstable, slowly damaging them until they die early, which causes premature aging.

This mutation happens randomly in the sperm cell, meaning it's not a disease that you inherit from your parents.

While there's no cure, the cancer drug Lonafernib has been found to improve symptoms and increase the average survival rate by 2.

It was approved by the US FDA in 2020 to treat HGPS, and

it's the first treatment for this disease.

It works by preventing an important chemical process that lamin A and progerin need in order to function.

Without that, patients experienced weight gain, improved bone structure, and reduced arterial stiffness.

Scientists are still looking for even more effective therapies and ways to improve the lives of those affected with hgps.

And as scientists continue to embark on this quest, the you can support further research by visiting the links in the description.

Let me know in the comment section below any disease or condition that you want me to cover.

Next, I might turn it into a future Life Noggin episode like this one.

Anyone who sees the value in using visuals or a unique idea to help people learn is a friend of Life Noggin.

That's why I was, I guess you could say overly excited when I got the chance to work with today's sponsor, Nautilus.

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Use our code Life Noggin to unlock the offer or click the first link in the description and treat yourself to more fun ways to learn.

Click here to figure out which age is the worst or click here to watch this video.

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