Aging is accumulated damage, with age-related disease as the most visible dysfunction that results from that damage. Eventually one of those dysfunctions becomes large enough to cause death. The only way to live longer is to have a lower burden of damage, and thus exhibit lesser degrees of dysfunction. In human populations, this appears to be the case. The study noted here is one of a number to show that centenarians develop fewer and less severe age-related conditions than their peers who fail to live as long. The most interesting observation is that centenarians exhibit a relatively larger incidence of cancer as a fraction of all conditions. One might theorize that this is because their cells are undertaking a greater degree of maintenance activities in the age-damaged tissue environment. Cancer is a numbers game, and the more <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wik…
The Characteristics of Age-Related Disease in Very Long-Lived Individuals
Aging is accumulated damage, with age-related disease as the most visible dysfunction that results from that damage. Eventually one of those dysfunctions becomes large enough to cause death. The only way to live longer is to have a lower burden of damage, and thus exhibit lesser degrees of dysfunction. In human populations, this appears to be the case. The study noted here is one of a number to show that centenarians develop fewer and less severe age-related conditions than their peers who fail to live as long. The most interesting observation is that centenarians exhibit a relatively larger incidence of cancer as a fraction of all conditions. One might theorize that this is because their cells are undertaking a greater degree of maintenance activities in the age-damaged tissue environment. Cancer is a numbers game, and the more <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wik…