Even as you read this article, you are experiencing senescence – or aging – and it may not be obvious to you but you are growing older by the second. You must think I have a mind for the obvious. However, one would be shocked at the number of people who ignore any sign they are aging and avoid any awareness of it. Sure, we start aging from the moment we belt out our first screaming breath, during our carefree childhood and through our teen years, are bodies change in stunning and comprehensive ways.
As we exit our adolescent years and late teenage life, we enter into our twenties and our prime years from a physicality perspective. Getting older does not mean the same thing as growing old. These are the years of youthful vigor and liberty. We will likely never be as physically perfect as we are at this time in our life.
When we reach our thirties, we are aging and still enjoy the perfection of strength and vitality, only now we are beginning to temper it with some experience. Our brain is a sponge and our bodies are still strong. We build for our future and raise a family while we have the physical and emotional health to manage it.
We eventually arrive at a point in our life, perhaps our forties or early fifties when we have passed one too many benchmarks and growing older becomes an annoyance. Certain aspects of age occur and we do not like this very much. Our fitness level has taken a hit, we have more rounded edges and parts of us begin to sag.
There are more aches when we awaken and more pains when we go to sleep. We begin to forget appointments and people’s names while we misplace things like never before. The perfection we once got pleasure from now seems like it was so many years ago. We find ourselves thinking more about our eventual mortality than we did previously, though we try not to dwell on it.
It does not help matters that many of us at a certain age see the decline of our own aging family members and cannot help but think about how we will cope with old age. It has been said that children keep us young but to many of us they are a reminder of what we once were.
Why Must We Age?
Throughout history, humankind has contemplated what we now take for granted, How does our body develop from fertilized conception, to birth and childhood into adolescence and eventually to a mature grown person? The body has undergone copious transformations during this period and it is precision growth we experience to get this far, much has to go right.
If life were fair, once we developed into that perfect adult, that time in our lives when we know we are at our peak, we would stay that age and get on with perpetuating life while at our best. Why does development continue but on a downhill curve? Why must we age at all beyond this point of perfection? Is there any way to stop the inevitable decline?
Physicians and clinical research scientists once took aging as the established norm. Scientists at one time believed that the aging process was purely natural and there was really no pressing need to research it. This way of thinking is gone for the most part. There are so many baby boomers turning fifty with a strong desire to have what they want [some things never change!], the ability to retain some of their lost youth has become quite important to them. Knowing this, medical and pharmaceutical research is invested heavily into the science of aging.
Many scientific authorities are involved in the surge of exploration to discover why and how aging occurs. The objective is to investigate potential methods of slowing the aging process and even reversing it overall. Progress is being made and if novel means were revealed to prolong physiological and psychological health for a growing populace of aging and well off boomers, societal rewards would be phenomenal.
As much as we all want to live for an extended lifetime, we would rather not live our autumn years in a painful existence or enduring mental and cognitive failure. Researchers have been able to recognize certain aspects that control the progression of aging, as fresh information is acquired regularly and at a quick pace. There has been abundant supposition made regarding aging but the topic is quite comprehensive and certain areas are connected.
What Follows Are Some Recent Hypotheses For Why We Age:
Hayflick Limit Hypothesis – A pair of research scientists in the 1960s observed that numerous human cells separated a finite amount of times, then stopped. If the human cells were fed well, they split more rapidly. Human body cells might have a fixed gene coding that notifies them to quit replicating themselves.
The Free Radical Hypothesis – Free radicals are molecules or groups of two or more atoms, which have an unpaired electron. For these to be electrically balanced, the molecules or atoms will bind to an electron from an adjacent atom, hence, producing yet one more free radical, ultimately causing a spilling sequence of harm befall upon cells and organs. If this is the case, aging is a result of the damage done to our bodily tissue internally and externally from free radical exposure and contact.
The free radical growth might not be the cause of all adverse indications of aging, but most likely, it has a part to play in facilitating cellular destruction. It is impossible to control and contain free radical activity. They are an unavoidable effect of residing in our physiological self. There are however, procedures available to us that can slow free radical destructiveness, starting with steering clear of environmental toxins and contaminants, as well as consuming plenty of fresh veggies and fruits. Many foods contain nutrients whose whole purpose is to combat the free radical element in our systems.
The Telomere Hypothesis – This theory is recent and the researchers who discovered this dramatic science were awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology. Telomeres are a distinct variety of chemicals that would appear to possess a capability to safeguard the chromosomes within our cells. Each time our cells split, the telomeres shorten in length and lose a fraction of their protective capacity leaving the chromosome increasingly more vulnerable.
This could potentially clarify why cells ultimately succumb to harm and expire. Research investigators are presently working to understand how they can mend these telomeres, preventing the harm done to the cells. The entire scientific and health communities are thrilled with these developments and what the discovery could mean. Finding treatments and cures to age related diseases and degenerative conditions plaguing our aging society will surely, be easier now.
Glycation – When your body proteins respond with excess blood glucose or blood sugar, these proteins are injured. When this happens, it is known clinically as “glycation”. The now sugar damaged proteins could add to the collapse of numerous other bodily functions. Individuals with diabetes or insulin resistance issues will find themselves primarily at risk to glycation harm due to irregularities with their innate blood sugar volumes.
Should it become a reality that glycation is a contributing factor in what causes negative aging effects, we could conceivably try and make the process slower by being certain we manage our blood sugar levels better and avoid excessive fluctuations.
What follows Are Several Additional Issues That Play A Role In Aging:
- As we age, our production of hormones begins to fall off significantly. There has been some success of late utilizing human growth hormone therapy to stem the effects of aging as well as hormone replacement therapy to replenish depleted hormone imbalances. These controversial treatments require further study since many believe the cure is worse than the condition.
- Our body’s have more difficulty at detoxifying as we age. It is crucial for our bodies to innately cleanse themselves of natural and environmental toxicity, specifically as we grow older and our immune systems become less effectual.
- Our cellular DNA becomes damaged. This seems to be the popular theory among researchers and geneticists. A great deal of research is being steered toward the genetic aspect of aging as was evident with the telomere hypothesis mentioned earlier. Many experts believe that genetics will play a large part in the first major breakthrough for longevity therapies in the future.
- Throughout our lives, we are bombarded by contact with eco toxicity found in the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we consume. We are placed under ever increasing amounts of stress and our bodies are suffering for it. Our natural immunity and detoxifying capabilities are only so effective and evolution has not prepared us for the enormous ecological impact humans have had on nature in the last one hundred years or so.
- This progress has taken a toll on our species and unfortunately, from a physiological perspective, we simply cannot keep up with the shock to our systems from the environmental burden placed upon them. Human health suffers due to humankind’s insatiable desire for trade and industrial progress, the byproducts of which, are killing us.
Aging is something we have little control over for now. If science has its way, it will not be long before we will be able to fight the progress of aging with effective therapies. This has hopefully been some clarification for why we age as we do, however, the story is still unfinished. We have so much more to learn about the theories of why we age. We still do not have a fountain of youth or a magic pill to defeat age.
If researchers can discover how aging can be slowed and life extended, we should all be doing what we can now to be around when that time comes. The thought of so many more years of exciting and satisfying life while we enjoy prime physical and mental health is an awe-inspiring prospect!
Thu, Mar 25, 2010
Anti Aging, Anti Aging Theories, Gerontology, Longevity