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Is aging a predictable health condition or a disease?

November 9, 2020

In a paper named “The Aging Syndrome” published by Robert M. Perlman, aging was mentioned to be a “disease complex”
The nine “hallmarks of aging” were identified and described by a group of scientists; however, not everything is clear
A group of researchers accuses the multi-million beauty industry of launching products advertised as antiaging but barely are and are just giving people false expectations

Through the years, the average life expectancy has gone from 30 years up to about 79 years in 2019, and this has been related to the constant development of technology and studies about our health. This is one reason to think aging can be “cured” or at least prevent some pathological conditions that come with age. But referring to the aging process as a disease makes everything a lot worst than it is. In 1954 a paper called “The Aging Syndrome” by Robert M. Perlman was published by the American Geriatrics Society where aging is mentioned as a “disease complex” and “special sort of disease,” on the other hand, for others, aging is seen as an age-related condition that eventually will cause deterioration of body functions. In 1962, a professor of anatomy at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine named Leonard Hayflick did research where he determined the number of times a human cell can divide itself before dying and also mentioned that telomeres eventually get shorter and stops cell division. These telomeres are part of DNA that are found on the edges of the chain and tend to get shorter with each division until eventually, the cells stop dividing and die. After 2013 the nine “hallmarks of aging” were described by a group of researchers; between these hallmarks, they mentioned: telomere shortening, genome mutations, changes in DNA’s chemical structure, impaired mitochondrial functioning, disrupted communication between cells, degradation of cellular proteins, cellular senescence, weaken of the cellular ability to identify and adjust to nutrient levels, and nonrenewal of stem cells. The discovery of these hallmarks will help in future investigations to improve human health. So far, they are known to produce aging while happening together, but their individual consequences are not still clear. While talking about pathological conditions that are age-related like Alzheimer’s, diabetes, and cancer, Peter Boling, director of geriatrics at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical School, during a conference in 2019 from the Gerontological Society of America said “conditions are not directly linked to aging as a biologic phenomenon per se.” These conditions can also be linked to other factors besides aging itself, including the hallmarks of aging. Hayflick, together with other investigators, have been clear about antiaging drugs and other supplements; mentioning is just false advertising. This new beauty industry has been launching products that haven’t even been approved by the Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) and making it a multi-million dollar industry. Also, he has mentioned years before that funding is also in issue; when it comes to age-related conditions funding them comes more effortless, while financing conditions that are not considered a disease take more effort and time. Jamie Justice, an assistant professor of gerontology and geriatric medicine at Wake Forest, has mentioned, “Why do we have to force aging to be a disease to get clinicians, regulatory officials, and stakeholders to do something about it,” which Hayflick replied “policy makers … must understand that the resolution of age-associated diseases will not provide insights into understanding the fundamental biology of age changes. They often believe that it will, and base decisions on that misunderstanding.” Studying age-related conditions like cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s instead of investigating the underlying process that causes this during aging “why then are we not devoting significantly greater resources to understanding what … increase[s] vulnerability to all age-associated pathology?” says Hayflick. Fleming, a former FDA supervisory medical officer, urges “regulators and public policy makers to embrace healthspan as an organizing focus for facilitating the development of medicine that target aging and chronic diseases.” Eventually, this could promote further research about conditions that cause certain diseases instead of just focusing on the age-related ones.

References: https://slate.com/technology/2020/03/aging-disease-classification.html

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Don’t you think aging SHOULD be treated as a disease? It’s something we will overcome and I anticipate that will be in my lifetime.

Is aging a predictable health condition or a disease?

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