Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Aging by Design: How New Thinking on Aging Will Change Your Life
    Aging by Design: How New Thinking on Aging Will Change Your Life
    Aging by Design: How New Thinking on Aging Will Change Your Life
    Ebook125 pages1 hour

    Aging by Design: How New Thinking on Aging Will Change Your Life

    By Theodore Goldsmith

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Why do we age? How do we age? These questions have baffled scientists for centuries and remain unresolved. The answer to the “how” question is critical to our ability to successfully prevent and treat age-related diseases like cancer and heart disease that now cause the majority of all deaths in the developed world. Because of major difficulties in experimentally determining causes of aging, the answer to the “why” question is critical to guiding research efforts directed toward identifying and altering processes involved in age-related diseases.
    Evolution theory plays a critical role in determining why we age because it attempts to explain why each living organism has its particular design and therefore why different species display different aging characteristics and different life spans.
    This short book describes the history and current status of attempts to explain why we age extending from Darwin’s 1859 theory to the present. The author provides colorful and interesting descriptions of the theorists, their theories, the discoveries and the controversies that have led us to the current situation: Although there is very wide scientific agreement about most aspects of evolution theory, four different theories now exist concerning the fine details that apply to aging. These four theories lead to radically different concepts regarding the actual biological mechanisms behind the aging process and consequently the mechanisms behind age-related diseases.
    The book goes on to discuss observations and experiments that offer clues as to the nature of biological aging mechanisms. These include apparently non-aging animals, worm experiments, rat blood-exchange experiments, caloric restriction experiments, octopus experiments, and the discovery of genes that cause aging.
    Goldsmith then leads us through an analysis that concludes that programmed aging is the aging theory that best matches all of the direct evidence and current status of the evolution theories,. We age because we are designed to age. We are designed to age because a limited life span conveys an evolutionary benefit. Most current medical researchers believe in non-programmed aging and much of the evidence for programmed aging comes from non-human sources. If the programmed theory of biological aging, first proposed in 1882, is indeed correct, it has major implications regarding the way we think about and seek to prevent or treat age-related diseases. It also suggests that it may well be possible in the relatively near term to generally delay the aging process. Which theory is correct could therefore greatly affect many people now alive! The book describes some current aging researchers, research activities, and results.
    A final question is discussed: How could we be living in the twenty-first century and still not have scientific agreement on even the fundamental nature of aging? The author suggests that several non-science factors including the sequence in which various theories were developed and the perception that the issue was academic have influenced thinking and delayed the development of scientific agreement.
    ISBN: 978-0-9788709-3-5 illustrated, 70 pages
    Revised 5-2014

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAzinet Press
    Release dateOct 11, 2011
    ISBN9781465892492
    Aging by Design: How New Thinking on Aging Will Change Your Life

    Read more from Theodore Goldsmith

    Related to Aging by Design

    Related ebooks

    Medical For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Perilous Postures

      Apr 30, 2018

      Perilous Postures
      2 min read

    • Article

      The BALD FACTS

      Aug 19, 2020

      The BALD FACTS
      4 min read

    • Article

      Physics Makes Aging Inevitable, Not Biology: Nanoscale thermal physics guarantees our decline, no matter how many diseases we cure.

      May 12, 2016

      The inside of every cell in our body is like a crowded city, filled with tracks, transports, libraries, factories, power plants, and garbage disposal units. The city’s workers are protein machines, which metabolize food, take out the garbage, or repa

      7 min read

    • Article

      Reset Your Health, Inside Out

      Jun 6, 2019

      We are what we think. We are what we eat. How far is that true? “We are how we eat, move, sleep and think. This is cent percent true. How we live our day defines how our health is going to be in the coming months or weeks. You eat junk, your body wi

      8 min read

    • Article

      Healthspan Is The New Longevity

      Nov 9, 2020

      Healthspan Is The New Longevity
      13 min read

    • Article

      The Race To Live Forever

      Jan 2, 2022

      The Race To Live Forever
      5 min read

    • Article

      Opinion: We Need To Take Steps Toward Building A Consensus Definition Of Biological Aging

      Feb 19, 2020

      A confident answer to the question "What is biological aging?" in humans will help us ensure that complexity does not hide any magical mysteries.

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Well-Oiled Machine

      Feb 15, 2022

      A Well-Oiled Machine
      7 min read

    • Article

      On Your Birthday, You’re Not Celebrating What You Think: Scientists are trying to study biological aging without defining it, and that’s a problem.

      Nov 10, 2016

      Have you had a birthday recently? Feeling old? Don’t worry—there’s a good chance that you’re younger than your infant self. As an adult, you have billions more new cells and trillions of times more new molecules than you had in your body when you wer

      4 min read

    • Article

      Stopping The Clock

      Feb 7, 2021

      The quest for eternal youth is the stuff of sci-fiand legend. For thousands of years, people have been seeking ways to stave off death. China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, was famously obsessed with finding an elixir to prolong his life but died in

      11 min read

    • Article

      Opinion: More Research On ‘Dying Healthy’ Will Also Help Us Live Healthier

      Oct 3, 2018

      Science can do little to extend the human life span. So let's focus on research that keeps us healthy during it and lets us "die healthy."

      3 min read

    • Article

      An End To Ageing?

      Jan 20, 2022

      An End To Ageing?
      7 min read

    • Article

      What REALLY Causes Cancer?

      Sep 28, 2022

      What REALLY Causes Cancer?
      7 min read

    • Article

      Young blood

      Apr 9, 2021

      Young blood
      17 min read

    • Article

      Can You Change Your Biological Age?

      Sep 7, 2023

      Can You Change Your Biological Age?
      5 min read

    • Article

      Can You Change Your Biological Age?

      Sep 7, 2023

      Can You Change Your Biological Age?
      5 min read

    • Article

      Opinion: Precision Medicine’s Rosy Predictions Haven’t Come True. We Need Fewer Promises And More Debate

      Feb 7, 2019

      Precision medicine has had minuscule effects on public health while the costs are astronomical. Is it really the best approach for improving health?

      4 min read

    • Article

      A Blueprint For Antiageing

      Dec 7, 2023

      A Blueprint For Antiageing
      9 min read

    • Article

      Yes, Life in the Fast Lane Kills You: New insights into mitochondria reveal how life expends energy.

      May 5, 2016

      Nick Lane is an evolutionary biochemist at University College London who thinks about the big questions of life: how it began, how it is maintained, why we age and die, and why we have sex. Shunning the habit of our times to regard these as questions

      11 min read

    • Article

      Get Active To Reduce Your Dementia Risk

      Jul 23, 2023

      No matter what your age is, start exercising, even a little—it is one of the best safeguards against dementia. People who have remained active throughout their adult life are the least likely to develop dementia in later years, but even those who tak

      10 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Aging by Design

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Aging by Design - Theodore Goldsmith

      cover.jpg

      Aging by Design

      How New Thinking on Aging Will Change Your Life

      Theodore C. Goldsmith

      Copyright © 2011, 2014 Azinet Press

      ISBN: 978-0-9788709-3-5

      ISBN-10: 0-9788709-3-X

      Smashwords edition

      Azinet Press

      Box 239 Crownsville, MD 21032

      1-410-923-4745

      Keywords: senescence, anti-aging medicine, ageing, evolution, gerontology, health, public health policy, stochastic aging theories, programmed aging theories

      This book contains some material previously published in An Introduction to Biological Aging Theory

      Pictures and illustrations courtesy of Wikipedia unless otherwise noted.

      24,000 words, 54 pages (8.5 x 11 inch format), 8 illus.

      August 22, 2011

      Revised July 25, 2012

      Revised May 23, 2014

      Contents

      Introduction

      Ages of Man – Human Mortality

      A Brief Summary of Aging Theories

      The Evolution of Aging

      Medawar’s Modification to Darwin’s Theory

      Williams’ Modification to Medawar’s Theory

      Evolution Theory’s Individual Benefit Clause

      More Discrepancies with Traditional Darwinism – Group Selection

      Gene-Oriented Selection

      More Discrepancies – Evolvability Theory

      Evolvability and Group Benefits of Programmed Aging

      Weismann’s Programmed Death Theory

      Evidence Exclusion Principles

      Aging Theories -- Current Summary

      Biological Aging Mechanisms

      Direct Evidence for Programmed Aging

      Non-Science Factors

      Programmed vs. Non-Programmed Aging – Recent Developments

      Kirkwood Attempt to Debunk Programmed Aging Fails

      New Programmed Aging Journal Phenoptosis

      Anti-Aging Medicine

      Anti-Aging Research

      How to Live Longer!

      Further Reading

      From the Publisher

      References

      APPENDIX I  Problems with Popular Non-Programmed Aging Theories

      APPENDIX II Digital Genetics, Linkage, and Variation

      Aging by Design

      Theodore C. Goldsmith

      Introduction

      The nature of biological aging is one of the most enduring scientific mysteries and has remained unresolved for more then 150 years. The persistence of this issue is itself somewhat amazing. We have landed on the moon and performed other fantastic technical and medical feats. Aging affects the vast majority of people in the developed world. How could it be that such an important question remains unresolved despite such a long duration? Why is funding for aging research relatively miniscule? Why are there still scientific disagreements as to the biological mechanisms responsible for aging and even disagreement as to why aging exists in the first place?

      Modern theories of biological aging fall into two categories. In the programmed aging theories, organisms purposely self-limit their lifespans and possess what amount to suicide mechanisms to accomplish this function. Programmed refers to the idea that there exists some sort of internal biological clock and a time-dependent plan or program that directs an internal limitation to lifespan. According to these theories, lifespan is genetically programmed in much the same manner as other internally driven and programmed biological events such as growth, reproductive maturity, mating seasons, birth, and circadian rhythms.

      In the second category, non-programmed theories consider that aging is the result of the body’s inability to better combat deteriorative processes that affect all organized systems such as wear-and-tear, oxidation, other molecular damage, or accumulation of toxic byproducts. According to these theories, humans age in a similar manner and for essentially the same reasons as automobiles and exterior paint.

      We could say that programmed aging (also known as adaptive aging or active aging) is something our bodies do to themselves while in the non-programmed (non-adaptive, or passive) theories aging is something that happens to our bodies, like an infectious disease or injury.

      Although programmed theories were formally proposed as long ago as 1882 non-programmed theories are currently more popular among gerontologists and other medical researchers. However, evidence is steadily accumulating that favors programmed aging and an increasing number of theorists and experimentalists now believe in programmed aging. Which theory is correct has a potentially enormous impact on the future of medicine. The answer to the aging question could easily affect most Americans now alive!

      The modern theories are evolutionary theories of aging. They accept that aging and other internally imposed limits on lifespan are traits or inherited characteristics of organisms that have been produced by the evolution process. We are designed to age. The question is why would the evolution process select and retain aging in our design.

      This book explains why programmed aging is the correct theory, why this has major implications for medicine, and why science has been so slow in coming to this conclusion. Along the way, I will introduce you to many people that have had a critical impact on aging theory science and describe the history and current controversies surrounding aging and underlying evolution theories.

      Ages of Man – Human Mortality

      The figure below [1] describes mortality as a function of age for people who died in the United States from all causes in 1999, that is, the fraction of people that age who died in 1999.

      img1.jpg

      In numerical terms, 0.015 percent of nine-year-olds died, along with 0.09 percent of 22 year-olds, 0.2 percent of 40 year-olds, and 38 percent of 100 year-olds. We can see a number of distinct mortality regimes. First, the age regime between zero and 5 years of age is the infant mortality period. This is followed by the childhood regime between ages of 6 and 14 during which mortality is extremely low. Then we have the adult period between age 15 and age 29 during which death rates are higher but not age-dependent. Adults engage in more dangerous activities than children and are subject to more stress. Starting at approximately age 30, death rates increase exponentially with age, doubling approximately every 10 years. In other words, aging becomes a significant cause of death starting at age 30 (relative to all the other causes of death). Finally, in extreme old age (100+) death rates level off. The message here is that aging is not just a problem for old people. About half of deaths among 40 year olds and 75 percent of deaths among 50 year olds can be attributed to aging.

      We can define age-related diseases as those whose incidence or severity dramatically increases with age including heart disease, cancer, stroke, arthritis, and many others. Although all of these diseases have multiple causes, aging is by far the largest single cause of most of them. We have been extremely successful in finding ways to treat or prevent most of the non-age-related diseases that were the main causes of death in earlier times. It is the age-related diseases that are currently most resistant to prevention and treatment. We cannot hope to understand or most effectively treat and prevent age-related diseases without understanding aging!

      A Brief Summary of Aging Theories

      Aging is an extremely difficult subject for experimental investigation because of its diffuse and long-term nature. Aging affects many different tissues and systems so researchers cannot study a single tissue as they would in the case of the many diseases that affect only a single tissue. Because of the long-term nature of aging, experiments tend to be extremely expensive and time-consuming. A preliminary experiment to determine if a particular pharmaceutical agent is promising for decreasing pain or killing some pathogen could be performed in a matter of days. Many different agents can be tried in a relatively short time. An experiment to determine if some agent increases lifespan in primates could take decades to perform. This is one reason why progress in understanding aging has been so slow.

      Aging theories have historically been very dependent on the point of view of the theorist. For those of us who are exclusively or primarily interested in human aging (most of us including most medical people) wear and tear theories of aging are attractive. These are theories to the effect that aging in humans is simply the result

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1