Other reliable surveys combine factors of family history and your lifestyle to arrive at an estimate of longevity. This survey (below) may make you feel better if, like Richard’s and mine, your family history is not filled with 100-year feats of aging. It focuses on activities over which you have some control. When I applied for life and disability insurance, the agent asked me if I participated in high-risk activities such as piloting aircraft, scuba diving, sky diving, unprotected sex, or intravenous drug use. (more…)

The reduced physiological reserve after the one quoted above includes anatomical changes associated with aging, functional respiratory, urinary tract and gastrointestinal tract. In the case of the respiratory system is well established that the lung function deteriorates with increasing age. Some of the anatomical changes that contribute to loss of function include:

(a) Decline broncheolar average diameter, (more…)

The accumulative waste theory of aging, also known as the waste accumulation or garbage accumulation theory of aging, proposes that molecules damaged by oxidation and their by products (e.g., aged collagen, damaged enzymes), and damaged mitochondria (organelles responsible for cellular energy production) accumulate in postmitotic (non dividing cells) causing dysfunction, toxicity, aging, and cell death (see Error Catastrophe Theory of Aging).

There are several mechanisms by which garbage accumulation affects cells. (more…)