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Ageing accelerates around age 50 ― some organs faster than others

nature.com

11–20 of 171 posts

Re: Ageing accelerates around age 50 ― some organs faster than others

#11

It's very likely that aging is driven by some kind of scheduled gene program. It makes perfect sense to phase out individuals from a group-level selection point of view.

Maybe. But why in this case do we not see bugs and failures in this program, i.e. no one lived 5 times more than the average or did not live forever at all, for example? I'm not making a statement, just a guess.

Re: Ageing accelerates around age 50 ― some organs faster than others

#12
I felt incredibly old from ~36 - 42. Then I started seriously working out, took control of my diet (it had very much always controlled me) and started aggressively pursuing a "better living through chemistry" approach to life.

I feel 25 years younger now. My BP and cholesterol are under control and I roll out of bed actually feeling rested (probably due to not snoring anymore).

Re: Ageing accelerates around age 50 ― some organs faster than others

#13
post #11

It's very likely that aging is driven by some kind of scheduled gene program. It makes perfect sense to phase out individuals from a group-level selection point of view.

Maybe. But why in this case do we not see bugs and failures in this program, i.e. no one lived 5 times more than the average or did not live forever at all, for example? I'm not making a statement, just a guess.

You could say this woman is immortal. Or at least her cancer is.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henrietta_Lacks

Re: Ageing accelerates around age 50 ― some organs faster than others

#14
post #11

It's very likely that aging is driven by some kind of scheduled gene program. It makes perfect sense to phase out individuals from a group-level selection point of view.

Maybe. But why in this case do we not see bugs and failures in this program, i.e. no one lived 5 times more than the average or did not live forever at all, for example? I'm not making a statement, just a guess.

Height is controlled by genes too and you don't get people shorter than 0.5 m or taller than 3 m

Re: Ageing accelerates around age 50 ― some organs faster than others

#15
post #11

It's very likely that aging is driven by some kind of scheduled gene program. It makes perfect sense to phase out individuals from a group-level selection point of view.

Maybe. But why in this case do we not see bugs and failures in this program, i.e. no one lived 5 times more than the average or did not live forever at all, for example? I'm not making a statement, just a guess.

Because the whole system is quite resilient and self-repairing, and probably requires a great deal of consistency between the various genes? Aging is quite fundamental to life, and a "bug" in that area would almost certainly cause severe problems in other areas, probably death. Cancer might be an example. And systems of many components tend to narrow the standard deviation of the composite.

But that's just guessing. The article might not even have found something profound, but a life-style effect. On the one hand, we're living long (historically speaking), on the other hand, we have unnatural habits.

Re: Ageing accelerates around age 50 ― some organs faster than others

#16

I felt incredibly old from ~36 - 42. Then I started seriously working out, took control of my diet (it had very much always controlled me) and started aggressively pursuing a "better living through chemistry" approach to life. I feel 25 years younger now. My BP and cholesterol are under control and I roll out of bed actually feeling rested (probably due to not snoring anymore).

I started weight training at about age 54. I had never done any form of regular exercise in my life. Attempts here and there, but nothing ever stuck for very long. I am stronger now than I ever have been.

Re: Ageing accelerates around age 50 ― some organs faster than others

#17
post #11

It's very likely that aging is driven by some kind of scheduled gene program. It makes perfect sense to phase out individuals from a group-level selection point of view.

Maybe. But why in this case do we not see bugs and failures in this program, i.e. no one lived 5 times more than the average or did not live forever at all, for example? I'm not making a statement, just a guess.

Because the odds of something 5x the average that's more or less normally distributed are really, really low.

It's the same as how although you can occasionally get a "natural" person over seven feet tall, it's very rare. Most really tall people have gigantism or some other form of pituitary abnormality, and I believe every recorded person to break eight feet has had such an abnormality.

It's like asking why we've never had someone with 500 IQ. There's a hard limit where anyone with enough of a mutation to enable that would probably also not survive long at all. And indeed with the height thing we see a lot of super-tall people dying younger due to cardiovascular strain and other issues. You get the picture.

Re: Ageing accelerates around age 50 ― some organs faster than others

#18

It's very likely that aging is driven by some kind of scheduled gene program. It makes perfect sense to phase out individuals from a group-level selection point of view.

Is there convincing evidence for group-level selection in evolution at all? I read enough Dawkins back in the day to be skeptical of such claims.

Re: Ageing accelerates around age 50 ― some organs faster than others

#19

It's very likely that aging is driven by some kind of scheduled gene program. It makes perfect sense to phase out individuals from a group-level selection point of view.

Is there convincing evidence for group-level selection in evolution at all? I read enough Dawkins back in the day to be skeptical of such claims.

Intuitively it seems like a logical selection to happen though. One of the reasons why all of the hierarchies have evolved, why some are leaders, why some are inventor minded, and why most people are like most people.

Re: Ageing accelerates around age 50 ― some organs faster than others

#20
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe. But why in this case do we not see bugs and failures in this program, i.e. no one lived 5 times more than the average or did not live forever at all, for example? I'm not making a statement, just a guess.

Because the odds of something 5x the average that's more or less normally distributed are really, really low. It's the same as how although you can occasionally get a "natural" person over seven feet tall, it's very rare. Most really tall people have gigantism or some other form of pituitary abnormality, and I believe every recorded person to break eight feet has had such an abnormality. It's like asking why we've ne…

It's because age isn't normally distributed. The annual odds of dying go up by a factor of 2 every 8 years. This gives tighter bounds on age than a normal distribution would give.
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