Why do we age and die?

When cells get worn out, most of them divide and form new cells. So why do we end up deteriorating?
It's the same for all life forms.
If evolution happened or happens why didn't it fix this problem? (I'm not being smug, I'm seriously curious. Interested to hear from our evolutionist friends here.)

With mitosis, the DNA strand becomes slightly smaller and the cell will be less likely to succesfully split itself when we get older.

I remember reading a thread where some guys found a way to increase the cell life of a worm it lived much longer than normal... they said the equiv for human life spanwould be up to 500 yrs

Thread around here some where I am sure.

Well I think it has nothing to do with evolution. The dna pairs of humans have been shortened and several pairs unactivated. That is why we have stories in the bible that man used to live hundreds of years. I have strong reason to believe that in fact we did but our genetics have been tampered with since then. If alien intervention led to the improvement of humanity then the aliens would be nervous for us to live too long and to acquire too much knowledge lest we figure out what is really going on.

Also if one believes in re-incarnation as I do then you see that this forces more shorter life spans which has certain benefits to the controllers themselves rather than for humans.

Mitosis is a constant evolvment in ur body...but eventually it starts to wear down and so u get less new cells being divided and u get old and saggy! lol

U wear ur mitosis out in othewords!

Here are apparently the 5 major theories as to why we age:

1. The Error Hypothesis:

The Error Hypothesis, or "aging by mistake", refers to the errors which may occur in the chemical reactions in producing DNA, RNA, or proteins, because the metabolic machinery is not 100% accurate. Cell death can result from these unrepaired errors. Some gerontologists attribute this error to any one, or a combination of the following: Insufficient energy or nutrients, or insufficient carrying away of cell waste products.

2. The Free Radical Theory:

The Free Radical Theory refers to molecules, which have a strong tendency to link to other molecules, interfering with their functioning. They are produced by cells to assist in metabolism, most commonly in the "burning" of sugar. They are sometimes produced by accident if oxygen, always present in the cell and highly reactive, combines with cellular molecules. Uncontrolled free radicals can cause accumulated damage to the membranes surrounding cells and to the cellular molecules of DNA and RNA. Sufficient damage results in the eventual death of the cell.

At present the Free Radical theory is being hotly investigated. Research on mice shows that a 40% reduction in calorie intake results in a doubling of their life span. When food is metabolized, free radicals are produced. Our bodies do produce free radical "sponges" which absorb free radicals, but often not enough. The ingestion of vitamins E and C are especially good free radical absorbers.

Dr. Roy Walford at UCLA, a leading researcher in human longevity for many years and one of my idols during my schooling in gerontology, is himself practicing calorie reduction to inhibit the formation of free radicals.

3. The Cross-linkage Theory:

The Cross-linkage Theory states that the aging of living organisms is due to the occasional formation, by cross-linkage, of bridges between protein molecules in the DNA which cannot be broken by the cell repair enzymes, interfering in the production of RNA by DNA. Cross-linkages in protein and DNA can be caused by many chemicals normally present in cells as a result of metabolism, and by common pollutants such as lead and tobacco smoke.

4. The Brain Hypothesis:

The Brain Hypothesis, or breakdown of the brain pacemaker, refers to the theory that aging is due to a breakdown in the homeostasis of the bodily functions - especially in the control of the hypothalamus over the pituitary - which in turn causes a breakdown in control over the endocrine glands.

5. The Autoimmune Theory:

The Autoimmune Theory, proposed by Dr. Roy Walford at UCLA hypothesizes that two types of white blood cells, B and T cells of the immune system weaken with age, and malfunction. B cells lose their vigor in attacking bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells, and the T cells lose their vigor in attacking cells foreign to the body, such as cancer cells and transplant cells. When B and T cells malfunction, they attack normal healthy body cells.

Originally posted by StationsCreation
When cells get worn out, most of them divide and form new cells. So why do we end up deteriorating?
It's the same for all life forms.
If evolution happened or happens why didn't it fix this problem? (I'm not being smug, I'm seriously curious. Interested to hear from our evolutionist friends here.)

I personally feel this is about to be fixed. We are AT that point in our evolution at which these shortcomings will be fixed, but probably not by aliens and probably not by science, but by our moving into a higher density of existence. This is difficult to explain in a short paragraph or two. Here's a link regarding changes... home.planet.nl...

I also highly recommend reading the material at the ascension2000 website. It is eye-opening in many ways.

Peace,

+Jammer

It could also be mental. People can appear to age very fast after their spouses had died for example.

There is a lot of evidence to support your idea Bandit of aging being related to mental attitudes.

But is it not now claimed that we are designed to die at a certain age (mind you many of us do all we can to speed up the process via many methods), and that there is some kind of internal 'time clock?'

If so is this information not a part of DNA coding? If so then can not the coding like a program be altered?

Originally posted by THENEO
There is a lot of evidence to support your idea Bandit of aging being related to mental attitudes.

But is it not now claimed that we are designed to die at a certain age (mind you many of us do all we can to speed up the process via many methods), and that there is some kind of internal 'time clock?'

If so is this information not a part of DNA coding? If so then can not the coding like a program be altered?

The reason people seem to age a lot faster after spouses die is because of the additional stress placed upon their systems from bereavement. Here, let me tell you about aging, as far as I know. Feel free to correct me.

When you're older, the two biggest killers of human being are cancer and cardiac problems. Cardiac problems are usually a result of blockages and high blood pressure, generally from a life spent eating poorly and not exercizing. Remove that, you have cancer. Cancer is caused by the improper develop of a cell ANYWHERE along the process of mitosis, from RNA transfer to assorted other processes. it takes aproximate thirty to fifty cell divisions for malignancy to develop, depending on various factors. The older you get, the higher to probability of 'mistakes' along teh line. Females have additional genetic material in the X chromasome to make up for the defficicencies/errors , however males do not. Males are in fact the genetically inferior species. However, to continue, thirty to fifty cell divisions is quite a long time.

A side note - I'm not pro-tobbacco or anything- but smoking doens't give you cancer. Remove the aging process from the variable, you'll see. It's not healthy, by a long shot. It'll give you a dozen different things from all the poisons in it, but it won't give you cancer.

DE

We age and die to get out of the way for the next generation. That way the Earth isn't under more of a strain than it can handle. People who have 8 or 10 or even 6 kids screw this system up though.

Originally posted by DeusEx
A side note - I'm not pro-tobbacco or anything- but smoking doens't give you cancer. Remove the aging process from the variable, you'll see. It's not healthy, by a long shot. It'll give you a dozen different things from all the poisons in it, but it won't give you cancer.

DE

Thats interesting DeusEx.
You should start a new thread on that in the Medical Issues & Conspiracies. I bet that'll spark up some debate.

Notice that animals that have shorter lives reproduce more. Although there are exceptions, like in some humans (some caribbean men...)

*off topic*

The guy in my avatar's grandfather has had at least 25 children. At least my grandpa (his brother) behaved better than him.

Originally posted by StationsCreation
When cells get worn out, most of them divide and form new cells. So why do we end up deteriorating?
It's the same for all life forms.
If evolution happened or happens why didn't it fix this problem? (I'm not being smug, I'm seriously curious. Interested to hear from our evolutionist friends here.)

I guess we lose our fullstrength when they mutliply they probably take most of the strength with them.

If evolution happened or happens why didn't it fix this problem?

Evolution relies on this to bring change. If a species lived forever, it would basically stop evolving.

Originally posted by Lysergic
I remember reading a thread where some guys found a way to increase the cell life of a worm it lived much longer than normal... they said the equiv for human life spanwould be up to 500 yrs

Thread around here some where I am sure.

lol I remember that thread. The bad thing is though he had to remove the reproductive organs of the worm to do it... give me death instead

When cells get worn out, most of them divide and form new cells. So why do we end up deteriorating?
It's the same for all life forms.
If evolution happened or happens why didn't it fix this problem? (I'm not being smug, I'm seriously curious. Interested to hear from our evolutionist friends here.)

My feeling on this is that it is similar to making a copy of a document. Then, you make a copy, from the copy. And then, you make a copy from the second copy, and so on. Eventually, it may still be legible, but not near as good as the original. I think the same thing can be said of our cells.

Remember, there's only one cause of death. Too many brain cells die. Whether you get stabbed, suffocate, old age, drown, etc. the real reason for death, is that your brain cells failed to get the nutrients they needed to survive. Fix that, and figure out a way of cell rejuvenation closer to the original, and it's immortality baby....

It would be a great strain on our mothers if we were born full size, therefore we are born small. We grow after this so as to not put strain on our mother and eventually parent our own children (imagine having another one of you come out full size). haha

Originally posted by Kano

If evolution happened or happens why didn't it fix this problem?

Evolution relies on this to bring change. If a species lived forever, it would basically stop evolving.

agreed !!
Evolution engineered the limits of cell repair, replacements, divisions, growth hormones, etc etc, for a reason...(its the norm for all known earth lifeforms)

so, the view that being mortal or terminal, is a 'PROBLEM'...is a Skewed concept

StationsCreation 5 theories...could represent the 5 fingers- - or Hand of God, on the destiny of man?!

~X~
enjoy the journey

`

when a cell divides the end of the chromosomes called telomeres shorten and in the end make sure the cell doesnt divide anymore..read this old mans explanations, it was the easiest i could find :]]]]

users.rcn.com...

[Edited on 18-12-2003 by jozuph]