Eli5 how does natural death work? Why do we age at all?
In: 5
It’s thought that aging is the result of telomeres getting shorter each time a cell replicates. Telomeres protect the end sequence of DNA from getting tangled or frayed. Once they get too short, the cell can’t replicate correctly and dies.
There’s no such thing as “natural death” or dying of old age. What that usually means is someone was too old and their body was too weak to fight off some illness or infection.
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