Eli5 how does natural death work? Why do we age at all?
In: 5
The tips of a stand of DNA have things called a Telomere. You can think of it like a plastic cap on the tips of a shoe string. These get worn out and eventually your DNA gets damaged and thus your cells cannot do their job.
Telomeres are shortened or damaged by lots of factors: diet, stress, smoking, obesity and of course, age.
Everytime your cells need to copy themselves, these Telomeres get shorter, this act is literally what causes aging.
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