Eli5: Why do people between the ages of 20 and 40 seemingly age so slowly?
In: Biology
The strongest selection pressures on organisms exist up until an individual has had young and (if relevant to the species) reared them to self-sufficiency. (Barring other oddities which can appear w/ respect to other diseases, environmental conditions, etc. but that aren’t part of the ELI5 level.) If you die before then, your genes don’t get transmitted and so those genes become less common. Since individuals that fall apart before 40 didn’t tend to successfully reproduce most people have a genetic makeup that gets them to at least 40 without *too* many issues.
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