Do we not understand enough about the human body? I have heard that we don’t fully understand the mechanism behind aging and this got me wondering. I mean our body seems to be like one of the first things we’d investigate, and yet we seem to know less than I had originally thought.
In: 70
ELI5: aging isn’t something that is ‘caused’ but a temporal process inherent to reproducing organisms living on a planet with the organic matter necessary to do so.
Less brief explanation:
Entropy.
The process of growth, regeneration, maturation is an energetically expensive process. Your body is acting against the laws of entropy (it’s physically and energetically simpler to just not have your body assemble at all).
As all organic forms of matter, entropy eventually wins.
Now, evolutionary factor:
Finite lifespans favour actions that prolong the longevity and vigour of a person’s life span: their offspring more specifically.
We live long enough to procreate, and then ‘expire’ once our genes are ‘used up’ (contemporary science says telomere shortening is the mechanism responsible here)
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