(or 2!) Dying of old age, can you actually DIE because of the body being worn out, or is it always a disease or such? I read that if we cure every disease, we would live hundreds of years.

Question

Title! I don’t get it. Isn’t my finger getting worn from just being used for too long? Or will it eventually get worse because of something else?

In: Biology

Answer 1

Nobody dies of just being old, just like no car stops working just cause it’s old. A car stops working because some critical system goes out, which becomes more and more likely to happen as those parts get older and more worn.

Same with the body. Some critical system finally wears out and stops functioning properly.

All of those individual parts going out has its own name and its own diagnosis as a disease, so technically you are dying of the disease, but the prevalence and severity of these conditions increases naturally as your “parts” get more and more worn out.