(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

Getting old is kind of like playing Jenga. A young body is like the Jenga tower at the start of the game, plenty of strength, can take a piece without much risk. But as you age the tower gets more and more unstable. At some point just a little nudge and it falls over.

Even without disease everyone will still age and become frail, without disease something will go wrong eventually and even if it didn’t what would the quality of life be.