(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

yours cells stop dividing at some point. Once your last cells start dying and none can be remade to replace them, the body is essentially guaranteed to die as a result of one or more necessary organs simply ceasing to function. If that organ is the heart this death will may reported as cardiac arrest. If it’s the lungs then the report will cite respiratory failure.

Asking if the cause of death at that point is “old age” or “respiratory failure” is akin to asking at what point the Ship of Theseus stops being the original ship. There is no right or wrong answer, it’s just a semantic exercise.