How is it that a 4yo kid and an 8yo kid look and behave so differently while a 21yo person might as well look and behave the same as someone who is 5-6 years older?
In: Biology
You are confusing aging with maturing. They aren’t the same thing.
Maturing is the process of a baby turning into a fully functional adult. This is what is happening with your 4 year old and 8 year old and is at time very rapid as you said. Once the child starts nearing the end of the maturations process, this slows down a bit and doesn’t complete until the early 20s.
At the point, maturing stops. The person has reached their adult stage. No more maturation. It’s done.
Aging, on the other hand, is a completely different process. It’s basically a slow process of the body wearing out and breaking down over time. Over time the telomeres were out and the cells can replicate properly, mutations happen that requires cells to be shut down, cells that are never replaces start to lose their function, etc. The body is continually taking damage that’s can’t be fully repaired, and that is what we call aging.
It’s slow than maturation because your body prevents it the best it can, while maturation is something the body actively does.
since both are part of our natural life cycle, we tend to lump them together, but they are two separate things.
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