Why do our bodies start to stop functioning as we age? Why can’t our bodies maintain a “youthful” appearance and function?
In: Biology
There are lots of unknowns, but we do know that oxidative damage is a factor and can be avoided [or even reversed](https://youtu.be/QRt7LjqJ45k?t=421).
Cell repair, complex functions, and mitosis all require DNA be unraveled from the chromosomes, during which time it’s vulnerable to oxidizing agents (oxygen, nitrogen oxides, and certain acids) and radicals (generally singlet oxygen which is produced by the immune system) which cause changes such as methylation – addition of a methane molecule where there shouldn’t be one – which blocks proper transcription, causing breaks in protein chains, or even failure of stop/start regions in the code that cause run-ons or complete failure of that cell’s genes to produce that protein sequence.
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