Why do we age?
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As cells reproduce, they replace themselves with copies that are not perfect. Eventually, the body’s ability to fix errors during cell growth wanes and the effects on the body are often referred to as “aging”.
They are still looking into the actual mechanisms that cause aging to occur. If we can determine exactly what is going on there might be ways to halt, repair, reverse them.
Effectively, most of our cells are only able to reproduce so many times. Its not a specific set number, but the more they reproduce, the more likely the daughter cells are to become unhealthy or not as effective or even just not be viable.
Logically, there isn’t a known reason for “why” this is. Stem cells and reproductive cells were “born” from parent cells at some point and they seem to restart the cycle. If you think about it, you are a collection of cells that is just another series of cellular reproduction that could be traced back millions of years. That’s a lot of cellular reproduction in a chain. So why do the cells specific to our body “wear out” as they multiply? Or stop replacing themselves at a sustainment rate?
Because organisms that allowed for the ‘new and improved’ version to take over from the previous generation tended to do better than those that didn’t. At the very least aging allows the new generation to distinguish between those who’ve already had their shot.
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