What i'm reading now, implies that a key factor in aging is in fact disease particularly viruses. The main reason, I feel, is because viruses have the ability to change our DNA.
It's logical to assume that when we're young we're well equipped to fix ourselves because our DNA is accurate. Viruses by definition change our DNA and the longer we've been around the more chance they've had to stop our DNA working properly.
I could argue that the main causes of death outside accidents are all related to organ failure of some kind or the failure to maintain the body effectively. From what I've read it seems entirely plausible that all this could simply be explained thus. The body cannot fix itself properly because its blue print, DNA, has been corrupted by too many viruses.
This implies that our resistance to disease, particularly viruses, is key. I always try to fine a natural answer and this time it's with the thymus gland. I recently renewed my knowledge on it. I always knew that it's the largest organ in the body when we're born, but shrinks to the size of a pea when we're much older. It's one of the main organs of our immune response. T cells come from the thymus. B cells from
bone marrow. the thymus is proportionately large when we're young because we have no natural defence. The thymus builds it. I haven't yet found out whether the thymus shrinks through lack of use or through pre programmed need or some other reason.
I can't help wondering whether many diseases of older age could ultimately be related to ineffective, or insufficient, protection from killer T cells. If so do the lifestyles we lead, particularly as children. Make the best use of this natural defence?
The immune system in more detail by nobelprize.org
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