Simply Aging

II. Fundamentals of Aging

What aging is, why it happens, when it begins, and what it is not.

  1. 1.Aging as a Time-Dependent Deleterious Consequence of Being Alive
  2. 2.Deleteriome: The Totality of Deleterious Change Associated with Life
  3. 3.Aging Is the Ancestral Default, whereas Nonaging Is a Derived State
  4. 4.Damage Increases in Open Systems
  5. 5.Life Is a Set of Self-Sustaining Processes that Locally Maintain Order
  6. 6.Life Persists Because Damage Can be Diluted, Repaired, Removed, or Buffered
  7. 7.Biological Age Is a Latent Measure of Position Along the Aging Trajectory
  8. 8.Organismal Aging Begins After the Point of Minimum Biological Age
  9. 9.Ground Zero Is the Developmental State of Minimum Biological Age
  10. 10.Development and Aging Proceed in Parallel Rather than Successively
  11. 11.Aging Is Not Programmed
  12. 12.Aging Is Both Stochastic and Directional
  13. 13.Aging Links Rising Damage Burden, Functional Decline, and Mortality Risk
  14. 14.Lifespan, Healthspan, and Longevity Are Related but Distinct Terms
  15. 15.Gompertzian Mortality Is Common but Not Universal
  16. 16.Species Longevity Is Set by Evolved Systems-Level Maintenance
  17. 17.Antagonistic Pleiotropy Shapes Lifespan Trade-Offs but Does Not Explain Aging’s Existence
  18. 18.Disposable Soma Captures Trade-Offs but Does Not Explain Aging’s Origin
  19. 19.There Are no Dedicated Aging Genes, Drivers, or Pathways
  20. 20.Aging Is Nearly Universal but Depends on Renewability and Damage Control
  21. 21.Naked Mole Rats Show that Aging and Mortality Acceleration Can be Uncoupled
  22. 22.Bowhead Whales Illustrate Systems-Level Solutions to Exceptional Longevity
  23. 23.Planaria and Hydra Show How Continual Renewal Can Support Negligible Senescence
  24. 24.Aging Increases Disease Vulnerability, and Disease Can be Viewed as Localized Accelerated Aging
  25. 25.Cancer Is an Age-Associated Disease with an Added Layer of Clonal Selection
  26. 26.Progerias Model Selected Aspects of Accelerated Aging, Not Aging in Full
  27. 27.Human Lifespan Has a Soft Limit
  28. 28.Aging Is Irreversible, but Biological Age Can Sometimes be Reduced or Reset
  29. 29.Rejuvenation Is a Measurable Reduction in Biological Age