Aging- Living Organisms

2. The MSNBC webcast recounts different stories of the aging population in America. One of the cases mentioned in the web cast is Arden peters and his wife Maxine. The aging theory of wear and tear can be applied to the case of Arden peters who has lost his wife Maxine due to dementia and Parkinson’s. He himself became too weak to care for himself due to the process of aging (MSNBC, n.d). He reached a point where he required someone to care for him. His friend Warren DeWitt is taking care of him and previously helped him take care of his wife until she passed away (MSNBC, n.d). The theory of wear and tear is based on the notion that aging is caused by damages done at the cellular level over time (Hawkley, Berntson, Engeland, Marucha, 2005). The processes that could damage the cells could be sickness, radiation, and accumulation of toxic materials over time

Humans undergo several stages during their lifetime including growth, development, reproduction and senescence. Senescence is defined as the deteriorative biological changes that organisms experience as they age eventually leading to death. These changes include low metabolism, a weak immune system, memory loss, poor vision and loss of hearing. Senescence begins in humans during their post-reproductive years. However, gerontology research has shown that individuals who reproduce late have longer life spans compared to individuals who reproduce early. Nonetheless, it does not indicate that senescence is inevitable. All organisms experience senescence,

Aging, though it is usually defined as a biological process, it is also the gathered development of change with time. Aging is a continuous, complex and dynamic process that begins even before birth and ends with death. Unless death occurs at an early age, all humans grow old and experience the effects of the aging process. The process of aging does not

Within the last century, and even merely in the past decade, incredible advancements in technology have allowed modern medicine to rapidly progress to extraordinary levels, leaving scientists with unprecedented understanding of the human body, and of the aging process especially. While the field of gerontology has flourished as a result and knowledge of physiological changes in the aging body increased, scientists still only have a some-what fundamental understanding of the normal aging brain, and even less of abnormal age-related changes in the brain.

The main discussion of the article focuses on the topic of whether aging is a

In order to better understand aging-associated diseases, it is first necessary to define what aging is. Aging is a complex, multifactorial process of harmful mutations in cells and tissues that are accumulated over time and result in an increased risk of disease and, eventually, death (Tosato, Zamboni, Ferrini, & Cesari, 2007, p. 401). Contrary to the belief that aging can be cured through medical advances, it is scientifically accepted that, while human life expectancy has increased, the human life span has remained largely unchanged for the past 100,000 years (Tosato et al., p. 401). Therefore, future developments in aging research ought to focus on addressing treatment and prevention of major aging-associated diseases that will

The article Understanding the Odd Science of Aging, characterize aging as “a progressive, generalized impairment of functions, resulting in an increasing vulnerability to environmental challenges and a growing risk of diseases and death.” In the article many theories are mentioned relating to why humans age such as the somatic mutation theory, telomere loss theory, mitochondrial theory, altered proteins theory and waste accumulation theory. Though

Aging is the amount of changes in person overtime. It is a multidimensional process, which can affect a person physically and psychologically. With age, people weaken and affect their memory. There are four types of aging: intrinsic, universal, progressive and deleterious. Intrinsic aging is chronologic aging, it deals with internal factors, and it decreased fat cells size, and damaged fat cells differentiation. Deleterious aging connects with aging will only be considered as part of the aging process if it “poor” for the individual. Universal aging deals with the process of how aging occur differently in all individual of species.

Aging process will lead to decline of biological functions and the ability to adapt to metabolic stress. Since the percentage of mortality increases rapidly with aging, it is clear that all of the body systems will changes in the individual which make him or her more vulnerable to disease. Among the systems that get affected by aging process are endocrine, cardiovascular, respiratory, musculoskeletal, and reproductive

In the new age, aging is an event that has confounded biologists for the past several decades. With new advances in medicine, people are living longer than ever before and as a result are experiencing a new phenomenon known as aging, where there is deterioration of physiological functions that are required for survival and fertility over time. Now that people can live past 50 years of age, they are likely to develop grey hair, muscle deterioration, memory loss and slowed sexual responsiveness. While most organisms go through the aging process, there is no single hypothesis that explains how or why aging and senescence, the physiological deterioration, happens. In most organisms, there is a trade-off between the energy allocated for early growth

Is aging the result of genetic predisposition or do our cells and organs just wear out over time? Some accepted explanations of biological aging outlined in the reading are programmed, error based, and non-programmed theories.

The way God created us as humans is a life cycle where eventually late adulthood comes with the biology of aging. Santrock (2013) describes five different theories of why humans age (p. 541). The evolutionary theory explains that aging is more of a natural selection process, and diseases occur in the elderly because they “would have been eliminated” if they were in younger people (Santrock, 2013, p.541). Cellular clock theory describes how cells get tired of dividing after they have been reproducing for so long (Santrock, 2013, p.541). Free-radical theory explains when “cells metabolize energy the by-products include unstable oxygen molecules known as free radicals” (Santrock, 2013, p.541). The unstable oxygen molecules can damage DNA and other structures inside the cell (Santrock, 2013, p.541). Mitochondrial theory describes how aging occurs because of the mitochondria essentially wearing out and becoming less efficient (Santrock, 2013, p.542). Mitochondria are the cell’s “power house,” and they convert energy inside the cell (Bailey, 2008). The last theory, hormonal stress theory, illustrates the effects of stress, especially long term stress, on aging (Santrock, 2013, p.542). Stress released hormones which depress the immune system making people more susceptible to disease (Santrock, 2013, p.542). There are many theories about why human’s age, and all of them may be true, but regardless aging is inevitable and so are its effects.

Aging is the process of becoming older, as we age, multiple mutations occur that concern all the processes of aging well as it compromising a number of different genes. There are many theories of biological aging, such as the Cellular Aging Theory, Immunological Theory, and the Wear and Tear Theory. The Cellular Aging theory describes the process of aging in which cells slow their number of replication, thus giving each species a “biological clock that determines its maximum life span” and how quickly one 's health will deteriorate(Hooyman, 42). After a certain number of years, each cell which follows an apparent biological clock starts to replicate itself less, thus the specific individual or species slowly deteriorates. This theory gives

Also spelled as ageing, this is generally the process of becoming old. It is the in a way the opposite of immortality. In a broader aspect, it may occur to single cells in an organism also called cellular senescence or the population of a species, known as population ageing. This process primarily affects human beings and fungi. In humans, it signifies the accumulation of various changes which occur over time. The changes include physical, social and psychological changes.

Biological aging can very simply be defined as the gradual and progressive changes in physical function that occur in all species and that begin in adulthood and end at death.