Why do we get old and die?
 

I'm reading a book about this: "Long for This World: The Strange Science of Immortality".

There are many contributing factors as to why we get old and die. But, basically, I believe it happens very gradually on a cellular level. As we get older, our cells become less and less able to clean and rebuild themselves. Garbage builds up and doesn't get cleaned out. Dead cells sit there and don't get replaced. Crosslinking stiffens us and makes us creaky. Our arteries and brains get clogged with gunk.

Many scientists are now working on solving some of these problems - how to clean out the debris. It may turn out to be a microorganism that's needed to eat the gunk but it won't be easy because it needs to be specific and not eat everything in sight. :)

At any rate, it's an interesting read and I may add more to this thread as time goes on.

Feel free to add any thoughts you may have on this subject.

As far as the "gunk theory", I think finding ways to make the cells live longer and function more efficiently should be the goal. Prevent the gunk rather than try to deal with it after it happens.

Be careful what you wish for.
 

Trying to achieve "immortality" or significantly longer lives through science is an interesting subject.

However, living to an extremely old age has its down side, which was a subtle subtext to the movie The Green Mile, in which various characters were murdered, and legally executed.

The principal character, a jail guard, was shown to live to an age where all of his contemporary friends and acquaintances died, and generations of his new friends had died as well. These losses were painful to him. He appeared to long for death himself rather than experience more of these painful losses.

This causes one to reflect on how long a life is desirable. I have already outlived almost all of the roughly seventy-five deputy sheriffs who I worked with in the 1960s.

If science could achieve universal doubling of life expectancy, famine and starvation would eventually nullify that accomplishment.

We get old and die because if we didn't there would be way too many people on earth.

I believe it is God's plan. Grow old, body breaks down and we yearn to go to our forever home....and that's NOT in The Villages, which is our forever home for too short of a time!

Amen

Here's the reason.............
 

Genesis Chapter 3

2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”

6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’

“Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground,since from it you were taken;
for dust you are and to dust you will return.”

THAT'S why we die. No amount of science is going to change that.


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And still doing good on earth. Bless you now and I will see you in glory.

Ps I did mental health in youth camp when green mile came out. Love films with redemption.

Why do we get old and die? Nobody is getting out alive. I just read an interesting article about a Hollywood icon....Clint Eastwood.....who has directed thirteen films since hitting the age of 70 in 2000. His latest film (American Sniper based on Chris Kyle's novel) will be coming out next year. When asked about his longevity, his quote was 'I never let the old man in.' Words to live by.

I agree. God created man to be immortal. Man was not happy and chose to rebel.

While I appreciate the biblical references for why we get old and die, science has a different explanation. At the end of our DNA we have telomere chains. As we age, the length of telomere chains becomes shorter. Eventually the telomeres become so short that cell replication produces lethal errors or missing pieces in the DNA sequence, ending the cell's ability to replace itself. This point, when the cell has lost vital DNA code and cannot reproduce, is called the Hayflick limit. It's the measure of how many times a cell can copy itself before it dies.

Some cells in our body have a very high hayflick limit. Cells that line the inside of your mouth and intestines, for example, are constantly being worn away and replaced. Indeed these cells appear to have the ability to regrow telomeres. Other cells do not do such a good job of replacing themselves. These have a low hay flick limit.

On short look, I do not see a lot of research to back this up. One article said that cancer cells do not get shorter on reproduction due to telomeres while normal cells do get shorter and thus lack infinite quality. Makes no sense...what am I missing?

You are missing info about an important enzyme called teleromase. It controls the production of telomeres on the ends of our DNA. As we age, we produce less and less of this enzyme. Usually, when a cell replicates incorrectly, the error will prevent the cell copying itself again. But with cancer, cells with errors can "turn on" the production of telomerase and make the mutant cell immortal. Now, aberrant cells can reproduce unchecked and outlive normal cells. This is the process that creates tumors. Of course, as we do more and more research our understanding of this may grow or even change. That's the beauty of science. It's always challenging and testing it's own assumptions.

Amen and thank-you.