What is Ageing?

What is Ageing? This is a key question: if we want to slow ageing we need to know what we are aiming to influence.

Ageing is a combination of several processes: first loss of power in muscles and joints, leading to frailty. Frailty means being vulnerable to injury or accident because of muscular weakness, loss of physical coordination, which leads to falls etc. The difficulty with the process is that one should become frail, it becomes progressive - because you’re frail you are unable to exercise and retain your strength and therefore your capacity to do things diminishes making you even more vulnerable in a downward spiral. You will have seen this progression in people you have known. 

Most people believe that frailty is inevitable and a natural consequence of the passing of years. This is completely untrue; the reason for frailty and loss of muscle power is a reduction in the amount of activity. If you believe that old people should do less, should indeed be expected and encouraged to do less, and that this is ‘quite normal’ then of course frailty is inevitable. However, if you believe that there’s nothing magical about the passing of years and that you can continue to maintain the same level of exercise, the same muscle activity and the same strength building activity; then you can retain your muscle power and prevent the onset of frailty.

The second ageing process to consider is a deterioration in intra cellular functions. The most important of these is the cells energy system based around the mitochondria. Aas these begin to become less efficient with age than the whole engine of life begins to slow down.

Fortunately, continuing exercise, continuing social presence, continuing intake of appropriate Nutritional components and supplements can slow down this process and maintain energy function longer than is often seen.

We have to accept that there is an inbuilt process that is intended to take us to the point of death, this is necessary for the species, we cannot keep all that old people alive forever, and expect the tribe or community to look after them. Of course we have to make way for the new generations. This process is not hope of immortality on this earth, but we can slow the process down so that we achieve our primary goal of making our health span close to our lifespan.