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Biological Theories of Aging

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Biological Theories of Aging
Biological Theories of Aging
Human Growth and Development

Introduction Aging is a biological phenomenon all the living things are undergoing. We are not sure about anything in the world except the aging. We are approaching getting nearer to the death from the time of the birth onwards. No living thing in the world has the ability to defeat death as it occurs sometimes naturally and sometimes accidently. Aging has different dimensions like physical, psychological, and social. There are many biological theories with respect to aging. Simple Deterioration, Non-programmed Aging and Programmed Aging, Autoimmunity theory, Free radial theory, Telomerase Theory of Aging etc are some of them. This paper briefly explains some of the biological theories of aging mentioned above.

Aging: Simple Deterioration Theory/ Wear and tear theory Simple Deterioration Theory argues that Aging is the accumulative result of universal deteriorative processes such as oxidation, molecular damage, wear and tear, or accumulation of adverse byproducts (Goldsmith, p.3). Even though man and machine are two entirely different things, both of them have certain similarities in their functioning. No machine is able to function more than particular period of time because of the wear and tear due to continuous work. Same way bodies of the living things are also undergoing continuous work which causes damages to the parts of the body. Even though we refill the fuels in the form of food, nutrients and water, there are certain limitations for the body of the living things to survive for a longer period. In chemistry, most of the chemical reactions yield products and by-products. These by-products are not necessarily the intended one. Same way our body chemistry also yields different by-products which are harmful to our health and may reduce our life span. At the same time we cannot avoid the production of such by-products

Aging: Non-programmed Aging Theory Non-programmed



Cited: 1. “Biological Theories of Aging”. 16 March 2010. 2. Gavrilov Leonid A and Gavrilova Natalia S.2002. “Evolutionary Theories of  Aging and Longevity”. 16 March 2010. 3. Goldsmith, Theodore. C. 2009. “Theories of Biological Aging”. 16 March 2010. 4. Kleinsek, Don Ph.D. “Theories of Aging”. 16 March 2010. http://www.antiaging-systems.com/agetheory.htm |

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