How do you die from old age?

Question

It sounds like a simple question, but I have no idea

I'm guessing your organ's begin to shut down etc, but why do they? How is it that as you get older you can't self-maintain as well? I mean, at 25 your cells are constantly dying, but you can replace them..how is it at an elderly age this stops/slows down?

Basicly, I'm asking, what makes us mortal?

Answer 1

God gets rid of you when your pathetic existence ceases to amuse him.

Answer 2

There are some cells that can live essentially forever... and they are cancer cells. We can establish lines of those that live on long after the person from whom they came had died.

One thing about cancer cells is that they have telomerase that our normal cells do not. Our cells eventually have to die because after so many cell cycles, our DNA cannot be replicable due to the inevitable shortening of our chromosomes/DNA/telomeres.

Check out telomeres and telomerase. :)

Answer 3

we die from old age because our organs shut down and grow old to the point where they cant function anymore.

it's kinda  like a car.

when it's new it runs properly (unless its a pontiac or chevi or any cr@ppy car like that)

and the older it gets.. the more problems it runs into

and eventually, you cant help any of those problems and it will just wear out , which is what happens to our bodies as we age.

Answer 4

Well, telomeres are at the ends of your chromosomes and act as 'buffer zones,' so that when your chromosomes replicate and you loose little bits and pieces off the ends of them, it's okay because you're not loosing any genetic information. However, as you get older and the telomeres run out, you start loosing actual genetic information, which is critical because without that information, your organs really don't know what to do, so they stop working. DNA acts as the blueprints for how your body is meant to be built and work; if that information is missing, your body is going to slowly shut down, causing aging and death.

Telomerase is actually a very inert substance in your body. In fact, it plays almost no role in the human body after the first trimester of pregnancy. You need telomerase because so many cell replications take place in the first trimester and it prevents the telomeres from getting shorter. However, the problem is, if telomerase is too active, then it can cause cancer.

Answer 5

There are many strange and unsubstantiated ideas out there, so don't believe the hype.

This is an unsolved question of biology. We know that some people age faster than others, and some animals age faster or slower than their body weight should suggest. Humans age very slowly compared to other mammals around our weight.

The main hypothesis is that once an organism has reproduced, it is less important the natural selection if it lives or dies. Salmon are an extreme example.

As you point out, we have repair mechanisms that theoretically could keep us going forever. So the evolutionary explanation that we don't matter once we've had offspring is the best at present.

Staying alive longer is expensive, and competes for resources with reproduction. Guess which one wins?

Answer 6

Many types of cells, such as brain cells and heart cells, can not reproduce. Once a cell dies, it is replaced by scar tissue. So every organ gets weaker each day. Since the organs are not renewed, they will quit eventually, like an old car.