A View of Aging Centered Around the Capacity for Hormesis

It is not too far from the truth to say that everyone in the field of aging research has their own theory of aging. Enormous amounts of data exists, measurements of near every aspect of cellular biochemistry, to note the ways in which these aspects change with age, yet we lack the framework to link all of the data together, to firmly state what is important and what is not, what is cause, what is consequence, and how exactly the network of age-related changes are linked to one another. Aging is a dark forest in which the boundaries are well mapped, but only a few of the interior features have been well explored. So why not a view of aging centered around hormesis? That is the topic covered by today's open access commentary. It is similar in many ways to views of aging centered around the capacity for resilience in the face of stress. If a biological system cannot right itself after experiencing some form of perturbation, then the odds of catastrophic failure might be expected to be higher. This, at the core of it, is aging: an increased risk of catastrophic failure resulting from loss of functional capacity. Unfortunately, when it comes to treating aging as a medical condition one can't stop there, and the fine details of the biochemistry involved are in fact of great importance. Hormesis defines the limits of lifespan This commentary provides a novel synthesis of how biological systems adapt to a broad spectrum of environmental and age-related stresses...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Medicine, Biotech, Research Source Type: blogs