Wrinkling and Sagging are Chronic Toxic Processes Not Directly Caused by Aging

In June, 2014, my book, entitled Rare Diseases and Orphan Drugs: Keys to Understanding and Treating the Common Diseases was published by Elsevier. The book builds the argument that our best chance of curing the common diseases will come from studying and curing the rare diseases. Chapter 4 tackles the subject of human aging. Much of what we know about the aging process comes from studying rare diseases of premature aging, such as Hutchinson–Gilford progeria syndrome, Bloom syndrome, Werner syndrome, Cockayne syndrome, dyskeratosis congenita, Fanconi anemia, Wolfram syndrome, and xeroderma pigmentosum. The relationship between a these premature aging syndromes and natural aging processes are discussed in Chapter 4. The chapter synthesizes an approach to understanding aging gained by understanding the biological pathways that lead to cell death and degeneration in non-dividing cell populations. Here is an excerpt from Chapter 4, 4.1.1 Rule—We do not have a scientifically meaningful definition for the diseases of aging. Brief Rationale—We do not know the cellular basis of aging; hence, we cannot determine whether a disease qualifies as a disease of aging on a cellular basis.The majority of the so-called diseases of aging are conditions that make individuals look like old persons, or they are conditions that happen to occur more often in elderly individuals than in young individuals. One of the few points that experts in the field of aging can agree on is that the agi...
Source: Specified Life - Category: Pathologists Tags: ageing aging common disease complex disease genetic disease orphan disease orphan drugs premature aging rare disease sagging skin aging wrinkling Source Type: blogs