Age-related diseases like diabetes, cataracts, osteoporosis, baldness, and atherosclerosis. Menopause, andropause, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease. The onset of these conditions is partially triggered by the reduction of hormone production that begins in our ’30s and accelerates, as we grow older.
Progeria Syndrome-premature aging genetic diseases
There are several diseases that cause rapid aging. In reality, they do not actually cause normal aging sped up, but create distinct features that include some aging features. Unfortunately, all usually cause early death.
• Classic progeria (Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome): probably autosomal recessive, obvious early, death in the teens. See also progeria.
• Werner’s syndrome: autosomal recessive, occurs later, patients usually survive to middle age.
• Ataxia-telangiectsia – the “fragile chromosome syndrome”
• Others: Leprechaunism (an insulin receptor mutation disease), Rothmund’s syndrome (mental retardation, skin pigment blotches, osteoporosis, and cataracts) Progeroid syndrome (early signs but long life).
None of these diseases are exactly like aging. They seem to speed up one or several aspects of aging, but none are exactly the same as watching normal aging at a faster pace.
Hutchinson-Guilford Progeria, a very rare human genetic disease, accelerates many symptoms of aging including atherosclerotic heart disease. Victims usually die by age 13.
Werner syndrome, another genetic disease, involves acceleration of most symptoms of aging including baldness, hair and skin conditions, heart disease, calcification of blood vessels, some cancers, cataracts, arthritis, diabetes, etc. Victims usually die by age 50.
These conditions suggest aging is centrally controlled such that a single genetic defect could result in proportionally accelerating all of the expressed symptoms. Central control suggests aging-by-design. WS mimics about 50% of aging characteristics: early cataracts, old skin, gray hair, etc., but not brain aging.
Diseases Related to Aging
Older people get more diseases. This is true of cancers, heart disease, stroke, atherosclerosis, prostate disease, osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease, and numerous others.
There is much discussion about whether diseases are related to aging itself, or just become more common the longer we live and the weaker we get. The question is whether age will eventually cause a disease versus just raise its prevalence.
For example, it seems likely that everyone who lives long enough will suffer from common hearing loss, but might not necessarily get cancer, though it would become more likely. The categorization goes something like:
• Age-dependent: definitely occurring with age: eye cataracts, eye macular degeneration, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, vulvovaginal atrophy (women), nodular prostate hyperplasia (men), senile emphysema, wrinkled skin, poor vision (presbyopia), brain cell loss, weak immune system (monoclonal gammopathy)
• Age-related: increasing in prevalence with age: atherosclerosis (stroke, heart attack, etc.) temporal arteritis, myelodysplastic syndrome, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, plasma cell myeloma, (“multiple” myeloma), hypertension, type II diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease (controversy), idiopathic Parkinson’s disease, prostate cancer, skin cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, “atrophic gastritis” (stomach cancer precursor), calcific aortic stenosis, Paget’s disease of bone, glaucoma, iatrogenic disease and polypharmacy (“vulnerability to infections”).
Older people get fewer common colds because they have become immune over their lifetime to numerous viruses. But the elderly are very vulnerable to cold and flu viruses against which they are not immune.
