The aging process: Major risk factor for disease and death

Aging is the accumulation of changes that increase the risk of disease and death. Aging changes can be attributed to development, genetic defects, the environment, disease and the inborn aging process. The chance of death at any given age, available from vital statistics data, serves as a measure of the average number of aging changes accumulated by persons of that age. Chances for death are decreased by improvements in general living conditions. In the developed countries chances for death are now near limiting values, largely determined by the innate aging process after age 28. Only about one percent of a female cohort in these countries are dead by 28, the remainder die off at an exponentially increasing rate with age. Average life expectancies at birth (ALE-B) in the developed countries now range from 76-79 years, 6-9 years less than the limit of about 85 years imposed by the inherent aging process. Aging changes may be caused by free radical reactions. Application of this possibility has been fruitful, e.g., 1) "aging" is the sum of the free radical reactions associated with the innate aging process plus those arising from suboptimal living conditions, 2) extensive studies show promise of decreasing disease incidence and increasing the ALE-B to 85 years and beyond.