IS AGEING A DISEASE?

By Ryhaan Shah

There is an intense ongoing debate in the scientific community about whether ageing is actually a treatable disease. Ageing has always been viewed as a natural and irreversible process, but some researchers are making the case that treating ageing as a disease could quicken medical research and efforts into finding effective interventions for age-related conditions and, thus, extend our health and longevity.
These researchers argue that classifying ageing as a disease would allow for funding for anti-ageing therapies and clinical trials. They point out that it was not until obesity was designated a disease that the development of various therapies and treatments became possible.
However, there are many researchers who disagree with this approach. They maintain that ageing is a universal process that happens to everyone and cannot, therefore, be considered abnormal or a “disease”.
They contend that to treat ageing as a disease would promote ageism and the discrimination that accompanies it, reinforce negative stereotypes of ageing, and treat the elderly as inherently broken people who should be fixed.
Medical experts continue to promote the ongoing advice on maintaining good health with proper nutrition and exercise while managing age-related issues with effective medication and therapy. This, they say, is more socially acceptable and sustainable than trying to “cure” ageing.
The World Health Organisation has moved to classify “old age” as an “extension of life” rather than a disease, but the debate continues about whether changing the definition could revolutionise medical treatment or cause unnecessary harm.
There could well be an appetite for halting or reversing the ageing process, as seen by the widespread use of Botox treatments by both men and women. What is called the “baby Botox” treatment is considered preventative and involves injecting small doses of botulinum toxin into facial muscles to prevent deep wrinkles from forming.
People start these treatments as young as 20 or 30, and it gives them a smoother, long-term youthful appearance. However, the effects wear off in three to four months, which means that treatment needs to be ongoing for the maintenance of that youthful look.
This becomes expensive, and if done incorrectly, it can lead to a “frozen” appearance, as seen in some older Hollywood celebrities whose facial muscles no longer move in a natural way.
Of course, the cosmetics industry also offers a host of anti-ageing creams and serums that promise “youth in a bottle”, and their profits are enormous as people reach for a “cure” and the promise of “youth in a bottle”.
Whether it’s Botox or miracle creams, the acquired youthfulness is only skin deep: the body still ages even if the face remains free of deep wrinkles.
Another area of medical research has discovered that there are significant shifts in the readings of our blood protein levels around young adulthood, age 34; in late middle age, around 60; and then into what is considered old age, at age 78.
They also found that men and women age differently. Research is still ongoing in this study, which measured protein levels in the blood, but data analysed from over 4,000 people ranging in age from 18 to 95 looked at some 3000 different proteins moving through the body, giving a snapshot of what was going on inside.
While protein levels often stayed relatively constant, they discovered significant shifts in the readings around those three stages of our natural growth and development: at ages 34, 60, and 78. Ageing is not a continuous process that moves at the same speed but seems to shift gears at these key thresholds, creating three waves of ageing.
The idea of measuring blood proteins to provide information about a person’s health is not new.
Most of us have had to have blood tests done either at our annual check-up or when we fall ill. The results from current blood tests tell the doctor much about our cholesterol levels, heart health, and kidney function, for instance.
The study has put forward a new way of reliably predicting a person’s age by using the protein levels in their blood. You could be 10 or even 20 years younger or older than your calendar age based on your diet, exercise, and lifestyle. These are still key factors in slowing down our ageing process, and those of us with lower, healthier blood protein levels show slower biological ageing and perform better on physical and cognitive tests.
And those pesky wrinkles? It’s where your smiles have been, according to American writer Mark Twain. Most of us still embrace them as expressions of a joyful life.