In many societies, ageing and age are considerd an increasingly undesirable consequence of a prolong lifetime enabled by social development and modern medicine. Whereas ageing is a fundamental process of organisms genetic, epigenetic, environmental, nutritional and lifestyle factors determine the rate of ageing.

The investigation of these processes is a starting point for the endeavor to retard ageing.


Markers for Ageing

• Cardiovascular health - The heart weakens with age and arterial deposits can accumulate, clogging the blood vessels.
• Glucose regulation - Age-related diabetes is a chronic insulin deficiency disease causing a disability to regulate the sugar concentration in blood and urine.
• Brain function - Over the years of live, a considerable part of neurons die. The weakeing of mental abilities as well as neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's may be the results.
• Muscoskeletal sanity- Muscles atrophy and bones weaken with age.
• Endorcrine function - Glands, producing and secreting enzymes and hormones, lose efficiency.
• The immune system - The immune defense, too, becomes more fragile during ageing.
• Oxidative stress - Oxygen, life-giving on one hand, can cause oxidative stress, on the other hand. Free radicals, toxic ionised atoms emerge due to the high reactivity (electronegativity, oxidative character) of oxygen, giving rise to permanent oxidative stress for the cells, which suffer damage without intact repair mechanisms. Ageing is a consequence of cumulated cell damages.

See also the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

For more information about aging follow this link.


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Bessenyei B. et al. Single nucleotide polymorphisms: aging and diseases. Biogerontology 5, 291-303. 2004

Lahmann C. et al. Matrix metalloproteinase-1 and skin ageing in smokers. Lancet 357, 935-936. 2001

Zhao Y. et al. A mechanism-based antioxidant approach for the reduction of skin carcinogenesis. Cancer Res. 2005 Feb 15;65(4):1401-5.

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