cory

brown

The Bilogical Basis of Aging

After peek reproduction years it's all over,

they say--that's about ten years, from say

fifteen to twenty five. From then on senescence

takes over, which is the gradual increase

of the chances of death from "internal" causes

i.e., disease, or "external," i.e., accidents.

Scientists acknowledge, however, the thin line

between internal and external causes of death--

you know, you're old and get tired easily

and fall asleep at the wheel and lights out

for you buddy, that sort of thing. Other scientists

say it's all over as soon as you're born,

that senescence takes off at birth, boom and their off,

lung cancer in the lead, suicide on the outside,

plane crash coming up close in lane three.

I can see why that would be the case: you need

a running start at about anything to get going,

so I can imagine senescence needs to get off

quick so by the time your babies are born

it's got a full head of steam to blow you away with.

But they do say there're things you can do

to slow it down, take it easy is one--you know,

lay off the steady diet of anxiety, despair,

angst, ennui, etc., and speaking of diet,

they say eating less is a major factor in slowing

senescence down--just ingest as few calories

as possible, period. But, hey, what's the point?

Isn't one of the main reasons for living longer

to eat smoked salmon and oysters on the

half shell and goat's cheese and warm blueberry pie

and homemade vanilla ice cream? Ah, life's

conundrums! Some scientists have tried

to correlate longevity with size--after all,

the maximum life span for eagles, chimpanzees,

orangutans, and elephants are 55, 55, 58, and 70

respectively, whereas for moles, mice, rats,

and squirrel monkeys its 1.9, 3.5, 3.9, and 20,

respectively. But there are numerous obvious

exceptions to this correlation. August Weisman,

the great German biologist, pointed out,

for example, that queen ants and the males

who breed them are similar in size, but the queens

normally live several years whereas the males

only a few weeks. With exceptions like this in mind

what's the point. What's my point. I'd like to know.

I suppose it's chill and eat less but grow big

and maybe you'll live longer, maybe you won't.