human beings' strivings to create enduring meaning and value in theirlives. Show
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Most people will live to experience aging. Age-related deterioration is affecting an ever-growing number of people. Although the process is unavoidable, it is important to understand the process. As a physiotherapist, we might be able to positively influence aspects that maintain or engender better health and wellness as a person ages, treating and ameliorating symptoms of common conditions associated with aging. In the past, maximum life span (the maximum biological limit of life in an ideal environment) was not thought to be subject to change with the process of aging considered non-adaptive, and subject to genetic traits. In the early 1900s, a series of flawed experiments by researcher Alexis Carrel demonstrated that in an optimal environment, cells of higher organisms (chickens) were able to divide continually, leading people to believe our cells to potentially possess immortal properties. In the 1960’s Leonard Hayflick[1] disproved this theory by identifying a maximal number of divisions a human cell could undergo in culture (known as the Hayflick limit), which set our maximal life span at around 115 years. Life span is the key to the intrinsic biological causes of aging, as these factors ensure an individual’s survival to a certain point until biological aging eventually causes death. There are many theories about the mechanisms of age-related changes, and they are mutually exclusive, no one theory is sufficiently able to explain the process of aging, and they often contradict one another. A literature review[2] highlights that centenarians have healthy ageing because of the delay in processes like physiological decline and age-related diseases or syndromes. The review discusses that genetic component which plays an important role in longevity. The researchers suggest that biology of centenarians yields a key for intervention to promote healthy ageing in the general population. Modern biological theories of aging in humans currently fall into two main categories: programmed and damage or error theories. These two categories of theory[4] are also referred to as non-programmed aging theories based on evolutionary concepts (where ageing is considered the result of an organism’s inability to better combat natural deteriorative processes), and programmed ageing theories (which consider ageing to ultimately be the result of a biological mechanism or programme that purposely causes or allows deterioration and death in order to obtain a direct evolutionary benefit achieved by limiting lifespan beyond a species-specific optimum lifespan (Figure 1). Figure 1: Evolutionary cost/ benefit of additional lifespan vs. age.
Goldsmith's review of modern programmed (adaptive) theories of biological ageing investigates how organisms have evolved mechanisms that purposely limit their lifespans in order to obtain an evolutionary benefit. Theories of Ageing[edit | edit source]This video gives a good introduction to the theories of aging [5]
Biological Theories of Aging[edit | edit source]The Programmed Theory[edit | edit source]1) Programmed Longevity, which considers ageing to be the result of a sequential switching on and off of certain genes, with senescence being defined as the time when age-associated deficits are manifested. 2) Endocrine Theory, where biological clocks act through hormones to control the pace of ageing. 3) Immunological Theory, which states that the immune system is programmed to decline over time, leading to an increased vulnerability to infectious disease and thus ageing and death. The Damage or Error Theory[edit | edit source]1) Wear and tear theory, where vital parts in our cells and tissues wear out resulting in ageing. 2) Rate of living theory, that supports the theory that the greater an organism's rate of oxygen basal, metabolism, the shorter its life span 3) Cross-linking theory, according to which an accumulation of cross-linked proteins damages cells and tissues, slowing down bodily processes and thus result in ageing. 4) Free radicals theory, which proposes that superoxide and other free radicals cause damage to the macromolecular components of the cell, giving rise to accumulated damage causing cells, and eventually organs, to stop functioning. Further Theories[edit | edit source]
Some of the more commonly discussed theories and their relation to ageing are summarised below: Disengagement Theory[7][edit | edit source]
Activity Theory[8][edit | edit source]
The Neuroendocrine Theory[9][10][edit | edit source]
The Free Radical Theory[9][edit | edit source]
The Membrane Theory of Aging[edit | edit source]
The Decline Theory[edit | edit source]
The Cross-Linking Theory[edit | edit source]
In addition to these explanations, you can see several presentations about the biological theories of ageing on YouTube: The Wear and Tear Theory: The ageing Academy’s series on Aging: Stem Cells, long Lived Proteins, Cell Programming, Gene Expression: A Big Think monologue by Michio Kaku looking at what enzymes like Telomerase and Resveratrol offer: [14]
Psychological Theories of Aging[edit | edit source]The earliest known theories on aging were known to be psychological theories. As the age increases these theories deals with the changes in the behavior, attitude towards life and personality modifications or ego development in an individual. The psychological theories of aging focus on the changes in mental processes, emotions, attitudes, motivation and personality adaptations as per the physical, social or environmental demands. This ability of adaptation is believed to be influences by changing roles with age, relationship changes, status change in a society. [15] Human Needs Theory[edit | edit source]Developed by Maslow in 1954, this theory focuses on the fact that human behavior is motivated by their needs with age. These needs are; physiological, safety and security, love and belongingness, self-esteem, and actualization. [15]
Individualism Theory[edit | edit source]Proposed by Jung in 1960, Our personality evolves over time and is made up of ego and self-identity, which are both personal and collectively unconscious. A private emotion or perception surrounding important people or life events is known as personal unconsciousness.[16] Life-Course (Lifespan development) Theory[edit | edit source]Came into existence in 1980s by behavioral psychologists who decided to shift from personality development as the basis of understanding aging to the concept of ‘life course’. This theory divides life course into predictable pattern of stages that are formed according to goals, relationships and internal values. This theory focuses on the interconnectedness of individual and society.[17] Selective Optimization and Compensation Theory[edit | edit source]Proposed by Baltes in 1987. He believed that people over time learn to cope up with the individual losses of aging through a process of selection, optimization and compensation. As an individual age, the adaptation is done by the process of optimizing more satisfying roles in life. Baltes believes that selected optimization combined with compensation is a healthy coping strategy that helps people age successfully.[16][17] References[edit | edit source]
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