Aging as a Phenomenon

Aging is inescapable because—simply—individual cells are mortal. ¹ Perhaps the real shock of growing old is not that it happens, but that it occurs before most people are ready for it. ² If pathologies of aging were ranked by the degree to which they are feared, perhaps disorders of the brain that lead to dementia would be at the top. Indeed, this is the single most dreaded disease of all. The next most feared are cancer, bone weaknesses, fractures, arthritis, incontinence, muscular wasting, Parkinsonism, ischemic heart disease, prostatic hypertrophy, and pneumonia together with a generally increased vulnerability to infection. These assaults to the immune system represent disease states that are both discrete and sharply identified. They are superimposed on the natural aging process; each is capable of turning an otherwise normal stage of life into a chronic pattern of illness, incapacity, or even premature death. ³