Biological Theories of Aging - Research Paper Example

This paper briefly explains some of the biological theories of aging mentioned above. Simple Deterioration Theory argues that Aging is the accumulative result of universal deteriorative processes such as oxidation, molecular damage, wear and tear, or accumulation of adverse byproducts (Goldsmith, p.3). Even though man and machine are two entirely different things, both of them have certain similarities in their functioning. No machine is able to function more than particular period of time because of the wear and tear due to continuous work.

Same way bodies of the living things are also undergoing continuous work which causes damages to the parts of the body. Even though we refill the fuels in the form of food, nutrients and water, there are certain limitations for the body of the living things to survive for a longer period. In chemistry, most of the chemical reactions yield products and by-products. These by-products are not necessarily the intended one. Same way our body chemistry also yields different by-products which are harmful to our health and may reduce our life span.

At the same time we cannot avoid the production of such by-products Non-programmed theory of aging believes that aging is a passive result of an organism’s inability to better resist fundamental deteriorative processes. Moreover aging serves no purpose, is not an adaptation, and is not programmed (Goldsmith, p.8). Our body is undergoing lot of changes and processes virtually in very seconds. Most of the activities inside our body are beyond our control. For example, the pumping of blood by the heart is not done with our permission.

We cannot stop any of the internal functions. Everything inside our body is tuned to do certain things and any malfunctions occur inside our body may result in diseases. We are passive observers of our body functions. “Organisms are purposely designed and genetically programmed to age or