In the common sense view, time is the cause of aging. But common
sense knows nothing about either one or the other; to the extent that
common sense confuses age, aging and old age, breaking all the rules of
terminological precision.
Introduction
The concept of Aging
First of all, let's see why aging is a consequence rather than a cause., through three examples:
a) The gradual staining of teeth does not result from aging; instead of that, it's a prodrome of aging.
b) Wrinkles are not the result of aging; they appear when cells have
exhausted their ability of scissiparity. We can say that wrinkles are
one of causes of aging among others (inter alia)
« Wrinkles (observed reality) « ⇒ aging (concept) »
c) Osteoarthritis is not the result of aging; it results rather from
antecedent factors. In fact, aging is a consequence of osteoarthritis:
« Osteoarthritis (observed reality » ⇒ « aging (concept) »
Wrinkles and osteoarthritis are syndromes of aging
Medicine draws a distinction between chronological age, which is
expressed with time units, and biological age, which depends on the
physical health of an individual, and which is expressed in units of
estimated time. For non living things, such as artifacts, we have
introduced the expression "technical age".
The Chronological Age
Age, that is chronological age, is a concept of time. It is roughly
evaluable, but not observable: no medical expert can accurately guess
the exact age of an individual. Strictly speaking, age is a concept
corresponding to "what separates birth from today": the relevant
information, expressed as a number of years, months, and days, is very
poor. Age of all things, alive or not, increases at the same rate. A
person who has been around for a great many years is considered aged,
something that does not inform in any way as to his or her physical or
mental health. The verb "to age" has a double meaning: to become aged
(age increase) and to become old (deterioration of physical condition).
Early in 2014, a Frenchman almost 103 years old beat his personal
cycling record by travelling 26 km in one hour: this was the feat of a
man who was "advanced in years" - Cicero would say "grandis natu"
Gaffiot [1]- but not old.
The Biological Age
Aging, that is the increase in biological age, is a gradual and
unavoidable degradation of the physical condition; biological age
concerns the physical condition at a given point in the process of
aging. This is a reality which is observable, but which is difficult to
evaluate. Indeed, there are countless criteria for assessing aging and
old age, and the selection of one of them is necessarily arbitrary and
incomplete anyway: the information contained by reality is extremely
rich.
Figure 1: Comparing the estimated biological age and the
The Figure 1 is an imaginary example: the chronological age curve of
an individual is a straight line, while the estimated biological age
curve is erratic. On a given date, when the biological age exceeds the
chronological age, an individual looks older than the average (Figure
1).
The Technical Age
The "technical age" takes into account the material aging, the wear,
the maintenance, as well as the planned obsolescence or not. « Artifact:
from Latin « artis factum », made from art. ».
The Aging of Bacteria
Bacteria are prokaryotic unicellular organisms whose genome consists
of DNA with one chromosome. The statistical modeling of their
development can help.com to understand aging. Bacteria reproduce by
splitting through scissiparity one mother turns into two daughters, «
... which in their turn become mothers, each giving two. » daughters,
etc. The population doubles with each generation; the exponential
increase leads to a mathematical modeling such as:
1 → 2 → 4 → 8 → 16 → 32 → 64 → 128 ... 2 Exp (n)
We start with one bacterium: 1 is written: 2 Exp(0)
The first generation gives 2 bacteria, written: 2 Exp (1)
The second generation gives 4 bacteria, written: 2 Exp(2)
At the nth generation we have N = 2 Exp (n) bacteria
In a homogeneous medium, the generations reproduce at approximately
the same rate "μ" (Greek letterμ); therefore, the number "n" of
generations is approximately:
n & μ t
where "t" is the time indicated by the laboratory chronometer after "n” duplications. The number of bacteria finally reads:
N # 2Exp (μ t) (1)
The proliferation rate "μ” has three causes:
a) Endogenous factors, specific to the bacterium. They depend on its
heredity that is its genotype. One factor is the virulence, defined as
the ability to multiply: Escherichia coli are able to divide every 20
minutes. Mbovis (Mycobacterium bovis) has a slower generation rate, but
it is just as pathogenic. Benet [2].
b) Exogenous factors, specific to the environmental surrounding:
hygrometry, light, temperature, presence of sugar or nitrogen, gravity;
for example, salmonella typhimurium is three times more virulent in
microgravity.
c) The potentiation of endogenous and exogenous factors, one making the other more effective in some way.
Genotype + surrounding + potentiation ⇒ μ
Temperature is an exogenous factor that is easy to control, and
bacteria are very sensitive to temperature: between 20°C and 25°C, a
population of Salmonella will double every hour, and within 10 hours,
their number will be multiplied by 1000. When the temperature is
lowered, the energy intake is reduced and their development is slowed
down due to lack of homeothermy: "μ” decreases. Below4°C, the
deactivation sets in, and in liquid nitrogen, at c.-196 C (c.77°K), μ =
0.
Homeothermy: Internal regulation of temperature, controlled by
the hypothalamus. Dinosaur slacked this function, as do many modern
animals, including reptiles.
These experiments have a double interpretation:
a) The rate of proliferation "μ" contains energy components (glucose,
heat), hygrometric, gravitational, and chemical components, and
possible stochastic factors.
b) Time "t" is not the cause of their development. A "substitution
rule” provides a theoretical confirmation: the angle of terrestrial
rotation "α” is such as
α =ωt
where "ω” is terrestrial rotation speed. It leads to
t = α / ω
In equation (1) we replace”t” by "α / ω”, and we obtain
N= 2 exp (μ α / ω) (2)
Equation (2) proves that the number of bacteria does not depend on
time. Time has no impact on bacteria aging. Work done in the USA has
observed non-pathogenic bacteria which are deactivated after about
hundred transitions, through exhaustion of their genetic ability of
scissi parity prescribed by the genome: this is the clinical death of
the line, by completion of a genetic program, without temporal impact.
At the 100th generation issued from a primary bacteria, the theoretical
population reaches c. 2100 bacteria at time "t100" measured when the duplications, observed with a microscope, stop: then μ = 100 / t100 is the average duplication speed.
From t = 100/n, which is the life expectancy of a bacteria line, and from t100/100,
which is the average lifespan of a bacterium, it appears that a
favourable environment, by activating vitality (that is the factor "μ”),
reduces the life expectancy of a population of bacteria and the average
lifespan of a bacterium. Professor Valter Longo, director of the USC
School of Gerontology (CA), discovered that bacteria deprived of sugar
could double their lifespan. Interesting conclusions can be drawn for
human health.
The Aging of Cells
L. Robert refers to the activity of biological clocks in the cell
aging process. But the rhythms which are observed are irregular and
imprecise, and they depend on the environment: therefore they do not
have the reliability and accuracy that a clock should have. The metaphor
of the biological arrow of time which is supposed to orient cell
development is inappropriate; moreover L. Robert describes interactions
between the extracellular matrix and the cell: the cell and the matrix
have their own modalities of aging which modify the program sequence of
the ECM synthesis and its action on the cell as well Klein. [3] This
action, which partly determines mitosis (cell division), finally
exhausts its abilities: the author recalls the work done in vitro by L.
Hayflick (in the USA in the early 1960s), which has shown a limit of 50
to 60 duplications of the cell population: the analogy with a biological
arrow of time is obviously disqualified.
The innocuousness of time is clear from Hayflick conclusions: the
life expectancy of a cell depends on the rate of duplication (rate of
transtability). Transtability is the ability of a cell, which is
unstable like any system, to divide into two cells, themselves unstable,
whereupon each new cell then divides in its turn: cytoplasmic division
is caused by the quest to reach a steady state which is never in fact
achieved. The weaker the transtability, the slower the aging; therefore
the aging of a cell can be reduced by acting on main causes of
imbalance: stressors and genetic weaknesses. The longevity of a cell is
determined by the length of its telomere, which is a segment located at
the ends of a chromosome. The telomere gets shorter as the number of
cell divisions increases, and also due to stressors. This segment, which
is protected by an enzyme (telomerase protects the integrity of the
genome), controls the start of mitosis. The telophase, or terminal phase
of mitosis, consists in the splitting of the cell nucleus into two
nuclei, followed by cell division. Unlike non-pathogenic cells, cancer
cells are able to subdivide indefinitely: on a human scale, they do not
age, because telomerase is hyperactive inside tumoral cells. A cell does
not age because of a biological arrow of time, but because of a genetic
and environmental mitogen induction: mitosis is induced by the gene,
the environment, and a possible potentiation of these two causes.
The Causes of Aging
Time is not the cause of aging in bacteria and cells. But can this
refutation of the confusion between time and aging be generalized to all
systems? The innate and the acquired are active components of the aging
of any system, living or not: even before it is completed, any building
or human-made system begins an aging process: what is innate in a
bridge is its architecture, its structure, and the quality of the work
and materials; what is acquired derives from functional and climatic
stressors, maintenance, and repairs. The anonymous concept of aging is
replaced by a more detailed analysis, involving complex engineering and a
suitable maintenance protocol.
The Millau Bridge was designed by the English architect Norman Foster
for an approximate lifespan of 120 years, which corresponds to 120
terrestrial revolutions. In comparison, the pyramids of Giza are still
standing after over 4000 years. They are not simple assemblages of
stones: their interior layout includes chambers, passages, and complex
anti-intrusion devices. Aging is the normal outcome of the development
of living things, regardless of their complexity (ontogeny in humans);
it corresponds to a systematic evolution of their state towards
different states, resulting from degradation of all their parts, and
everything that links and orders these parts. The transtable process. In
Latin, trans means beyond (inCaesar); transabeo means go across, go
beyond in Virgilius. Gaffiot In the Dictionnaire Larousse 1923, trans
means beyond, through. The Dictionnaire Quillet 1929 defines prefix
Trans: transition from one state to another.
What is innate in a living being consists essentially of its genetic
heritage. The genetic program controls its transtable faculties, as it
does inside bacteria and cells. Similar systems age differently from
each other, and of course, this would not be the case if time was the
cause of their aging. What is acquired is the lifestyle, i.e., the
interaction with the rest of the Universe. So a lack of medicalization
and hygiene, superimposed on endemic nutritional deficiencies, which
generate a range of different pathologies, can reduce life expectancy by
a factor of 3 or 4, bringing.com back to the standard of living of the
Eneolithic; as shown by the destitution of a billion or so of our fellow
humans in the early twenty first century. A report by the Haut Comite
de la Sante. Publique [4] gave, for the French male population in 1996,
the proportions of deaths due to certain kinds of behaviour relative to
the total number of deaths due to all causes: accident 9%, alcohol 13%,
tobacco 21% (HCP). The gradual reduction of the gap in average lifespan
between men and women which has been observed in recent years is
explained by increased smoking and alcohol consumption by women, from
adolescence and even pre-adolescence. Data collected in the late 1980s
in India showed an inversion of the average lifetimes of men and women:
45 years for men and 43 years for women. (OMS) This reversed gap was
explained by the fact that men ate first, while women and children
shared the leftovers; in addition, the situation was worsened by smoking
among women .The potentiation of reciprocal action between the innate
and the acquired constitutes an additional category of active causes of
aging (allergies, stressors from different sources, e.g., physical.
Eneolithic: end of Neolithic (3000-2500 BC).
Aging and Organic Degradation
Public access to caves occupied by humans in the paleolithic broke
the precarious environmental and atmospheric equilibrium, and triggered a
rapid deterioration of petroglyphs by oxidation of pigments and mildew,
as observed in the Lascaux caves. In some Egyptian sanctuaries, the
same causes brought about the same effects on the magnificent
polychromatic frescoes which were found in their original state just
before the sanctuaries were opened to crowds of visitors. Museum
curators do not consider time to be the cause of aging in the works of
art they look after. Light (mainly ultraviolet radiation), temperature,
and humidity (and in particular, changes in temperature and humidity),
air pollution, inappropriate handling, and specific micro-predators are
acknowledged in museum conservation as major aging factors for many
materials (wood, leather, paper, textiles, pigments). This is why
museums protect their artworks by exposing them only to dim light and
ensuring proper ventilation. Very focused efforts are thus made to fight
against aging due to physical and chemical stressors, not against the
ghostly intervention of time.
The Self Organisation
Belousov's oscillating chemical reactions involve the
selforganisation of dissipative structures (Prigogine) [5]. It turns out
that these striking experiments are dependent on the necessary supply
of fresh reagent: this energy intake modifies the physical state and the
organization of the structures. Without it, the reaction would stop.
The energy is the sole cause of the observable phenomenon of
self-organisation:
No energy ⇒ no self - organization
Therefore, there is no chemical arrow of time in selforganization.
The Biological Arrow Of Time
Spontaneous and extended pulsations of a myocardiac fragment in a
glucose solute proceed with the same atemporal protocol; namely, we
observe a transtability of the physical state of the fragment, with
consumption of energy in the form of sugar. Time is powerless once
again:
No energy ⇒ no pulsation
The cardiac pulsations are perfectly observable: a pulsation is not a
concept, and the confusion between pulsations and time is obviously a
mistake. In addition, the biological rhythms do not comply with the
accuracy and regularity requirements of a clock. Therefore, we may talk
about biorhythm, but in no way about chronobiology: the biological arrow
of time is an inappropriate metaphor.
The Paradox of Aging
These results confirm that aging is not related to time. However,
time can be expressed in relation to symptoms of aging of any system,
including ourselves:
« Symptoms of aging (observable reality) >⇒» « time goes by »
We conclude with an astonishing paradox, which is summarized by the aphorism:
We don't age because time goes by, but time goes by because we age [6].
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