Are the known chronic diseases related to the human lifespan and its evolution?

American Journal of Human Biology : the Official Journal of the Human Biology Council
Kenneth M Weiss

Abstract

There is running debate in the gerontological research literature concerning the relationship between causes of mortality and the human lifespan. Much of this debate concerns whether we can, by biomedical intervention in known degenerative diseases, square the human survivorship curve, at a point near some human "maximum lifespan potential" (MLP) This paper examines the concepts of lifespan and MLP and the relationship between the shape of the survivorship curve and the pattern of age-specific mortality from chronic disease. The MLP need only be viewed as a statistical phenomenon whose genetic determination relates to general human metabolism rather than to programmed events occurring at the end of the human lifespan. The available evidence suggests that slowing of underlying senescence processes will not have the desired effects on survivorship, but rather the opposite.

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Citations

Dec 18, 2001·Diabetes/metabolism Research and Reviews·A Lev-Ran
Aug 19, 2006·Journal of Cross-cultural Gerontology·Gillian H Ice
Dec 23, 2016·Evolutionary Anthropology·Kenneth M Weiss
Jul 22, 2015·Cancer Discovery·Mel Greaves
Apr 27, 2020·Mechanisms of Ageing and Development·Agostino Di Ciaula, Piero Portincasa

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