Slowing down as you age

My hypothesis is that as we age, our cells have a harder time enzymatically recycling waste that occurs in individual tissue.

That said, why do our enzymes run less efficiently? And, at what age does this process being to happen?

I have observed that signs of aging are more prevalent in females than in males. What differentiates us are our hormones, along side anatomical differences. The main hormone would be testosterone. Testosterone deficiency is the cause of many age-related issues in men, including erectile dysfunction.

Could it be that testosterone is the "fountain of youth" hormone?

HI everyone

I read about telomeres - chromosome endings. The articles also mentioned how cancer cells are capable of keeping the length of the telomeres at bay. Over time, our DNA gets damaged. Telomerases repair telomeres, if they can't keep up with the damage, we lose key gene sequences. These changes add up until the total amount of damage is too much to bear and we die.

yes it is true that woman suffer more age related issues like osteoporosis, menopause etc,but woman also tend to outlive woman by a lot. go to any nursing home, they are full of old ladies and not a lot of men. and most of the woman's issues are caused by a decline of estrogen. men don;t have those same problems with a decline in testosterone, in fact we tend to die sooner, So i counter that maybe testosterone is killing us and estrogen is the miracle hormone

Look at this graph. It's well-known that as testosterone decreases, estrogen increases with age in males. This is way men become more sensitive as they age, it's why our grandfathers cry when issues arise, in contrast to when they were young, you'd never see such a thing.



That said, testosterone in women also decreases post-menopause (diagram not shown).

You're right about women outliving men, that's been true for ages, but I don't think it's estrogen.

I think to better answer this question is to look at the leading causes of death in people. Most causes of death in both men and women are heart-related, such as cardiovascular disease. Most women are iron-deficient (again due to hormonal imbalances). Being iron-deficient might be a positive because iron acts as a free-radical in tissue.

Going back to what @lonely_hours said about the length of chromosomes and their degeneration, women also possess two X-chromosomes. Males, on the other hand, possess X and a Y. Having two X chromosomes suggests that if DNA in one of the X's gets damaged, the other will produce sufficient amount of protein.  In some cells, the genes on one X chromosome are active; in other cells, by chance, the same set of genes, with different variations, are active on the other X chromosome. This may prevent shortages of protein (including important enzymes) to survival.

if that were true then men and woman would have the same life expectancy. and youre right woman have been outliving men for ages, so that doesnt discount the estrogen theory since this process has been happening for ages. also the graph is intriguing but it makes me think too little too late. a man might only get a few years of estrogen in the system while woman have it for 50+ years.  im not convinced that testosterone is the key.

I still hold the belief that for men, testosterone is a key player in youthfulness. Many diseases attributed to men's health is due to a lack of free testosterone, including enlarged prostate and hair loss - alongside many others. Testosterone helps keep muscles strong and keeps men fertile. Possibly estrogen is the "fountain of youth" hormone in women, whereas in men it is testosterone.

baldness isn't a disease though it is inherited and can occur in both genders. and on the flip side testosterone therapies have been known to increase cardiac deficiencies and increase the risk of strokes. testosterone is not needed to live a healthy lifestyle, does sex drive and muscle mass decrease overt time ? of course they do becuase your body is aging and getting ready to die. dumping hormones into a system that doesn't need them is pointless. hormone replacement therapy has been around for awhile and the patients are not out living anyone.

We slow down physically with age because we lose muscle and we generally become weaker. This happens through a process knwon as gluconeogenesis. We don't slow down mentally unless suffering from a brain disorder. But we do speak more slowly and we respond more slowly. This happens because our brains have accumulated more information with age and because of this it takes the brain longer to process information and respond. Hope this helps, Russell

I respect your opinions but very little of what you said was true. True: we do lose muscle as we age. False:1.  the process is not called gluconeogenesis, gluconeogenesis is when glucose is create from a non sugar. 2. people do slow down as we age, and it is not limited to a brain disorder. it has been proven time and time again that demyelination occurs and conduction velocities slow down. 3. There is no known limit to what the brain can hold, having more information in your brain does not make you slower.

Please please please check your facts before posting in a forum and giving people the wrong information 

You should know that the body ages and becomes weaker through gluconeogenesis (this is the main cause of aging). Gluconeogenesis has nothing to do with 'creating a non-sugar' as you put it. I will enlighten you. When blood glucose goes below the norm as a result of fasting, a low-carb diet, sleeping at night, going without food for more than 5 hours during the day, etc. this compels the body to make its own glucose from materials found inside the body. One of these materials is protein which is stripped from muscle tissue, thus weakening your muscles.
Now the brain. Indeed there is no known limit to what the brain can hold, but you are confusing this with brain response time. Several recent studies show that the more knowledge we accumulate, the longer it takes for the brain to respond in the sense of talking and acting. You mention  demyelination, this is a disorder affecting the brain and nerves. Clearly, many kinds of illness can affect the way we age and the way our brain responds, that's a given. Please try to be courteous instead of making personal accusations, particularly when unfounded.

Gluconeogenesis: You agree with what I said, I stated that it is when "glucose is created from a non-sugar." and yes you are correct by saying that one of the things taken is protein, but generally your body breaks down triglycerides (or fat) since it yields much more ATP then protein does. Protein breakdown is often a last resort. Would it weaken your muscles ? possibly, but it would have to occur from extreme starvation. You forget that proteins are found elsewhere in the body besides muscles. Hormones can be made from proteins, transport proteins in the blood etc.

Brain: I have read multiple studies that follow grand master chess players. Who can can agree have vast knowledge of the game chess. When response time is measured the grand masters respond so much faster when compared to novice players. If your theory were correct the grandmasters would respond slower. Often the more knowledge a person has the more they are able to condense and refine the information making retrieval of that vital knowledge easier.

Demyelination is sometimes a product of a disorder such as MS which can speed up the process, however it is also part of the normal aging process.

My response was not a personal attack, and was not unfounded, when you present information in a poor way it needs to be corrected. You are free to have a differing opinion from me and I enjoy the conversation that being said if you want to add to the conversation then explain your ideas fully and prepare to defend your answers.

The first protein to go is albumin, found floating in the blood. Hence the symptoms of kwashiorkor

You seem to be misunderstanding the nature of gluconeogenesis. It is triggered whenever blood glucose goes below the norm. It creates glucose from lipids, protein and other things. Like an alchemist, it ‘mixes’ these things together and produces glucose to supplement the low level of blood glucose. It is misleading to say that gluconeogenesis ‘creates glucose from a non-sugar’. Protein breakdown is not a ‘last resort’ at all. We are dipping in and out of gluconeogenesis all the time, depending on our blood glucose level. We certainly do not need to be in ‘extreme starvation’ for gluconeogenesis to occur. Our muscles (including the muscles of organs) act like a protein warehouse so that such protein is always on tap for gluconeogenesis. In life we always want to minimize gluconeogenesis so as to minimize muscle loss. We do this by controlling our blood glucose (another story for another time) so as to not rev up gluconeogenesis unnecessarily. Of course, our body has various types proteins all over the place, but when it comes to gluconeogenesis, it only uses amino acids from muscle tissue (it doesn’t seek out other kinds of proteins). Apart from mal-nutrition and some kinds of illness, gluconeogenesis is by far the main cause of body aging and muscle loss.
Regarding grandmasters, of course they respond better than novices, in spite of the fact that their brains contain more information than a younger novice. The quicker response is due to their greater knowledge and experience of the game which more than makes up for any slowing down of response times.