The Rationale for Delaying Aging and the Prevention of Age-Related Diseases

Abstract

Age as a risk for diseases: We offer a different approach to delaying or preventing age-related diseases. To understand the necessity for a new approach we have plotted the mortality rates in Israelis in relation to specific age groups and diseases. With the common phenomenon of aging of Western populations it is of utmost importance to follow time-dependent and age-dependent mortality patterns to predict future needs of Western health systems. Age-specific, gender-specific, and cause-of-death-specific mortality rates were extracted from the statistical abstract of Israel 1 and include data for the period of 1975-2010; these are presented in Figure 1, separately for men (A) and women (B). Detailed age-specific causes of death data were available for the year 2009. Data presented were restricted to 5-year age groups starting at age 50, and for cause-specific mortality to the following age groups: 45-54, 55-64, 65-74, 75-84, and 85+. Causes of mortality were separated into malignant diseases, acute myocardial infarction, other ischem-ic heart diseases, other forms of heart diseases, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, respiratory diseases, diseases of kidney, infectious diseases, all external causes, signs/symptoms and ill-defined conditions, and all other diseases. Figure 1 is similar to the one posted on the National Institute of Aging website and similar to data across the industrial world. The striking feature of this graph is that aging is a major log scale risk for most diseases, including the major killers: heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and Alzheimer's. For example, while aging is a 100-fold risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD) according to Figure 1, hypercholesterolemia is known to carry only a threefold risk for CVD.