Why do we age and the effects of this on health – 03/20/2023 – Health

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You must have seen or read something about the case of the video in which three young people ridiculed a 44-year-old university student. The way the students treated their classmate says a lot about how society sees aging.

For years, medicine and science have been looking for solutions to delay or eliminate the effects of aging on our bodies.

Why do we age? Our body goes through a process of natural degradation of cells. They replicate and produce copies of the chromosomes that contain our DNA.

• With constant replication, the ends of chromosomes that protect cells against maturation, called telomeres, shorten, generating aging;

• Other factors such as exposure to UV rays and consumption of foods that release free radicals into the bloodstream can damage cells and accelerate degradation.

Zeroing natural cellular aging is impossible. There are ways to reduce free radicals and reverse the natural process, but the question is how much do we want to interfere with this phenomenon.

More than a concern with health, the race to avoid this natural process is the result of an imposed culture that seeks to erase the signs of aging in artistic, advertising or commercial environments.

Nowadays, studies and medical recommendations have evolved and focus on aging well, with a reduction in indicators that worsen health. For this, science has found solutions. I list three of them:

1. Food: research points to an association between the consumption of certain types of food (such as ultra-processed foods) and a higher incidence of non-transmissible chronic diseases, such as diabetes and hypertension, as well as cancer. Avoiding these foods and increasing consumption of natural foods such as fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of developing various types of cancer by up to 10% and can reduce the risk of dementia by up to 23%.

2. Habits: avoiding excessive consumption of alcohol and tobacco and practicing physical activity reduce the risks of developing neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s, and improve longevity. As obesity is also a risk factor for Alzheimer’s, scientists claim that weight reduction can help reduce the risk of developing degenerative disease.

3. Head: staying cognitively active and learning new things help stimulate brain activity and reduce the risk of dementia. Research has found low education to be a risk factor for dementia, so getting a full school education can be a preventative factor.

Because it’s important: data from the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) show a growing trend of aging of the Brazilian population. From 2012 to 2021, the proportion of people aged 60 or over increased from 11.3% to 14.7% between 2012 and 2021. The number of Brazilians in this age group rose from 22.3 million to 31.2 million, a high of 39.8% in the decade.

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