The Science Of Aging as a Disease: Acknowledged by WHO

Greetings to my favorite Science community, StemSocial. It's an absolute honor to be back once again to share a science related concept with everyone in this community.

In my previous blog post we discussed the human Microbiome and its work to maintain our health and stability. It was a successful blog and I'm grateful for all those that supported.

In today's blog post we're discussing something really important in the field of science. Something that has actually been acknowledge by the World Health Organization, WHO.

We're diving deep into the topic of aging and how its being recognized not as a natural phenomenon anymore but as a disease.

Original Image Source by Monstera Production from Pexels

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Before we discuss what WHO stated, I personally believe that it's more fitting to recognize aging as a disease.

My reasons are quite simple, when you observe the effects of aging on the human body, you realize that it's quite similar to the effects of diseases on the body.

When you age you get weaker, this same situation happens when people fall sick. As you age your immune system gets weaker as well making you very susceptible to other diseases. It's the same with getting sick, since the microorganisms that caused the sickness fight to weaken the immune system, other disease causing microorganisms can also invade the body.

As a person ages, the telomeres in the genes which is responsible for ensuring more cell divisions reduces until it's not longer there. This means dead cells will no longer be replaced with newer and fresher cells.

This could lead to the damage or complete shutdown of a vital organ in the human body and the individual could die out of it. This is usually what people describe as dieing out of old age.

The real truth is that nobody really dies out of old age. The process I described above is what usually happens and leads to the shutdown of a vital organ for survival.

In a groundbreaking news which happened not too long ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially classified aging as a disease in its latest list of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).

In a history making news , the World Health Organization (WHO) officially said that getting old is like having a health problem in their latest list of illnesses (ICD-11).

This is a really important change or paradigm shift that has got people talking and scientists thinking of the concept of aging completely differently.

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The question is why did WHO decide that getting old is now almost no different from being sick, and what does this mean for how we can take care of our health in the future?

In the past, getting old was seen as something that just happens to everyone as time goes by. It was basically nature.

In the Christian religion, they believed that God reduced the lifespan of humans because they were too bad.

Whether nature or not, aging is taking a different definition from now onwards.

Nowadays, scientists have learned more about why we age, and they think of it as a complicated process where our cells and organs slowly break down. This isn't just because time passes, but it's more like having a sickness of its own.

After a year of personal research of my own, I finally understood the concept. Aging is basically an error in our body. Think of it as a glitch in the human computer.

Our genes are responsible for ensuring cell divisions which maintains the body's youthfulness. Attached to the genes on both sides are strands called telomeres. These telomeres are what makes cell division possible.

The issue is that these telomeres reduce in size after every division. This process occurs repeatedly until there's no more telomeres and cell divisions cannot occur again. So during old age, the cells that die do not get replaced which is why old people start to lose certain things.

For example, the cells of the eyes are not being replaced and therefore they start to have problems with vision.

They lose their hair or it turns grey, it gets difficult to hear clearly. Due of the reduction in energy and strength they are not even as active as the youth.

These are all effects of dead cells not being replaced with fresh ones to keep the body fully functional.

One of the reasons for calling aging a health issue is that it comes with a bunch of health problems. As people get older, they're more likely to have chronic illnesses like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.

These very serious health issues really affect how we live and put a lot of pressure on our healthcare systems worldwide. You see more old folks spending so much time at the hospitals.

By declaring aging as a health issue, WHO wants to make sure the scientists and doctors focus more on finding ways to help people live healthier and longer lives and avoid these age-related illnesses.

One thing I believe in the area of medicine is that if we get to solve this problem of Aging, it could lead to the cure for many more diseases.

There are sicknesses that only has major impacts when our immune system is down or weak. That's why old folks die faster when infected with diseases than the youth. The immune system of youths are usually stronger and can defend the body more effectively.

This huge change or paradigm shift also means we might start looking at aging in a new way. Scientists can now put more effort into figuring out how to slow down or maybe even stop the aging process. Wouldn't that be a game changer in our lives? 🤔

I remember sharing a blog in this very community talking about how scientists will use Artificial Intelligence to locate the age gene and detect the errors and hopefully fix it to create the possibility of immortality.

They might use things like regenerative medicine (which could help your body heal itself), genetic engineering, nanotechnology or changes in how we live to help us stay healthier for a longer period.

Also, when we start to see aging as a health issue, it could lead to changes in how we spend money on healthcare and make policies.

Huge investors, healthcare groups and even countries would start to donate or give funds to be used to do more research to find ways to deal with the health problems that comes with aging. Success with this agenda would lead to old folks living better and healthier lives.

The age for retirement can be raised and people could work better longer.

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To conclude my blog post today, with the World Health Organization declaring aging as an actual problem is a bigger step for us in changing the world of medicine.

It makes us think differently about getting old and shows how important it is to deal with the health problems that come with it.

As we continuously learn more about why and how we age, we might get closer to a future where we don't just think about getting older as getting sicker but we see old folks looking young and even stronger than the youth. What a world that would be for all of us.

Thanks so much for taking the time to read today's blog post. I hope you found it both informative and entertaining. As always I'll be happy to respond to any question or opinion you may have regarding this blog topic or even my other topics and blogs in this community.

Have a lovely science day. Catch you next time on StemSocial. Bye❤️

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