This article could have been entitled "Aging: We All Do it, But Why?" Dr. I.N. Love wrote about this subject in an article entitled, "The Needs and Rights of Old Age" (JAMA, Nov. 29,1897). No, the date of Dr. Love’s publication in the Journal of the American Medical Association is not a misprint: it was published over 100 years ago about Sir George Humphrey’s research on centenarians, that elite group of people who’ve made it to 100 years of age. Sir George concluded that "The prime requisite is the faculty of age in the blood by inheritance." And Dr. Love added, that "While heredity is of importance, bear in mind that the deficiencies of heredity can be made up by correct living." That was pretty good advice then, and still is. However, had Dr. Love and Sir George known, as we do today, about our ribosomes and telomeres (more on these later) they might have held a slightly different view of what could be done to prolong your life.

The Question?

Since all living things age, the question is: Why and what can we do about it?
People have been interested in the answer for as long as human beings have been asking questions. So what do Baltimore, MD, Cambridge, MA, Mankato, MN, and Houston, TX have to do with this? In these cities, and in many others throughout North America and the world, gerontologists (scientists who study the aging process) are conducting research on why we age. These scientists also want to know why we age differently, and what can we learn from studying animals and older people that can help you have a good old age.

While there are many definitions and theories of aging, readers can think of their own bodies as
becoming increasingly vulnerable to all sorts of stressors from those things we inherit and from those things in the environment to which we’re exposed.