A Disease or Not a Disease? Aging As a Pathology

Timothy V Gladyshev; Vadim N Gladyshev

doi:10.1016/j.molmed.2016.09.009

A Disease or Not a Disease? Aging As a Pathology

Trends Mol Med. 2016 Dec;22(12):995-996. doi: 10.1016/j.molmed.2016.09.009. Epub 2016 Oct 25.

Authors

Timothy V Gladyshev¹, Vadim N Gladyshev²

Affiliations

¹ University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01002, USA.
² Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02115, USA. Electronic address: vgladyshev@rics.bwh.harvard.edu.

Abstract

The debate on the relationship between aging and disease is centered on whether aging is a normal/natural/physiological process or it represents a pathology. Considering this relationship from medical, molecular, social, and historical perspectives, we argue that aging is neither a disease, nor a non-disease. Instead, it combines all age-related diseases and their preclinical forms, in addition to other pathological changes.

Keywords: aging; disease; pathology.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

MeSH terms

Aging*
Disease / etiology*
Health*
Humans
Pathology*

Grants and funding

DP1 AG047745/AG/NIA NIH HHS/United States