{"id":5805,"date":"2021-12-09T20:11:32","date_gmt":"2021-12-09T20:11:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/medicine\/the-10-types-of-aging-and-their-characteristics\/"},"modified":"2021-12-09T20:11:32","modified_gmt":"2021-12-09T20:11:32","slug":"the-10-types-of-aging-and-their-characteristics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/medicine\/the-10-types-of-aging-and-their-characteristics\/","title":{"rendered":"The 10 types of aging (and their characteristics)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Time, luckily and unfortunately, passes for everyone. Growing up and getting old is inevitable. And although sometimes this passage of time generates vertigo and even fear, that we grow old and that life ends at some point is, ironically, what makes this life so special. Aging is an intrinsic part of living<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And from 60-65 years of age, we consider that a person is already in the old age stage, with the young-old<\/em> (under 65 years), middle-old<\/em> (between 66 and 85 years old) and old-old<\/em> (over 86 years) as population sectors within this group. Throughout this old age, we go through different phases that allude to the social changes and interaction with the environment and people in the environment that occur.<\/p>\n

But at the biological level, we can also differentiate between different types of aging. And it is that when dealing with the set of both morphological and physiological modifications that occur as a result of the passage of time in advanced ages and until the moment of death, biology also has things to say.<\/p>\n

And in today's article and from the hand of, as always, the most prestigious scientific publications, we are going to explore the biological bases of the different types of aging described by the biological and health sciences<\/strong>. Let's go there.<\/p>\n

What kinds of aging are there? In what ways do we age?<\/h2>\n

As we said, aging is the set of morphological and physiological changes that we experience as a result of the passage of time<\/strong> and that become more noticeable when we enter advanced phases of our life, which make up old age.<\/p>\n

All the cells in our body multiply and regenerate. And while the mechanisms of DNA replication are incredibly efficient, they are not perfect. And after millions of divisions, mutations accumulate that cause them to lose their \"optimal\" physiological properties. And this (along with the shortening of telomeres), taking into account that, in essence, we are the result of the union of 30 million million cells, it translates into aging.<\/p>\n

Even so, depending on what phase of old age we are in, how these morphological and physiological changes are, the triggers for the acceleration, the health status of the person and how it relates to the external environment and people around you, we can differentiate different types of aging<\/strong>. That is, different ways of aging. Let's see them.<\/p>\n

1. Primary aging<\/h3>\n

Primary aging refers to all those non-pathological biological changes we experience in adult life<\/strong> and which are based on a modification of morphology, loss of intellectual abilities, physiological changes, sensory deficits ... Due to biological processes associated with aging, we see that \"we are no longer young.\"<\/p>\n

Thus, primary aging occurs before entering old age, occurring more or less noticeably at earlier or later ages depending on the genetics of the person and the lifestyle they have led. Weight gain, gray hair, hair loss, wrinkles, impaired sexual response, loss of strength, decreased mental ability, etc., are the main signs of this first stage or type of aging.<\/p>\n

Be that as it may, the important thing is that this primary aging has its origin in purely biological causes<\/strong>, because the very mutations that accumulate at the cellular level after millions of regenerations and the damages that we accumulate by exposure to the environment cause the \u201csymptoms\u201d of getting older. And although it begins at an early age, it evidently continues into old age.<\/p>\n

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2. Secondary aging<\/h3>\n

Secondary aging refers to all those behavioral and social changes unrelated (partially) to biological processes that change the way we behave and relate to each other<\/strong> with the environment and with the people around us. It is the aging most associated with our psychology.<\/p>\n

It is considered that, at least compared to the primary one (which is due to the biological clock of each one of us), this form of aging is more preventable or, at least, susceptible to being slowed down. And it is that by working our cognitive skills and leading a healthy lifestyle, we can preserve our mental health for as long as possible.<\/p>\n

And we have said that it is \"partially\" oblivious to biological processes because we must also bear in mind that observing the changes in our body typical of primary aging can lead us to more likely suffer the psychological impact of this secondary aging.<\/p>\n

3. Tertiary aging<\/h3>\n

By tertiary aging we understand all those rapid losses of morphological, physiological and psychological capacities that occur shortly before death<\/strong>. When the person is reaching the end of their days, they usually see their personality destabilized and a worsening of all the signs of primary aging, as well as the appearance of pathological conditions that indicate that death is near.<\/p>\n

The person, after a more or less long time of experiencing both primary and secondary aging, quickly becomes vulnerable. The weight of age falls suddenly on her and her cognitive abilities deteriorate markedly, while the biological deterioration worsens until, in the end, everything shuts down.<\/p>\n

4. Senescence<\/h3>\n

By senescence we understand the aging of cells until they stop dividing but do not die<\/strong>. Thus, dead cells, which have reached a point where their programmed regeneration has stopped, accumulate in the tissues of our body.<\/p>\n

These cells, however, remain active and release chemicals that are harmful to the surrounding tissues and organs, thus causing inflammation reactions and biological damage that result in the effects of aging. This programmed interruption of cell division causes us to progressively lose physiological functions, constituting the normal aging of the organism.<\/p>\n

5. Active aging<\/h3>\n

Active aging is one that, according to the WHO, allows us to age preserving our physical capacities for as long as possible<\/strong>. When we age without losing functional abilities and we can function with ease in the physical, with the evident positive implications in the mental and social, we say that we are actively aging. By eating a good diet, doing physical activity throughout our lives and creating a healthy environment, we can enhance this form of aging that we should all aspire to.<\/p>\n

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6. Successful aging<\/h3>\n

We understand by successful aging that which allows us to stay alive and in relative good physical and emotional health until we are 90-100 years old<\/strong>. The effects of programmed cell senescence accumulate but it does not prevent us from enjoying a long life. Thus, that form of natural senescence that lasts until we are almost centenarians is what is defined as successful aging. In any case, it should also be considered that any aging, when death arrives, as long as it allows us to enjoy life, is a success.<\/p>\n

7. Healthy aging<\/h3>\n

By healthy aging we understand, according to what the World Health Organization (WHO) establishes, that form of aging in which the person maintains their independence<\/strong> until, of course, entering tertiary aging. When we age free of physical and intellectual disabilities and do not depend on other people, we say that we are aging in a healthy way.<\/p>\n

8. Cell aging<\/h3>\n

By cellular aging we understand that which has its cause in the damages caused by toxins and free radicals on the cells of the body, which suffer the consequences of these components and, as an organism, we also suffer the effects in the form of loss of physiological capacities and anatomical properties.<\/p>\n

In essence, it is that partially preventable aging that it is due to the accumulation of cellular damages by external causes<\/strong> to the organism (not directly associated with genetics and cellular senescence programmed), such as exposure to UV radiation, tobacco smoke, pollution, etc.<\/p>\n

9. Hormonal aging<\/h3>\n

By hormonal aging we understand all those morphological changes and physiological alterations that are due to a weakening of the endocrine system<\/strong>. Due to internal and \/ or external causes to the body, the synthesis and release of certain hormones (molecules that flow through the blood modulating the activity of the different organs and tissues of the body) is affected by the effect of age, which leads us to entering new stages of life such as menopause, gaining weight, having drier skin, etc. Hormones therefore play a very important role in the development and evolution of aging.<\/p>\n

10. Metabolic aging<\/h3>\n

By metabolic aging we understand all those alterations in our physiology and changes in the anatomy that are due to changes in metabolism<\/strong> of the body. Due to both internal and external triggers, cells no longer process nutrients or toxins in the same way, so there is an impact on the body's energy conversion processes and accumulation of toxic substances that lead us to experience the effects of age.<\/p>\n

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Time, luckily and unfortunately, passes for everyone. Growing up and getting old…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-medicine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/enorcerna.com\/wiki\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}