March 29, 2024

BENGALURU EXPRESS

Truth Triumphs

Think of how well you live, not how long!

GUEST COLUMN: Dr. N Prabhudev

People do not die of Old Age!

Bangalore, Dec. 12: Last breath, gone forever. Nature has taken its course. Death is inevitable! The timing is not. We all die. Dust to dust. Just a matter of why, when and how! Immortality is a human obsession. How well you live is what matters and not how long! Old age is the inexorable march toward death.

An increase in lifespan is a side effect of improved health! We have added life to years! Some people seem to be inherently more at peace with death. Others find the dying process difficult to accept.

A person does not die of old age but many are old when they die. Death is the irreversible cessation of all biological functions that sustain life. For those with a brain, death can also be defined as the irreversible cessation of functioning of the brain including brainstem. Brain death is used as a legal definition of death.
Homeostasis!

The body’s need to maintain a state of equilibrium – ability to regulate various physiological processes to keep internal states steady and balanced. People with good homeostasis tend to have well-regulated body temperature, blood pressure, blood sugar and water balance and blood flow. All of these things are important to live a healthy life.

What Triggers Death at Old Age?
Pathologists have identified a rogue cell – like a bacteria that could cause most age-related illnesses. These cells are called senescent cells. They build up over time. When someone has too many of them, these cells can go on a destructive rampage killing other cells they come in contact with and leads to loss of Homeostasis! Decline of Homeostasis results in diseases that cause death from old age.

The idea that people die of pure aging, without pathology, is nuts! Pathology refers to something that can kill you – Heart failure, Kidney failure, Liver failure, strokes and cancers! Often, the immediate cause or physiologic process for death is cardiopulmonary arrest. Old age is never written as a cause of death on a death certificate.

You’re as old as you feel. I will never be an old man. To me old age is always 15 years older than I am. Regular exercise will keep you strong, active and supple.
Over the long haul all that really matters is progress in medicine- building new classes of therapy to repair and reverse the known causes of aging. The sooner these treatments arrive, the more lives will be saved.

Do we Really Die Of Old Age?
Queen Elizabeth’s death certificate shows her cause of death to be “extreme old age”.
We were younger yesterday. We grow into our 80s or 90s, or possibly centenarians, and eventually we go. Maybe, it’s at the hand of a disease. Sometimes we exit quietly. No one dies of “old age”- If every organ in the body functions at its correct, non-disease capacity. Maximum heart rate in “healthy” humans is 220 minus age. If this can be extrapolated, at the age of 200, the hypothetical maximum rate of 20 beats per minute would not be enough to stay alive – thus a person would “die of old age” because the normal, non-diseased capacity of the heart is not adequate to sustain life. The same argument can be made for other organs.

Life can be a struggle for people in their 80 and 90s even though they may be in overall good health. Well-being can start taking a natural downturn towards the inevitable. A person – old dies peacefully with no outright indicator contributing to the death is generally deemed to have died of old age. Old age is subjective and cannot be universally defined.

Can we live forever?
No, life needs Death! Life is precious because death is inevitable. Even those who want to go to heaven do not wish to die! Life followed by death is universally accepted unapologetic truth without debate or demure. I believe a natural death at an acceptable mature age should be a blessing. However Death by way of unnatural causes isn’t a blessing.

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