Can people officially die from old age?

[Jupiter60]

Apparently "old age" is not a scientifically recognized cause of death. The typical belief by scientists is that people die of diseases that occur in old age, never of old age itself. However some gerontology researchers have disputed such and say that people can indeed die of old age alone.

 

[NFuller]

This article may be of interest to you.
https://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v538/n7624/full/nature19793.html

The authors here claim that the maximum lifespan of humans is fixed and subject to natural constraints. The motivation of the argument is that although medicine is advancing, the maximum human lifespan has not increased since the 1990s. This would support the possibility that human lifetimes have a predetermined maximum value that has been set by natural selection.

 

[Drakkith]

People die because critical parts of their bodies, such as the heart or liver, break down and no longer function effectively. The human body is made in such a way as to function continually (albeit at a reduced efficiency) until one or more of these critical parts stop functioning and the person dies, so the breakdown of these critical parts (or the cause of their breakdown) is usually labeled as the cause of death.

Even in patients of a highly advanced age who can barely function at all, the cause of death is usually listed in terms of this, regardless of whether a single event (such as a heart attack) causes their death or they have progressive failure of multiple critical organs.

Saying someone died of old age is kind of like saying a person who drowned died because they went to the beach. Someone old can die of many different causes just like someone at the beach can die from many different things.

 

[jim mcnamara]

@Jupiter60 'some gerontology researchers' is not a very useful citation. Can you provide a link? Thank you.

 

[Jupiter60]

@Jupiter60 'some gerontology researchers' is not a very useful citation. Can you provide a link? Thank you.

Robert Young, a gerontology researcher who does research on supercentenarians (people who have reached at least 110 years of age) believes that it is possible for people to die of old age.

http://gerontology.wikia.com/wiki/Robert_Young

http://z3.invisionfree.com/The_110_Club/index.php?showtopic=18245&st=90

Here is what he has to say:

QUOTE (mars20 @ Apr 15 2017, 09:06 PM)
QUOTE (iamgroot(not) @ Apr 15 2017, 08:00 PM)
QUOTE (Futurist @ Apr 15 2017, 05:40 PM)
QUOTE (davzar @ Apr 15 2017, 11:15 AM)
Unfortunately it's true...
https://www.google.it/amp/www.lastampa.it/2...pagina.amp.html

Right now I'm speechless, forever in my Emma

May she RIP.

Indeed, she lived very long and advanced very far--specifically living to age 117.4.

Frankly, Mrs. Morano will certainly be extremely strongly missed by all of us.

Also, out of curiosity--what exactly was her cause of death? Does anyone here know?

Old age

No one dies of old age, not even 117-year-olds. Old age is not a scientifically recognized cause of death. People die of diseases that occur in old age, not old age itself.[Quote\]

That's 100% wrong. That's an old fallacy borne of the false notion that "Western" medicine can "cure" or "repair" anything, and a misunderstanding of the maximum human lifespan and what aging really is.

Actually, the mindset is beginning to shift, to understand that "old age" is, in fact, a cause of death in many instances.
http://reason.com/archives/2016/12/02/time...disease-and-get
http://www.the-scientist.com/?articles.vie...nother-Disease/

I'm not trying to be rude.

But paradigm shifts in science can take many years.

Scientists once said that continents didn't drift (WRONG) and that the moon's craters were not caused by impacts (WRONG).

It takes some time for old ideas to be overturned, but based on the FACTS, to say that one cannot die of "old age" is to not understand what "aging" is, to not understand what aging does to one's body.

Aging is a cause of death, yes it is.

 

[Drakkith]

Sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo to me. Scientists are well aware of the causes of death and how they relate to aging. Saying that someone dies of old age is just shorthand for saying that someone died while they were considered "old" and of something that increasingly affects more people as age increases. That "something" could be an infectious disease or the result of the normal processes that occur over a lifespan (like plaque buildup in arteries). Using "old age" as a cause of death is just fine in common, everyday language, but it is mostly useless in a medical environment. If a doctor and team of nurses are called into help an eighty-year-old whose just been admitted to the hospital, saying that he's suffering from "old age" doesn't help them. Saying that he's got heart disease and then listing his medications and the details of his heart disease does.

While I understand what Young is saying, I think he's making an issue out of nothing and I don't think his "paradigm shift" is likely to ever occur.

 

[Jupiter60]

Yeah, I agree. Old age by itself is not deadly. Diseases that occur when people get old are what kill people, not the old age itself.

 

[russ_watters]

Scientists are well aware of the causes of death and how they relate to aging. Saying that someone dies of old age is just shorthand for saying that someone died while they were considered "old" and of something that increasingly affects more people as age increases. That "something" could be an infectious disease or the result of the normal processes that occur over a lifespan (like plaque buildup in arteries). Using "old age" as a cause of death is just fine in common, everyday language, but it is mostly useless in a medical environment. If a doctor and team of nurses are called into help an eighty-year-old whose just been admitted to the hospital, saying that he's suffering from "old age" doesn't help them. Saying that he's got heart disease and then listing his medications and the details of his heart disease does.

I think that distinction is the entire point: if an older person dies suddenly while not under medical care or if a more specific cause of death isn't determined - because why bother - then you might just hear it described as "natural causes" officially or "old age" unofficially;
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_by_natural_causes
http://www.newsweek.com/hugh-hefner-dead-causes-natural-673178
http://www.abc.net.au/news/health/2017-06-14/can-you-die-from-old-age/8605896