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  • 1 - Ageing: what is it and why does it happen?

  • from SECTION 1 - BACKGROUND TO AGEING AND DEMOGRAPHICS
  • Edited by Susan Bewley, William Ledger, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Dimitrios Nikolaou
  • Book:
    Reproductive Ageing
    Published online:
    05 February 2014
    Print publication:
    01 June 2009, pp 3-14

  • Summary

    Demographers encapsulate the rate of population ageing by estimating the years taken for a doubling from 7% to 14% of the number of people aged 65 years or over as a proportion of the total population. The stages of the lifespan of mammals can be distinguished as: fertilisation and birth, infancy to sexual maturity and adult reproductive life through to death, which may include a distinct post-reproductive phase. The molecular changes that are commonly regarded as ageing do not begin at a defined stage but seem to develop gradually. At the molecular level, it is clear that damage to all cellular components accumulates with increasing age. According to the disposable soma theory, evolution has favoured strategies that devote energy and resources to enable the soma to attain reproductive fitness with the germ line safe from damage. Non-adaptive strategies have been suggested based on the disposable soma theory.