Abstract
Biologic aging arises from various causes, including deterioration of cells by mutations, destruction of the cells in organs through infections, aging by failure to eliminate harmful waste products, poisoning from external sources, and by radiation damage. All of these processes lead to equations of the kind observed experimentally for the aging process, so that a proper assessment of the various factors contributing to aging is especially complicated. Many nonbiological processes in which the products of reaction speed up the aging reaction lead to the familiar equation for the rate of aging. Corrosion of metals is exhibited as a typical example of this; many other examples could be given. The general equation for depth of anesthesia brought about by lipid-soluble materials and how this effect can be mimicked by accumulation of waste products is shown to simulate the typical aging curve; it is well known that such waste products are a frequent cause of death.
Keywords: theory model
Full text
PDFSelected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Eyring H., Stover B. J., Brown R. A. The dynamics of life. V. Applying the steady-state theory of mutations to human cancer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1971 Aug;68(8):1670–1672. doi: 10.1073/pnas.68.8.1670. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Eyring H., Stover B. J. The dynamics of life. II. The steady-state theory of mutation rates. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1970 Jun;66(2):441–444. doi: 10.1073/pnas.66.2.441. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Miller K. W., Paton W. D., Smith E. B., Smith R. A. Physicochemical approaches to the mode of action of general anesthetics. Anesthesiology. 1972 Apr;36(4):339–351. doi: 10.1097/00000542-197204000-00008. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Stover B. J., Eyring H. The dynamics of life, 3. Mechanisms of nonsurvival and the relation of dose size. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1970 Jul;66(3):672–676. doi: 10.1073/pnas.66.3.672. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Stover B. J., Eyring H. The dynamics of life. I. Death from internal irradiation by 239Pu and 226Ra, aging, cancer, and other diseases. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1970 May;66(1):132–139. doi: 10.1073/pnas.66.1.132. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]