6 replies to this topic

[VictorBjoerk]

Has the time when you stopped growing anything to do with how long you live?Turtles does never lose their potential to grow and can grow to enormous size if the environment is good.Has skeletal growth anything to do with how old you are going to be?Will a girl who gets her first period at 15 get her menopause 5 years later than a girl who started at 10?Or generally look 5 years younger during her life?
Many aging theories seems to say that when you reach maturity and stop growing and are able to conceive nature doesn't care about what's happening to you.Scientists also say that the reason why mussels and turtles theoretically could live forever is because they don't have a fixed size.Although all don't grow to enormous size they don't lose their growth potential.But what would happen with the aging process if you continued to grow during your 20's 30's etc?would you still age normally?

This seems to be an interesting idea

Comments from anyone knowing this better would be appreciated!speculations are also welcomed...

/Victor

[VictorBjoerk]

Scientists also say that the reason why mussels and turtles theoretically could live forever is because they don't have a fixed size.

Wait, does this mean that if I get a pet turtle and take good care of it for the next few thousand years, it will become huge?

yes!same with sturgeons.If they receive lot's of good food they can grow to enormous sizes,but very few do that since they grow very slowly and only under certain circumstances.They usually fall prey to diseases or accidents or things like that.But the internal organs shows no evidence of aging when they have been autopsied.They look the same as the 1-year olds.

[Eternal Life]

This is very inbteresting, does this mean we can take in hormones which increase the time when we grow in order to increase our maximum lifespan?

[VictorBjoerk]

This is very inbteresting, does this mean we can take in hormones which increase the time when we grow in order to increase our maximum lifespan?

I don't know,I am not an expert in this area.I hoped that someone here on this forum should know this better than me.If you are 100% deficient in estrogen you never lose your potential to grow.In some men with extreme endocrine disorders growth has been observed as late as in the 40's.However I've never seen a picture of any so I can't judge.They probably suffer from other problems since such a deficiency requires a seriously malfunctioning pituitary.So I have no idea how this applies to humans.But many scientists says that aging as we know it only can occur in animals with fixed sizes.
This is a very interesting topic and I hope any aging/biology professional reads it.
Comments and speculations are appreciated!

//V.B

[VictorBjoerk]

In my opinion maturity has NOTHING (or almost nothing) to do with aging as the aging theories are (in no particular order) e.g. oxidative damage, telomere shortening, etc or according to Aubrey: Cell loss or atrophy, Nuclear mutations and epimutations, Mutant mitochondria, Death-resistant cells, Extracellular cross-links and a lot of intra-/extracelular junk.
Growth and puberty is mostly a simple function of endocrinal response (onset of testosterone/estrogen production/conversion).

I agree too,but from a evolutionary perspective it has.However in individuals as far as I've understood the theories maturity seem to have little to do with aging.
It's worth discussing however since as it is currently in biology only animals that stop growing do age.