#1

Aging is often attributed to the detrimental side effects of beneficial traits but not a programmed adaptive process. Alternatively, the pathogen control hypothesis posits that defense against infectious diseases may provide a strong selection force for restriction of lifespan. Aging might have evolved to remove older individuals who carry chronic diseases that may transmit to their younger kin. Thus, selection for shorter lifespans may benefit kin’s fitness. The pathogen control hypothesis addresses arguments typically raised against adaptive aging concepts: it explains the benefit of shorter lifespan and the absence of mutant variants that do not age. We discuss the consistency and explanatory power of this hypothesis and compare it with classic hypotheses of aging.
Could aging evolve as a pathogen control strategy? - PubMed (no full-text available)

I find it somewhat ironic if this is true that the most promising compound or class of compounds are immunomodulators and can be immunosuppressive. Thanks to the script writers of the simulation.

The first author explains his hypothesis here:

If this is true the long agers have to watch out for continued evolution of dormant viruses, parasites, bacteria. Watch out for Bryan Johnson’s coughing at you unless the virus was selected to improve longevity of the host.

We might need home factories pumping out ultra updated mRNA or protein based vaccines, that is if the apoB particles don’t win their war.

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Bryan Johnson, Is he the New Poster Child for Rapamycin Use?
#2

And LDL levels going up with age in an attempt at fighting infectious disease, and so the oldest old having proportionally higher LDL levels as the ultimate survivors in a world of germ assaults upon the aging body :sunglasses::stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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#3

It all makes sense now. :wink:

#4

Same with blood sugar then.

#5

LOL, but all joking aside, this is why we have intervention studies. You take a group of oldsters, put them on a statin to lower their LDL, and then compare survival curves against a matched control cohort. And it seems, statins in old people still show an advantage.

And speaking of blood sugar, here’s a twist - in one of the monkey CR studies, the one where CR showed good effect on the CR’d group with substantial survival advantage, the longest lived one was… a control monkey, female, who was diabetic. That’s statistics and outliers for you. As always, one of the truest saying applies yet again - “it is better to be lucky than good”.

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