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Menopause is not a clear counter example. For all intents and purposes it is a symptom of biological aging and thus the result of "accumulated damage" (assuming
by iQuercus 12y ago
Menopause is not a clear counter example. For all intents and purposes it is a symptom of biological aging and thus the result of "accumulated damage" (assuming that is indeed the overarching mechanism).
- Retric 12y agoMenopause usually starts around 51 but there is a lot of variability and around 1 percent of women experience menopause before age 40. So it's not a direct result of cell damage. Now, if your suggesting that it's an evolutionary response to cell damage that's possible however as fixing the damage would not remove that response the difference is somewhat meaningless. Changes in brain chemistry are another thing that's probably not directly damage related as the declines start around mid 20's. PS: Biology has a lot of odd edge cases, youngest mother is 5 oldest 74. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_youngest_birth_mothers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_youngest_birth_mothers http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pregnancy_over_age_50 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pregnancy_over_age_50
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]