AGING

Aging is integral and natural part of life. The way we age and experience this process, our health and functional capacity, depend not only on our genetic structure, but also (and importantly) what we have done forour lives, the type of things that we have encountered along her, of how and where we have lived our lives. The duration of life is defined as the maximum survivability particular species.Life expectancy, in turn, is defined as the average number of years you live, in practice, from birth or from a particular age.


Despite recent advances, most basic biological mechanisms involved in the aging process remain unknown. What we do know is that:

• Aging is common to all members of any species;
• Aging is progressive
• Aging involves deleterious mechanisms that affect our ability to carry out various functions.

With the aging process, most of the organs undergo a decline in functional capacity and its ability to maintain homeostasis. Aging is a slow but dynamic process dependent on many internal and external influences, and genetic programming included the physical and social environments.Aging is a process that lasts a lifetime. It is multidimensional and

multidirectional, in the sense that there are differences in the pace and direction of change (gains and losses) of the various characteristics of each individual and between individuals.
Each stage of life is important. Therefore, the aging should be viewed from a perspective that encompasses the entire lifetime.

Achieving healthy aging depends on our way of life, so the two interventions are most effective to achieve a healthy diet and exercise.

On the other hand, social relationships are also key to healthy aging and to strengthen the individual physical and mentalemente plus they are directly related to the feeling of well-being and quality of life.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Consideraciones generales sobre algunas de las teorías del envejecimiento, Universidad de Camagüey, Lic. Gilberto Pardo Andreu Rev Cubana Invest Biomed 2003;22(1)