# Old age isn't fatal? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 2, 2009, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586 "2009-09-02T01:30:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FORTRAN\_forever](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f17d59/32.png) [@FORTRAN\_forever](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FORTRAN_forever)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/21 "2009-09-03T00:10:18Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > Perhaps you mean congestive heart failure? Congenital means a birth defect – a defect in the developing fetus. It seems unlikely this caused her death 95 years later. Oh, picky, picky, picky. 😃 Hey, I got the first five letters right. That’s almost good enough for a FORTRAN programmer. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/22 "2009-09-03T00:24:18Z")
> [@FORTRAN\_forever](#): > > Oh, picky, picky, picky. 😃 > > Hey, I got the first five letters right. That’s almost good enough for a FORTRAN programmer. My cat, Harry, had a congenital kidney defect that led to his early death ☹ at seven years old. ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2009, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/23 "2009-09-03T01:37:05Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#): > > I’m the medical director at a VA nursing home, and I really wish I could put “old age” on death certificates. The typical story there is that a 90-year-old man with a dozen major medical conditions and a DNR order is found dead somewhat after the fact when the nurse does her rounds. There’s no good way to know which of those medical conditions finally did it, and we’re certainly not going to do an autopsy to find out. I think that the requirement to list a cause of death, other than old age, when it is really just old age, skews the disease statistics. When you see increases in death for whatever reason in the news, sometimes it’s just because people are living longer and you will eventually die of something. A cause must be assigned. That doesn’t mean that cancer, or dementia, or other, is on the rise, just that it is listed more often as a cause of death. Causes me to distrust statistics. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7bcc69/32.png) [@Mighty\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Girl)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2009, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/24 "2009-09-04T23:38:22Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > Perhaps you mean congestive heart failure? Congenital means a birth defect – a defect in the developing fetus. It seems unlikely this caused her death 95 years later. It’s one of those diseases that kill you slowly. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/25 "2009-09-05T00:24:50Z")
> [@FORTRAN\_forever](#): > > My mother died (in a nursing home) at the age of 95. She had basically stopped eating several months before. (The medical staff at the nursing home all told me “that’s basically what they do when they decide they’re done. We could install a feeding tube but we don’t recommend it; let her have her dignity” and we agreed with that.) One day at lunch (which she didn’t touch) she got drowsy and fell asleep. When the staff went to wheel her back to her room they realized she was gone. > > The official cause of death was declared to be “congenital heart failure”. Well, her heart \*\*\*did \*\*\*stop beating… Wow, I was never aware of it, but this whole lets-make-up-a-cause-of-death thing is bothering me now… ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/26 "2009-09-05T00:27:27Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > I realize we’re all doomed to eventually die of some mishap, but what if? If you’re only going to die of a mishap, then you’ll stay locked in your bunkered room lying in bed chatting on the SDMB for the next million years (till you eventually do die). That’s what if. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/27 "2009-09-05T01:08:26Z")
> [@Alex\_Dubinsky](#): > > If you’re only going to die of a mishap, then you’ll stay locked in your bunkered room lying in bed chatting on the SDMB for the next million years (till you eventually do die). That’s what if. 😛 Actually, that’s the answer I was looking for. Pretty much every source you would expect to know that I looked at agrees. One problem with your scenario is that bed sores can get infected. I wonder about the psychological effects of being the only 500 year old in the world would be. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/28 "2009-09-05T01:13:29Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > I wonder about the psychological effects of being the only 500 year old in the world would be. I didn’t imply that’s a method for living limitlessly. No, no, you’re quite certainly biologically programmed to kill yourself (sometimes literally, as **FORTRAN forever** points out). But if technology overcame that, then accidents would be your biggest threat, and avoiding them at all cost would be a sad life in my opinion and an even sadder end for society. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/29 "2009-09-05T01:23:07Z")
> [@Alex\_Dubinsky](#): > > I didn’t imply that’s a method for living limitlessly. No, no, you’re quite certainly biologically programmed to kill yourself (sometimes literally, as **FORTRAN forever** points out). But if technology overcame that, then accidents would be your biggest threat, and avoiding them at all cost would be a sad life in my opinion and an even sadder end for society. Oh I know that. I was merely playing along. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/30 "2009-09-05T14:11:53Z")
I was under the impression that “old age” deaths were due to irreversible organ failure. On reflection, I wonder just about how such organ failures happen. Does the brain wear out and not give the right signals to them? Do the shortened telomeres eventually cause newly created cells in these organs to not function appropriately? Is it theoretically possible to continually transplant in “new” failing organs? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/31 "2009-09-05T14:19:11Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > …the older you get the more susceptible you are to cascading side effects. I think this is the most succinct and accurate way of putting it. Impressive. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/32 "2009-09-05T14:24:22Z")
> [@OldGuy](#): > > Perhaps you mean congestive heart failure? Congenital means a birth defect – a defect in the developing fetus. It seems unlikely this caused her death 95 years later. > [@Mighty\_Girl](#): > > It’s one of those diseases that kill you slowly. My Uncle (by marriage) died of heart failure, caused by a genetic defect that he and all his siblings have. Once it was diagnosed in them all, they were all aware that one day it would claim each of them - instantly, quietly, and almost painlessly. Many of them have done so. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/33 "2009-09-05T14:40:13Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > I was under the impression that “old age” deaths were due to irreversible organ failure. On reflection, I wonder just about how such organ failures happen. Does the brain wear out and not give the right signals to them? Do the shortened telomeres eventually cause newly created cells in these organs to not function appropriately? Is it theoretically possible to continually transplant in “new” failing organs? I’ve wondered about this “wearing out” myself, and came accross this report (2005) that speaks to the potential for [stem cells](http://www.nature.com/embor/journal/v6/n1s/full/7400436.html) to slow or reverse the wearing out of our bodies. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2009, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/34 "2009-09-05T14:42:35Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > My Uncle (by marriage) died of heart failure, caused by a genetic defect that he and all his siblings have. Once it was diagnosed in them all, they were all aware that one day it would claim each of them - instantly, quietly, and almost painlessly. Many of them have done so. Did some of these relatives live into old age before they died? ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/35 "2009-09-06T00:53:26Z")
> [@mangeorge](#): > > Did some of these relatives live into old age before they died? Don’t know. My Uncle had just retired, so I guess he was around 60-65yrs, but the ones who died before him were probably younger, in their 50s. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2009, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/36 "2009-09-06T01:03:31Z")
In fact, he was 62 years old. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2009, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/37 "2009-09-06T01:16:00Z")
So he was pretty young. The relative youth of your relatives would suggest to me that it wasn’t age that aggrevated their condition, but the passage of time. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2009, 2:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586/38 "2009-09-06T02:23:19Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > I was under the impression that “old age” deaths were due to irreversible organ failure. On reflection, I wonder just about how such organ failures happen. Does the brain wear out and not give the right signals to them? Do the shortened telomeres eventually cause newly created cells in these organs to not function appropriately? Is it theoretically possible to continually transplant in “new” failing organs? Oxidative damage is a major\* contributor. Rogue chemicals and unwanted byproducts interact in ways the body can’t cope with, and over time, damage accumulates. \*The exact definition of “major” in this context is still open to wide interpretation. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-age-isnt-fatal/508586.md?page=1)