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.
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.
It’s one of those diseases that kill you slowly.
Wow, I was never aware of it, but this whole lets-make-up-a-cause-of-death thing is bothering me now…
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.
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.
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 think this is the most succinct and accurate way of putting it. Impressive.
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.
I’ve wondered about this “wearing out” myself, and came accross this report (2005) that speaks to the potential for stem cells to slow or reverse the wearing out of our bodies.
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.
In fact, he was 62 years old.
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.
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.