New research reveals that people don’t die from aging itself, but from specific diseases. Scientists analyzed 2,410 autopsies and found cardiovascular disease caused most deaths, including heart attacks at 39%, cardiopulmonary failure at 38%, and strokes at 17.9%. Among people over 85 who died unexpectedly, cardiovascular events accounted for 77% of deaths. Even healthy centenarians succumbed to identifiable causes: 68% from cardiovascular problems, 25% from respiratory failure, and zero from “old age.” The study, published in Genomic Psychiatry, challenges decades of aging research assumptions. Different species die from different causes—mice primarily from cancer, fruit flies from intestinal failure. The researchers argue that widely-used longevity interventions like rapamycin and intermittent fasting merely delay specific diseases rather than slow aging itself. (Story URL)
