In article <3lfkfr$8s8 at news.rain.org>, anackerp at rain.org () wrote:
> We can be biochemically similar, not biochemically equal, and
> have biochemical individuality. Pollens can affect me differently than
> they affect you. Fats can be processed by your body differently enough
> from the way mine processes fats to cause no weight gain for you but
> weight gain for me. So, besides understanding our environment, we need
> to investigate and understand our biochemical individuality. Even if the
> theory of different processes of aging is wrong and there is just one
> master control (and the 100 processes are only manifestations of the
> master control?) I would want to know if our biochemical individuality
> has an affect on that master control (and of course how to affect it
> positively).
Your point is well taken. What I meant to say is that we probably share
the vast majority of non-pathological biochemical processes, though they
may work to different degrees. Therefore differences in rates of ageing
between people are unlikely to be due to the absence or presence of
certain pathways, though they may be due to the relative degrees of
operation.
The question is, I agree, to what extent external processes affect ageing.
In other words, can environmental differences or biochemical differences
that are inherent really change the way we age? This would offer avenues
of intervention.
Oliver
