(Andrew Steele/ Science Focus) — Ageing is the single largest cause of human suffering. It might sound counter-intuitive, but it makes sense when you think it through: all of the biggest killers in the modern world, from cancer to heart disease to dementia, affect older people far more often than younger ones.
We’ve even seen it with coronavirus, with the oldest patients hundreds of times more likely to die of the disease than children or young adults.
If you add it all up, of the 150,000 deaths that happen every day on Earth, over 100,000 of them are caused by ageing. Deaths from problems like heart disease are preceded by years of physical decline, loss of independence, and so on. (…)