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An Evolution-Based Model of Causation for Aging-Related Diseases and Intrinsic Mortality: Explanatory Properties and Implications for Healthy Aging

Aging-related diseases are the most prevalent diseases in advanced countries nowadays, accounting for a substantial proportion of mortality. We describe the explanatory properties of an evolution-based model of causation (EBMC) applicable to aging-related diseases and intrinsic mortality. The EBMC t...

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Autores principales: Levy, Gilberto, Levin, Bruce
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8894190/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35252084
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.774668
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author Levy, Gilberto
Levin, Bruce
author_facet Levy, Gilberto
Levin, Bruce
author_sort Levy, Gilberto
collection PubMed
description Aging-related diseases are the most prevalent diseases in advanced countries nowadays, accounting for a substantial proportion of mortality. We describe the explanatory properties of an evolution-based model of causation (EBMC) applicable to aging-related diseases and intrinsic mortality. The EBMC takes the sufficient and component causes model of causation as a starting point and develops it using evolutionary and statistical theories. Genetic component causes are classified as “early-onset” or “late-onset” and environmental component causes as “evolutionarily conserved” or “evolutionarily recent.” Genetic and environmental component causes are considered to occur as random events following time-to-event distributions, and sufficient causes are classified according to whether or not their time-to-event distributions are “molded” by the declining force of natural selection with increasing age. We obtain for each of these two groups different time-to-event distributions for disease incidence or intrinsic mortality asymptotically (i.e., for a large number of sufficient causes). The EBMC provides explanations for observations about aging-related diseases concerning the penetrance of genetic risk variants, the age of onset of monogenic vs. sporadic forms, the meaning of “age as a risk factor,” the relation between frequency and age of onset, and the emergence of diseases associated with the modern Western lifestyle. The EBMC also provides an explanation of the Gompertz mortality model at the fundamental level of genetic causes and involving evolutionary biology. Implications for healthy aging are examined under the scenarios of health promotion and postponed aging. Most importantly from a public health standpoint, the EBMC implies that primary prevention through changes in lifestyle and reduction of environmental exposures is paramount in promoting healthy aging.
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spelling pubmed-88941902022-03-05 An Evolution-Based Model of Causation for Aging-Related Diseases and Intrinsic Mortality: Explanatory Properties and Implications for Healthy Aging Levy, Gilberto Levin, Bruce Front Public Health Public Health Aging-related diseases are the most prevalent diseases in advanced countries nowadays, accounting for a substantial proportion of mortality. We describe the explanatory properties of an evolution-based model of causation (EBMC) applicable to aging-related diseases and intrinsic mortality. The EBMC takes the sufficient and component causes model of causation as a starting point and develops it using evolutionary and statistical theories. Genetic component causes are classified as “early-onset” or “late-onset” and environmental component causes as “evolutionarily conserved” or “evolutionarily recent.” Genetic and environmental component causes are considered to occur as random events following time-to-event distributions, and sufficient causes are classified according to whether or not their time-to-event distributions are “molded” by the declining force of natural selection with increasing age. We obtain for each of these two groups different time-to-event distributions for disease incidence or intrinsic mortality asymptotically (i.e., for a large number of sufficient causes). The EBMC provides explanations for observations about aging-related diseases concerning the penetrance of genetic risk variants, the age of onset of monogenic vs. sporadic forms, the meaning of “age as a risk factor,” the relation between frequency and age of onset, and the emergence of diseases associated with the modern Western lifestyle. The EBMC also provides an explanation of the Gompertz mortality model at the fundamental level of genetic causes and involving evolutionary biology. Implications for healthy aging are examined under the scenarios of health promotion and postponed aging. Most importantly from a public health standpoint, the EBMC implies that primary prevention through changes in lifestyle and reduction of environmental exposures is paramount in promoting healthy aging. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-02-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8894190/ /pubmed/35252084 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.774668 Text en Copyright © 2022 Levy and Levin. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Levy, Gilberto
Levin, Bruce
An Evolution-Based Model of Causation for Aging-Related Diseases and Intrinsic Mortality: Explanatory Properties and Implications for Healthy Aging
title An Evolution-Based Model of Causation for Aging-Related Diseases and Intrinsic Mortality: Explanatory Properties and Implications for Healthy Aging
title_full An Evolution-Based Model of Causation for Aging-Related Diseases and Intrinsic Mortality: Explanatory Properties and Implications for Healthy Aging
title_fullStr An Evolution-Based Model of Causation for Aging-Related Diseases and Intrinsic Mortality: Explanatory Properties and Implications for Healthy Aging
title_full_unstemmed An Evolution-Based Model of Causation for Aging-Related Diseases and Intrinsic Mortality: Explanatory Properties and Implications for Healthy Aging
title_short An Evolution-Based Model of Causation for Aging-Related Diseases and Intrinsic Mortality: Explanatory Properties and Implications for Healthy Aging
title_sort evolution-based model of causation for aging-related diseases and intrinsic mortality: explanatory properties and implications for healthy aging
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8894190/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35252084
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.774668
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