Written by Caleb Finch, one of the leading scientists of our time, The Biology of Human Longevity: Inflammation, Nutrition, and Aging in the Evolution of Lifespans synthesizes several decades of top research on the topic of human aging and longevity particularly on the recent theories of inflammation and its effects on human health. The book expands a number of existing major theories, including the Barker theory of fetal origins of adult disease to consider the role of inflammation and Harmon's free radical theory of aging to include inflammatory damage. Future increases in lifespan are challenged by the obesity epidemic and spreading global infections which may reverse the gains made in lowering inflammatory exposure. This timely and topical book will be of interest to anyone studying aging from any scientific angle.

The Biology of Human Longevity: Inflammation, Nutrition, and Aging in the Evolution of Lifespans

Politics & Social Sciences

Finch, Caleb E.

Social Sciences

Academic Press

Global Air Pollution in Aging: Reading Smoke Signals is a complete reference connecting environmental pollution research to the human aging process. Since 1800, lifespans have more than doubled as infections declined and medicine improved. But the 20th century introduced a new global scourge of air pollution from fossil fuels with the potential to damage arteries, hearts and lungs that has been related to chronic exposure of air pollution from fossil fuels. Risk areas of study include childhood obesity, brain damage associated with air pollution, increased risk for autism in children and dementia in older adults. In humans and animals, air pollution stimulates chronic inflammation in different organs, and genetic vulnerability to air pollution is being recognized, particularly for carriers of the Alzheimer risk gene ApoE4.

The Role of Global Air Pollution in Aging and Disease: Reading Smoke Signals

Engineering & Transportation

Engineering

In Chance, Development, and Aging, two leading biological gerontologists review and evaluate all of the available data to elucidate the respective roles played by genes and chance developmental events in determining the course of aging in individuals. The combination of genetic and external environmental influences provides only an incomplete answer. Inbred laboratory animals, for example, exhibit a wide range of life spans despite having nearly identical genes and environments. Similarly, uncovering the genetic risks for Alzheimer's disease has not enabled doctors to predict with confidence its onset and severity. This book argues that understanding chance events, specifically random variations during prenatal development, is essential for answering these questions. The book draws on the extensive research in developmental biology on random variations in form and function, while putting this research in a new context. The discussion sheds light on a range of questions, from understanding menopause to explaining why identical twins are not truly identical. The book will be invaluable for gerontologists, geneticists, developmental and reproductive biologists, physiologists, and a broad range of physicians and investigators in experimental medicine.

Chance, Development, and Aging

Science & Math

Kirkwood, Tom

Biological Sciences

Oxford University Press

Featuring extensive references, updated for this paperback edition, Longevity, Senescence, and the Genome constitutes a landmark contribution to biomedicine and the evolutionary biology of aging.To enhance gerontology's focus on human age-related dysfunctions, Caleb E. Finch provides a comparative review of all the phyla of organisms, broadening gerontology to intersect with behavioral, developmental, evolutionary, and molecular biology. By comparing species that have different developmental and life spans, Finch proposes an original typology of senescence from rapid to gradual to negligible, and he provides the first multiphyletic calculations of mortality rate constants.

Longevity, Senescence, and the Genome (The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Mental Health and De)

University of Chicago Press

Featuring extensive references, updated for this paperback edition, Longevity, Senescence, and the Genome constitutes a landmark contribution to biomedicine and the evolutionary biology of aging. To enhance gerontology's focus on human age-related dysfunctions, Caleb E. Finch provides a comparative review of all the phyla of organisms, broadening gerontology to intersect with behavioral, developmental, evolutionary, and molecular biology. By comparing species that have different developmental and life spans, Finch proposes an original typology of senescence from rapid to gradual to negligible, and he provides the first multiphyletic calculations of mortality rate constants.

Longevity, Senescence, and the Genome (The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Mental Health and Development)