Antioxidants and Ageing -

What Puts Limit Our Life Span

Like most human characteristics, ageing is determined by the interaction of genetic and environmental factors. By ‘environmental factors’ I mean everything caused by the external world that can happen to a person from the moment of conception. No one knows for sure whether genes or the environment is the more important but we do know that both matter a great deal. There is not much we can do about our genes but we are certainly in a position to do something about our environment. And, as we have already seen, one of the important environmental factors is diet.

The human body is a machine that can keep itself going for 100 years. To do this, it must constantly effect running repairs by replacing cells and tissues that have been damaged or killed. This process of cell replication is going on all the time in our bodies at different rates in different cell types. Those in the reproductive organs, and those subject to most wear and tear ( such as those of the skin or the lining of the bowel) require the most frequent division. You may be surprised to learn that there is a limit to the number of times cells can replace themselves.