Evolutionary Gerontology and Geriatrics

This book provides concrete scientific basis that we can conceive the possibility of modifying or even completely canceling aging process, despite the fact that aging is commonly regarded as the result of the overall effects of many uncontrollable degenerative phenomena. The authors illustrate in detail the mechanisms by which cells and the whole organism age. Actions by which it is possible, or will be possible within a limited time, to operate for modifying aging are also debated.
The discussion is conducted within the frame and the concepts of evolutionary medicine, which is also indispensable for distinguishing between the manifestations of aging and: (i) diseases that worsen with age, and (ii) acceleration of normal aging rates, caused by unhealthy lifestyle habits and other avoidable factors. The book also discusses the impact of aging on overall mortality and the strange situation that, according to official statistics, aging does not exist as cause of death.
This book is a turning point between a gerontology and geriatrics conceived as the study and vain treatment of an incurable condition and one in which these disciplines examine the how and why of a physiological phenomenon that can be modified up to a possible total control. This means transforming the medical prevention and treatment of physiological aging from the greatest failure to the greatest success of medicine.

The first book to discuss gerontology and geriatrics in terms of evolutionary medicine Provides strong evidence and arguments of the possibility that aging is an adaptive phenomenon Shows how we age, in particular the mechanisms that disrupt cellular functionality and cell turnover

Autorentext

Giacinto Libertini, MD, Independent Researcher, Member of the Italian Society for Evolutionary Biology, was the first to formulate some basic concepts of evolutionary medicine and to propose the theory of aging as an adaptive phenomenon favored by natural selection in terms of kin selection. He has also extended and deepened the concept of phenoptosis proposed by Vladimir Skulachev. Graziamaria Corbi, PhD, Professor of Internal Medicine in the Dept. of Translational Medical Sciences, Federico II Univ. of Naples, Italy, has contributed to over 120 publications covering internal medicine, geriatrics, cardiology, clinical pharmacology and public health. Olga Shubernetskaya, PhD, Assistant Professor of Shemyakin-Ovchinnikov Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Moscow, Russia is a very promising and innovative scholar of telomere and telomerase biology. Klara Komici, PhD, Assistant Professor of Dept. of Medicine and Health Sciences, Univ. of Molise, Campobasso, Italy, has contributed to more than 60 works in the fields of internal medicine. Nicola Ferrara, PhD, Professor of the Dept. of Translational Medical Sciences, Federico II Univ. of Naples, Italy, Dean of the Specialization School in Gerontology and Geriatrics, past President of the Italian Society of Gerontology and Geriatrics, has contributed to about 400 works in many fields including mainly cardiology, geriatrics, and biogerontology. Marco Passamonti, PhD, Professor of Dept. of Biological, Geological and Environmental Sciences, Univ. of Bologna, Italy, Coordinator of the Degree Course in Natural Sciences, past President of the Italian Society of Evolutionary Biology (SIBE-ISEB), has contributed to more than 90 works about many biological topics.

Inhalt
Presentation.- Terminology.- Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Evolution and phenoptosis.- Chapter 3. Evolutionary medicine.- Chapter 4. The comparison between the two paradigms.- Chapter 5. Subtelomere-Telomere aging theory.- Chapter 6. Aging in the human species.- Chapter 7. The elderly subjects and their troubles.- Chapter 8. Prevention and treatment of the troubles of the elderly.- Appendix.