Reader's Digest UK

A Well-Oiled Machine

Remember when we were young and thought we’d live forever? We are, in fact, living longer, but time still takes its toll on our bodies, from extra pounds to wrinkles and aches. Our hearts may not pump as well as they once did, and there are leaks, fading vision, so-called “senior moments,” and maybe even a cancer diagnosis.

Like a machine, everything in our bodies is interconnected—and the bits and pieces eventually malfunction. Dr Berndt Kleine-Gunk, a gynaecologist and head of the German Society for Anti-Ageing Medicine, suggests we think of the human body as a basket of apples in which one rotten specimen can infect the others. In medical terms, these “rotten apples” are called senescent, or "zombie", cells, because they continue to age but stop dividing and refuse to die. As they accumulate, they contribute to everything from age spots to cancer.

In other words, rather than cells that divide and spark health, “we’ve got zombie cells eliminating it,” says Dr Kleine-Gunk. “That’s why scientists are looking at what happens when zombie cells are removed from the body before they cause damage.”

With 727 million people over the age of

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