Month: July 2017

The once-popular mitochondrial free radical theory of aging proved to be too glib. Aging isn’t fundamentally about dispersed damage; rather, dispersed damage is a result when the body’s defenses stand down in old age.  Nevertheless, the mitochondria do play a role in aging, largely through signaling and apoptosis.  Antioxidants targeted to mitochondria may be an … Read more

A popular theory a generation back sought to trace aging to oxidative damage originating in the mitochondria.  Every cell in the body has hundreds or thousands of mitochondria, the sites of the high-energy chemistry that produces ROS as toxic waste. The hope was that by quenching the ROS, aging might be turned off. The “Mitochondrial … Read more