Antagonistic Pleiotrophy? Wow, what a mouthful.

Well, it is a leading theory on why we age, and because this website is about stopping aging and planning one’s longevity, learning about this theory is well worth your time.

No, this is not the only theory of aging, but it’s out in front of the others. Due to this, much of the research on aging is built on its conjectures.

Antagonistic Pleiotrophy:

“Antagonistic Pleiotropy (AP) is today the best-accepted theory for the evolutionary origin of aging. According to AP theory, aging is a side effect of genes that are selected for their contribution to fertility and other essential components of individual fitness. In this standard view, aging exists because the benefits of enhanced fertility early in life are linked logically or physically to the long-term deterioration of the body, and evolution has been compelled to accept the latter as a cost of the former.”

Ok, That’s another mouthful, and I will no longer subject you to this awkward title and simply use AP.

AP

(AP) Antagonistic Pleiotropy

Explains aging as a competition between the genetics of reproduction and fitness during child-rearing and the genetics of health maintenance through life after middle age.

The main goal of humanity is to reproduce itself – all else is secondary.

For man in nature, life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

It’s not a direct quote, but thanks to Thomas Hobbes for succinctly describing raw human life. This was a pretty good description of human circumstances throughout most of written human history and undoubtedly pre-history.

Assuming mankind evolved from previous forms into the sapiens of today, birthing had to be early and prolific. In the span of human history, childhood mortality rates have declined substantially. In the beginning, however, hunter-gatherer societies experienced infant mortality rates of 26.8% and mortality pre-puberty rates of 48.8%.

At the same time, prehistoric adults lived roughly 30 years. It’s hard to pin this number down, but 30 is pretty close.

So what does this mean?

First, it means that women must start having babies as soon after the onset of puberty as possible, 13 years old maybe. And second, they must have as many as possible. Half of their children will die before they can reproduce, and thus it takes four babies just to stay even. Five is the ideal number for growth.

This puts her roughly at eighteen, with twelve years left to rear her children (or have more). Recall that the most important task for the human race is reproduction above the break-even rate. Without this prerequisite, nothing else matters.

Thirty years is enough time to get busy making babies and just enough time to prepare them for their own life. There is not much margin here.

How about those who lived longer?

Well, I hate to put it this way, but those who lived longer, especially past what we now call mid-life, were useless and consumed vital supplies. They were actually a drag on their society and consumed more than they produced – especially as they grew older.

Food was scarce, and famines were common and unpredictable. The luxury of old age and health was simply not available.

This is the existential reality of early modern man. It is also the 120,000-year evolutionary reality that molded the genetic makeup of Homo sapiens.

Bluntly speaking, most of the fine-tuned genetic development was on the front end (survival side) of life and not much on the tail end. This is the basic argument of the AP theory of aging.

Aside from its clumsy name, AP is a reasonable argument:

It makes sense that reproduction has a strong genetic underpinning, and so does the child-rearing period of life. In the same vein, life past the rearing phase isn’t worth much in evolutionary terms. So, it was shortchanged in the genetic support department.

Although there are other theories, it’s hard to argue with AP.

One worthwhile note is that many people remain strong and healthy through middle age and before things start falling apart at fifty or so years. Observationally, this is true, and it can be argued that grandparents played a strong support role in the rearing stages of reproduction.

This might explain what I have called one’s extended health warranty. Evolution might have reinforced the role of the extended family in rearing children. After fifty (roughly), one’s health warranty runs out. Systems start to erode, and organs start to fail.

During and certainly after the first iteration of grandparents, the children are now capable of self-support. There’s no longer a reason for additional grandparents – especially the physically compromised ones.

This is speculation, but logically, it makes sense.

Longevity research:

Geneticists are on the verge of using genetic manipulation to resolve disease. Recently, British health regulators approved a gene-altering treatment for sickle cell anemia. This is a landmark in medicine. It is only a matter of time before this “new” medicine becomes commonplace.

Note: I just heard that the US FDA has followed suit with sickle cell anemia.

Great news.

I am convinced that relief from aging lies primarily in genetic treatments. The top ten causes of death are mostly diseases of lifestyle, yet the curse of aging still lies beneath them. Science can’t stop people from killing themselves with their lifestyles, but it can stop genes from doing it for them.

OMY1

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