In fact, aging and cancer are closely related.
It is said that even in young people, about 5,000 to 10,000 cancer cells appear in the body every day.
So why don’t we develop cancer even though cancer cells form daily? The answer is that the human body has cancer-suppressing mechanisms.
There are many potential factors that can lead to cancer, such as environmental factors like ultraviolet rays and pollution, infections, and lifestyle habits such as smoking and drinking.
The genes that are damaged by these various factors can mutate, and some of them lose control, leading to abnormal cell growth.
This abnormal growth eventually leads to cancer, but one of the key genes that suppresses this process is the P53 gene. It has been reported that abnormalities in the P53 gene are found in about half of all cancer patients, suggesting that the malfunction of P53 is related to the onset of cancer.
The P53 gene has several roles, including “repairing DNA,” “halting proliferation (cellular aging),” “inducing apoptosis (cell death),” and “inhibiting the metastasis of cancer cells.”
Among these roles, the halting of proliferation involves “causing the cancer cells to age and thus preventing their uncontrolled growth.” As aged cells that no longer divide accumulate in the body, this contributes to the overall aging of the body.
In other words, aging is originally one of the body’s important defense mechanisms to protect against cancer.
When you are young, the cancer-suppressing mechanisms in the body work effectively, so the likelihood of developing cancer is relatively low. However, as you age, cellular metabolism slows down, repair functions decline, and aged cells accumulate.
This accumulation eventually leads to organ failure and the development of diseases.
Now, you may better understand the causal relationship between aging and the increase in cancer mortality rates.