Zora Books: Ageing and its Causes

Ageing and its Causes: Struggle
A New Theory by Branko Bokun

Sun

Zorica Radosavljevic, zorabooks@btinternet.com
Phone 44 (UK) 207 602 1691, fax 44 (UK) 207 610 4255

Zora Books
AGEING
    The Book
    Instability
    Struggle

From Branko Bokun's book HUMOUR; Old people's only saviour; A new view on ageing,

AGEING

Being imposed, life is an irritating state of existence, a struggle. That life is a struggle can be deduced from the fact that it is accompanied by laments, which we often call songs. It must be, in fact, the struggle of life that provides the energy for laments or complaints.

The best evidence, however, that life is a struggle is its continuous search for a state that is a lesser struggle. It is this search which produces life's vitality.

Another important sign that life is a struggle may be deduced from the fact that when we discovered the mind, with its ability to create wishful imagination, we started inventing all kinds of paradises or utopias in which there was no such thing as struggle.

In the most ancient times, the human mind started inventing fairytales, a magic life in which humans and animals enjoyed an idyllic life, life without suffering.

Suffering implies irritation, and irritation develops the urgent need to be relieved. The first living organisms started relieving their need by swallowing or absorbing suitable substances from their environment, substances able to reduce their urgent need. In fact, absorption of nutrients from the environment became the primordial activity of the primordial organisms. This characteristic of every single living organism is still with us.

Owing to its permanent instability, a living organism can never eliminate its discontent, the main source of its appetites, since by eliminating discontent and suffering life would eliminate its vitality, its agitation, itself. This permanent suffering led to an over-absorption of food, an intaking of nutrients or calories in excess of the organism's need for survival.

What is more, biochemical instability carried by the living organism is irritating. This irritation creates urgency and eagerness to be reduced or appeased. Owing to this urgency and eagerness, a living organism tends to absorb more nutrients than it needs. An organism tends to stop absorbing food not when it has had enough but when it feels itself to be full of food, when the extra intake of nutrients start being a discomfort. In fact, the stronger an organism's irritation, the more extra food an organism will absorb. This can best be seen in humans when they are particularly worried. The organism's eagerness can make eating a cruel and violent performance.

In these excessive nutrients absorbed by the living organism we find the source of the other main characteristics of life, growth and reproduction.

Without being irritated, and without being able to absorb nutrients from the environment, and without absorbing extra quantities of nutrients, the first cell would never have become two cells. Growth and reproduction need energy, which is provided by the extra intake of nutrients as a result of the living organism's lack of clear mechanisms to limit to a sufficiency its absorption of food. In fact, by reducing the surplus nutrients we reduce the organism's growth and reproduction.

I am sure that this prosaically simple theory would offend those who still believe themselves to have been created by God in his own image. This theory would offend also those who replaced the omnipotent God with the omnipotent gene. This theory would offend also those who wishfully believe that life must have a deep meaning or purpose.

This theory could, however, contribute to human humbleness which would reduce our pretensions and arrogance. By reducing our pretentiousness and arrogance we might develop tenderness, pity and sympathy for all forms of life as we become aware that all forms of life are in a state of suffering.

This theory might lead to the replacement of our belief in our superiority with a sense of humour, which would reduce our suffering.

Helped by the absorption of extra food, the living organism tends to react to its instability and irritation by growth, by expansion. After all, life is part of a Universe in expansion. In fact, any embryo is in effect a mini universe in expansion.

On reaching an optimal growth, restricted by its development potential and by environmental conditions, an organism attains its adulthood.

Any stimulation, irritation or stress experienced by an organism after it has reached adulthood creates the organism's tendency or effort to overgrow. This strains an organism, which can damage its organisation or cohesion beyond its ability to self-repair. This erosion caused by an organism's effort to overgrow is the main cause of any living being's ageing and decline. A strained organism starts losing its cells. Some of these strained cells start mutating or losing their efficiency, which accelerates decline. Some of these strained cells can lose their coexistence or co-operation potential, transforming them into selfish and independent cancer cells, thus accelerating even more our ageing and our decline. Strain confuses the activities of genes and disrupts proper protein folding, creating protein garbage which disorganises the cell's efficiency.

The more an organism is strained, the more it becomes damaged and eroded, the more its invalidity and fragility increase. It is these infirmities, caused by an organism's efforts to overgrow, to stretch itself beyond its potential to self-repair, which is causing ageing and death in the living world. Often an extra strain can provoke the instant death of an organism.

Without a living organism's tendency to over-expand in moments of stress and strain, life could be eternal. In fact, limiting an organism's extra nutrients can prolong its life span.

The process of life can be summed up as follows. It is the natural tendency of any living organism to expand, to grow. It is the natural tendency of an organism to overgrow in adulthood, whenever the organism becomes irritated. It is the nature of overgrowth to stretch, strain or stress an organism, exposing it to its decline and end, to its implosion. In essence, life is suicidal, that is why it is mortal.

Stretching an organism exposes it to all kinds of disease or disorder, which accelerate its decline and breakdown. A organism that over-stretches itself thereby reduces the efficiency of its natural defences, rendering it susceptible to all kinds of disorders and disease. In the disorder called Progeria or Werner's disease, people develop early physical signs of old age, predisposing them to all kinds of ailments that cause premature death.

Women live longer than men. Men produce more testosterone than women. This hormone generates restlessness, agitation and violence, which strain and stretch our bodies.

We could conclude that it is not the so-called age-associated diseases which cause ageing, as is commonly believed, but the organism's tendency or effort to overgrow, which allows these diseases to invade it and to cause its ageing and its end. An organism does not start declining when it starts ageing, it starts ageing when, after reaching adulthood, it starts stretching itself beyond its ability to self-repair, so that it starts breaking down.

Animals with more active lives age faster and break down sooner than animals with less active lives. Humans who live fast lives or those who pursue exciting or stressful activities accelerate their decline. Animals and humans with more strained lives decline faster and die sooner than those who live quieter existences. Wise and serene people, those who are less adventurous and less agitated, less anxious and less frustrated, slow down their ageing, thus prolonging their life span.

Our colds, our influenzas, our allergies, caused by a stretched or strained body, should be regarded as warnings to us to reduce our efforts so as to prevent more dangerous and more ageing diseases or disorders. One could even create a motto such as: "Either you reduce your efforts and your struggle to prove yourself, or you will be forced to do so by a serious disease.

A balanced diet based on minimal calories can slow down ageing. There is evidence that animals living in an environment with a abundant supply of food age faster and die sooner than animals with less abundant food. There is also evidence that starving animals are more resistant to stress and to the stress-related diseases. Could it not be that providing extra food to our domestic animals in order to exploit them better, we expose them to diseases which used to be controlled by the once greater efficiency of their natural defences?

By destabilising or poisoning our bodies, any drug or alcohol abuse can accelerate our decline.

Persevering in their adolescent mentality, some elderly men start using drugs to improve their sexual potency. This can strain an organism, leaving it susceptible to certain serious diseases. Any artificial rejuvenation can shorten the life span.

Sleeping can slow down ageing. It is a known fact that animals that are used to hibernating age faster and break down sooner if they are prevented from hibernating.

Being a social species, we live longer when we belong to a community than if we live alone. There is also positive evidence that single people recover more slowly from illness than those who live in a community.

The world is becoming more and more obsessed with mondialisation or globalisation of life on Earth. Mondialisation or globalisation implies in essence Americanisation of life which, emphasising as it does individual isolation or marginalisation, cannot but bring more ageing and decline, more disease and mental disorders. We read in a report of the World Health Organisation that 20% of young people in the West suffer from some form of mental disorder, and this is expected to reach 40% by 2020.

Broken heart syndrome, when a partner dies, can accelerate the decline of the surviving partner.

Any accident which invalidates a person or an animal can also speed up the process of their ageing and decline.

On reaching adulthood, stimulated or irritated by particular climatic or environmental conditions, an organism may produce a seasonal overgrowth, generating some superfluous cells, cells which are not only unnecessary for the organism's survival but are often irritating, thus forcing the body to eject them. In the right conditions, these ejected cells, which we call germ cells, can reproduce new life.

In many species, ejection of these irritating superfluous seasonally produced cells is realised through organs serving the body to eject its waste. In many plants these cells are produced at their extreme limits, enabling them easily to eject them.

That the germ cells are irritating can best be deduced from the fact that once they are ejected many animals, including humans, give the impression of being less agitated. In fact, the energy needed by an organism to eject these cells is provided by the irritation they cause.

Behind the reproduction of life there is no noble instinct of procreation or a selfish gene's desire to perpetuate itself. Reproduction seems to be the result of the general principle of life, which consists in any living organism's supreme tendency to reach a lesser instability, or a lesser irritation.

Ablation of male genital glands, which used to absorb the extra growth hormones produced during special environmental or seasonal conditions, or during any irritation or strain, allows the receptors in other organs of the body to absorb these extra growth hormones, which increase their weight and size. In fact, castrated men and animals tend to be bigger and heavier than those who are not castrated.

Reproduction and ageing are related. Many organisms start ageing after their reproduction. This is due to the fact that reproduction and ageing start in adulthood, when extra stimulation or irritation create overgrowth.

A retarded overgrowth can delay an organism's reproduction. Retarded reproduction can delay an organism's ageing and decline. Slowing or limiting an organism's overgrowth, or limiting nutrition can slow or limit both reproduction and ageing.

[77p-84p]

Ordering information.
We can mail the above book to you by return post when we receive your payment made out to Z. Radosavljevic.

UK CUSTOMERS: please send a cheque and add one pound for postage.
OVERSEAS CUSTOMERS: Please pay by sterling money order or sterling travellers cheque and add two pounds for air mail postage.

(When publishers change their prices, ours may change as well.)
Special lower postage rates for selected dictionaries. Details on application.
Free Bonus Offer on orders over £30.00.



Copyright © 2001 Zora Books. All rights reserved.
Updated 04 June 2001.


		Ageing and its Causes: Struggle A New Theory by Branko Bokun
		Zorica Radosavljevic, zorabooks@btinternet.com Phone 44 (UK) 207 602 1691, fax 44 (UK) 207 610 4255
Zora Books AGEING The Book Instability Struggle		From Branko Bokun's book HUMOUR; Old people's only saviour; A new view on ageing, AGEING Being imposed, life is an irritating state of existence, a struggle. That life is a struggle can be deduced from the fact that it is accompanied by laments, which we often call songs. It must be, in fact, the struggle of life that provides the energy for laments or complaints. The best evidence, however, that life is a struggle is its continuous search for a state that is a lesser struggle. It is this search which produces life's vitality. Another important sign that life is a struggle may be deduced from the fact that when we discovered the mind, with its ability to create wishful imagination, we started inventing all kinds of paradises or utopias in which there was no such thing as struggle. In the most ancient times, the human mind started inventing fairytales, a magic life in which humans and animals enjoyed an idyllic life, life without suffering. Suffering implies irritation, and irritation develops the urgent need to be relieved. The first living organisms started relieving their need by swallowing or absorbing suitable substances from their environment, substances able to reduce their urgent need. In fact, absorption of nutrients from the environment became the primordial activity of the primordial organisms. This characteristic of every single living organism is still with us. Owing to its permanent instability, a living organism can never eliminate its discontent, the main source of its appetites, since by eliminating discontent and suffering life would eliminate its vitality, its agitation, itself. This permanent suffering led to an over-absorption of food, an intaking of nutrients or calories in excess of the organism's need for survival. What is more, biochemical instability carried by the living organism is irritating. This irritation creates urgency and eagerness to be reduced or appeased. Owing to this urgency and eagerness, a living organism tends to absorb more nutrients than it needs. An organism tends to stop absorbing food not when it has had enough but when it feels itself to be full of food, when the extra intake of nutrients start being a discomfort. In fact, the stronger an organism's irritation, the more extra food an organism will absorb. This can best be seen in humans when they are particularly worried. The organism's eagerness can make eating a cruel and violent performance. In these excessive nutrients absorbed by the living organism we find the source of the other main characteristics of life, growth and reproduction. Without being irritated, and without being able to absorb nutrients from the environment, and without absorbing extra quantities of nutrients, the first cell would never have become two cells. Growth and reproduction need energy, which is provided by the extra intake of nutrients as a result of the living organism's lack of clear mechanisms to limit to a sufficiency its absorption of food. In fact, by reducing the surplus nutrients we reduce the organism's growth and reproduction. I am sure that this prosaically simple theory would offend those who still believe themselves to have been created by God in his own image. This theory would offend also those who replaced the omnipotent God with the omnipotent gene. This theory would offend also those who wishfully believe that life must have a deep meaning or purpose. This theory could, however, contribute to human humbleness which would reduce our pretensions and arrogance. By reducing our pretentiousness and arrogance we might develop tenderness, pity and sympathy for all forms of life as we become aware that all forms of life are in a state of suffering. This theory might lead to the replacement of our belief in our superiority with a sense of humour, which would reduce our suffering. Helped by the absorption of extra food, the living organism tends to react to its instability and irritation by growth, by expansion. After all, life is part of a Universe in expansion. In fact, any embryo is in effect a mini universe in expansion. On reaching an optimal growth, restricted by its development potential and by environmental conditions, an organism attains its adulthood. Any stimulation, irritation or stress experienced by an organism after it has reached adulthood creates the organism's tendency or effort to overgrow. This strains an organism, which can damage its organisation or cohesion beyond its ability to self-repair. This erosion caused by an organism's effort to overgrow is the main cause of any living being's ageing and decline. A strained organism starts losing its cells. Some of these strained cells start mutating or losing their efficiency, which accelerates decline. Some of these strained cells can lose their coexistence or co-operation potential, transforming them into selfish and independent cancer cells, thus accelerating even more our ageing and our decline. Strain confuses the activities of genes and disrupts proper protein folding, creating protein garbage which disorganises the cell's efficiency. The more an organism is strained, the more it becomes damaged and eroded, the more its invalidity and fragility increase. It is these infirmities, caused by an organism's efforts to overgrow, to stretch itself beyond its potential to self-repair, which is causing ageing and death in the living world. Often an extra strain can provoke the instant death of an organism. Without a living organism's tendency to over-expand in moments of stress and strain, life could be eternal. In fact, limiting an organism's extra nutrients can prolong its life span. The process of life can be summed up as follows. It is the natural tendency of any living organism to expand, to grow. It is the natural tendency of an organism to overgrow in adulthood, whenever the organism becomes irritated. It is the nature of overgrowth to stretch, strain or stress an organism, exposing it to its decline and end, to its implosion. In essence, life is suicidal, that is why it is mortal. Stretching an organism exposes it to all kinds of disease or disorder, which accelerate its decline and breakdown. A organism that over-stretches itself thereby reduces the efficiency of its natural defences, rendering it susceptible to all kinds of disorders and disease. In the disorder called Progeria or Werner's disease, people develop early physical signs of old age, predisposing them to all kinds of ailments that cause premature death. Women live longer than men. Men produce more testosterone than women. This hormone generates restlessness, agitation and violence, which strain and stretch our bodies. We could conclude that it is not the so-called age-associated diseases which cause ageing, as is commonly believed, but the organism's tendency or effort to overgrow, which allows these diseases to invade it and to cause its ageing and its end. An organism does not start declining when it starts ageing, it starts ageing when, after reaching adulthood, it starts stretching itself beyond its ability to self-repair, so that it starts breaking down. Animals with more active lives age faster and break down sooner than animals with less active lives. Humans who live fast lives or those who pursue exciting or stressful activities accelerate their decline. Animals and humans with more strained lives decline faster and die sooner than those who live quieter existences. Wise and serene people, those who are less adventurous and less agitated, less anxious and less frustrated, slow down their ageing, thus prolonging their life span. Our colds, our influenzas, our allergies, caused by a stretched or strained body, should be regarded as warnings to us to reduce our efforts so as to prevent more dangerous and more ageing diseases or disorders. One could even create a motto such as: "Either you reduce your efforts and your struggle to prove yourself, or you will be forced to do so by a serious disease. A balanced diet based on minimal calories can slow down ageing. There is evidence that animals living in an environment with a abundant supply of food age faster and die sooner than animals with less abundant food. There is also evidence that starving animals are more resistant to stress and to the stress-related diseases. Could it not be that providing extra food to our domestic animals in order to exploit them better, we expose them to diseases which used to be controlled by the once greater efficiency of their natural defences? By destabilising or poisoning our bodies, any drug or alcohol abuse can accelerate our decline. Persevering in their adolescent mentality, some elderly men start using drugs to improve their sexual potency. This can strain an organism, leaving it susceptible to certain serious diseases. Any artificial rejuvenation can shorten the life span. Sleeping can slow down ageing. It is a known fact that animals that are used to hibernating age faster and break down sooner if they are prevented from hibernating. Being a social species, we live longer when we belong to a community than if we live alone. There is also positive evidence that single people recover more slowly from illness than those who live in a community. The world is becoming more and more obsessed with mondialisation or globalisation of life on Earth. Mondialisation or globalisation implies in essence Americanisation of life which, emphasising as it does individual isolation or marginalisation, cannot but bring more ageing and decline, more disease and mental disorders. We read in a report of the World Health Organisation that 20% of young people in the West suffer from some form of mental disorder, and this is expected to reach 40% by 2020. Broken heart syndrome, when a partner dies, can accelerate the decline of the surviving partner. Any accident which invalidates a person or an animal can also speed up the process of their ageing and decline. On reaching adulthood, stimulated or irritated by particular climatic or environmental conditions, an organism may produce a seasonal overgrowth, generating some superfluous cells, cells which are not only unnecessary for the organism's survival but are often irritating, thus forcing the body to eject them. In the right conditions, these ejected cells, which we call germ cells, can reproduce new life. In many species, ejection of these irritating superfluous seasonally produced cells is realised through organs serving the body to eject its waste. In many plants these cells are produced at their extreme limits, enabling them easily to eject them. That the germ cells are irritating can best be deduced from the fact that once they are ejected many animals, including humans, give the impression of being less agitated. In fact, the energy needed by an organism to eject these cells is provided by the irritation they cause. Behind the reproduction of life there is no noble instinct of procreation or a selfish gene's desire to perpetuate itself. Reproduction seems to be the result of the general principle of life, which consists in any living organism's supreme tendency to reach a lesser instability, or a lesser irritation. Ablation of male genital glands, which used to absorb the extra growth hormones produced during special environmental or seasonal conditions, or during any irritation or strain, allows the receptors in other organs of the body to absorb these extra growth hormones, which increase their weight and size. In fact, castrated men and animals tend to be bigger and heavier than those who are not castrated. Reproduction and ageing are related. Many organisms start ageing after their reproduction. This is due to the fact that reproduction and ageing start in adulthood, when extra stimulation or irritation create overgrowth. A retarded overgrowth can delay an organism's reproduction. Retarded reproduction can delay an organism's ageing and decline. Slowing or limiting an organism's overgrowth, or limiting nutrition can slow or limit both reproduction and ageing. [77p-84p] Ordering information. We can mail the above book to you by return post when we receive your payment made out to Z. Radosavljevic. UK CUSTOMERS: please send a cheque and add one pound for postage. OVERSEAS CUSTOMERS: Please pay by sterling money order or sterling travellers cheque and add two pounds for air mail postage. (When publishers change their prices, ours may change as well.) Special lower postage rates for selected dictionaries. Details on application. Free Bonus Offer on orders over £30.00.
		Copyright © 2001 Zora Books. All rights reserved. Updated 04 June 2001.