by Andrew S. Brack – Time –
We all know smoking raises your risk of lung cancer and a poor diet can lead to diabetes or heart disease. But there’s another powerful risk factor behind nearly every chronic disease. Simply getting older increases our chances of developing cancer, dementia, heart failure, and many other conditions. Aging, the natural progressive loss of physiological function that occurs with the passage of time, is the single largest risk factor for the diseases that take our loved ones from us.
Yet we aren’t treating aging with the urgency that it deserves. Instead, the field is overshadowed by miracle cures, overhyped claims, and confusing messages, allowing a culture of “anti-aging” fads, driven more by marketing than by evidence, to flourish.
