Human Ageing: A Unique Experience: Implications for the Disease Concept

by Michael A Singer nHuman Ageing: A Unique Experience explores the biology of human ageing focusing on the individual. The book begins with the premature ageing disorder Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria syndrome and spins a web of interconnected biological domains involving lamins, telomeres, alternative splicing, genetics, epigenetics, and molecular clocks. The profound influence of culture is explored since cultural inheritance and genetic inheritance are the two intertwined processes driving human evolution. An empirical framework is developed to describe human ageing at the individual level and the implications of this framework on the whole concept of diseases are discussed.nContents:nnThe Biology of Ageing:nnLamins: Hutchinson?Gilford Progeria SyndromenmTOR PathwaynMolecular ClocksnSummary and PerspectivesnnnAgeing and Environmental Cues (Experiences):nnRegulation of Gene Expression: EpigeneticsnEnvironmental Cues: Specific ExamplesnnnDomestication:nnThe Domestication Process: The Russian Silver Fox ExperimentnThe DognSummarynnnSocial Context and Culture:nnOverviewnAre Humans Still Evolving?nContemporary EvolutionnSociety, Culture, and AgeingnPerspectivesnnnPulling the Threads Together:nnTheme: The Biology of Ageing at the Species and Indivdual LevelsnTheme: Genetic Uniqueness of Each Individual Underlies that Individual?s Unique Ageing PatternnTheme: Ageing and an Individual?s Social and Cultural EnvironmentnFramework for the Ageing ProcessnnnThe Disease Construct and Ageing:nnHistory of Disease ConstructnPersonalized MedicinenDisease or Ageing?nDisease or Ageing: Is It Simply Semantics?nnnnReadership: Gerontologists and geriatric physicians; researchers in comparative biology and physiology, genomics and epigenomics, developmental biology. Others include researchers in sociology and history of medicine.nProduct DetailsnnnISBN-13: 9789814619141nPublisher: World Scientific Publishing Company, IncorporatednPublication date: 1/23/2015nPages: 336