Journal of Psychiatry

Aging happens by default

International Conference on Psychiatric & Geriatrics Nursing and Stroke

November 19-20, 2018 | Paris, France

A Macieira-Coelho

INSERM, France

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: J Psychiatry

Abstract:

Attempts to find the cause of aging focused in general on one specific aspect of the functioning of the organism. Theories considered the phenomenon either as the result of wear and tear, a depletion of a potential, a programmed type of event or of some kind of advantage for the survival of the population where natural selection would play the main role. A theory like the protein error hypothesis has a cultural origin, it is based on the belief common to different cultures that human are finite because of the accumulation of faults. Theories like the rate of living or the stress theory are based on the depletion of a reserve. The endocrine theory sees aging as a programmed event. The immune theory envisioned aging as a progressive functional decline of the immune system. The crosslinking or free radical theories focalize on a molecular event in a universe of metabolic reactions. Evolutionary theories explain aging as the action of genes modulated through natural selection. We believe that it is hopeless to look for a particular cause of aging there is simply no other alternative. One has to look for the phenomenon of aging in terms of the basic requirements needed for life to persist; the most fundamental requirement is energy expenditure, which inevitably follows the second law of thermodynamics. The data that support this view will be described.

Biography :

A Macieira-Coelho is a Research Director at the French National Institute of Health. He received an MD from the University of Lisbon, Portugal, and a PhD from the University of Uppsala Sweden. He made an internship at the University Hospital in Lisbon and was a Research Associate at the Wistar Institute in Philadelphia (USA) and at the Department of Cell Biology of the University of Uppsala (Sweden). He became Head of the Department of Cell Pathology at the Cancer Institute in Villejuif (France) and was a visiting Professor at the University of Linkoping (Sweden). He published 150 papers in professional journals and 9 books on cancer and aging. He received the following awards: Fritz Verzar Prize (University of Vienna, Austria), “Seeds of Science” Career Prize (Lisbon, Portugal), Dr. Honoris Causa (University of Linkoping, Sweden), Johananof International Visiting Professor (Institute Mario Negri, Milano, Italy).

E-mail: macieiracoelho@gmail.com