also graduallyyellows thelens.Evenwithoutcataracts
(thewhitish cloudingof thelens thatoccurs withage,
excessiveultravioletexposure,highcholesterol,diabetes,
andcigarettesmoking),theamountoflightreachingthe
retina ofa healthy sixty-year-oldis one-thirdthatof a
twenty-year-old.
IspoketoFelixSilverstone,whofortwenty-fouryears
wastheseniorgeriatricianattheParkerJewishInstitute,
in New York, and who has published more than a
hundred studies on aging. There is, he told me, “no
single, common cellular mechanism to the aging
process.”Ourbodiesaccumulatelipofuscinandoxygen
free-radical damage and random DNA mutations and
numerous othermicrocellularproblems. Theprocessis
gradual and unrelenting.
IaskedSilverstonewhethergerontologistshavediscerned
anyparticutar,reproduciblepathwaytoaging.“No,”he
said. “We just fall apart.”
THIS IS NOT, to say the least, an appealing prospect.
People naturally prefer to avoid the subject of their
decrepitude.Therehavebeendozensofbestsellingbooks
onaging,but theytendtohavetitles suchasYounger
Next Year, The Fountain of Age, Ageless, or—my
favorite—TheSexyYears.Still,therearecoststoaverting
oureyesfromtherealities.Weputoffdealingwiththe
adaptationsthatweneedtomakeasasociety.Andwe
blindourselvesto theopportunitiesthatexisttochange
the individual experience of aging for the better.
Asmedicalprogresshasextendedourlives,theresulthas
beenwhat’scalledthe“rectangularization” ofsurvival.