Article · Volume 16, Issue 2 · pp. 68–69
Free Radical Theory of Aging at 70: Adaptive Homeostasis and the Modern Revision of a Classic Hypothesis
Mueen Ahmed KK1
- 1Manuscript Technomedia LLP, No. 22 (New No. 40), 3rd Cross, Vivekananda Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka, INDIA.
Abstract
Denham Harman’s free radical theory of aging, first articulated in the mid-1950s, proposed an elegantly simple mechanism for senescence: metabolism generates reactive byproducts, those byproducts accumulate as molecular damage, and accumulated damage is aging. Seven decades on, the theory remains one of the most cited frameworks in biogerontology, but its core causal claim has been substantially reworked rather than confirmed.
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