The scientific fight over whether ageing is a disease

The costliest 1% of traditional Medicare beneficiaries accounted for 19% of spending in 2021. (Image: 123rf)

Sun, 02 Feb 2025

By Alex JaninA small but growing movement of scientists wants to classify ageing as a disease. They face an uphill battle.An improving scientific understanding of the biology of ageing is leading some scientists, doctors and entrepreneurs to argue that ageing is a disease. It’s a major driver of illness and death, they say, and classifying it as such could make it easier to get drugs approved to treat ageing itself, rather than just age-related health problems. At the same time, the population is ageing, and many older people re...

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