The video you just watched is a time lapse of a bouquet of roses withering in a vase. Do you notice the wrinkling of petals, their decrease in volume?
They have plenty of water in the vase, so why do they dry? Do they develop an inability to absorb or to preserve their cell water levels?
Lacking roots is not the answer. Here is why: rose flowers wither in full plants too. In their place a full fruit full of seeds will carry the life essence over time and space.
Just like in people, not all roses produce fruits, yet they all wither in the end.
Water is life, which is robbed from us in steps as we age. The death of an old person is not sensational. It’s not sudden. We barely notice it.
They first lose their fertility, then their passion for life, the ability to do productive work, their memory, and finally whatever is left of them.
Elders lose their thirst instinct too. I often joke that it’s easier to run a marathon than to convince an 80-year-old patient to drink a bottle of water. They may sip from it just to please you and then they’ll leave it on their desk.
Their blood becomes more viscous, so clots become a problem no matter their location.
Internal and extracellular housekeeping is less efficient with age. Excess weight becomes a common sight, just like plaques inside the blood vessels. Lipofuscin and many other aging pigments are deposited everywhere – and we recognize the common age spots.
Enough said. A glass of water, please.
Anca Ioviţă is the author of Eat Less Live Longer: Your Practical Guide to Calorie Restriction with Optimal Nutrition available on Amazon and several other places. If you enjoyed this article, don’t forget to sign up to receive updates on her second book regarding a comparative biography of aging from the simplest to the most complex organisms known.
