Is ageing really a disease?

From my previous discussions on

A) Personalised cancer therapy

B) Cancer and ageing relation

C) Important breakthroughs in cancer and ageing

D) Long living rats

E) Scientific perception of Indian scripture for longevity: Dr. Sinclair and Dr. Zhavoronkov's idea.

It is surprising that ageing is not been classified as a disease.

It is indeed debatable that whether ageing is a disease or a generalised and universally accepted phenomenon? Being a pharmacist or medical practitioners we normally follow guidelines of standards set by World health organisation (WHO), Centre for disease control (CDC), United states pharmacopeia (USP), British pharmacopeia (BP), Indian pharmacopeia (IP) and others.  

Recently, a paper published by Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov raises a cascade of questions as discussed below.

If "Ageing" is never been considered as a disease up till now then why are we trying to cure it? or slowing down the process? or trying to find out a molecule which can provide longevity? Why the health supplement industry is growing enormously compared to any other pharmaceutical industry?

It is evident that cross over from ageing to pathological conditions like age related diseases often takes place as shown in figure. As a result we have deadly diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, central nervous system diseases and others. The paper clearly explains how the united efforts to fight against ageing is most important from both scientific and economic perspective. Importantly, the paper discusses about the reasons why it is essential to classify ageing as disease in up coming 11th international statistical classification of diseases and related health problems (ICD-11), expected to be finalised in 2018.

Significance of this paper and insight of Dr. Zhavoronkov, CEO Insilco Inc. is discussed by www.eurekaalert.org. Please click here for more details.

-Paper can be downloaded from here.