Is Aging a Disease?

The addition of “ageing-related” to the World Health Organization’s standard diagnostic tool signals a move toward developing therapies that directly target the aging process. Here, experts break down what it means and why it matters.

Illustration by Zoe van Dijk

With age comes wisdom — and the burden of tremendous health challenges. Aging impacts sensory, motor, and cognitive function, lowering the overall quality of life. So much so that many scientists now say that the leading risk factor for multiple chronic diseases is age.

At the same time, older people are living longer than ever before. Within just a few years, the number of people age 60 and older will outnumber those under age 5. By 2050, nearly a quarter of the world’s population will be over age 60. With this unprecedented demographic shift, a critical question persists: Will more years of life be accompanied by longer periods of good health, or increased healthspan, or will it continue to be linked to a higher risk of illness and chronic disease?/.../