Opinions about human beauty (attractiveness) may come as a surprise when expressed by a biologist, all the more so because this seems to be a matter of an individual sense of aesthetics (taste) which, in any case, changes in time and space, and depends on fashion, local culture, social class, etc. No one is surprised, however, to see a biologist interpreting the behaviour of animals based on their appearance, for example in the mating season. Why, then, should biology of humans (physical anthropology) not deal with such links in people? The article examines typical responses of persons observing various traits of physical appearance and explains their biological, in particular evolutionary, meaning. The author emphasises the role of the features which are indicators of physical health and predictors of fertility. He takes into account various age categories and sex-specific differences. His analysis covers the important physical characteristics, such as height, weight and body proportions, some details of the face and hands, pigmentation of the skin, hair and even voice timbre.
The aim of this work is to evaluate the intensity of possible secular trends among the five subsequent cohorts of Wrocław (Poland) children aged 0, 6, 12 and 24 months. This document describes secular changes in the body length, weight and the Rohrer’s index. Material: Research material represent the longitudinal studies of five consecutive birth cohorts. The first study involved children born during 1963-1965, and the last in 2003-2005. All of the studies were related to the same social group and were conducted using the same methodology. There are differences in the intensity and direction of the secular trends in children depending on their age. In both sexes the body length of newborns kept increasing until the end of the nineties and decreased in the last decade. The body weight did not change during the 40-year period. This suggests an important role of maternal regulator in fetal development and therefore no clear response to external environmental factors. Secular changes such as the body length and weight, which are the most adequate to the economic changes in Poland, were observed in children aged 6 and 12 months. It may be a result of their highest ecosensitivity during this period. However, there have not been any clear trends observed in the 24 months age group. This may be due to the increasing participation of genetic factors in the development of the child.
Aging is currently stimulating intense interest of both researchers and the general public. In developed countries, the average life expectancy has increased by roughly 30 years within the last century, and human senescence has been delayed by around a decade. Although aging is arguably the most familiar aspect of human biology, its proximate and ultimate causes have not been elucidated fully and understood yet. Nowadays there are two main approaches to the ultimate causes of aging. These are deterministic and stochastic models. The proximate theories constitute a distinct group of explanations. They focus on mechanistic causes of aging. In this view, there is no reason to believe that there is only one biological mechanism responsible for aging. The aging process is highly complex and results from an accumulation of random molecular damage. Currently, the disposable soma theory (DST), proposed by Thomas Kirkwood, is the most influential and coherent line of reasoning in biogerontology. This model does not postulate any particular mechanism underpinning somatic defense. Therefore, it is compatible with various models, including mechanistic and evolutionary explanations. Recently, however, an interesting theory of hyper-function of mTOR as a more direct cause of aging has been formulated by Mikhail Blagosklonny, offering an entirely different approach to numerous problems and paradoxes in current biogerontology. In this view, aging is quasi-programmed, which means that it is an aimless continuation of developmental growth. This mTOR-centric model allows the prediction of completely new relationships. The aim of this article is to present and compare the views of both parties in the dispute, based on the results of some recent experimental studies, and the contemporary knowledge of selected major aspects of human aging and longevity
Longitudinal studies of aging concerning individuals with comparable lifestyle, diet, health profile, socioeconomic status, and income remain extraordinarily rare. The purposes of our ongoing project are as follows: (i) to collect extensive data on biological and medical aspects of aging in the Polish population, (ii) to determine factors affecting the rate and course of aging, (iii) to understand how aging unfolds as a dynamic and malleable process in ontogeny, and (iv) to find novel predictors of longevity. Our investigation followed 142 physically healthy asylum inmates, including 68 males and 74 females, for at least 25 years from the age of 45 years onward. Cross-sectional assessment involved 225 inmates, including 113 males and 112 females. All the patients lived for a very long time under similar and good environmental conditions at the hospital in Cibórz, Lubuskie Province. They maintained virtually the same daily schedule and lifestyle. The rate and direction of changes with age in selected anthropometric and physiological traits were determined using ANOVA, t-test, and regression analysis. There were sex differences in the rate and pattern of age-related changes in certain characteristics such as relative weight, red blood cell count, monocyte count, thymol turbidity value, systolic blood pressure, and body temperature. Body weight, the body mass index (BMI), and total bilirubin level increased with advancing age, while body height decreased with age in both sexes. In conclusion, the aging process was associated with many regressive alterations in biological traits in both sexes but the rate and pattern of these changes depended on biological factors such as age and sex. There were only few characteristics which did not change significantly during the period under study. On the basis of comparison between the pattern of longitudinal changes with aging and the pattern of cross-sectional changes with age in the analyzed traits, we were able to predict which pattern of changes is associated with longer lifespan.
The connection between the rate of height loss in older people and their general health status has been well documented in the medical literature. Our study was aimed at furthering the characterization of this interrelationship in the context of health indices and mortality in a hospitalized population of Polish adults. Data were collated from a literature review and from a longitudinal study of aging carried out in the Polish population which followed 142 physically healthy inmates, including 68 men and 74 women, for at least 25 years from the age of 45 onwards. Moreover, cross-sectional data were available from 225 inmates, including 113 men and 112 women. These subjects were confined at the same hospital. ANOVA, t-test, and regression analysis were employed. The results indicate that the onset of height loss emerges in the fourth and five decade of life and there is a gradual acceleration of reduction of height at later stages of ontogeny in both sexes. Postmenopausal women experience a more rapid loss of height compared with men. The individuals who had higher rate of loss of height (≥3 cm/decade) tend to be at greater risk of cardiovascular events and all-cause mortality. In conclusion, our findings suggest that a systematic assessment of the rate of loss of height can be useful for clinicians caring for elderly people because of its prognostic value in terms of morbidity and mortality.
Although normal aging does not have a pernicious effect on the homeostasis of fluids, renal reserve in elderly people can be depleted. The purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship between longitudinal changes with age in basic urine parameters (specific gravity and pH) in older men and women, depending on their body height and relative body weight. Longitudinal data on these two quantitative traits of the urine were available for 142 physically healthy individuals, including 68 men and 74 women. All subjects were 45 years of age at the beginning and 70 at the end of the period under investigation. All measurements were taken in accordance with internationally accepted requirements. Specific gravity was assessed using a hydrometer, and pH was measured using a pH meter. ANOVA, t-test, and regression analysis were performed. No significant sex differences in specific gravity or urine pH were observed. In both sexes, urine specific gravity decreased with age according to exponential model of regression. In men, there was a gradual increase in the pH of the urine until age 65, and the best fitting regression model was polynomial. In women, on the other hand, there was an exiguous decrease in urine pH throughout the period under study, and the best fitting regression model proved to be exponential. As the process of renal aging commences relatively early in ontogeny and manifests itself in many structural and functional changes, urinalysis and other more sophisticated methods of diagnosis of renal diseases are essential for proper assessment of health status of adults and older individuals. The rate of age-related changes in the analyzed traits of the urine was commensurate in both sexes, thereby revealing no evidence of significant sex differences in terms of renal aging in the period between 45 and 70 years of age.
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