The Paradox of Aging: Why Too Much of a Good Thing Can Hurt Us

Why do we age?

It’s one of the most enduring questions in biology—and one that still sparks lively debate. For decades, aging was seen as a slow decay caused by wear and tear: free radicals, DNA damage, and cellular breakdown. But more recently, researchers have proposed something almost paradoxical—that aging isn’t just about decline, but also about too much normal function continuing for too long.

This is the heart of the Hyperfunction Theory of aging, powerfully articulated in David Gems' 2021 review, “The Hyperfunction Theory: An Emerging Paradigm for the Biology of Aging.” Building on ideas from Mikhail Blagosklonny, the theory argues that wild-type genes that promote growth and reproduction early in life continue operating beyond their useful phase, driving late-life diseases like cancer, atherosclerosis, and osteoporosis. This unregulated biological "run-on" is called quasi-programming—and it's fueled by nutrient-sensing pathways like mTOR and IGF-1.

🚫 More Isn't Always Better

At first glance, this is a surprising idea. How can the very genes and pathways that build our bodies also break them? It turns out that the same signals that promote cellular growth, fertility, and survival can, in the absence of proper regulation, tip into pathology.

This leads to an often misinterpreted conclusion: If mTOR drives aging, and protein activates mTOR, does that mean protein causes aging and cancer?

🥩 The Protein Myth

This logic has led some to demonize protein in the context of longevity. But this is a deep misunderstanding.

Protein—especially high-quality dietary protein—is essential for repair, immune function, muscle maintenance, and resilience. The problem isn’t protein per se, but the context in which it is consumed. In modern life, where we often eat continuously, sleep irregularly, and experience chronic stress without adequate recovery, mTOR remains perpetually “on.” That’s not what protein was designed for.

It’s not about the nutrient itself—it’s about the loss of rhythm.

🌗 Yin and Yang: Life Is Rhythmic

Nature doesn’t run on linear logic—it runs in cycles.

• mTOR activates growth, but AMPK and autophagy balance it with repair.

• Feeding builds tissue, but fasting clears debris.

• Sleep restores, while wakefulness stimulates.

• Sympathetic (fight-or-flight) and parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) nervous systems dance in a daily tug of war.

Health depends not on turning off one side, but on rhythmic transitions between both. In Eastern philosophy, this is the principle of yin and yang—not opposing forces, but complementary ones that need to flow in balance.

🧬 A More Holistic View: ERM and the Cost of Adaptation

The Exposure-Related Malnutrition (ERM) and stress adaptation framework brings this rhythmic view to the forefront.

It recognizes that the body is constantly adapting to stressors—whether it’s inflammation, toxins, emotional strain, or metabolic load. But adaptation costs energy. If we never return to baseline, if the stress is unrelenting and the recovery incomplete, we enter a state of chronic trade-offs: where the body preserves survival at the cost of repair, digestion, reproduction, and resilience.

Over time, this “slow drain” leads to the malnutrition of resilience, not from lack of food, but from lack of resolution.

🧭 Conclusion: Aging Is Not a Straight Line—It's a Rhythm Lost

The hyperfunction theory gave us a valuable insight: aging isn’t just about damage—it’s also about too much of the wrong function at the wrong time. But to truly understand how aging unfolds, we must go deeper. It’s not just about which pathway is active—but when, for how long, and whether the system can return to balance.

ERM and the stress adaptation framework offer that broader perspective. They remind us that health is dynamic, and resilience requires rhythm.

Aging—and disease—arises not just from breakdown or overgrowth, but from a failure to cycle, to reset, to rest.

The solution?

Don’t fight aging. Restore the rhythm of life.

• Gems, D. (2021). The hyperfunction theory: An emerging paradigm for the biology of aging. [Preprint] https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints202108.0552.v1

• Blagosklonny, M. V. (2007). Paradoxes of aging. Cell Cycle, 6(24), 2997–3003. https://doi.org/10.4161/cc.6.24.5124

#Hyperfunction Theory, #Quasi-programmed Aging, #mTOR/AMPK Balance, #Stress Adaptation, #Life Rhythm and Resilience