Why We Age: A Thermodynamic View
Entropy Generation and Human Aging: Lifespan Entropy and Effect of Physical Activity Level
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Your body creates heat and disorder (called entropy) when it uses food for energy. The more you move, the more disorder you make. This study says your body naturally makes a set amount of disorder over your life, and when it hits that limit, you age out.
Surprising Findings
Entropy generation is fixed at 11,404 kJ/K per kg over a lifetime, regardless of lifestyle — and physical activity increases the rate, not the total.
Common belief is that healthy habits extend life; this suggests life span is thermodynamically predetermined, and activity just changes how fast you hit the limit.
Practical Takeaways
Maintain physical activity at a 'healthy minimum' level to minimize entropy generation over your lifespan, according to the model.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
Your body creates heat and disorder (called entropy) when it uses food for energy. The more you move, the more disorder you make. This study says your body naturally makes a set amount of disorder over your life, and when it hits that limit, you age out.
Surprising Findings
Entropy generation is fixed at 11,404 kJ/K per kg over a lifetime, regardless of lifestyle — and physical activity increases the rate, not the total.
Common belief is that healthy habits extend life; this suggests life span is thermodynamically predetermined, and activity just changes how fast you hit the limit.
Practical Takeaways
Maintain physical activity at a 'healthy minimum' level to minimize entropy generation over your lifespan, according to the model.
Publication
Journal
Entropy
Year
2008
Authors
Carlos Silva, K. Annamalai
Related Content
Claims (4)
As people age, their bodies create less disorder (called entropy) from eating and moving, and babies create about three times more of this disorder than older adults.
A computer model based on how much energy the body uses from food predicts how long people will live — and its predictions are very close to real-life death rates in the U.S.
The more you move and exercise, the more disorder your body creates from using energy — at least according to this computer model.
This computer model says if you want to create the least possible disorder in your body, you should exercise as little as possible — but still enough to stay healthy.