You Can’t Actually Die Of Old Age

Despite centuries of death records to the contrary, “dying of old age” is not medically possible; instead, it’s just a convenient catch-all.

LEARN MORE
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To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords:
- Cause of death: the specific injury or disease that leads to death.
- Death certificate: an official statement, signed by a physician, of the cause, date, and place of a person's death.
- Geriatrics: a medical specialty focused on providing care for the unique health needs of older adults.
- Old age: the range of ages nearing and surpassing the life expectancy of human beings
- Senescence: the condition or process of deterioration with age.

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David Goldenberg | Script Writer, Narrator and Director
Sarah Berman | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation
Nathaniel Schroeder | Music

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Lizah van der Aart • Sarah Berman • Cameron Duke
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[eugiboy]

As someone who just pronounced their first patient recently, this video is 100% accurate. "Natural causes" is not acceptable as part of cause of death; it's always like "respiratory failure" or "cardiopulmonary arrest".

[enbyarchmage]

"Old age isn't something you die from, is something you live for" is an extremely inspiring quote. Thanks, MinuteEarth!

[SpaveFrostKing]

I've always thought of "dying of old age" as more of a societal way of talking about someone's death, rather than a medical way, usually when someone's reached a point of frailty that their end seems eminent even if you're not yet sure from what. My grandmother was close to 90, but in excellent health, so to me she died of cancer. On the other hand, my grandfather's health was deteriorating for years, and after his wife died and he needed to move into a care home he didn't have much to live for anymore. So to me he died of old age.

[thePronto]

A death certificate I saw recently for an elderly person said 'Frailty of Old Age'. Anyone who knows the person knows what the underlying issues were, and those are well documented in the person's medical records; so you don't need the cost of a post-mortem to tell you what you already know. Plus the real cause might be the little-talked-about 'end-of-life medications', which are illegal in most places, but are generally viewed as 'palliative' by physicians.

[GameWorldRS]

As a child I never understood what it meant to die of old age...I always thought "there must be a reason they die...they don't just...stop being alive". Guess I was right

[dcseain]

My father died of cardiac failure due to respiratory failure due to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. My sister was shocked at the specificity of his death certificate. She saw that certificate 33 years after he died.

[Sciller]

I'm glad we're talking about aging. For those who want to know more, I highly recommend the book "Ending Aging" by Aubrey de Grey and Michael Rae. It dedicates a chapter to each of the 7 causes of aging, their potential solutions, the hurdles along the way, and a short sort of PR-guide because the concept of "ending aging" is rightly viewed with suspicion.

It's completely changed the way I think about the topic and kinda the course of my life.

If you're wondering, they're - Stem cell depletion, cancer, senescent cells (that don't die when they should), mitochondrial mutations, intra and extra-cellular waste, and extracellular matrix stiffening.

[JGMn-coyv]

"Good News, we're not dying, we're gonna live forever".

[seanbrockest]

When I ask about the causes of deaths in my wife's family, I'm often told "he was 93", or whatever as if that's reason enough to die. It's aggravating because if there's a cause it can lead to family history information which could lead to tests to catch things early.

[MoonGlow]

Thank you for explaining this, I always wondered how someone can die just because old age without something to happen

[MichelleEvans_CatLady]

my granny was 97 when she passed, it was a clot that went from her leg to her heart in the end, but she was otherwise very healthy for her age

[Ascertivus]

This fact and explanation are oddly empowering for me. This means that I can actively work to stay alive longer instead of being afraid of the eventual immediate, random, unexplainable termination of existence that I once thought death was. Humans are far more in control of their lifespan than I had once thought.

[Unseenbird]

I'm sorry to say this but better help is a scam that snuck it's way back to youtube/YouTube's there's all sorts of videos about it...

[Choujifangirl]

As someone whose father passed away of pancreatic cancer in 2018 I would much rather know why my loved ones died then just saying they died “of natural causes” because I believe that’s not revealing the full story because I’m a massive advocate in full disclosure to a degree and even though it may be hard to hear, it can also help with the grieving process

[darkyboode]

This is very true. You can’t die from being too old. We usually die when we’re old because being old causes you to be more susceptible to various health conditions which your body doesn’t have the right amount of strength to fight off compared to when you were young.

[QuiescentCookie]

Hi,
I'm a UK doctor and this is a fundamental misunderstanding of how we fill out death certificates.
Not sure about other countries but here you list (1a, 1b and 2)
1- the actual cause of death (cardiac arrest or similar)
2- the factors that directly led to this
3 - the underlying conditions that lead to this e.g. Old age.

You can give most parts of the death cert in this way and the public tend to focus on the contributing conditions. Specifically the 1b. Some doctors also do occasionally move 1b to 1a to help families if we think they're particularly acopic.

2 is also technically a cause of death and since they're all on there then when celebs etc die they give one of the nicer causes.

[cyclopsboi]

better help is a garbage site that sells your data and was just recently in trouble by the FTC because of it. I suggest you find a different sponsor that doesnt profit off their patients data while promising privacy

[JJMcCullough]

I wonder if we will ever learn what the Queen actually died of. There were a few hints in the lead up that she was getting pretty frail, and the relatively sudden nature of her death, after having been seen in public just a few days before, makes me wonder if she maybe had a fall or something.

[MCellation]

In Hungarian there is a term that could loosely translate to "terminal asthenia" or "terminal weakening" (végelgyengülés). It's another euphemism, but it captures the process of dying due to the breaking down of internal systems much better than old age.

[Maserati]

Thank you for this video. I've never been satisfied when I ask what a person died from and the answer is "old age". That is meaningless and doesn't answer the question at all. Something actually had to have happened to cause the death.

Personally, if a loved one of mine dies, and im at a place where I can actually ask the coroner/ doctor, I don't want a euphemism. I want to know what actually happened.