Chronic Diseases and Aging

In this chapter, we will discuss the burden of disease via different non-communicable, age-related diseases, such as CVD, the metabolic syndrome, cancer and neurodegeneration. Many of these diseases are related to obesity as the result of overeating and physical inactivity, i.e., they are largely preventable. We present that the molecular basis of these diseases is linked to the hallmarks of aging, such as systemic chronic inflammation, epigenetic dysregulation, defective macroautophagy and altered nutritional signaling. The hallmarks of cancer have the largest overlap with the hallmarks of aging. On one hand, this suggests that the mechanisms of aging contribute to the progression of the diseases, while on the other hand the different diseases seem to accelerate the process of aging. Common genetic variations can explain only a minor part of the different chronic diseases. Therefore, we present, at the example of neurogenerative disease the important role of epigenetics in the origin and development of these diseases.