04
Loss of proteostasis
Proteins stop folding properly
A protein is a long ribbon that only works once it is folded into one exact shape. Your cells fold millions a minute and throw away the ones that come out wrong. As the folding and the throwing away both get less reliable, the rejects stay where they are, and they clump together.
What you can doa lot you can do
Heat and hard effort both switch on the cell’s own folding crew — a sauna and a proper workout are doing the same job by different routes. And sleep earns more credit than it usually gets: a good deal of the clearing out happens overnight, particularly in the brain.
The science, in one sentence
The systems that fold proteins into shape, and dispose of the ones that fold wrongly, become less reliable, and the rejects clump.
In the glossary
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