1. The physical period of being elderly: There are researchers, physicians, and others who believe that people are born, grow rapidly to maturity, and then coast along on a more or less comfortable plateau until they begin the period of senescence.

In human life, senescence is equated with the period of functional-bodily decline that precedes death, with the appearance of age-related diseases.

2. The normal process or condition of aging, as distinguished from the effects of disease in advanced years: The gerontologist, Dr. McMahon, met with Mrs. Nelson to discuss the senescence that she was experiencing, now that she was well over 95 years old.
3. Etymology: from Latin senescere, “to grow old” from senex, "old." © ALL rights are reserved.

Go to this Word A Day Revisited Index
so you can see more of Mickey Bach's cartoons.

People are the only creatures on earth who can change their biology by what they think and feel

It would be impossible to isolate a single thought or feeling, a single belief or assumption, that doesn't have some effect on aging, either directly or indirectly.

Because the mind influences every cell in the body, human aging is fluid and changeable; it can speed up, slow down, stop for a time, and even reverse itself.