Mainstream aging research has accumulated a vast body of data at the molecular level, yet these data have never been unified within a single framework. The 2023 Cell review on the hallmarks of aging listed twelve independent hallmarks and candidly acknowledged that "how they interact with one another remains a topic for future research." This paper points out that the root of this predicament is not a shortage of data, but a missing variable: half a century of aging research has precisely measured the accumulation of damage, yet has never defined the residual capacity of the repair system itself. The heart is the physical embodiment of E—the energy density at the dissipation center is so high that even cell division is physically blocked; it is innately the most robust component of the entire system. The brain is the physical embodiment of M—the maintenance of low-resistance pathways is accomplished passively during sleep, requiring no additional energy injection. This paper proceeds from two macroscopic facts that every aging researcher acknowledges—the monotonic decline of circulatory function and the monotonic decline of neural function—to derive the Neutralization Destiny Equation, E(T) + M(T) = 1, proving the mathematical necessity of death. It further introduces the leakage rate and the charging rate, expanding the equation into a first-order depletion dynamics model. Within this framework, free radicals, telomeres, mitochondria, epigenetic drift, and all twelve hallmarks of aging are uniformly explained as the prioritized abandonment patterns of the same repair system at different scales when the energy budget is insufficient. From the equation, this paper deduces three intervention windows for longevity maintenance—reducing the additional pressure on N, slowing the decay slope of E, and slowing the decay slope of M—and provides precise engineering principles. Six independent empirical analyses of public data—covering NHANES (13,974 cases), UK Biobank (427,053 cases for cognitive data; 386,417 cases for multi-organ imaging), within-species canine comparison (46 breeds), Horvath epigenetic clock (24 age groups), and published meta-analyses—all support the core deductions of this paper. The secret of longevity lies not in what to do, but in not interfering with the automatic operation of the heart and the brain. Keep the power on, replenish the charge, and let each day's developmental volume catch up with the repair volume once again—this is the entire secret of longevity.
Menggang Yu (Wed,) studied this question.