THERMONEUTRALITY: AN EVOLUTIONARY ADVANTAGE AGAINST AGEING?

The immune system has been suggested as a possible cause of the ageing process. Many experimental studies have shown that immunological mechanisms and host defences against bacterial disease function better at slightly elevated (fever) temperatures than at the normal body temperature. The hypothesis proposed is that the mechanism of fever during infection and the intervening long periods of normothermia when the immune system is functioning below its optimum may have evolved as a way of controlling the immune system's contribution to degenerative processes, including ageing.