Programmed Risks of Death in Male Patients with Diabetes

Lifespan has been studied in a cohort of male patients with diabetes mellitus. It was shown that the rate of death displays significant fluctuations over the course of ontogenesis. On the curves of dependence of the rate of death on the age at time of death (differential mortality curves) these fluctuations are visualized as peaks. Positions of the peaks on the lifespan axis are to a significant degree the same in the independent subgroups of the patients. This is equally observed both in the parallel subgroups composed from the first and second halves of the list of the patients arranged by the date of death and in the subgroups of the odd- and even-numbered patients in this list. Coincidence in the peak positions in the differential curves of mortality in the independent subgroups of the patients indicate regularity in augmentation of the mortality rate at certain age. This regularity can be explained by programmed alternating periods of increased risk of death and periods of steady development separating them in ontogenesis. As a consequence, the peaks are characterized by two parameters: regular parameter indicating peak position on the lifespan axis, and random parameter, peak intensity, reflecting unfavorable effects of the external environment on the organism and degree of a periodically occurring sharp decrease in the nonspecific resistance of the organism.