Cause of death (sorry a bit morbid. Maybe triggering)

[HelloDoggy]

Was reading that the queen's official cause of death was 'old age'. Which got me thinking - what is this? When someone old dies, what actually happens? I always assumed there was something which caused the death like a heart attack, cancer, malnutrition, or something. What does dying by 'old age' actually mean? Surely something in the body must have 'broken'/'stopped working'? Why isn't that something noted as the cause of death?

Age can't kill you surely. It must be the consequence of aging that kill you?

My mother pretty much died of old age - she had a few illnesses that all together made her very frail. I think the doctor put 'heart failure' as the cause though.

@HelloDoggy you want to watch this documentary. Michael Moseley "first to last" www.dailymotion.com/video/x6lwu01 warning it does, with their permission, show someone die of old age

I had an elderly relative die of old age. Someone was getting her a cup of tea and when they brought it to her she was gone. Very peaceful way to go.

Death due old age is usually heart failure. In the absence of anything else the heart just stops beating as it's come to the end of its functional abilities. Plain and simple.

My grandmother died of old age. Nothing particularly wrong but her heart stopped one evening and she stopped living.

That isn't what heart failure is though. Heart failure is a medical diagnosis describing the situation where the muscle pump of the heart becomes ineffective. There are lots of possible causes and severities but with modern treatment lots of people live for many years with heart failure.
www.bhf.org.uk/informationsupport/conditions/heart-failure
Of course it can be fatal, and may well be the ultimate mode of dying in those who have a range of heart conditions. Lots of elderly people do have at least some degree of heart failure by the time they die. But it is not the correct way to define the kind of death you're describing.

I see a lot of death certificates in my line of work and usually the doctor writes 'frailty of old age' rather than just 'old age', which is more befitting.

My grandmother died a few days before her 100th birthday, essentially of old age. Her cause of death is listed as "heart failure." This is in the US.

Dying of old age is a thing. Always has been.

Thank you

When the heart stops beating it’s cardiac arrest, not heart failure.

This was also put on my nanna's death certificate 4 years ago. No illness, she was old and it was time, her body just gave up.

www.sad.scot.nhs.uk/atafter-death/death-certification/part-c/

going by this, and recognising / knowing the name of the certifying doctor, I’m completely ok with HMQ’s death ticking all these boxes. As would many relatives / elder let folks I know.

You may regard it as "more befitting" but it isn't a term commonly used in Scotland.

I don’t see any difference between “frailty of old age” and “old age”. Surely they mean the same thing, essentially.