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Horcruxes preserve the soul. Does their use affect the natural breakdown process of the human body's aging? Or is it completely spiritual, in the sense, regarding the soul?

Are there any references to Voldemort or any other horcrux user, canon or non-canon, using magic to keep their physical body from decomposing naturally? (Like, degenarative brain disease. Do horcruxes prevent that?)

This question is more along the lines of whether Voldy did any magic to maintain his body. The use of a horcrux is to store the soul. The only physical effect it seems to have had is that it twisted the features.

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    Yeah. Checked that out. This question is more along the lines of if there's any proof that Voldemort used any methods to maintain his body. Since the use of a horcrux is just to store the soul. Doesn't really mention anything about keeping the body healthy or having any other physical effects other than twisting his feature, voice etc. Apr 20, 2016 at 15:58
  • When his Killing Curse aimed at baby Harry rebounded, he seemed to die and was left a strange, barely corporeal creature. In that case, the Horcruxes cannot have helped his body, only kept his soul rooted to the world I think someone says. Whether or not he did other things to help his body might be a separate thing.
    – ThruGog
    Apr 20, 2016 at 19:08
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    This is a subtly different question. Growing old is not a disease and the question was specifically about aging. The question appears to be asking to what extent is Voldemort subject to physical limitations. This in contrast to many ideals of immortality which imply they are mostly impervious -- this doesn't seem to be true to Voldemort. He was not immune to harmful magic and physical constraints - he had an immunity to death alone.
    – Captain P
    Apr 20, 2016 at 23:50

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No, Horcruxes do not preserve the soul as much as break off a chunk and store it somewhere, giving it an anchor in the material world. His physical body is completely obliterated when trying to kill HP.

He has to create a new, different body through the course of the series, in addition to mentioning (in passing, in Sorcerer's Stone) that he was able to control rats or snakes while in his ghostly form. Pettrigrew creates the small, alien-looking body at some point between fleeing in PoA and the beginning of GoF. Later, Crouching Moody & Hidden Rat-igrew brew an "old piece of dark magic" as a rejuvenation potion at the end of GoF using Peter's hand, the bones of the late Mr. Riddle and Harry's blood, then drop Baby Voldy into the potion to grow him into the more formal Lord Noseless.

I mean, you can view the use of Dark potions to create a living body from nothing is using "magic to maintain his body", but we don't ever see a horcrux-using wizard living long enough to grow old.

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    +1 for Crouching Moody, Hidden Rat-igrew Apr 20, 2016 at 21:02

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